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Why are jews so darned successful?

I'm here with ya. German communities stick together too, that's why were so damn successful as well!

Yes, sir! It is one of my favorite memories about growing up in a town of 150 people. I can remember numerous occasions when there would be brutal thunderstorms that would roll through and trees and branches would be down all over the place. The storm would no sooner than be over and everyone is heading out of their houses with chainsaws and handsaws to clean up the mess, going from house to house, to the school, the church, etc. Small kids carried away whatever branches they could. Bigger kids did the heavy lifting. Same way with snow in the winter time. At the end of those jobs, you could count on one thing, a FEAST was happening somewhere that involved lots of beer and awesome food.
 
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If one group is more successful than another it's because of privilege. Jewish privilege.
 
I'm here for their great studios and movies -

"Philip French’s The Movie Moguls and Nolan Zierold’s The Moguls give good overviews and collective/comparative portraits of the small group of top-level Jewish-born entrepreneurs who fashioned the [Hollywood] dream factories, Marcus Loew, Adolph Zukor, Sam Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, the Selznicks, Jesse Lasky, William Fox, the Warner Brothers, Louis B. Mayer, B. P. Schulberg and Harry Cohn.

Having either been born in America or come from Europe in their childhood or youth, most of the moguls could be classified as second-generation American Jews, from poor or modest-income families. They were exceptionally industrious and ambitious, and, interestingly, quite a few came to the motion picture industry from various retail trades, particularly the garment industry. Zukor and Loew, for example, began as furriers, Fox and Laemmle as clothing merchants, Goldwyn as a glove salesman. Control was enterprisingly gained over theaters and, later, over studios, linking distribution and production."

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jews-in-hollywood-1930-1950/
 
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You're missing the community component, you know, the social part of the equation. I've long-term dated two Asians and one Jew—small sample I know—and was impressed by the it-takes-a-village community sensibility in my experience with these relationships.

Notably, the black community is the same way (in my experience). The main difference being that generation poverty, inhibited access, criminalization of young black males, breakdown of the traditional 2 parent family, to name some hurdles—these things are a fücking motherfücker.

Added one for you: Breakdown of the traditional 2 parent family.
 
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Location, location and location but I’m guessing there’s a strong drive to succeed given their humble origins in Europe. You’d have that drive too if your history consists of a diaspora and a millenia of settlement in far distant shtetls and the ensuing pogroms and Holocaust. It’s the great American success story (although somewhat generalized) plus dating back to pre-emigration, the Jews have a long history of making do and surviving
 
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Added one for you: Breakdown of the traditional 2 parent family.
This occurs in poverty, especially generational poverty. People, white supremacist-minded people, racist people, ethno-nationalist types like to pin this on certain communities, notably in this country black communities.

People need to understand their racism. It's not always white hoods and cross burnings. Sometimes it's as "benign" as tending to associate certain issues with specific groups and subgroups by skin color or national origin or whatever. The fact is, in my experience living in and working with inner city, mostly black, communities, "breakdown of family" is a misnomer. "Family" takes on all kinds of amazing shapes in stressed communities. But that's a whole other conversation. It would be better described as "breakdown of society" in that rather than truly work to understand how capitalism creates both wealth and poverty, and, in the case of this country, generational and often discriminative poverty, too many of us choose to associate certain issues as a "those people" problem.

Nope, we're all involved in the problem, especially when we choose to remain mostly ignorant of the full breadth and scope of it.
 
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Agree, and it starts at home.
These days, it too often starts with handing the kid the remote control or a smartphone.

If we are going to let TV, video games, and social media teach our next generations of leaders, we probably ought to pay closer attention to how those things work, and what "lessons" are being taught.
 
While the family structure based arguments appear to make common sense and likely applies to asians, in my observation it might have less to do with success of the Jews (at least in America.) The few that I know who've had rough family experiences are off the charts successful even more so than the well nurtured. I think jews are able (cultural?) to think big, then channel resources (brains and money) very effectively to realize visions, and make decisions very rationally. Also rational decision making can often come across as abrasive, so there's that too. Finally coming back full circle, even the humblest Jewish family does encourage their kids not just to do better but to hit it out of the park and they almost always pull it off -- ages ago, i rented a room with a Jewish family of modest means-- their kids were off at MIT and Cornell.
 
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While the family structure based arguments appear to make common sense and likely applies to asians, in my observation it might have less to do with success of the Jews (at least in America.) The few that I know who've had rough family experiences are off the charts successful even more so than the well nurtured. I think jews are able (cultural?) to think big, then channel resources (brains and money) very effectively to realize visions, and make decisions very rationally. Also rational decision making can often come across as abrasive, so there's that too. Finally coming back full circle, even the humblest Jewish family does encourage their kids not just to do better but to hit it out of the park and they almost always pull it off -- ages ago, i rented a room with a Jewish family of modest means-- their kids were off at MIT and Cornell.

I think this describes a lot of my family, my moms side of the family is pretty much 100% Jewish bloodlines, with my dad being a convert that puts me at about 50%.

The strong family structure and group mentality is very evident through all the Jewish families I know. I think a lot of the posters in the thread really nailed it in their descriptions.
 
This occurs in poverty, especially generational poverty. People, white supremacist-minded people, racist people, ethno-nationalist types like to pin this on certain communities, notably in this country black communities.

People need to understand their racism. It's not always white hoods and cross burnings. Sometimes it's as "benign" as tending to associate certain issues with specific groups and subgroups by skin color or national origin or whatever. The fact is, in my experience living in and working with inner city, mostly black, communities, "breakdown of family" is a misnomer. "Family" takes on all kinds of amazing shapes in stressed communities. But that's a whole other conversation. It would be better described as "breakdown of society" in that rather than truly work to understand how capitalism creates both wealth and poverty, and, in the case of this country, generational and often discriminative poverty, too many of us choose to associate certain issues as a "those people" problem.

Nope, we're all involved in the problem, especially when we choose to remain mostly ignorant of the full breadth and scope of it.

Should find some statistics comparing % of single parent families by group in the U.S.
 
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These days, it too often starts with handing the kid the remote control or a smartphone.

If we are going to let TV, video games, and social media teach our next generations of leaders, we probably ought to pay closer attention to how those things work, and what "lessons" are being taught.

Yup.

It is amazing how those little suckers can handle a smart phone or tablet though.
 
Should find some statistics comparing % of single parent families by group in the U.S.
I'm well aware of the statistics. Funny how statistics matter when they matter. The real research is in how statistics become statistics, you know, the history behind how certain statistics have come to be.

That takes real work, though.
 
It is quite remarkable when you sit and think about it. There hasnt been a group of people that have been as ridiculed and discriminated against probably ever in human history. Through the days of Moses to the timeframe of Jesus clear up to the Nazis. No matter what happens and where they end up, the culture survives and thrives.

I do business with several Jewish men whos families fled to South American or Mexico during WWII. They went to those places with nothing yet they became successful.
 
Simple. They control the banks.

That's probably the second smartest thing they accomplished. The smartest was convincing women that an incredibly common crystal that is relatively easy to manufacture artificially (diamonds) should become one of the priciest gemstones. They then proceeded to completely control the trade of this common as dirt crystal until the last decade or so (where Jaina Indians have started to outcompete and push them out of their traditional industry). It's pretty amazing if you think about it. Diamonds are FAR more common than things like rubies, sapphire, emeralds, opals, and even semiprecious stones like garnets and topaz. It's literally only the marketing and complete control that allowed Diamonds to become so ridiculously expensive compared to how common they are. (There's really much neater gemstones like star sapphires, spectrolite, ammolite and opals that do interesting things with light that are FAR rarer, but for a variety of reasons like multiple mines not operating together as a cohesive force to drive up costs these are cheaper than diamonds).
 
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I have held this same view for quite some time. I think it starts with a strong family structure. In that structure, the parents usually stay together and they often demand their kids go to college.

My buddy who is Jewish swears that it is this and because they all have significant life insurance policies that they keep for life for their families benefit. Can’t confirm but he swears by it.
 
Culture of intellectualism and pressure to achieve.

Genetics - iq.

The end.

Supposed to be Ashkenazi in particular re IQ.

Around 1std dev above average.

Supposedly from their genetic pool being limited to intellectual work for nearly 1000 years. Artificial selection effectively accounts for this, according to some researchers.

The culture? IQ could affect this - affinity for learning and education.

More compellingly an explanation than the bizarre conspiracies that float around as explanatory.
 
If you go into a kosher delicatessen and you can't get your order out of your mouth in .8 seconds, f*ck off and die.
Isn't this just a New York thing and not a Jewish thing? I haven't been to the Jewish deli in Des Moines, but I think they wouldn't be dealing with the same environment/turnover/pressure and might be friendlier. I think a German deli would be the exact same in New York. Or a bodaga.
 
Location, location and location but I’m guessing there’s a strong drive to succeed given their humble origins in Europe. You’d have that drive too if your history consists of a diaspora and a millenia of settlement in far distant shtetls and the ensuing pogroms and Holocaust. It’s the great American success story (although somewhat generalized) plus dating back to pre-emigration, the Jews have a long history of making do and surviving

Heh, learn something new everyday. I never realized Jews originated in Europe. I always figured Jerusalem was the origin but never cared to learn further.
 
Isn't this just a New York thing and not a Jewish thing? I haven't been to the Jewish deli in Des Moines, but I think they wouldn't be dealing with the same environment/turnover/pressure and might be friendlier. I think a German deli would be the exact same in New York. Or a bodaga.

My grandpa’s brother owned a Jewish deli in Des Moines, you are correct it’s more a ny thing.
 
My grandpa’s brother owned a Jewish deli in Des Moines, you are correct it’s more a ny thing.

I could go for a bowl of matzo soup rn. There used to be a couple great delis in the Twin Cities too. Both named the Lincoln Del. Crossroads is still around. I frequent that place due to the beef on weck
 
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I'm well aware of the statistics. Funny how statistics matter when they matter. The real research is in how statistics become statistics, you know, the history behind how certain statistics have come to be.

That takes real work, though.

I was referring to your previous post. I was thinking there may be some statistics which disprove the "commonly held" notion that African Americans have a higher percentage of single parent families than most other groups.
 
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Here is just one example of how Jews support one
another in TV programs.

Larry David is a Jew who was the producer and
writer for the hit TV series "Seinfeld"

He hired three Jews to star in that program:
Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julie Louis-Dreyfus
 
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