Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Judaism, Fiddler on the Roof, and Humanity

Author:Joshua Allen
Posted:8/29/2000; 2:23:20 AM
Topic:Judaism, Fiddler on the Roof, and Humanity
Msg #:20449 (In response to 20446)
Prev/Next:20448 / 20450

By the way, what is it with Jews and physics, anyway? Einstein, Szilard, Oppenheimer, Gell-Mann, Feynman... my guess is there's some really interesting cultural intersection there, something that drives these extremely intelligent people to want to know how Universe works at the deepest possible level. What it is, I don't know.

FWIW, education has always been a part of Jewish culture. To add to your "in the beginning was the word, and the word was god" point, for the previous few centuries, Jews have been banned by many western nations from owning land. Since Jews were forbidden from making a living through farming (which used to be just about the only way to be free), they had to live in enclaves in the city. Jewish kids tended to enter professional occupations such as medecine and law (and banking whenever it was legal) since they couldn't tend the land. Living in cities close together and under harsh circumstances led to development of social networks and strong community. Making a living from professional occupations led to extremely high value being placed on advanced education..

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