Are Jews Inherently Successful?

What Is Seen and Unseen About Jewish Success: A Historical Perspective

[I wrote this piece following

Michael Huemer

‘s post, "Why Is There Antisemitism?" (link here).

David Friedman

‘s analysis in “The Machinery of Freedom” of how Jewish communities operated within voluntary legal frameworks was also pretty inspirational.
Michael provides thoughtful and objective explanations for the question of why antisemitism exists. I believe I complement his analysis by attempting to answer the question of why Jews are successful in the first place. Is it something inherently Jewish, or is it the forces of the environment that shaped the stereotypical Judaism as we (think we) know it today? In fact, this discussion can be classified as a nuanced sub-discussion of the larger debate on nature versus nurture.]

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Challenging the Myths of Success - Are Jews Inherently Successful?

I won’t keep you in suspense – the answer is no.

While the success of Jewish communities in fields such as business, finance, and academia has intrigued both scholars and the general public for generations, the common explanations of this phenomenon are often superficial and unpersuasive.
Most attribute it to inherent traits or cultural traditions, portraying Jews as naturally skilled in business, being intuitively ‘good with numbers’ or driven toward academic excellence. Yet, a closer look at historical evidence reveals a more intricate and layered reality—one that highlights the extraordinary ability of humans to adapt to challenging circumstances.

Here, I will tackle and attempt to refute 3 main myths about Jews:
1. The Myth of Jewish Intellect
2. The Myth of Jewish Control
3. The Myth of the Jewish Financier

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How successful are we talking about?

The data is quite overwhelming.

In the late 19th century, Jews made up approximately 10% of Vienna's population but owned about 40% of the city's businesses. They dominated key industries such as international trade, textiles, and coal, accounting for roughly 60% of economic activity in these sectors. By the early 20th century, around 31% of the wealthiest families in Vienna were Jewish. Across Europe, Jews constituted 15-20% of the newly wealthy in countries like Germany, Austria, and Hungary.

In the 21st century, approximately 20% of Nobel Prize laureates are Jewish, despite Jews comprising less than 0.2% of the world's population. Over 50% of Jews in the United States are employed in prestigious professions such as medicine, law, and technology. Jewish communities maintain dominance in the global diamond market, with significant hubs in cities like New York and Antwerp. In Israel, the high-tech industry has emerged as a global innovation hub, driven by Jewish entrepreneurship.

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The Myth of Jewish Intellect

Well, this might seem a bit counter-intuitive to those familiar with Jewish religion and history. After all, Judaism has religious commandments that have required Jews to learn and teach reading and writing for generations, resulting in literacy rates far higher than those of non-Jews. So, surely there must be something inherently intellectual about the Jewish people, right?

Well, yes and no.
It’s important to clarify that my goal here is not to determine whether Jews have been historically more or less inclined toward intellectual endeavors than other nations, but rather to examine whether Jews are inherently successful.. A historical perspective reveals that literacy, despite being a prominent Jewish characteristic (perhaps even going as far back as 2,600 years), has simply not been a guarantee of success or prosperity—neither for Jews nor for nations and societies in general.

Many nations managed to establish remarkable civilizations despite low literacy rates. The Romans, for instance, excelled in engineering, law, and public administration, even though literacy was mostly confined to elites. The Germanic tribes, following the fall of Rome, built successful kingdoms with minimal literacy. The Mongols created an impressive global empire, relying on organizational skills and cultural integration, with little emphasis on reading or writing. Similarly, the Irish in the 19th century, despite harsh economic conditions and low literacy rates, managed to integrate into and thrive in the United States and Britain through social adaptability and investment in future generations.

In the modern era, as literacy rates in Western nations have risen to match those of the Jewish people, one might expect a convergence in relative success rate. Yet, Jews have continued to stand out disproportionately in fields like science, economics, and culture. This suggests that the success of the Jewish people cannot be solely attributed to literacy as a religious commandment.

So what could it be?
Let’s start with analyzing the economics of restrictions.

Historical Pressures and Property Rights
Throughout history, Jewish communities faced recurring persecution, expulsions, and violence that led to the confiscation of their physical property. Major events like the Spanish Expulsion of 1492 and the Crusades forced Jews to develop unique survival strategies. Physical assets – land, houses, farms – proved particularly vulnerable to seizure by hostile authorities or populations. In contrast, knowledge, professional skills, and social networks proved impossible to confiscate.

The Vulnerabilities of Physical Property
The precariousness of physical property ownership manifested in several ways. During persecutions or expulsions, physical assets were typically the first targets for confiscation. Local rulers often seized Jewish property to finance wars, pay debts, or gain political capital. In feudal Europe, most Jews were legally barred from owning real estate, making the transition to intellectual property essential for survival. Furthermore, physical assets couldn't be transported during hasty evacuations, often being abandoned or seized by local authorities or populations.

During the Crusades, Jewish quarters were frequently ransacked, with property seized or destroyed. The English expulsion of 1290 saw the Crown systematically appropriate Jewish-owned properties, while the Spanish expulsion of 1492 forced Jews to sell valuable assets at a fraction of their worth or abandon them entirely. These experiences taught a harsh but valuable lesson: physical wealth was vulnerable to seizure, but knowledge and skills could never be confiscated.

The Evolutionary Transformation of Physical to Intellectual Capital
In response to these vulnerabilities, Jewish communities invested heavily in portable forms of wealth – particularly education and professional expertise. The study of Torah, Talmud, and Halakha developed crucial skills in logical thinking, data analysis, and rapid learning, which proved valuable in commerce, accounting, law, and medicine. Jewish physicians, for example, gained high regard throughout medieval Europe for their portable expertise.

The transformation manifested in several key ways:

Education and Portable Expertise
In medicine, Jewish physicians developed sophisticated expertise that traveled with them across borders. The famous physician Maimonides, expelled from Spain and later relocating to Egypt, found success in multiple countries through his medical knowledge. Similarly, the Jewish communities of Provence developed extensive medical manuscripts that were copied and distributed throughout Europe, creating a portable repository of professional knowledge.

In trade and finance, Jewish merchants developed complex systems of accounting and credit that relied more on expertise than physical goods. The records of the Cairo Geniza reveal sophisticated financial instruments developed by Jewish traders in the 11th and 12th centuries, including partnerships and credit agreements that could be enforced across different legal systems. These innovations in commercial practice proved invaluable during periods of displacement.

Professional Networks and Knowledge Transfer
Jewish communities developed sophisticated systems for preserving and transmitting knowledge across generations. Formal educational institutions like yeshivot played central roles in conveying both educational and professional values. Professional skills passed through family lines, as evidenced in medical and commercial professions where each generation trained the next. Unlike physical property, texts, professional documents, and written heritage could move with displaced families, preserving specialized knowledge through years of wandering.

In the Right Place at the Right Time? The Myth of Jewish Intellect - Continued
No one foresaw the Industrial Revolution, which dramatically transformed the world’s economic and social structures. In the Middle Ages, land and serfs were the primary sources of power. The nobility owned the land, while the lower classes worked it. Jews, who were prohibited from owning land in most regions, were forced into other occupations. While professions tied to land ownership, such as agriculture and estate management, were essential for economic prosperity at the time, no one predicted the changes that would render land ownership less central, abolish slavery, and create new demand for free professions.

Banking
During the Middle Ages, Jews were often involved in lending and financial record-keeping, mainly because the Christian Church prohibited Christians from lending money at interest. This role did not provide significant political or economic power in an era where power was concentrated in the landowning aristocracy. However, with the rise of international trade and the need for large-scale financing of projects such as shipping and industrialization, banking became central to the economy. Jewish families, like the Rothschilds, who had been involved in banking for generations, found themselves in a strategic position during the Industrial Revolution thanks to their financial expertise and international connections.

Medicine
In the 12th and 13th centuries, Jews were often limited to professions that did not require land ownership or membership in the dominant political class. Professions like medicine, which were demanding and required significant educational investment, were seen as less desirable by others. However, the skills developed in this field became crucial in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the Industrial Revolution created a massive demand for skilled doctors in crowded urban areas. In places like Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Jews made up a significant portion of urban physicians, owing to generations of investment in education and professional training.

Education
The Jewish focus on education and learning provided another significant advantage during the industrial era. While many European nations were slow to adopt widespread education, Jews had already been deeply invested in intensive study of complex texts such as the Torah, Talmud, and their commentaries. The logical skills and breadth of knowledge accumulated over centuries became a major advantage in professions requiring advanced thinking, such as engineering, management, and industrial innovation. For example, in 19th-century Europe, Jews were disproportionately represented in free professions and academic fields, with particularly high representation in universities in Germany and Austria.

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The Myth of Jewish Intellect - Revised

I believe it’s clear from examining the data that the intersection of skills developed out of necessity and the new demands of the Industrial Revolution placed Jews in the right place at the right time. Professions that were previously undervalued, such as accounting and medicine, became critical assets during the industrial era. This demonstrates the adaptability of Jewish communities and their ability to leverage historical circumstances to their advantage.
The notion of inherent Jewish intellect oversimplifies a historical reality rooted in necessity and adaptation. The emphasis on intellectual capital was not a natural predisposition but a response to external pressures that made physical property unreliable. Jewish communities turned to education and professional expertise because systemic exclusion left them few alternatives. The high achievements in fields like medicine, finance, and law were born from cultivated skills and deliberate investment in portable knowledge, not from an innate intellectual advantage. Framing this success as a product of inherent intellect ignores the context of survival and resilience under constant threat.

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The Role of Community and Networks - The Myth of Jewish Control

Financial and Social Mobility
The Jewish response to the above-mentioned restrictions and persecution led to the development of extensive international networks. Several factors made Jews key players in financial markets:

1. Religious flexibility: Jewish law permitted lending to non-Jews.

2. Professional adaptability: Excluded from many fields, Jews developed expertise in areas with less competition.

3. International connections: Jewish communities established networks that facilitated cross-border loans and trade.

Community Support and Risk Management
The development of international networks further enhanced the value of intellectual capital. Jewish communities maintained connections across borders, sharing knowledge and opportunities.

These networks provided crucial support during times of crisis. When Jews were expelled from England in 1290, their professional skills and community connections enabled them to reestablish themselves in France and other countries. Similarly, after the Spanish Expulsion in 1492, many Jews became successful merchants, bankers, and physicians in the Ottoman Empire, which offered them refuge.

Over time, the impact was huge. By the 18th century, Jewish merchants had established intricate commercial systems linking Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London. The Sephardic firm of Mendes-Nasi, operating from Amsterdam in the 1750s, maintained a network of over 200 agents across Europe, handling everything from Baltic grain to Portuguese diamonds. Their account books, preserved in the Amsterdam Municipal Archives, show they processed over 100,000 guilders worth of bills of exchange monthly, developing sophisticated credit-rating systems for merchants across Europe.

In Hamburg, the Jewish firm of Behrens & Sons pioneered new forms of marine insurance in the 1760s, creating standardized policies that became models throughout Northern Europe. The family's correspondence, preserved in the Hamburg State Archives, reveals how they assessed risk through a network of informants in major ports, creating an early form of commercial intelligence service.
The Rothschild family's rise exemplifies how these networks could be leveraged for remarkable financial success. Starting from their base in Frankfurt's Judengasse, the five Rothschild brothers established branches in London (Nathan, 1798), Paris (James, 1812), Vienna (Salomon, 1820), and Naples (Carl, 1821). Their innovation of rapid information exchange through private couriers allowed them to arbitrage government bonds across Europe, while their network of Jewish agents provided reliable partnerships in cities where they couldn't establish formal branches due to legal restrictions. The family's ledgers show they handled over £2.5 million in government transfers during the Napoleonic Wars, demonstrating the massive scale of their operations.

The development of Jewish networks and roles in financial markets reflects survival under systemic restrictions, not control. Excluded from land ownership and many professions, Jews turned to lending and trade to fill economic gaps created by societal constraints. Their ability to rebuild after expulsions, highlights adaptability, not dominance. These networks were lifelines in hostile environments, disproving the myth of Jewish control by showing their roles were responses to necessity, not power.

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Religious Restrictions and Financial Innovation - The Myth of the Jewish Financier

The Religious Foundation of Banking Restrictions
Contrary to stereotypes, historical evidence suggests that this phenomenon was primarily a result of external pressures rather than intrinsic cultural or religious inclinations.
During the medieval period, both Christianity and Islam imposed severe religious restrictions on usury. The Catholic Church, interpreting the New Testament, condemned interest-charging as a grave moral sin that violated principles of equality and charity. Similarly, Islamic law explicitly prohibited riba (interest), considering it fundamentally opposed to principles of economic justice. These religious prohibitions created an economic vacuum that would profoundly shape Jewish economic activity.

In medieval Christian Europe, the Catholic Church's definition of usury as a "sin of avarice" created a paradoxical situation. While kings and landowners desperately needed access to credit, religious restrictions prevented them from establishing internal financial systems. Jewish communities, not bound by Christian restrictions when dealing with non-Jews, became essential financial intermediaries. In fact, it was the local communities that pushed Jews to serve as moneylenders to enable economic activity to take place. In this sense, Jews were serving the non-Jews, not the other way around.

Jewish moneylenders often operated at the behest of local rulers or communities, who needed credit for infrastructure, trade, or military purposes. Kings and nobles frequently relied on Jewish financiers to sustain their economies, which suggests that the relationship was one of mutual dependency driven by practical needs rather than a natural inclination on the part of Jews.
In medieval Italy, for instance, Jewish families managed lending institutions that served both local elites and governing authorities.

Banking in Islamic Societies
The Islamic world presented a different but parallel situation. While Islamic law emphasized economic justice and fair resource distribution, economic systems still required financial services that Muslims themselves could not provide. In Cairo under the Fatimid Caliphate (969-1171), Jewish bankers like Abu Sa'ad al-Tustari became prominent court financiers, managing both state finances and international trade. The documents found in the Cairo Geniza reveal sophisticated financial instruments developed by Jewish merchants, including partnerships (mudaraba) that complied with Islamic law while facilitating trade throughout the Mediterranean.

In Baghdad during the Abbasid period (750-1258), Jewish financiers developed the suftaja, a sophisticated financial instrument similar to modern letters of credit, which allowed merchants to transfer large sums of money across the Islamic world without physically transporting coins. The House of Aaron, a Jewish banking family in Baghdad, maintained offices from Egypt to India, demonstrating how Jewish financial networks operated within and adapted to Islamic economic frameworks. These innovations show how Jewish communities provided essential financial services while respecting local religious restrictions.

Despite their vital economic role, Jewish moneylenders were often stigmatized and scapegoated. This stigma was not because Jews inherently desired to lend money but because their assigned economic role made them convenient targets during economic downturns or political unrest.

Regional Variations and Comparative Development

The Ottoman Empire Experience
The Ottoman Empire provides a fascinating contrast in Jewish economic development. In cities like Thessaloniki, Jewish communities developed thriving textile industries during the 16th century, operating large manufacturing facilities and engaging in international trade. The relative stability and religious tolerance of Ottoman rule allowed Jews to invest in fixed assets and develop diverse economic activities. This presents a striking contrast to contemporaneous European Jewish communities, demonstrating how different political and social conditions shaped economic choices.

The Georgian Case
The experience of Georgian Jews offers perhaps the most compelling evidence for how environmental conditions shaped Jewish economic patterns. From the 17th through 19th centuries, Georgian Jews maintained agricultural holdings, particularly in the wine-producing regions of Racha and Lechkhumi. The Jewish community of Kulashi, for example, owned extensive vineyards that produced famous wines, while in Tskhinvali, Jewish farmers maintained orchards and grew crops alongside their Georgian neighbors. Archaeological evidence from the Oni region shows Jewish-owned wine cellars (marani) dating back to the 17th century, demonstrating long-term investment in immovable agricultural infrastructure.

The 1804 census of the Georgian Kingdom reveals that approximately 70% of Georgian Jews were engaged in agriculture or viticulture, a proportion nearly identical to the general population. In the town of Kutaisi, Jewish craftsmen operated workshops producing traditional Georgian items like pottery and metalwork, with guild records showing Jewish masters training both Jewish and non-Jewish apprentices. This integration into traditional agricultural society occurred because Georgian Jews faced fewer discriminatory pressures and could own land freely. The famous traveler Joseph Wolff, visiting Georgia in 1826, remarked with surprise how the local Jews were "tillers of the soil and cultivators of the vine" rather than merchants and moneylenders, evidencing how different conditions produced different economic patterns.

Eastern European Transformations
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth presents yet another variation in Jewish economic adaptation. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Jews there developed unique economic roles through the arenda system, managing estates and collecting taxes for Polish nobles. This arrangement created opportunities for economic advancement while simultaneously increasing vulnerability to peasant resentment, particularly during periods of social unrest.

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Broader Implications for Understanding Group Success

The extensive historical evidence presented here demonstrates that Jewish economic success patterns emerged from specific historical circumstances rather than inherent characteristics. From medieval banking restrictions to modern professional networks, each aspect of Jewish economic activity can be traced to particular historical pressures and adaptations.

The transition from physical to intellectual capital, the development of international networks, and the emphasis on education all emerged as strategic responses to historical constraints. These adaptations, refined over centuries, created patterns of professional and educational achievement that continue to influence modern success.

This historical perspective offers valuable insights for understanding group success in our modern global society. It suggests that rather than looking for inherent characteristics or simple cultural explanations, we should examine how historical circumstances shape community adaptation and development. This understanding not only provides a more accurate view of Jewish economic history but also offers broader insights into how communities adapt to and overcome societal constraints.

The story of Jewish economic adaptation ultimately reveals the remarkable human capacity to transform systemic constraints into specialized advantages. It demonstrates how communities can develop resilience and success through strategic adaptation to challenging circumstances, offering lessons that remain relevant in our contemporary world.

At the same time, it highlights how easily people can overlook history and replace nuanced understanding with harmful myths and conspiracy theories. Rather than recognizing the context of exclusion, persecution, and survival that shaped Jewish economic patterns, many have sought to distort these achievements as evidence of manipulation or dominance. These narratives not only ignore the historical realities of adversity and resilience but also serve as convenient excuses to avoid grappling with complex social and economic dynamics. By perpetuating such myths, they shift the focus from historical truth to baseless accusations, undermining both understanding and progress. This underscores the importance of engaging with history honestly, ensuring that lessons of resilience and adaptation are not lost to ignorance or prejudice.

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Sources:

1. Rürup, R. (2004). Jewish Social History in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.

2. Weinzierl, E. (2003). The Jewish Middle Class in Vienna in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.

3. Moskalets, V. (2017). Jewish Industrial Elites in Drohobych and Boryslav, 1860-1900.

4. Muller, J.Z. (2016). Capitalism and the Jews Revisited.

5. Richman, B.D. (2006). How Community Institutions Create Economic Advantage: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York.

6. Gordis, Y. (2009). On the Value and Values of Jewish Social Entrepreneurship.

7. Rivlin, P. (2010). The Israeli Economy from the Foundation of the State through the 21st Century.

8. Feingold, H. (2013). Investing in Themselves: The Harvard Case and the Origins of the Third American-Jewish Commercial Elite.

9. Altshuler, Mordechai. Georgian Jewish Culture under the Soviet Regime. East European Jewish Affairs, 1975.
   "Jewish families in Georgia maintained their traditional crafts and agricultural practices, which played a central role in their socio-economic identity."

10. Baron, Salo Wittmayer, and Arcadius Kahan. Economic History of the Jews. Schocken Books, 1975.
    A detailed exploration of Jewish economic activities from the Middle Ages to modern times, highlighting adaptability and resilience in diverse contexts.

11. Botticini, Maristella, and Zvi Eckstein. The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70–1492. Princeton University Press, 2012.
    This book discusses the Jewish emphasis on literacy and education, which led to a shift from agriculture to skilled professions, laying the groundwork for later economic success.

12. Botticini, Maristella, and Zvi Eckstein. "From Farmers to Merchants: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish Economic History." Journal of the European Economic Association, vol. 5, no. 5, 2007, pp. 885–926.
    "Investments in education created a focus on skilled professions and trade, fostering adaptability across generations."

13. "Economic Life." YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.
    This entry discusses the adaptability of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and their pivotal roles in trade, commerce, and skilled professions.

14. "Judeo-Georgian Language as an Identity Marker of Georgian Jews." Journal of Jewish Languages, 2019.
    "Jews of Georgia engaged in commerce, agriculture, and crafts, but their main occupation was petty trade, which sustained many families for generations."

15. Loria, Maia, and Zurab Bezhanovi. The Development of Ethnographic Thinking and the Formation of Visual Anthropology in Georgia. 2020.
    "Despite low wages, Jewish artisans produced remarkable works in crafts and contributed significantly to Georgia’s visual and cultural heritage."

16. Mikaberidze, Alexander. Historical Dictionary of Georgia. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
    "Jewish communities in Georgia historically excelled in agriculture, particularly in vineyards, while also dominating local trade and artisanal crafts in urban centers."

17. Miḳdash-Shemaʻʼilov, Lev. Mountain Jews: Customs and Daily Life in the Caucasus. 2002.
    "Jewish artisans and traders were well-known for their skills in silversmithing and their agricultural contributions in the Caucasus region."

18. Muller, Jerry Z. "Why Do Jews Succeed?" Project Syndicate, 2008.
    This article examines historical and cultural factors contributing to Jewish economic success, focusing on adaptability and education.

19. Friedman, David D. The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism. Open Court, 1973.
    This work provides an analysis of decentralized legal systems, with parallels to Jewish law, which historically relied on community-based arbitration and lacked a centralized enforcement authority.