it is the Jews themselves who are seen to have done the choosing, having begun two thousand years ago, after their war with the Romans, when the hawks perished and the doves chose to require everyone in their community to learn to read. If the story of the Jews is to be rethought – beginning with the invention of primary education and universal literacy – then the history of humankind must be rethought as well including, for instance, the central role the Islamic Empire played as well.
This may be the first you have heard about The Chosen Few, but I pretty much guarantee you that it will not be the last.
So, should my next online course be something on the Jews and the economy? It could include selections from The Chosen Few, Jerry Muller’s The Mind and the Market and Capitalism and the Jews, and Brian Doherty’s Radicals for Capitalism, Jonathan Entine’s Abraham’s Children, George Gilder’s The Israel Test, Thomas Sowell, …
Possible issues:
1. How and why have Jews differed occupationally from the general population?
2. What other minority groups have played comparable economic roles?
3. What accounts for Jewish economic success?
4. How has Jewish economic behavior influenced anti-semitism, and how has anti-semitism influenced Jewish economic behavior?
5. How have Jewish thinkers influenced political economy, and how has economics influenced Jewish thinkers?
6. Relative to other Americans, are Jews more capitalist or more anti-capitalist–or both?
7. Does the economy of the modern state of Israel validate or invalidate Jewish stereotypes?
8. Does Israel exemplify Jewish capitalism or Jewish anti-capitalism–or both?
Arnold, material to help answer many of your questions can be found in David Nirenberg’s marvelous new book, “Anti-Judaism.” Strongly recommended.
Not sure I understand the fascination with Jews. Many cultures excel at something in particular. For the Jews it happens to be business. In other areas, I find that Jews don’t excel at all.
Possible areas of interest: (a) characteristics and acceptance of Jewish immigrants over the years compared with Oriental immigrants; (b) comparison of American (and other Diaspora) Jewish communities with Israelis; (c) Revival in American Jewish culture — Reform and Conservative Judaism, Hasadism and Zionism and contemporary movements; (d) Future paths for American Jews — assimilation or continued uniqueness.
Overall, I’m looking at sociology here rather than economics. My thought is that “Jews” actually come in many varieties when carefully examined — much like Whites and Italians and Gypsies and Mexicans — modern American Jewish political and economic behavior is an amalgam of the behavior of those seperate strands.
A couple of economists recently came out with a paper arguing that the literacy requirement actually reduced the Jewish population as misers converted to Islam or Christianity to avoid the expense of educating their children. Worth looking up, and also comparing to the decline in Jewish day school attendance in the USA.
those probably are the authors of this book, although they do not call the Jews who converted “misers.” They were subsistence farmers who realized that they could not afford to educate their children
“3. What accounts for Jewish economic success?”
Jewish mothers?
“6. Relative to other Americans, are Jews more capitalist or more anti-capitalist–or both?”
Both.
More socialistic- as a conscious stance.
I would highly recommend The Jewish Century by Yuri Slezkine for your reading list. IIRC, he suggested that there are prominent Jews in free market and anti market circles not because of a natural predilection for one side or the other but because they are prominent in all modern intellectual movements.
I just finished reading Botticini’s and Eckstein’s The Chosen Few.
All I can say is that I eagerly await the completion and dissemination of the follow up work on the economics of the world’s Jewish communities since 1492.
My one question…will I have to wait 12 years? (That was the length of time it took for the first book’s research and completion).
Jerry Katzoff