“Torah study is an intellectual pursuit and honoring this ultimate value transfers to other pursuits as well. King Chizkiyahu and the Jewish People were saved from Sanchariv only because of limud Torah. Jewish
homes are full of seforim while other homes may or may not be. Jewish
homes have overflowing bookshelves. Throughout the generations we have
given great honor to this intellectual pursuit. Even the gvirim who
wanted to marry their daughters sought roshei yeshivos and the most
outstanding talmidei chachamim. Torah study makes the nation and its
people of the finest high quality.”
Robert Aumann
Yeshiva World reports:
Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Robert Aumann, a frum Jew, addresses the fact that so many Yidden are among the recipients of the prestigious Nobel Prize.
Speaking to Galei Yisrael Radio, the professor explained he believes limud [study of] Torah enhances the Jewish People and this leads to the disproportionate number of Jews winning the prestigious prize.
He said perhaps there is a genome that accounts for this, which may be the result of Jewish values. Aumann added that the value that stands above all else is limud Torah, and this is more important than all else.
“Torah study is an intellectual pursuit and honoring this ultimate value transfers to other pursuits as well”.
“King Chizkiyahu and the Jewish People were saved from Sanchariv only because of limud Torah.”
“Jewish homes are full of seforim while other homes may or may not be. Jewish homes have overflowing bookshelves. Throughout the generations we have given great honor to this intellectual pursuit. Even the gvirim who wanted to marry their daughters sought roshei yeshivos and the most outstanding talmidei chachamim. Torah study makes the nation and its people of the finest high quality.”…
Aumann won the Nobel Prize in 2005.
Even so, Aumann is controversial, primarily for his right wing political views, as his Wikipedia entry correctly notes:
In a speech to a religious Zionist youth movement, Bnei Akiva, Aumann claimed that Israel is in 'deep trouble'. He revealed his belief that the anti-Zionist Satmar Jews might have been right in their condemnation of the original Zionist movement. “I fear the Satmars were right.” he said, and quoted a verse: “Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders toil on it in vain.” (Psalm 127) Aumann feels that the historical Zionist establishment failed to transmit its message to its successors, because it was secular. The only way that Zionism can survive, according to Aumann, is if it has a religious basis.
That said, Aumann is honest about what he believes, even if he isn't always correct.
His problems today are his unwillingness to see the damage and even criminality prevalent inside haredi communities whose leaders have prevented the masses from doing what Aumann did – get a good secular education, go to college, go to grad school or professional school and earn enough money to support a large family – and his misunderstanding of Jewish history that, I believe, led to his ridiculous statement about Jewish genes.
As by Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein showed in their recently published work, The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492 (Princeton University Press, July 2012), the cost of Jewish education was so high for much of Jewish history thatmost Jews chose not to educate their children and many Jews chose to assimilate into local monotheistic religions as a result.
Put simply, most of the Jews who did not value education or could not afford to pay for education opted out of Judaism, meaning those left behind disproportionately come from generations of educated families.
However, remove the emphasis on critical thought and open intellectual inquiry – i.e., most of the hasidic movement and an increasing portion of non-hasidic haredim – and you can see clear, evident regression. New Square, Tosh and Satmar are good examples of this.
So it isn't a Jewish gene that leads to higher educational performance and, eventually, to more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other group – it is the culture that stresses education, open inquiry and critical thought.
Remove that – like in Satmar, Tosh and New Square – and the outcomes are poor.
Jews who have won the Nobel Prize overwhelmingly came from secular or non-Orthodox homes, homes where Torah study was not important.
What was often important in those homes, however, was critical thought, open intellectual inquiry and educational achievement – the culture left over from centuries of demanding educational involvement that was costly and inconvenient and which forced those unwilling or unable to pay for it to leave.
[Hat Tip: Seymour.]