Say it loud: 'We're Jews and we're proud'

What do comedian Tim Allen, Intel founder Andrew Grove and Nostradamus have in common? They're all Jewish success stories, and they all appear in "The Jewish Phenomenon" (Longstreet Press, $24 hardcover), a frank examination of "the extraordinary story of Jewish-American success" by Steven Silbiger, author of "The Ten-Day MBA: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Skills Taught in America's Top Business Schools."

First published five years ago but still relevant today, "The Jewish Phenomenon" asks the question, "What secrets to success have the Jews learned that can apply to any life, any family and any community?"

The statistics set the stage for Silbiger's analysis. According to the book, Jews make up only 2 percent of the U.S. population, but almost half of the top 40 of the Forbes 400 richest Americans; the percentage of Jewish households with incomes over $50,000 is double that of non-Jews; and 25 percent of all American Nobel Prize winners are Jewish.

"In 1890," Silbiger writes, "there were few Jews practicing in law or medicine in New York City. By 1900, there were four hundred to six hundred Jewish doctors in the city and several thousand in teaching and other professions. In the 1930s, 55 percent of doctors, 64 percent of dentists, and 65 percent of lawyers in New York City were Jewish. This was in spite of quotas restricting the admittance of Jews to institutions of higher learning (emphasis mine)."

Rather than shy away from these facts, as many Jews and non-Jews do out of a fear of reinforcing stereotypes, Silbiger embraces them. Yes, he says at the outset, Jews in the United States are disproportionately successful in a variety of fields ranging from business to science to the arts. But he argues that the reasons for that success are rooted in fundamental Jewish principles that can be adopted by anyone, of any ethnicity.

Silbiger identifies seven "keys" to Jewish success. They are:

Understand that real wealth is portable; it's knowledge
Take care of your own and they will take care of you
Successful people are professionals and entrepreneurs
Develop your verbal confidence, a.k.a. chutzpah
Be selectively extravagant but prudently frugal
Take pride in individuality; encourage creativity
Be psychologically driven to prove something.

For each "key," Silbiger provides a wealth of statistics and fascinating anecdotes. He addresses a variety of topics to bolster his argument, from Jewish parenting styles to the Broadway musical, and the combined effect is to inspire intense pride in the accomplishments of the Jewish people yesterday and today.

Silbiger knows that by trying to determine what in particular makes Jews successful, he is treading tricky territory. "Anti-Semitism has a long history," he writes in his introduction, "and it is by no means dead. Throughout that long history, the Jews' success has been decried as the reason for other people's problems." He continues: "Even today many Jewish people would rather reserve the subject of their success for private conversations rather than fuel the fires of anti-Semitism."

But Silbiger believes that Jews are more defensive about their success than they need to be. As an example, he cites a study showing that while 25 percent of Americans believe Jews have too much power in American business, 75 percent of Jews themselves think that other Jews have too much power.

He also believes that it's high time for an honest look at how and why Jews have defied the odds in the United States. "American society is rapidly assimilating its Jewish people," he writes, "and a self-examination could be productive."

Silbiger worked as a CPA for Arthur Andersen before getting his MBA from the University of Virginia, so he knows the business world inside and out. But he shows a keen sense of psychology, history and sociology, as well. Here's Silbiger on the structure of the Jewish community: "In a way the Jewish community is similar to the Internet. Structurally it does not have an established hierarchy; it is a network of individuals and independent organizations. There is no beginning or end, no traffic cops, few rules - but its presence is very powerful. If a branch is broken, the message successfully makes its way through another part of the web." His discussion of Jewish parenting, which he calls "a mixture of tight family bonding and a lax parenting style," is equally insightful.

One of Silbiger's more compelling theses holds that the outsider mentality common to most Jews, as a minority, not only shapes independent thinkers, it also motivates people to prove themselves and gain acceptance. Fundamentally, according to Silbiger, Jews are rebels with a cause - whether it's Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity or Ruth Handler and her groundbreaking Barbie doll.

To support his point, Silbiger quotes Sigmund Freud, who, in his "Self Portrait," wrote that the anti-Semitism he encountered in medical school "produced one important result. At a rather early date, I became aware of my destiny: to belong to the critical minority as opposed to the unquestioning majority. A certain independence of judgment was therefore developed."

Think that kind of outsider mentality no longer exists for Jews in the United States? Think again. Silbiger also quotes wildly successful director Steven Spielberg: "I didn't have any Jewish friends growing up in Phoenix. I felt like I was the only Jewish kid in my high school. (I remember feeling) ashamed because I was living on a street where at Christmas, we were the only house with nothing but a porch light on."

For the record, my 6-year-old daughter expressed the same sense of shame regarding our house, the lone non-twinkly residence in our Phoenix neighborhood, this past Christmas. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why she's doing so well in school.

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Say it loud: 'We're Jews and we're proud'

DEBORAH SUSSMAN SUSSER Associate Editor

DEBORAH SUSSMAN SUSSER
Associate Editor