What is it about Jews that puts us in the forefront— for good or for ill— of so many cutting-edge areas of life?
Historians generally agree that the four figures who most shaped 20th-century Western civilization were Marx, Darwin, Freud, and Einstein. Three out of the four were born Jews, Darwin being the only non-Jew.
A Jew bursts with pride at the Yiddishe kopp.
Also highly influential in recent history were the poet Heinrich Heine, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, composer Felix Mendelssohn, writer Boris Pasternak, and composer and conductor Gustav Mahler. All were Jews by birth, but each of the latter group, primarily for reasons of career advancement, willingly became baptized into Christianity.
The Yiddishe kopp is still evident, but the Jewish pride deflates in shame.
Create a free account to keep reading.
