Esteemed and honored professor: Half of Israel is proud of you, but the other half... is embarrassed by you
This time it is Professor Joel Mokyr, raised in Haifa and presently a professor at Chicago’s Northwestern University and visiting professor at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, who shares the Nobel in Economic History with two other laureates. Israelis and Jews everywhere point with pride at yet another indication of Jewish brainpower.
But what a great source of shame it is that a famous Jew finds it necessary, in a comment heard round the world, to descend to unfortunate bromides and to denigrate millions of Israel’s chareidi citizens — and by so doing to be guilty of purveying shop-worn clichés, not to mention that he adds fuel to the fires of anti-Semitism.
In an October 23 interview in the Times of Israel, the new laureate, basking in the admiration of the world, reminisced fondly about his Israeli origins. He noted that “Israelis are exceptionally creative across the board, not just in digital technology… but in many other fields, including literature and music.”
And then, without any prodding and without being asked, he added: “All of this creativity is produced by about half the population, because the other half, particularly the ultra-Orthodox groups, contribute practically nothing to this.” (Italics added.)
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