THE JEWISH NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS
This week is a week of pride for Jews who
take pride in being Jews.
As each day, the Nobel Prizes are
announced, our hearts are warmed to hear the names of Jews who win the coveted
prize.
Usually, the prizes are in the Sciences:
Medicine, Physics and Chemistry. In this century, Imre Kertesz from Hungary and
Austrian Elfriede Jelinek (whose father was Jewish), as well as the fiery
Harold Pinter have won the Nobel Prize in Literature but in the sciences, fully
1/3 of the prizes have been won by Jews! Israel has alone bagged 7 Nobel prizes
this century, ahead of Germany, France or Russia.! In the field of Economics,
which was instituted in 1970, the first forty years, saw 25 Jewish winners!
Many historic reasons (oppression, restricted
opportunities for Jews which led them to be commercially successful) have been
forwarded, as well as cultural reasons, such as educated family background and
penchant for education.
In India or China, the families are as
conscious of education as the Jews are, but they have never won any Nobel
prizes other than Literature (one for India and two for China; one for a
dissident in China).
When I was reading for my Medical
Anthropology degree in London, four out of the five professors who taught us were
Jewish, one of whom Cecil Helman became a good friend later on. Pointing out to
him that the majority of the worlds best Medical Anthropologists are Jewish, I
asked him, WHY?
He thought for a moment and replied: who
should know better of being the OUTSIDER than us?
We are the perpetual Other…
Dr Robert Lefkowitz, USA
I look at this years Jewish winners: Dr
Robert Lefkowitz, who won for Chemistry, is a Medical Doctor who is a
Cardiologist; Serge Haroche is French Jew who was born in Casablanca, Morocco,
who won the Physics Prize.
There are many cardiologists, who are of
Asian origin practising in USA, but the difference is that Dr Lefkowitz chose
to do research rather than do other things, which are lucrative.
(Daniel Kahneman, Israel/USA, Economics)
Jews have a concept, Mitzvah that vaguely
corresponds to Mitta in the Burmese Buddhist Philosophy: doing things for
others, not being selfish. Perhaps this concept, along with Education and other
nurturing factors, pushes a certain number of Jews into fields of endeavour
where the outcome would be of great help to many others, mankind in general. Dr
Lefkowitz won his prize for his work on g-coupling-protein, the concept of
enormous importance in cell function and also helpful in the innovation of
medications for treatment of diseases.
(Dr Serge Haroche, the French recipient of Physics Prize was born in Casablanca, Morocco)
Today I received a post card and in it was
a quote from Epictetus of Greece:
The essence of philosophy is that a man
should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on
external things.
If you so not a penchant for gadgetry or
accumulation of wealth, your mind may be swayed into other philosophical
channels, including endeavours to help humanity. May be the Jewish concept of
Mitzvah embodies this and the concept is embedded in Jewish memory. Just my
theory.
A week of Pride Indeed!
(Jews consist 0.2 per cent, i.e. 2 per 1000
of the world’s population)
(He wrote twenty-nine plays including The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, twenty-one screenplays including The Servant, The Go-Between and The French Lieutenant's Woman, and directed twenty-seven theatre productions, including James Joyce's Exiles, David Mamet's Oleanna, seven plays by Simon Gray and many of his own plays including his latest, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room at The Almeida Theatre, London in the spring of 2000) While I was a student in London, I was fortunate to see many of his plays.
PS: One India based Tamil Physicist, two US based Tamil Scientists, one US based Punjabi Doctor, one US based Bengali Economist have won the Prize apart from Rabindranath Tagore. I am sure Sir Vidya Naipaul would object if you call him Indian! he won the prize for Literature. He is British of Trinidadian origin.
PPS: Moslems have won so far 9 Nobel Prizes.
It is foolish to compare countries or religion and their scientific ability. during the Moslem rule of Spain, 1 out of 150 scientists in the known world at that time was Jewish, including many from Spain.
15 october 2012
The Nobel Prize for Economics was announced today. One of the winners from the USA is Alvin Roth, a professor at Harvard, moving to Stanford. He is Jewish.
The Nobel Prize for Economics was announced today. One of the winners from the USA is Alvin Roth, a professor at Harvard, moving to Stanford. He is Jewish.
