Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Talking about success, it is interesting to observe the journey of the Jewish people. The reason is, empirically, many of them have achieved various achievements.

During the 20th century, for example, Jews in the West succeeded in becoming intellectual figures and occupying the highest economic classes. Then quite a few of them succeeded in winning the highest award in science, namely the Nobel.

In the period 1901-1962 alone, 16% of science Nobel winners were Jews. For example, the famous physicist of Jewish descent, Albert Einstein, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921.

It even refers to Paul Burstein’s research in “Jewish Educational and Economic Success in the United States” (2007) specifically wrote that in the United States, the Jewish people were noted to be more successful economically and educationally than other national and racial groups.

So, why does this happen? What’s the secret recipe?

According to Richard Lynn and Satoshi Kanazawa in “How to explain high Jewish Achievement” (2008) one aspect driving the success of the Jewish people is the existence of strong cultural values.

For Jewish families, success is an absolute thing that must be achieved by every child in every generation. As a result, every parent requires their children to excel.

This effort has even been seen since the baby was not yet born, aka still in the womb. Or what is usually called prenatal education. Furthermore, referring to the article “Jewish Traditions in Pregnancy & Childbirth” (1997), there are two things that Jewish parents do in prenatal education.

First, listening to music. Jewish mothers often listen to music because they believe music can stimulate babies’ emotional intelligence. Usually they play classical music.

Not only music, mothers also often invite the fetus to talk. The concept is the same as singing music. They believe chatting with the fetus stimulates the baby’s emotional side.

Second, mothers of babies read a lot of books and study mathematics. They believe this step can develop the fetus’ intellectual intelligence. Don’t forget, mothers also always pay attention to the best nutrition. They always eat nutritious food, especially fish or other proteins and vegetables.

So, when the baby is born, he is always given motivation to have a hobby of reading.

Because, they believe that literacy is the only way out of ignorance. They have proven this themselves based on cases in the era of the Abbasid Islamic Caliphate (750 AD-1258 AD).

At that time, referring to research entitled The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jews (2012), they experienced a traumatic event in the form of the destruction of a temple. From here, they are then inspired to be able to read and escape the trap of illiteracy.

Long story short, when they had advanced literacy and extraordinary intelligence, they left their old jobs in the agricultural sector and focused on the literacy and education sectors. When pursuing this new sector, they believe that these two things are proven to make them prosperous in terms of income.

On this basis, in the future Jews will be very oriented towards education which continues to be passed down across generations from past to present.

Richard Lynn and Satoshi Kanazawa were not the only ones who attempted to analyze Jewish intelligence. Another opinion was also expressed by historian Jerry Z. Muller in Project Syndicate. According to him, the success of Jews is also closely related to the discrimination they have experienced, which has had an impact on two things.

First, they have strong inter-Jewish relations. In the future, this relationship will open up fortune. They get to know each other, can start new jobs and businesses.

Second, they learn to look for new opportunities that not many people are interested in, so they can raise their status. Later, they will pursue work as traders or create new discoveries that have not been thought of before.

Regarding the creation of new discoveries related to creativity, Paul Burstein’s research in “Jewish Educational and Economic Success in the United States” (2007) states that this could happen because they are skeptical of local conventional ideas that are fostered where they live.

So, when they didn’t want to use these ideas, the Jewish immigrant’s brain immediately thought creatively to create new ways that would stimulate creativity and intellectual intelligence. Later, all of this will lead to success which will lead to easy money and wealth.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(mfa/sef)