Why are so many billionaires Jewish?

Question

I was reading about the Russian oligarchs who dominated Russia economically during the 1990s and noticed that 6/7 of them were Jewish despite Russia being only .50% Jewish. I then typed in Jewish Billionaires in Google and found that over 1/3 of the 50 richest people on the Forbes 400 are Jewish and ~ 25% of the...

Answer 1

One historical reason is that, hundreds of years ago in Europe, the Church forbade usury--the charging of interest by money lenders--so people had to borrow money from Jews instead of Christians.

We often find that ethnic groups in different parts of the world who are considered to be different, who are often discriminated against and persecuted, whose property has been confiscated, who have been through seriously hard times again and again, who value education and help each other out in good times, often work a little harder at saving and investing money.

When other folks save for a rainy day, they make sure they have enough money to buy an umbrella if they need one. They like to have money, but they value other things more. So they go into debt to get their own apartment and a new car when they graduate from college, go out for a beer every now and again, instead of staying at home and investing the extra money they make.

I used to work with someone who was not Jewish, by the way. She bragged that after she had attended college on financial aid--grants and scholarships--she had some money saved up because she did not spend it all. I had just finished college, and although I lived very modestly compared to some of my friends, I certainly had not saved any money from my financial aid.

One day in the restroom, I saw a note taped to the sanitary napkin dispenser in which my co-worker said that she had lost a quarter in the machine, and could someone please return it to her. Now, if I'd lost a quarter there, I would not have taped a note to the machine with my name on it. I would have just thrown that quarter away, because some things are more important to me than money.

And that's why I'm not a billionaire.

Answer 2

i'm jewish. we save our money and were really smart. Einstein was jewish

Answer 3

because ethnic Jews tend to inherit a smart gene

Answer 4

Yeah its the same with the nobel peace prize, its won by a disproportional amount of Jews. Maybe its something to do with the Jewish education or upbringing that once they set their minds to something they go for it!

Although I'm Jewish and I'm neither rich or particulary decisive. It probably comes from a time where the only jobs available to Jews where the ones involving money and gold therefore it's an interest that has been passed down.

Answer 5

I'm Jewish. We place a very, very high emphasis on education and family values. We do *not* place any emphasis on being greedy--on the contrary, tzedakah--charity--is one of our highest precepts.

Answer 6

5769 years of networking. Also, for a couple thousand of those years Jews were prevented from owning land in most of Europe so they had to adopt portable trades. So banking, medicine, law, etc predominated and they didn't get stuck being farmers.

Answer 7

well my friend the answers given all are true facts but there is some thing more relevant and more authentic is from the religion of muslims and it says that all non-muslims will be provided all the luxries they want in this world but not in the real world and thats the world after judement day honestly speaking just make a research you will find non-muslims more richer than a muslim. the quantity of rich pepole is of non-muslims, espacially jewish.

Answer 8

Because of their unique history there are a higher fraction Jews in banking and finance than in the general population, and that is where the greatest opportunities are to become a billionaire. Because most countries have some Jews in their population and they feel a common bond, it allows them to make connection with people in other countries which is very important if you live in Russia or other countries without a well developed financial system. However there is also a down side to these connections as we have seen in the recent 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme on wall street. where a disproportionate number to the victims were Jewish. Most Jews in the US live just like the rest of us, it is only a very small fraction them become wealthy, 2% is 6 million people and only about 100 are on the Forbes list. One should be careful about drawing conclusion about a group on the basis of statistical outliers. Most black people in this country are not great basketball players, but they dominate the NBA.

Answer 9

Jesus saves, Moses invest.

Answer 10

Jews are not any smarter than any other group. These guys have had
a lot of luck to get where they are...