Why the Jews Succeeded in America

• In Event: Taking Stock of Capital among North American Jews

Abstract

It is well established that Jews, compared to other groups, have been highly successful in the United States economy over at least the past three centuries in terms of high levels of skill, including educational attainment, and income. This achievement has not been limited to a small set of extraordinary achievers, but rather has been a characteristic of the broad spectrum of the American Jewish community. Moreover, this has been the case for each of the successive waves of Jewish immigration, and their American-born descendants. This paper explores alternative hypotheses that may explain this phenomenon. These hypotheses include the "diaspora" hypothesis, being a "people of the book", a trade-off of "child quantity" for "child quality," the economic freedom inherent in the largely laissez faire economy, an emphasis on decision making skills that advantaged Jews, among other hypotheses. The paper concludes that many of these hypotheses have an element of the truth, but no one hypothesis can explain the entire story. Implications are developed for promoting the achievement of disadvantaged groups in the United States.

Author

• Barry Chiswick