Are Jews Special?
We know how special they are. All the stories that come to us via media shows how this tiny nation is able to survive against the Muslim fanatics hell bent on destroying it. Also Israel is India’s trusted friend – just like America, Japan, and Australia.
Israel is a high tech nation and many software professional have worked in and with companies from Israel and are full of praises for their professionalism.
In Berkeley I had many professors who apparently were Jewish and many persons I knew there, all were Jewish, and I have full respect for them.
My ideas are based on my experience and I will be frank.
There was a young professional from Israel in Berkeley and I talked to him on occasions. He openly admitted that Palestinians in Israel were treated as second-class citizens. He was frank and likable. He didn’t have control over what his government did.
I made friendship was a guy, who was a house painter. One of his daughters came with us when we went to the beach. She brought many heavy novels and CDs to spend her time. There was a CD by Drake, a black artist. I was pleased inside and asked her why did she like Drake. She replied without thinking because he is a Jew. I didn’t know that he was a Jew but checked later and found out that was true.
This painter guy was naive. He lived with a girl from Philippines. They had two grown up daughters. One day he reached home, the daughter who was trained in Karate, hit him hard, his girlfriend and daughter testified that he attacked the daughter. As a result he was first sent to jail for a short time, which was a new experience for him, and later he lived in his garage, with the women and the daughter living in the Berkeley house. It is possible he was set up for it. Still he didn’t hold any bitterness. His grandfather was a big poet in New York and singer Bob Dylan used to go to him often. He showed me the photograph.
UC Berkeley professors were against bombing of Iraq, they protested in San Francisco, but the US government ignored them. US needed cheap oil, that was the common understanding in San Francisco at that time.
In 2013, hostel 7 had a get together. I came from the USA to attend. Sanjay Bhargava, all of a sudden made a comment “Jews are very smart.” I kept quiet. I have heard that in the USA and believe lot of Indians believe that too. I had done some research in the USA, even visited many Jew sites, where people were claiming that they were minimum 2-3 Standard Deviations away on intelligence compared to other. I checked all the material and found the conclusion that they are smart, as good as a typical white, smart but not as much as a Chinese, or Korean.
So, do I deny that Albert Einstein was the smartest – his name is associated with the word “intelligent.” There is no denying that he was a smart scientist. But I have many smart scientists. not at IIT though, and will be difficult to say who was the smartest. Within range of IQ 125-150 is my guess. That is good enough to do research. Ask a German after he had an extra bottle of German beer, he might be able to tell what he thinks of Albert Einstein.
It’s a very long topic.
When president Jimmy Carter wrote a book on Israel’s apartheid policies towards Palestinians, many active Jews, by protesting against him, made him difficult to speak at many college campuses.
I think this issue is not going to be solved easily. But I know if I tell an Indian guy wanting to make money in America, he feels flattered if I tell him you are so Jewish.
When two top lawyers met me in America before I left the country, knowing that they were Jewish, I broached up the topic of latest movie by Woody Allen, a Jewish director, running in San Francisco. They opened up, and enjoyed discussing him. Currently the situation regarding Woody Allen might be tricky though.
I know anything I write about Jews will be decried as example of “antisemitism” by many Indians without even reading that. In my last whatsapp meeting, Vivek Govilkar, accused me of that. He had to be extra nice to Jews while working for iFlex Solutions, now he can be open. Indians cannot do that. I talk about my Japan experience and my IIT classmates just looked bored. Indians have high respect for USA, Japan, Australia, Israel – the countries that have disdain for Indians. Very interesting.