Jjteven Spielberg, Ralph Lauren, Sergey Brin, Michael Dell. They’re all successful, at the top of their fields. They’re all fabulously wealthy. And they’re all Jewish. Those three characteristics—successful, wealthy and Jewish—are linked repeatedly in America today. And it is no accident. Jewish Americans are, as a group, the wealthiest ethnic group in America. But the factors that work together to create Jewish wealth, which I identify in this book, can be applied to individuals and groups from any background. When this book was originally written both The Millionaire Next Door and The Gifts of the Jews shared the New York Times best-seller lists.
But despite this obvious interest in wealth, on one hand, and the Jewish people, on the other, the two subjects have not been dealt with together. The Gifts of the Jews confines its discussion to the contributions that Judaism has made to American culture, including monotheism, the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath. But what largely defines Jews in the popular imagination is their economic success and the accomplishments that made it possible. Perhaps Jews and their wealth have not become a focus for discussion because whenever Americans discuss ethnicity and money, the conversation tends to become heated. It does not have to be that way. The extraordinary story of Jewish-American success contains lessons for all of us.
Many authors have written books about business success, trying to find a pattern that we can apply to all business organizations. What makes a company successful? Disney, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Google … how have they overcome challenges and become so successful? In examining the phenomenon of Jewish-American success, this book reveals the principles that can be applied to your life. And it is important to note that the wealth created by Jews is much more than just money; it includes advances in the arts, sciences and humanities that made the money possible. A recent Los Angeles Times article describes the gap that The Jewish Phenomenon bridges. “The easy temptation is just to offer a laundry list of Jews and their achievements—a Hall of Fame of Nobel Prize winners, musicians and artists, a parade of business leaders, movie moguls, educators, journalists and entertainers who have influenced the American scene.
Yet in searching for a deeper answer to the question—a theory that might explain the contributions of people as diverse as Howard Stern and Albert Einstein—there’s a silence in the literature about Judaism and American life.” The seven “keys” described in this book bring the silence to an end. About half of American Jews marry gentiles, prompting experts to project that the Jewish- American community will shrink to half its size by 2050. This statistic lends urgency to the investigation of Jewish success today. As Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple, the oldest Conservative Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, explained to the writer for the Los Angeles Times, “The farther away you get from the source of your tradition, the less of a contribution you might be expected to make in a place like America. We could lose something precious.”
Anti-Semitism has a long history, and it is by no means dead. Throughout that long history, the Jews’ success has been decried as the reason for other people’s problems. Even President Richard Nixon, in his Watergate paranoia, saw the Jews as his enemies. In the famed “Nixon Basement Tapes,” Nixon told chief of staff H. R. Haldeman, “What about the rich Jews? The IRS is full of Jews, Bob. Go after ’em like a son-of-a-bitch!” While institutional antiSemitism has been virtually eliminated in America, on a personal level antiSemitism is very much alive. Today an isolated anti-Semitic act such as the painting of a Nazi swastika on a synagogue makes front-page news and clergy from all denominations condemn it. The random shooting of three children by a madman at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles in 1999 brought worldwide outrage. But just seventy-five years ago Henry Ford, “Mr. Model T,” conducted a propaganda campaign against the “International Jew.” Ford believed that the Jews were involved in an international conspiracy to undermine the world economy. He spent millions of dollars investigating and publicizing his suspicions, but he could never uncover any evidence of the twisted plot.
The announcement caught the eye of Philip D. Armour, the wealthy packing-house king, who decided to hear the sermon. In his sermon Dr. Gunsaulus pictured a great school of technology where young men and young women could be taught how to succeed in life by developing the ability to THINK in practical rather than in theoretical terms; where they would be taught to “learn by doing.” “If I had a million dollars,” said the young preacher, “I would start such a school.” After the sermon was over Mr. Armour walked down the aisle to the pulpit, introduced himself, and said, “Young man, I believe you could do all you said you could, and if you will come down to my office tomorrow morning I will give you the million dollars you need.” There is always plenty of capital for those who can create practical plans for using it. That was the beginning of the Armour Institute of Technology, one of the very practical schools of the country.