I think the impact was made on them - by westerners who killed and terrorized them for centuries - and on itself, as the west has tried to repair the damage done by thousands of years of anti-Semitism. They make great impacts on themselves by their cultural promotion of ambitions toward self-development, self-sufficiency, responsible living, family and positive thinking. But I don't see them impacting the west in any way other than perhaps the Israeli handling of the Palestinians and some of the other countries that have effectively declared war on them. That affects us in terms of world stability. But they are only part of that equation. The rest is up to the Palestinians, the Arabs and Iranians and any of the other countries that are trying to sabotage relations. Of course that's limited to a handful of Israeli leaders anyway - not quite the same thing as speaking for Jews worldwide. I guess you could add the Israeli citizens who aggressively build settlements in defiance of peace, but even they are some small fraction of the whole.
Jews, Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Christian Scientists, Mormons, Quakers and on and on all have contributed to the Wests civility and accomplishments in making a place that all can live together with each other.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
My instant guess would be because they have been the perpetual outsiders, persecuted often, who therefore had to have their wits about them to survive, rather relying on hereditary or state-sponsored power structures for influence; AND aided by a deeply embedded respect for law and scholarship, derived from their faith. Also, possibly, good international connections to their co-religionists, which would have removed nationalistic inhibitions in communication and enabled good awareness of ideas from all over Europe. But this is just my guess.
Several reasons: Jews have always recognized the importance of literacy. In order to have a bar mitzvah (the ceremony acknowledging a man's maturation into adulthood), you have to be able to read and discuss passages in the Torah (what Christians refer to as the "Old Testament")--in the original language! Jews don't have priests; anyone can decide to be a rabbi and offer his own analysis of the religion and its laws. Today women have bat mitzvah ceremonies and many temples have female rabbis. Among the Christians, only the priests and the aristocracy could read and write. So the Jews became the scholars of Europe. The Jews have always recognized the importance of hygiene and sanitation. During the Middle Ages, the Christians in Europe believed that it was a "sin" to immerse oneself in water, so they never bathed. They also didn't keep their homes clean. Uncleanliness puts stress on the brain and body, making the people weaker and more stupid. In particular, the Black Plague killed a huge portion of the Christian population of Europe, while taking a much smaller toll among the Jews. Because the Christians read the Bible in translation, they made several errors. One was the translation of a word meaning what today we would call "predatory lending" (charging too much interest) to include any lending of money for interest as usury, and this was called a "sin." This prohibited them from establishing a banking system. However, they had no prohibition against borrowing money, so the Jews lent them their own money. After several generations of this practice, the Jews became Europe's de facto bankers. The Jews were prohibited from working in many professions. Therefore they pursued the careers that were open to them. This included being writers, actors and musicians. The arts have a profound effect on a society's culture: just look at the influence of TV and rock'n'roll today. The English language has assimilated dozens of words from Yiddish (a medieval dialect of German with the addition of many Hebrew words, spoken by most European Jews until the 20th century). The vast majority of these words were introduced by comedians: schtup, putz, schmuck, schlemiel, kvetch, mishpochah, mishegas, kosher, goy, schikse... Without the Jews, Europe would probably still be in the Dark Ages.
Mark Weber is an antisemitic white supremacist nutjob. Here's his Wikipedia info: "Mark Edward Weber (b. Portland, Oregon, October 9, 1951) is the director of the Institute for Historical Review,[1] an American Holocaust denial[2] organization based in southern California. Weber has been associated with the IHR since the 1980s. In 1992 he became editor-in-chief of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review. Weber was subsequently named the institute's Director in 1995.[3] Weber was born in Portland, Oregon in 1951. After graduating from Jesuit High School in 1969, he studied history in Chicago at the University of Illinois.[1] He continued his studies for two semesters at the University of Munich, and, returning to Oregon, took a B.A. degree in history with high honors from Portland State University. In graduate school, he continued his study of history at Indiana University, receiving an M.A. degree in modern European history in 1977.[4] Beginning in 1978 Weber became involved with the National Alliance, a far-right white supremacist organization. In 1979 Weber served as the editor of the group's magazine, the National Vanguard. Throughout the 80s Weber functioned as the treasurer of the National Alliance's Cosmotheist Church. During this period Weber became more heavily involved with the IHR as well as collaborating with Bradley Smith and the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust"---http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weber
Happy Rosh Hashanah to you! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I wish I were a practicing Jew. I wasn't raised that away. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I must admit I was being a bad girl when I posted this site. I thought it might be interesting to out any anti-semites and was using this tactic to do it. I apologize if I offended anyone, maybe not a good idea!
