Breakthrough: ‘Ynet’ honestly seeks answer to question, How did American Jews get so rich?

Israel’s Ynet puts American journalists– from The New Yorker to the New York Times to The Forward to Mondoweiss.net — to shame, going straightforwardly at an important American story that our press is scared to touch. “How did American Jews get so rich.” Tani Goldstein’s piece is a landmark journalistic achievement for its honest attempt to reckon with Jewish wealth, and for its descriptions of the Jewish creation of Hollywood and the investment banking industry and its emphasis on Jewish cultural traditions that propelled our rise: habits of study and “mutual” aid.

Finally, the piece describes the ways that American Jewish wealth has served Israel. (Thanks to Norman Finkelstein.) Note my stress on Goldstein’s point that U.S. gov’t aid to Israel reflects “Jewish pressure.” Walt and Mearsheimer didn’t even say this. And they were lambasted as anti-Semites because they made the mistake of not being Jewish.

I hope this is a breakthrough, and American publications can begin to speak about the ways that our wealth has affected the political process. And yes, also, the extent to which Jewish kinship networks have operated in the same way that WASP exclusiveness served that tribe under the old order. Finally, note that Goldstein does something that Daily Kos described as anti-semitic, she counts Jews in high places.

Lengthy excerpts:

The online Jewish Encyclopedia says some 5.6 million Jews live in the United States (not including half a million Israelis) – about 1.8% of the population. Most of them reside in rich cities: Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Boston, and mainly New York.

A study of the Pew Forum institute from 2008 found that Jews are the richest religious group in the US: Forty-six of Jews earn more than $100,000 a year, compared to 19% among all Americans.

More than 100 of the 400 billionaires on Forbes’ list of the wealthiest people in America are Jews. Six of the 20 leading venture capital funds in the US belong to Jews, according to Forbes. Google founder Sergey Brin has a Jewish father, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is Jewish, as is his deputy, David Fischer, the son of Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer. The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Shalom Bernanke, is Jewish too, as is he predecessor, Alan Greenspan, and the Fed founder, Paul Warburg. Jews are well represented in Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the US Congress and Administration, Hollywood, TV networks and the American press – way beyond their percentage in the population.

The United States is among the richest countries in the world, making American Jews one of the wealthiest ethnic groups in the universe…

 .…”The Jewish tradition always sanctified studying, and the Jews made an effort to study from the moment they arrived in American,” says Danny Halperin, Israel’s former economic attaché in Washington. “In addition, the Jews have a strong tradition of business entrepreneurship. The Irish, for example, came from families of land workers with a different mentality, studies less and initiated less.

“The Jews progressed because many areas were blocked to them,” says Halperin. “Many Irish were integrated into the police force, for example, and only few Jews. The Jews entered new fields in which there was need for people with initiative. They didn’t integrate into traditional banking, so they established the investment banking.”

[Halperin goes on,] “The cinema industry was created from scratch in the 1930s, and the Jews basically took over it. To this day there are many Jewish names in the top echelon of Hollywood and the television networks. Later on, they took high-tech by storm too – another new industry requiring learning abilities.” …

“The Jews were the first people to undergo globalization,” says Rebecca Caspi, senior vice president of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). “They had a network of global connections way before other nations, and a strong and supportive community….

..Anti-Semitism weakened after World War II and the restrictions on hiring Jews were reduced and later canceled as part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, thanks to the struggle of liberal activists, many of whom were Jews…

In 1957, 75% of US Jews were white-collar workers, compared to 35% of all white people in the US; in 1970, 87% of Jewish men worked in clerical jobs, compared to 42% of all white people, and the Jews earned 72% more than the general average.

….There is no doubt that American Jews’ huge success helped Jews survive in Israel.

“The help is beyond the actual donations,” says Caspi. “The federal aid arrives largely thanks to the Jewish pressure. Israeli businesspeople use their connections in America to open markets and raise funds, especially for the venture capital industry.”

The American aid strengthens the connection between the two communities – which together make up about 80% of the Jewish people – but also creates discomfort on both sides: The Americans view Israel as a “shelter for a rainy day” and feel committed to help the State, but some feel their money is being wasted due to wrong moves; the Israelis live in fear of what will happen if and when the aid stops. The fear is increasing, with one-third of US Jews marrying non-Jews and stating that they feel less connected to Israel.