Feynman By Me
Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman was a voracious writer -- of letters to strangers. His daughter published an edited selection in the Guardian. Here's one of the letters, to author Tina Levitan, who wrote Feynman requesting a biographical sketch for a book she was writing, The Laureates: Jewish winners of the Nobel prize:
To Tina Levitan, February 7, 1967In your letter you express the theory that people of Jewish origin have inherited their valuable hereditary elements from their people. It is quite certain that many things are inherited but it is evil and dangerous to maintain, in these days of little knowledge of these matters, that there is a true Jewish race or specific Jewish hereditary character ...
At almost 13 I dropped out of Sunday school just before confirmation because of differences in religious views but mainly because I suddenly saw that the picture of Jewish history that we were learning, of a marvellous and talented people surrounded by dull and evil strangers was far from the truth.The error of anti-Semitism is not that the Jews are not really bad after all, but that evil, stupidity and grossness is not a monopoly of the Jewish people but a universal characteristic of mankind in general. Most non-Jewish people in America today have understood that.The error of pro-Semitism is not that the Jewish people or Jewish heritage is not really good, but rather the error is that intelligence, good will, and kindness is not, thank God, a monopoly of the Jewish people but a universal characteristic of mankind in general.
Therefore, you see at 13 I was not only converted to other religious views but I also stopped believing that the Jewish people are in any way "the chosen people".
This reminded me of something I wrote in an email to a church-going reader today:
I don't believe in god, because it's irrational to do so, so I don't go to services. Religion is the cause of much misery in the world. My religion: Be kind, be ethical, live rationally, and "leave the campground better than you found it." Best of all, I don't send any 16-year-olds to blow themselves up in the name of religion, don't tell little Jewish girls that they killed Jesus or that they'll burn in hell because they don't believe in him, nor do I wander around calling myself "one of the chosen people." (How does anybody say that and not think, "Jeez, I sound like SUCH an asshole!") --Amy Alkon
The opinions of Feynmann and Alkon concerning Jews, whatever they want to believe, seem to run counter both to commonsense and the research. Jews excel. Some stereotypical personality traits can grate on Waspy reticence, or on the Germanic propensity for order (the Chosen People meet the Master Race), but hooray for the multi-culti stew.
And on the subject of national characteristics, can the French be described as Italians who think they are Germans.
tom merle at May 13, 2005 12:31 AM
Jews have always had a love of and a respect for learning, so there is an overabundance (disproportionate to the percentage of Jews in the population) of Jews excelling in science and the arts and many other fields. (This may have something to do with the fact that the Jews weren't able to own property in many places -- all they could take with them was what was in their heads.) But the egotism of saying, "We're the chosen people...!" (Don't you think the Christians and Muslims think they're the same thing?) It's yet another way to sell religion to the under-rational. We're the cool team, stick with us!
Amy Alkon at May 13, 2005 7:15 AM
Don't blast me as an anti-semite, here because I'm about to tell a story that will help to counterbalance this First guy's chosen people-ness.
An acquaintance of mine works for a subsidiary of Viacom. His name isn't Rosensteinberger, but it's similar. He's a short balding man. He received a huge promotion last year that now puts him on a level in which he deals with the Presidents on a daily basis. The first time he met with one of them, who was Jewish, while in his new employ, the man said, "Usually we don't promote to this level from within, and when we do we usually give the candidates a much more thorough screening process, but we figured you'd be allright, there's just something in the blood."
What that Executive didn't know is that Mr. Rosesteinberger gets his last name from a STEP-father who died shortly after marrying his Irish mother. Mr. Rosensteinberger is 100% Irish Catholic, biologically. So now, through no fault of his own, he needs to walk around the New York offices pretending to be Jewish both to keep his job and to be eligible for continued promotions.
Culturoreligious nepotism, my friends, exists among the corridors of power when it comes to Jewish people. So it might be that many Jews do excel for many different reasons, but it needs to be admitted that in some cases this is one of them.
Little ted at May 13, 2005 11:57 AM
His letter to his dead wife is a real tear jerker. What a great man.
Todd Fletcher at May 16, 2005 12:38 PM
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