A Blessing to the Nations

The Patriarch Abraham, detail of “Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael” (1657) by Guercino, Brera Art Gallery, Italy, Author Octave 444 (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

“I will make you a great nation…And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12: 2-3).

God promised the Hebrew patriarch, Abraham, that his descendants, the Jews, would be a blessing to all the earth [1].  That promise has been fulfilled many times over.

Medicine

Historically, Jews emphasized education and literacy, so that their children could study and understand the Torah.

As a result, about 14% of physicians in the United States are Jewish, although Jews make up only about 2.5% of the general population.  In other words, Jews are greatly overrepresented in the medical field [2]. 

• The vaccine developed by Jewish physician, Dr. Jonas Salk, conquered polio – once a public health threat which paralyzed and killed thousands. Salk chose not to patent the vaccine, prioritizing public health over profit [3A].  Within ten years, polio cases in the United States dropped from 35,000 to 161. There was only 1 reported case in 2024 [3B].
• Research by Dr. Paul Zoll, a Jewish surgeon during World War II, led to the development of external defibrillators and pacemakers, now widely used in heart disease [3C].

Science

According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 8% of scientists identify as Jewish [4].  This, too, is significantly higher than the percentage of Jews in the general population. 

Between 1901 and 2023, around 22% of Nobel Prize winners – among them Albert Einstein – had at least one Jewish parent.  This is 110 times the percentage of Jews in the world’s population [5].  Similarly, 37% of the recipients of the US National Medal of Science, and 27% of the recipients of the Kyoto Prize have been Jewish [6A].

• Stainless steel, a critical material in modern medicine, construction, and transportation, is credited to Hans Goldschmidt, a German chemist of Jewish descent [3D].
• Jewish American scientist, Paul Berg, discovered recombinant DNA molecules in 1972, revolutionizing both medicine and agriculture [7].

Communication

We take for granted the internet and software now an integral part of modern life.  However, the co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, is Jewish.  So were the cofounders of PayPal, Oracle, Lotus, EBay, and Facebook [6B].  Jewish Americans, also, pioneered the technology that led to WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth [8].

Entertainment

Jews are instructed by Scripture to find joy in their relationship with the Lord, regardless of circumstances.  This may be why they have played such a large role in entertainment.

Outstanding Jewish musicians range from Itzhak Perlman to Carole King, Paul Simon, and Billy Joel [9A].

Jews played a substantial role in the founding and growth of Hollywood. 

• Prominent Jewish film producers have included Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Louis B. Mayer (MGM), and Steven Spielberg (Amblin and Dreamworks) [9B].
• Famous Jewish composers have included George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein [9C].
• Jewish film stars have included Kirk Douglas, Paul Newman, and Barbara Streisand [9D].

Stan Lee, a Jewish comic book writer, co-created iconic modern superheroes including Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the X-Men.  It has been said that Lee’s work not only entertains, but provides a lens through which social issues can be explored [3E].

Lee’s narratives often arise from his Jewish identity [3F].  For example, the adventures of the X-Men (representing marginalized groups everywhere) parallel the struggles faced by Jews throughout history.  The Hulk is based on the 16^th Century Jewish legend of the Golem of Prague.

Ralph Baer, known as the father of video games, was Jewish [3G].

Social Reform

Judaism laid the groundwork for social reform, establishing the principle that humans have the responsibility to stop injustice in the world [10].  The Jews were the first to decide that as the Chosen People it was their obligation to fight against inequality. 

Jews were at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, working closely with African American leaders [11].  They have, also, been heavily involved in the Labor Movement, seeking to establish equitable labor practices [12].

Spirituality

By far, however, the greatest gifts the Jewish people have given the world are a belief in the one true God, the Bible, and the Messiah in the Person of Jesus Christ [6C].  Christians must never forget that Christ was a Jew.

Antisemitism

Despite their many contributions, Jews have been persecuted in virtually every place and time.  And they have been driven out from nations across the globe [13]. 

The Jewish diaspora which resulted from the Babylonian Captivity of 286 BC and the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD spread belief in the one true God around the world, just as the earlier Jewish captivity in Egypt had spread it there. 

During the Middle Ages, Jews were exiled from England (1290), Hungary (1349), France (1394), Austria (1421), Spain (1492), and Portugal (1497).  This persecution reflects the ongoing battle between good and evil.

Today’s antisemitism is just the latest chapter in the persecution of the Jews [15].  God will never though abandon His people (Deut. 31: 8; Jer. 31: 35).

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[1]  Wikipedia, “Abraham”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham.

[2]  University of Chicago Chronicles, Vol. 24, No. 19, “Survey on physicians’ religious beliefs shows majority faithful” by John Easton, 7/14/05, https://chronicle.uchicago.edu/050714/doctorsfaith.shtml.

[3A through 3G]  Israel Hayam, “Did you know these inventions were made by Jews?”, 8/1/24,   https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/08/01/did-you-know-these-inventions-were-made-by-jews/.

[4]  Pew Research Center, “Scientists and Belief”, 11/5/09,  https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2009/11/05/scientists-and-belief/#:~:text=One%20notable%20exception%20is%20Jews%2C%20who%20make,for%20complete%20question%20wording%2C%20see%20survey%20topline.

[5]  Wikipedia, “List of Jewish Nobel Laureates”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laureates#:~:text=Of%20the%20965%20individual%20recipients,proportion%20of%20the%20world%27s%20population.

[6A, 6B, and 6C]  The Messianic Prophecy Bible Project, “Jewish Contributions to the World:  Flashlight for the Blind”, https://free.messianicbible.com/feature/jewish-contributions-to-the-world-flashlight-for-the-blind/#:~:text=The%20two%20greatest%20gifts%20that,came%20through%20the%20Jewish%20people.

[7]  National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, “Paul Berg and the origins of recombinant DNA” by Doogab Yi and Janet Mertz, 1/7/24, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38428385/.

[8]  Community Commons, “Jewish Americans”,  https://www.communitycommons.org/entities/187f3104-eb1d-47a0-8c01-a26f8489139d#:~:text=From%20leading%20disease%20prevention%20and,integral%20part%20of%20our%20society.

[9A through 9D]  The Genesis Prize, “Jewish Achievement Throughout History”,  https://www.genesisprize.org/jewish-achievement.

[10]  St. John Fisher University, Verbum, Vol. 13, Issue 1, Art. 11, “The Impact of Judaism on Social Reform” by Meghan Conner,  2015, https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/verbum/vol13/iss1/11/#:~:text=Judaism%20marked%20the%20beginning%20of,against%20inequality%20in%20the%20world.

[11]  Wikipedia, “Jews in the civil rights movement”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_in_the_civil_rights_movement.

[12]  Jewish Women’s Archive, “Living the Legacy – Contemporary Jewish Labor Campaigns:  The Labor Movement Begins at Home”, https://jwa.org/teach/livingthelegacy/labor/contemporary-jewish-labor-campaigns-labor-movement-begins-at-home. 

[13]  Florida Center for Instructional Technology, “A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust – Summary of Geographical Movement of European Jews in the Past 2000 Years”, 1997-2013,  https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/displace.htm.

[14]  Wikipedia, “Expulsions and exoduses of Jews”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsions_and_exoduses_of_Jews.

[15]  White House Fact Sheets, “Fact Sheet:  President Donald J. Trump Takes Forceful and Unprecedented Steps to Combat Anti-Semitism”, 1/30/25,  https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-takes-forceful-and-unprecedented-steps-to-combat-anti-semitism/.

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