The Chosen Few - Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein

Botticini and Eckstein fact check each of the most common explanations for how Jewish people ended up a highly educated group known as an urban population of traders, entrepreneurs, financiers, lawyers, physicians and scholars. In the majority of the books I read in learning about Israel and the Jewish religion, these were the same cited phenomena: prohibited from owning land, diaspora population after the destruction of the Second Temple, repeatedly massacred, Christians were banned from lending money at interest. In other words, mobility is important, so human capital is worth more to this group, and it’s a small group. 

The idea of chosen few is ingrained into my understanding of the group, and yet conversions to and from Judaism, forced or not, plays a role. After having completed the history of China course, and now that I’m in the midst of my wine studies, it is helpful to see how some of the same principles and themes, as well as frameworks, work throughout the various topics. Now that I am starting the linguistics course on language families, it is helpful to see how you ask questions and then check the logic and information sources along the way. This is what I can and should be doing more at work, as well.

To start, the book establishes that almost all Jews worked in agriculture. It is interesting to hear about the “historical accidents” that can shape an entire group’s role in the world. It does remind me of the wine stories, and how phylloxera can change a country’s role in world wine, or a political upheaval can drive talent into neighboring countries. The first “historical accident” in this book is the destruction of the Second Temple.

Overall, the book gives valuable lessons on historical events and groups that I do not know, except from traveling. The last history class I took was in junior high, maybe grade 9. I took a history of the Caribbean class in undergrad, but that is about it. I have never thought about the influence of Muslim caliphates, how world power redistributed after the fall of the Roman Empire, the influence of the Byzantine Empire, and the role of religion in those times. It seems popular to pretend that modern society is beyond religion, but this is impossible as people themselves fundamentally haven’t changed, so then what have we replaced it with? I often joke about the diet culture, the tribes of fitness, brand, but certainly people remain tribal by nature. By the same token, there is alway a rival, an enemy nation, the one with the fading glory, the one with the newbie sheen of youth. There have been unquestionably dominant leaders like Muhammad, Genghis Khan, Chairman Mao. I read the newspaper, I try to find patterns, and still the big picture can escape us if we forget to look for it. 

Myth 1 is that there were restrictions on Jews’ ability to farm. They trace data to prove otherwise, and later remark that economic theory dictates that one always goes to the better paying job, so once trades and finance positions due to literacy become available, then it is only logical for Jewish people to stay. Myth 2 is about the preference for human rather than physical capital. However, the transition from farming to urban skilled occupations occurred during a period in which the Jewish minority enjoyed significant security of life. The persecutions and mass expulsions came later. Also, many minorities have been persecuted throughout history but did not abandon farming. Myth 3 about self-segregation as a religious minority falls flat for similar reasons, in that they were always religious so why was there a transition, and also, then why are there other groups who fulfill these conditions but did not turn into a group of highly specialized professionals. 

The literacy argument does hold and they develop it further. The choice of Hebrew, rather than the spoken languages of the time, is consistent with the religious focus of the education requirement. There is no economic benefit to illiterate farmers educating their sons, so they apply economic theory, concluding that the utility of education has to be higher or they will convert. Judaism would not survive this level of conversion by subsistence farmers unless they migrate to locations with better economic conditions or larger Jewish populations, where the cost is lower, or increased urbanization and the expansion of trade make available to literate Jewish farmers skilled occupations with positive returns to education. I love the dedicated section about how extraordinary the literacy rate is in a non-literate world. This is worth pausing to appreciate.

They do go through potential alternate explanations for the fall in Jewish population, but none of them hold water. It only makes sense that the population continued to convert away as the utility doesn’t make sense for them. As someone who grew up in a Christian household, I never considered that the evangelical nature of the religion, or the fact that Jesus was a Jew, meant that it would recruit converts from Judaism. I also never thought about Judaism. They mention that, “For many Jews during Talmudic times, conversation to Christianity probably did not appear as a major change: Christianity looked like a slightly different version of the Jewish religion, with the same core belief in one God and the Torah but with fewer demanding requirements. They trace competing religions and geographic trends in conversions, but what was most interesting to me is the evidence to support most Jews who converted to Christianity were illiterate farmers. This alone can set up some of the misconceptions and tensions between the groups that we continue to see today. 

The economic theory is laid out as follows: “Given that earnings in crafts, trade, and moneylending increase with literacy and education and that Jews have contract-enforcement institutions that greatly benefit commercial and business transactions, all literate Jews would prefer to engage in crafts, trade, and moneylending, because they can earn more from these pursuits than from farming. The first implication of our theory is thus that literate Jews will always be looking for the opportunity to find urban skilled occupations that yield high returns to their investment in literacy and education.”

“The demand for these occupations determines how many literate Jews can enter such fields. … The second implication of our theory is therefore that urbanization and commercial expansion will enable a large share of the Jewish population to leave farming and specialize in crafts, trade, moneylending, and other skilled professional before any other ethnic or religious group.

“Next we consider the decision of whether and how much to invest in children’s literacy and education. The third implication of our theory is that the fact that literacy is useful to craftsmen, merchants, and moneylenders but not to farmers (regardless of religious affiliation) means that the former group has a greater incentive to invest in their children’s literacy and education than farmers. The fourth implication of our theory is that as craftsmen, traders, and moneylenders, Jews will be more likely to invest in their children’s literacy and education - and will invest more - than non-Jews because in addition to the earnings advantage literacy provides, Jews who obey the religious norm set by Judaism derive utility from being able to read and study the Torah in the synagogue and having their sons able to do the same.”

Now for assumptions. One, there are spillover effects on general literacy (the ability to read, and then to write, any document written in Hebrew or any other language). This is proven true. Second, literacy enhances the productivity and the earnings of artisans, merchants, traders, and moneylenders, for a variety of reasons. Again, this is proven true. Literacy - and hence, the ability to read and write contracts, deeds, and letters - also greatly enhanced the establishment of business partnerships among traders. Literacy facilitated the acquisition of other skills, such as the ability to perform calculations, compute exchange rates, and product written accounts of business transactions. By enabling them to read and to write contracts and letters, literacy also helped Jews communicate at a distance. In addition to basic literacy, Jews who learned the Talmud acquired skills in rational thinking and problem analysis. To sum up, religious literacy - the ability to read and study the Torah in Hebrew - had several positive spillover effects on general literacy that increased the ability of Jews to profitably engage in crafts, trade, and moneylending.

If the destruction of the Second Temple was a tragedy, then this literacy and the compounding spillover effects are the true gift and blessing. Literacy was a competitive edge given early. What is that competitive edge today?

Contract enforcement, the academies that acted as rabbinic courts, having a communal written alphabet, literacy, a common legal canon and judicial institutions, and a process for adapting the Talmud to the economic, social, and political environments in which they lived (the responsa) created a powerful networking mechanism that helped the Jews excel in a variety of crafts, trade, moneylending, and other skilled occupations. 

What are the networks that should be created today? What are the silos that have or will replace crafts, trade, moneylending, and other skilled occupations? Which will disappear? What are the necessary conditions? Jewish transitions into skilled occupations needed urbanization around them, and for example, withered in the brutal condition of the Mongol conquest of the Middle East. Nothing thrived then. How do we create conditions for thriving businesses and thought in the modern world?

Educated wandering Jews makes perfect sense. You would rather do business with someone you understand, someone you are bonded to through a network, and which speaks the same language, both in communication and in thought. Is this the role that business school networks play today? What else can play these roles? How will they then be targeted?

They trace the origins of Sephardim. My beloved Cordova became the largest and one of the most commercial cities in Europe after the Umayyad kingdom was established in 756. In the following decades, there was a sizable immigration of Jews from Egypt and the Maghreb, establishing the Sephardim - a new Iberian Jewry with a distinctive culture and the largest community after the one in the Middle East. Beginning in the mid-ninth century, Jews extended the Diaspora from the vast Muslim territory into the politically fragmented Europe that was the bastion of Christianity. This is the basis of Ashkenazim. Each of the European countries has its own story and mixed relationship with the Jews. No wonder Ashkenazim and Sephardim see the world so differently. In order to survive, function, and thrive in their respective communities, the advice and the inner cultural workings had to be unique and apropos to their circumstance. Maimonides would become the backbone of the cultural and religion milieu of the Sephardi Jewish communities, while Rashi would lay foundations for the Ashkenazi Jewish communities. These connections are also supported by genetic evidence. Where do we see these underlying dynamics at work today?

The educational advantage is further amplified while trading at a distance, selling on credit or moneylending, while adhering to local law which can only be understood by reading. Asymmetric information, networking, and arbitrage also play a role. In the presence of asymmetric information, sophisticated traders and moneylenders with networks and information on market conditions across locations, access to capital, and the ability to swiftly pool wealth if necessary and move it quickly from one place to another could reap huge profits. They lent to governments. 

Advantages of Jewish lenders over other potential lenders in medieval Italy are twofold. First, their wealth was liquid, consisting mostly of cash and easy-to-sell objects pledged as pawns. Because Jewish wealth was not invested primarily in land, it was not affected by aggregate shocks in the same manner as other people’s: it was relatively immune to weather shocks, enemy plunder, and the land taxes frequently levied by Florence. Second, Jewish lenders had an asset that other lenders lacked: strong economic and social ties among themselves. Through this thick network of social relationships and economic partnerships, Jewish lenders shared risk and afforded borrowers access to external sources of credit. Middle-class and wealthy citizens also benefited from the presence of Jewish lenders in their towns, contradicting the common opinion that Jews specialized in small consumption loans to poor people. 

It was not a legal or religious restriction that pushed Jews into lending and specialized trades. It is instead consistent with a theory of occupational choice that in the absence of any legal restriction, people endowed with a competitive advantage for being moneylenders would prefer to be moneylenders. 

Until roughly the 1290s, the Mongol Khans imposed their nomadic way of living in the newly conquered areas. They also imposed heavy taxes and demanded substantial tributes. Conversions of a proportion of Jews to Islam reflected the economic collapse of the Middle East. Judaism thrives in urban and commercial societies and is bound to disappear when trade and urban economies collapse. This supports the premise of this book, because it was another condition in which the Jewish people reacted in the same way.

“Once set in motion, this occupational and residential transition never reverted but rather became even stronger.” This is similar to the generational wealth that can be built by one enterprising person. Where else can we build this?

The other cases in which we see this demonstrated is the Jewish success in the US and the story of Israel, where they are not only represented in financial and commercial sectors but across the board in science, technology, philosophy, and literature. The participation of women in the military is certainly interesting and worth noting as a point of differentiation with other cultures and nations. Everything in the book “Start-Up Nation” suddenly becomes relevant again. 

This was an academically dense book but I still completed it and I wonder for what purpose. At this point I have no personal tie to Judaism other than intellectual curiosity and a fondness for Hebrew. I have no plans to found a school. And yet, in the absence of a relationship my curiosity has taken the form of reading and writing, thinking and networking, observing and people watching. In the absence of travel, I have doubled down on my home. In the absence of financial means, I am learning to be quiet, be with myself, separate thoughts from truth, feelings from reality. 

I understand time is short, life is short, and I want to live the life I dream of. And yet, as I dream, I realize that I do love my life, I do love myself, and I don’t need that much to be different to be happy. I am already happy to be on this path in this direction. All I want is to be a better version of myself, a better version of this, and to grow, and to forgive myself and to forgive others. I don’t want to chase anymore. I want to be and to be happy, to give and create more means to give, and to learn to receive in an open, honest way, no trickery, no underhanded exchanges. 

I am grateful for today.