Solomon said that Eastern European Jews were the "cream of European Jewish society". A devil prompts me to disagree listing a few examples
Ashkenazim are by far the more successful group. There are lists of successful Ashkenazim that blow your list out of the water. Don't believe me?
Here's a very
brief list of acclaimed Jewish American physicists:
Physicists
* Ralph Alpher, background radiation
* John Bahcall, astrophysicist
* Hans Bethe, nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize (1967) (half Jewish)
* Felix Bloch, nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize (1952)
* David Bohm, quantum physicist, philosopher of science
* Leon Cooper, BCS theory, Nobel Prize (1972)
* Martin Deutsch, positronium
* Bryce DeWitt, "many-worlds" interpretation
* Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize (1921)
* Richard Feynman, quantum physicist, Nobel Prize (1965)
* David Finkelstein, physicist
* James Franck, physicist, Nobel Prize (1925)
* Herbert Friedman, solar X-rays
* Jerome Friedman, physicist, Nobel Prize (1990)
* Margaret Geller, astronomer
* Murray Gell-Mann, quarks, Nobel Prize (1969)
* Sheldon Glashow, physicist, Nobel Prize (1979)
* Donald A. Glaser, bubble chamber, Nobel Prize (1960)
Here's an equally brief list of successful Jewish American chemists:
Chemists
* Sidney Altman, chemist, Nobel Prize (1989)
* Paul Berg, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1980)
* R. Stephen Berry, physical chemist
* Herbert C. Brown, chemist, Nobel Prize (1979)
* Melvin Calvin, calvin cycle, Nobel Prize (1961)
* Erwin Chargaff, DNA pioneer
* Morris Cohen, metallurgist
* Camille & Henry Dreyfus, cellulose acetate, founders of Celanese
* Kasimir Fajans, isotopes, identified protactinium
* Walter Gilbert, DNA sequencing, Nobel Prize (1980)
* Henry Gilman, organometallic chemist
* Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, geochemist
* Norman Hackerman, chemist
* Herbert A. Hauptman, chemist, Nobel Prize (1985)
* Alan J Heeger, chemist, Nobel Prize (2000)
* Roald Hoffmann, chemist & writer, Nobel Prize (1981)
Jewish American biologists and physicians:
Biologists & Physicians
* Richard Axel, olfactory system, Nobel Prize (2004)
* Julius Axelrod, neurotransmitters, Nobel Prize (1970)
* David Baltimore, reverse transcriptase, Nobel Prize (1975)
* Baruj Benacerraf, immunologist, Nobel Prize (1980)
* Konrad Bloch, cholesterol, Nobel Prize (1959)
* Baruch Blumberg, hepatitis B vaccine, Nobel Prize (1976)
* Michael S. Brown, molecular geneticist, Nobel Prize (1985)
* Stanley Cohen, neurologist, Nobel Prize (1986)
* Stanley N. Cohen, genetic engineering
* Gerty Cori, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1947)
* Jared Diamond, evolutionary biologist & biogeographer
* Carl Djerassi, contraceptive pill
* Gerald Edelman, biologist, Nobel Prize (1972)
* Gertrude Elion, drug development, Nobel Prize (1988)
* Joseph Erlanger, physiologist, Nobel Prize (1945)
For more on successful Jewish Americans, click on this link:
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