JEWS were the most oppressed community in the entire history. How did they then manage to become the richest?

Answer 1

There are many more poor Jews in the world than rich ones.

Answer 2

a very few of them became rich. The vast majority were poor or even extremely poor.

In older times the religious christians were not suposed to be money lenders (same as is claimed by the muslims today).

So a king who wanted to have a "bank" of his own (after all he collected taxes, was rich and there was no point of leaving all that money just sitting in a high tower) but at the same time wanted to avoid being called "un-christian" - would employ a Jew as a "property manager", to handle the lending and the debt collection. That way the King was "clean" and collected the profits - while the "bad", "greedy" jew got the blame - (and the death sentence if the poor got too uppity)

Answer 3

It is all due to the action of an early Pope, but I forget exactly which one and when.

In Leviticus 24 verse 37, God forbids the lending of money at interest. Some time around 800 or 900 AD, I think, the Pope told all Western Christians that this commandment applied to them.

The Jews also believed all the laws in the Old Testament, but they took a less literal interpretation of it, and became the moneylenders of Europe until about 1400 or 1500 AD. After that, the Protestants also felt free to ignore the Pope's edict about moneylending.

Answer 4

During the Middle Ages, Jews were not allowed to own property beyond a house and maybe a shop. So, they did what they could; they became merchants and bankers. After many many years of practice, they became good at both.

If you were to drive around large cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, I think you would find that there is no greater proportion of rich Jews than any other ethnic/religious group. I have no idea what the backgrounds of Warren Buffet or Bill Gates is, but they are a bit wealthy too. Oprah might be Jewish, but I don't think so.

Answer 5

What is your parameter to measure the richness. India was considered as poor country with large population. They had feeling that they live without proper cloth, food or shelter. To day Mr. Mukesh Ambani is worth 49 billion and heading to become the world's richest man from poor country like 'India'. How the money of rich countries are eroded. We can see many banks are becoming bankrupt in western countries.

Answer 6

You make two assumptions but fail to cite your source or reasoning for either one....poorly asked question.....

Answer 7

Untrue . That should be the africans sold into slavery

Answer 8

Our magic cloaks.

Answer 9

Because they managed to convince the rest of us that they can handle our money better than we can.

Answer 10

Education and determination