Judaism

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism. It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not undergone t ​ he formal process of conversion but who believes everything that Orthodox Jews believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a citizenship.

Famous Jew [[image:elie_wiesel.jpg align="left"]] s
** At least 180 Jews and persons of half- or three-quarters-Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize,1 accounting for 22% of all individual recipients worldwide between 1901 and 2009, and constituting 36% of all US recipients2 during the same period. In the research fields of Chemistry, Economics, Physics, and Physiology/Medicine, the corresponding world and US percentages are 27% and 39%, respectively. Among women laureates in the four research fields, the Jewish percentages (world and US) are 38% and 50%, respectively.3 (Jews currently make up approximately 0.25% of the world's population and 2% of the US population.) ** What do Jews Believe? ** This is a far more difficult question than you might expect. Judaism has no dogma, no formal set of beliefs that one must hold to be a Jew. In Judaism, actions are far more important than beliefs, although there is certainly a place for belief within Judaism. The closest that anyone has ever come to creating a widely-accepted list of Jewish beliefs is Rambam's thirteen principles of faith. Rambam's thirteen principles of faith, which he thought were the minimum requirements of Jewish belief, are: 1. God exists. 2. God is one and unique. 3. God is incorporeal. 4. God is eternal. 5. Prayer is to be directed to God alone and to no other. 6. The words of the prophets are true. 7. Moses' prophecies are true, and Moses was the greatest of the prophets. 8. The Written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and Oral Torah (teachings now contained in the Talmud and other writings) were given to Moses. 9. There will be no other Torah. 10. God knows the thoughts and deeds of men. 11. God will reward the good and punish the wicked. 12. The Messiah will come. 13. The dead will be resurrected.
 * ** Chemistry (31 prize winners, 20% of world total, 28% of US total) **
 * ** Economics (27 prize winners, 42% of world total, 56% of US total) **
 * ** Literature (13 prize winners, 12% of world total, 27% of US total) **
 * ** Peace (9 prize winners, 9% of world total, 10% of US total)4 **
 * ** Physics (47 prize winners, 25% of world total, 36% of US total) **
 * ** Physiology of Medicine (53 prize winners, 27% of world total, 40% of US total) **