Genuine Sympathy

Genuine Sympathy

1990 1 January 16 Genuine Sympathy (345) “In a word, their secret lies in excellence. They have made excellence their target in life. And when you have achieved excellence in your field, no one can bar you from success.”

In the course of a conversation with a young man who had received his degree in science from a university in America and who was currently working in an academic institution in that country. I asked him if he had met any Jews while he was there. He replied that he had, and that in fact, there were some Jews working in that same office in which he was employed. The director of that institute was also a Jew.

Then I asked him what he thought was the reason for the extraordinary success of the Jews, who were, after all, only a small minority in the USA. He replied, “In a word, their secret lies in excellence. They have made excellence their target in life. And when you have achieved excellence in your field, no one can bar you from success.”

He said, moreover, that the academic institution established by the Jews in America had a very stringent policy on the awards of scholarships. The most striking feature of this policy was that although it defined eligibility for non-Jewish students as having 40 per cent marks or more, it demanded the very high standard of 75 per cent marks from Jewish students. This policy would appear at first sight to be unfair, even harsh to the Jews themselves. But this different standard, set for the Jews, by the Jews, is not an act of severity, but of sympathy. In this way, they inspire their own people to work very hard indeed. This gives them the impetus to leave others far behind in their fields.

The present world is a world of competition. It is no place for the easy or the seekers of concessions. It is only those who strive with every fibre of their being towards the goal of excellence who will finally take their places in the front ranks of society.