EMULATING THE JEWISH PHENOMENON BY NDIGBO: KEY TO HIGHER EDUCATIONAL VISIBILITY AND GLOBAL RELEVANCE

Due to their achievements in all fields of human endeavors, these two ethnic nationalities – the Jews and Ndigbo, are envied and despised. They had encountered systematic persecutions, the Jews all over the world and Ndigbo in Nigeria. While the Jews have overcome their tribulations, their enemies, and became world power, Ndigbo are still struggling in the contraption called Nigeria. This lecture is all about how Ndigbo can learn from the Jews and become relevant and respected in Nigeria and globally.

THE JEWS

The world’s core Jewish population as at 2026 is estimated at 16.5 million, which is just 0.2% of the 8.28 billion worldwide population. Israel and USA hold more than 85% of Jewish population of 7.76m and 6.30m, respectively. Other nations with reasonable Jewish population include: France (438,500); Canada (398,000); United Kingdom (312,000); Argentina (171,000); Russia (132,000); Germany (125,000); and Australia (117,200) (Wikipedia).

New York City is home to the largest Jewish community in any city in the world with 1 million Jewish people or 12% of the city’s residents.

THE JEWS AND PERSECUTIONS

Throughout history, many rulers/kings, empires after empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish population or tried to eliminate them completely. In other words, the Jews and Judaism have experienced extreme forms of persecutions. This reached the peak in Nazi Germany’s final solution, which led to the Holocaust and the killing of about six million Jews. If these were not bad enough, Israel has been under siege since its creation thus: at its birth in 1948; the 1956 war with Egypt; the 1967 six-Day war; and the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Read Okechukwu Okeke’s book – The Middle East Since 1917 (chapter 7) on Arab – Israeli Conflicts since 1948, for more. The good news is that the Jewish state came out victorious in the various terrible situations she found herself. Up till now, some of her Arab neighbours have never hidden their disdain for her and also harbouring the desire to destroy the whole nation.

For the past few years now, including very recently, Israel has been involved in seven battle fronts, thus: Gaza (against Hamas); Lebanon (against Hezbollah); Iraq (against Shiite Militia); Syria (against Shiite Militia); Yemen (against Houthis); Judea and Samaria (against terrorists); and Iran (against Iran’s nuclear weapon advancements and plans to annihilate Israel).

THE JEWISH SUCCESS PRINCIPLES AND STORIES

The opinion worldwide is that the Jews are successful and wealthy because of the Covenant between God and Abraham, the father of the Israelites as recorded in the Holy Bible. In addition to that, the Jews have certain traits, culture and practices that guarantee generational success and wealth to the envy of other ethnic groups in the world.

Apart from the covenant, earlier mentioned, a combination of factors is responsible for the Jewish phenomenon. They are the Jewish religion, culture and historical experiences. These, they pass down from generation to generation. They have institutionalized memory and strategic solidarity. Other contributory success factors are solid educational foundations, hard work, resilience, the spirit of delayed gratification, leveraging on the time-tested experiences of persecutions and pogroms and the mindset of not forgiving their enemies. Romancing, hobnobbing and forgiving their enemies is a major albatross of Ndigbo. For Ndigbo, vengeance is God’s, meanwhile, Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, Joseph her spouse, the 12 Apostles and many other great prophets are Jews.

Specifically, the Jewish success principles include:

1. Integrated ethical, intellectual and practical habits aimed at creating sustainable wealth and purposeful life,

2. Unwavering business ethics,

3. Life-long education, a deep respect for education and scholarship, which is believed to empower better decision-making,

4. High stakes philanthropy,

5. Resilience, and

6. Diversifying income streams.

THE NEXUS BETWEEN JEWISH RELIGION/CULTURE AND EDUCATION

Judaism is the religion of the Jewish and also the world’s oldest (Abrahamic monotheistic religion) dating back over 3,500 years. Core beliefs:

1. One God – belief in a single, indivisible God who made a covenant with the Jewish people.

2. Torah – The Torah is the most important (central) book of Judaism made up of the first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible, and contains 613 commandments called mitzvot.

3. Covenant – Jews are bound to God through commandments and ethical living.

Judaism is both a religion and a cultural identity. About 15 million Jews worldwide, with largest populations in Israel and the U.S.

Thirteen Principles of Faith

Maimonides was a famous Jewish teacher of the 12th century. He listed thirteen of the main beliefs in Judaism. These were called the Principles of Faith.

1. God is the Maker and the King of the world.

2. There is only one God, and God is the only one who is and will ever be God.

3. God has no body or physical form and nothing else is like God.

4. God is eternal – God has always existed and will live forever.

5. Only God can answer people’s prayers and people must only pray to God.

6. The words of the Prophets are true.

7. Moses was the greatest of the Prophets.

8. God gave the whole Torah to Moses.

9. God will not change the Torah and will not give another Torah.

10. God knows the actions and thoughts of people.

11. God rewards and punishes people for the things they do.

12. The Messiah will come.

13. God will make dead people live again when God chooses to.

There is a culture or practice the Jews do not take for granted. It is called chutzpah – the art of “verbal self-confidence”. Alan Dershowitz, in his book by the same name defined chutzpah as “boldness, assertiveness, a willingness to demand what is due, to defy tradition, to challenge authority, to raise eyebrow”. It is noteworthy that the Jews have employed this concept in all spheres of human endeavours, hence their high success rate.

JEWISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The Jewish educational system focuses on transmitting literacy, religious tradition and cultural values, traditionally emphasizing the study of Torah and Talmud.

Torah is a Hebrew word meaning “teaching,” “instruction,” or “guidance.”

The Talmud is a Hebrew word for “study” or “learning” and is central, authoritative compilation of ancient Jewish traditions and rabbinic discussions.

In other words, the Jewish system is built around the idea that education is not just a school, it is a lifelong commandment to transmit Torah, values, and culture to the next generation. Education does not stop at a certain age. The Talmudic ideal is “Torah for its own sake” and study continues throughout life with a teacher.

A study by Pew Research Centre (2024) shows that 65% of Jews have a bachelor’s degree or more education. That compares with 35% of US adults overall. This makes the Jews the most highly educated religious group on earth. In other words, the Jewish intellectual tradition arises from the Torah and Talmudic tradition, which requires and venerates continuous education, mentorship, learning, achievement and living a life with a higher purpose.

CONCRETE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE JEWS

For generations, remarkable Jewish leaders have propelled humankind forward by discovering cures for diseases, developing new technologies, composing musical masterpieces, advancing causes of freedom and human rights, and serving as trailblazers in countless other fields. Refer to my postscript 2 – The Jews and Ndigbo, in the book, “Okrika Nweke Our Beloved Community: A Narrative of Ezeship Tussle in Igboland. Refer also to my article, “A Call for a Holistic Emulation of the Jewish Phenomenon by Ndigbo,” September 9, 2025. Let us also refer to a breathtaking speech by Israel’s representative, Miriam Novak at the UN General Assembly (August 11, 2025). According to her:

“For two thousand years, we have lived among you, offering you our knowledge, discoveries and inventions.

We have given you the alphabet, the Bible, the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, the twelve apostles, Spinoza, Disraeli, Columbus, Newton, Nostradamus, Heine, Mendelssohn, Einstein, Singer, Eisenstein, Freud, Landau, Gershwin, Offenbach, Rubinstein, Saint-Saëns, Kafka, Lombroso, Montaigne, Mahler, Marcel Marceau, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Yehudi Menuhin, Stefan Zweig, Arthur Miller, Maya Plisetskaya, Stanley Kubrick, Irving Berlin, Edward Teller, Lion Feuchtwanger, Paul Newman, Robert Oppenheimer, Benny Goodman, Eugène Ionesco, Imre Kálmán, Marcel Proust, Marc Chagall, Barbra Streisand, Claude Lelouch, Steven Spielberg, Anouk Aimée, Leonard Bernstein, Norbert Wiener, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Andrew Lloyd Webber and thousands of other scientists and educators.

Imagine how many such geniuses could have been born from the millions of Jews killed by you, and then from their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren!

But these unborn geniuses disappeared forever in crematoriums, burned synagogues, and mass graves.”

She became a little condescending to other nations (though the bitter truth). She called it her personal opinion. According to her, every nation brings to mankind what it does best:

– The French – cooks and perfumers.

– The English and the Russians – writers and poets.

– Italians – artists and musicians.

– The Germans – soldiers and philosophers.

– And we Jews – geniuses.

Let’s get started…

1. With only 0.2% of the world’s population, out of the 990 Nobel prices between 1901 and 2025, the Jews have won 221 or 22%. Prices are awarded in six categories – Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economy. The question is why many Jewish Nobel Laureates? There are two principal reasons:

a. Jews have high intelligence (high intelligence quotient)

b. They have cultural values that promote success. However, high intelligence is more relevant of these two factors. For example, an average Jew has the mindset that he or she has to simply be the best in whatever he or she is doing. It is therefore not surprising that the Jews are visible and prominent in all fields of human endeavor. A Jewish child has a mindset of scoring 100% in every examination. This explains why the Jews have done exceptionally well in many fields of human endeavour.

A further breakdown of the Nobel accomplishments include:

i. Out of the 25 most influential physicists, 15 (60%) were/are of Jewish descent.

ii. Approximately 40% of Nobel Laureates in Economics are Jews.

iii. Over 26% Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine are Jews.

iv. In literature it is 14%, and

v. Peace – 9%.

2. The Jews are major players in the Silicon Valley (California, USA). Silicon Valley is home to many of the World’s largest and richest high-tech corporations, and thousands of start-up companies. Some of them are Fortune 1000 companies.

3. Jews are keen and generally attend more prestigious institutions and choose positions in professional institutions or colleges. For this, Jews make up over 30 percent of Professors in elite schools – Ivy League and Ivy League plus.

4. They are among the big leagues (movers and shakers) of the Wall Street, the financial hub of USA, if not the whole world.

5. Israel as a whole has strong innovations in cyber security, agri-tech, military hardware, and more. Among the world’s top tech capitals are Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

6. Silbiger (2009) and other sources have highlighted some of the other feats of the Jews to include:

a. They pursue professional careers but are always ready to turn into entrepreneurs.

b. Within their careers, they create time for entrepreneurial pursuits.

c. They seek new opportunities or areas that are outside the mainstream.

d. The Jews make up only 2% of the total U.S. population, yet estimates from several sources reveal that over 30% of American billionaires (Forbes 400 richest Americans) are Jewish.

e. 25 – 30% of American multimillionaires are Jewish.

f. 40% of partners in the leading New York and Washington, D.C. law firms are Jewish.

g. A Pew Research Center study revealed that Jewish Americans ranked as the most financially successful religious group in the United States, with 44% of Jews living in households with incomes of at least $100,000, compared to much lower rates for most other groups.

7. The Jews believe in “imparting before departing.” Perry Stone (2009:227) has highlighted three important ways one can impart his descendants before departing this world.

a. A heritage – something that’s not material, such as traditions, handed down from one generation to the next.

b. A legacy – passing on a good name, including corporations, farms, and goods continually used or a group

c. A dynasty – a succession of rulers, or a group maintaining power from the same family line.

8. Jews made up 12 of the 25 most generous American philanthropists in 2022 – nearly half, in a community that makes up just about 2% of the U.S. population (Elia-Shalev, 2023). An average Jew gives 4% of his disposable income to charity, compared to the American average of 2%. What makes Jewish philanthropy stand out is not just the scale but the breadth – the majority of giving flows to secular, universal causes (education, healthcare, poverty, and civil rights) rather than exclusively Jewish ones. Researchers attribute this pattern to a combination of deep cultural tradition (tzedakah – the religious obligation to give), high educational attainment, wealth, and a historical identity rooted in the experiences of persecutions, pogroms and great challenges, which generate empathy for other marginalized groups.

9. Israel is very powerful in the world. She derives its power from a technologically advanced military (Israeli Defense Forces), a robust domestic defense industry, and strong strategic alliance, primarily with the United States (for obvious reasons).

It maintains regional superiority through superior intelligence, air power and battle-hardened troops, backed by a high-tech economy that drives innovation in cyber, defense and aerospace sectors.

10. Institutional memory of persecution, patriotism, not forgiving their enemies, high intelligence, solid schooling, etc., are responsible for Israel to have one of the most effective and powerful secret services in the world – MOSSAD, renown for covert capabilities and operations, and counter terrorism.

NDIGBO

On the other hand, Ndigbo have been the most marginalized and persecuted race in Nigeria, if not, in West Africa. They have been exposed to periodic killings and destruction of their businesses and properties. Recall, that a group of young military officers cutting across all tribes in Nigeria, organized a military coup on January 15, 1966. This was erroneously termed an “Igbo Coup.” It led to the counter coup of July 1966, specifically targeted at Igbo officers in the armed forces. Abou 600 officers were killed as a result.

This was immediately followed by the pogrom, particularly in Northern Nigeria, where hundreds of thousands of Igbos were killed and properties destroyed. This was immediately followed by the Civil War (1967 – 1970) – the aftermath, and estimated 3.5 million people were killed. Since the South-East was the epicenter of the war, virtually all the basic amenities were destroyed. In this war, all manner of unorthodox methods of killing including mass starvation, poverty and blockade, were deployed. After the war, there have been countless anti-Igbo policies and programmes.

They include: numerous targeted riots against the Igbos in Kano, Kafanchan, Jos, Bauchi, Sokoto; the abandoned property policy; the £20 policy; the indigenization programmes; limited federal government presence in the South-East; the geo-political zone having the least number of states and local government areas in the country; assignment of outrageously high cut-off points for admission and employment; campaigns of calumny against the people; deliberate choice and use of lackeys of their oppressors as their leaders of all hue; refusal to develop any functional seaport; and more recently, suppression of Igbo voters in the 2023 elections, and destruction of markets and other choice assets belonging to Igbos, particularly in Lagos State.

The list is endless. Let me quickly add, there is no tribe in Nigeria that will undergo all the tribulations like Ndigbo and still be striving. That is the Igbo spirit (resilience, hard work, entrepreneurship, love for education, industriousness, innovativeness, public spiritedness, and hope), which elicit envy and hatred.

If the Jews with only 16.5million, have achieved so much in education, and many other fields of human endeavours, the Igbos, with between 36 – 40 million people and with similar traits and persecution records/history, can do same with the right mindset, perspective and practices. Let me now move to what Ndigbo can learn from the Jews. I hereby suggest that Ndigbo must strive to emulate and internalized the following timeless Jewish traits and practices. Doing so will help Igbo people to sustain their competitive spirit and advantage, enhance/enlarge their investment horizon, make them highly disciplined, hardworking and organized, reinforce their strengths to withstand vicissitudes of life and persecutions and quicken the process of being global players in all spheres of human endeavor. Let’s start in earnest.

1. Ndigbo love education for their children. They are ready to make needed sacrifices to achieve this. However, they must go deeper like the Jews. They can do this by emulating the Jews thus:
a. Build your child’s self-esteem.

b. Build the ability to defer gratification.

c. Choose the best education possible.

d. Develop and demonstrate informed and literate habits.

e. Create the education expectation.

f. Keep your skills up to date. (Steven Silbiger, 2009)

2. I want to earnestly suggest what I call “Back to Books Initiative.” Majority of the Jews (youths and adults) are studious, unlike most youths in Nigeria, who are social media freaks. One can see Igbo youths like other Nigerian youths, preoccupied with television and phones for several hours daily, hence, abandoning their books. They know almost all the lyrics of most reigning Afrobeat and foreign songs, but are not able to channel such zeal and skill to their studies. This is worrisome! Igbo youths must emulate their Jewish counterparts. This attitude will surely pay off in their performance in higher institutions and major national and international examinations/competitions.

3. The Igbo and Yoruba tribes are the most educated in Nigeria. The Igbos are recognized for high levels of education and entrepreneurship. Imo State is consistently ranked as the most educated state in Nigeria, with the highest literacy rate, as approximately 96.43%. By 2025/2026, there are at least 59 private universities in South-West, while in South-East, we have 18, with two new licenses making it a total of 20. Ogun State alone has 17 private universities. This calls to question the investment priorities of wealthy Igbo business men. It is against this backdrop that I suggest that wealthy or Billionnaire Igbo business men, should pool resources, either individually or collectively, in investing in higher education, particularly universities. This also underscores what I have been preaching and writing for many years now about Aku-Ruo-Ulo business philosophy, which I have been preaching and writing about for decades now. Rich Igbo business people should see it as a patriotic obligation to bring a reasonable portion of their investments back to South-East. See my articles, “Intensifying the Aku-Ruo-Ulo Business Philosophy by Igbos” August 15, 2023; and “Embracing the Aku-Ruo-Ulo Investment Philosophy by Aguneze People,” December 26, 2023.

4. The South-East governors and politicians should emulate the development blueprint of the former Eastern Region. The development priorities of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dr. Michael Okpara were education, agriculture and industrialization. It was reported that the Eastern Region was budgeting at least 40% of its annual budget on education. The outcomes within few decades were amazing, and to the envy of other tribes. In addition to the record of Ndigbo occupying about 60% of the entire workforce of the nation’s public sector, the Eastern Region was reputed to be the fasted growing and industrializing economy in the world in the late 1950s and 1960s, ahead of the Asian Tigers – Hong Kong, Singapore, South-Korea and Taiwan. Dr. Okpara’s goal was that “Port Harcourt, through Aba and Umuahia, going on to Enugu, would have developed into a globally significantly industrial and ‘trade’ megapolis and conurbation.” The civil war truncated this enviable mile stone.

5. The Jews do not joke with mentorship. As such, great Igbo professionals – scientists, doctors, engineers, ICT experts, etc. home and in diaspora, should see it as community service, or social responsibility to young and willing Igbo chaps in higher institutions by transferring their skills to them. There are a good number of such Igbo professionals in the Ivy League, Ivy League Plus, Coimbra and Russell institutions and notable research laboratories and multinational corporations abroad. They should expose Igbo youths globally.

6. With the spirit of “imparting before departing”, the Jews have produced great entrepreneurs and professionals, built powerful corporations (many are multinationals and generational enterprises) in virtually all the fields of human endeavor. Law, medicine, business, real estate, banking and finance, merchandise and stores, jewelry, education, entertainment, sports, information, communication and technology, etc. (Onuoha, 2016). The Igbo businessmen and entrepreneurs, in the interest of the Igbo race, should emulate the Jewish mindset and blueprint of owning and managing generational enterprises, which in turn will lead to generational wealth and global respect and visibility (See my book, “Family Business: Owning and Managing Generational Enterprises,” 2018). In other words, wealthy Igbo entrepreneurs should be willing to sponsor or fund impactful researches in the universities in South-East, for the benefit of Ndigbo.

7. Igbo professors, scholars and researchers, should work assiduously to be nationally and globally visible. Igbo scientists and engineers, like their Jewish counterparts, should strive to be great innovators and inventors. Patenting their research outputs, have become absolutely necessary.

8. The history of Silicon Valley (in California, USA) will be incomplete without the notable role of Stanford University, its industrial park (now Stanford Research Park), its affiliates and graduates. Silicon Valley is home to many of the world’s largest and richest high-tech corporations and thousands of start-up companies. Some of them are Fortune 1000 companies. How about Cranfield University, England? This is the only post graduate research and innovation university in the whole of Europe that attracted (or pioneered) the Cranfield Tech Village – an industrial hub.

Globally, universities have critical roles to play in the establishment of technology centres. There is no hi-tech city, mechanised agriculture, industrial cluster, machine fabrication, or major development in any country without the direct or indirect inputs of universities in those areas or region. Universities in South-East (especially, the federal and state universities of technology/innovation and agriculture) should have the disposition and perspective of pioneering technology centers, industrial clusters or industrial hubs in the region. Luckily, South-East has five such institutions. Imo state alone has three, namely: FUTO, University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Umuagwo and University of Innovation, Science and Technology, Omuma. The gown must go to town.

9. Higher institutions in Ala Igbo should help to build generational memory and the mindset of not forgiving their enemies, those that killed them, like the Jews. Strategic mechanisms must be put in place to achieve this. The Nurembera trials, via The Nuremberg International Tribunal, were able to punish culprits of the Holocaust. All the prominent members of the political, military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany were prosecuted.

Before these trials, the ring leaders – Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels committed suicide. Many of the perpetrators that escaped initial trials, migrated, to other nations, changed their facial/physical structure via plastic surgeries, were either apprehended and tried or were killed by Israeli Secret Service. If the Igbos start hitting back at their enemies, this will serve as deterrence. Kill an Israeli soldier in KOMU or the entire Orlu environment, the Israeli Defense Forces will be ready to level out the entire place in retaliation.

10. A very dangerous trend has crept into the nation’s university system. It is the politicisation of admissions and employments in the system. Let me deliberately leave out the appointment of principal officers, which politicians have officially hijacked. The Jews want to be the best in whatever they do, hence they are great innovators/inventors and scientists. They constitute the highest percentage of Nobel Laureates, and are leading Professors and researchers in renowned universities and laboratories across the globe. Mediocres cannot achieve these feats. In those days, those to be employed as lecturers were the brightest students in their disciplines, those that made first class or second class upper division in their various degrees.

There was serious and healthy academic competition among students then. That was how some of us were employed as graduate assistants, as the best graduating students. Today, we often hear about Abuja lists (for federal universities) and government house lists (for state universities). Higher institutions, particularly universities in Ala Igbo, should strive to employ the most intelligent young people as lecturers. I do not mind if standards are slightly lowered for the non-teaching categories of staff. All things being equal, very intelligent lecturers and researchers will make our higher education globally visible and relevant.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is on record that the departments of Chemistry, Physics, Chemical engineering and other allied disciplines of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, were the bedrock of Research and Production (RAP) Agency of Biafra, during the Nigerian – Biafran War, which, out of necessity, created improvised weapons and technology, including Ogbunigwe rocket launcher, crude oil refineries, and the “Red Devil” armoured vehicles. Such individuals as Prof. Ezekwe, Engr. Roy Umenyi, Prof. Felix Oragwu, etc., played strategic roles in all the indigenous inventions during the genocidal war. Go to Umuahia War Museum to see for yourself. Due to stupidity or hatred or both, Nigeria refused to cash in on this ingenuity of the Igbos. Virtually all those scientists and engineers of RAP are dead, except Prof.

Felix Oragwu, who is about 94 years presently. Refer to my article, “What Nigeria Would Have Been Technologically: Missed Opportunities,” June 28, 2023. Do not take my word for it, carry out your own research or findings. In most federal and notable private universities in Nigeria, even in abroad, Igbo students dominate their faculties of engineering and hardcore sciences. Just like the Jews, and according to Miriam Novak, with deliberate and purposeful focus, higher education in Ala Igbo can also give the world and mankind many geniuses in all fields of human endeavor.

Thanks for listening.

NOTES

Brackman, L., & Jaffe, S. (2008). Jewish wisdom for business success: Lessons from the Torah and other ancient texts. American Management Association.

Dershowitz, A. M. (1991). Chutzpah. Simon & Schuster.

Elia-Shalev, A. (2023, January 26). Half of US’s 25 most generous philanthropists are Jews. Few give to Jewish groups. The Times of Israel.

Ikeazor, C. (1998). The ethnic factor – A treatise and a tale. New Millennium.

Jews. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved April 29, 2026, from Read more here.

Okeke, O. E. (2010). The Middle East since 1917. African Entrepreneurship and Leadership Initiative. Onuoha, B. C. (2018). Family business: Owning and managing generational enterprises. African Entrepreneurship and Leadership Initiative.

Onuoha, B. C. (2018). Postscript 2: The Jews and Ndigbo. In Okrika Nweke our beloved community: A narrative of Ezeship tussle in Igboland. African Entrepreneurship and Leadership Initiative. Silbiger, S. (2009). The Jewish phenomenon: Seven keys to the enduring wealth of a people. M. Evans. Stone, P. (2009). Breaking the Jewish code: Twelve secrets that will transform your life, family, health, and finances.

Charisma House.

Written By PROF. B. CHIMA ONUOHA (Obinwannem News correspondent, Imo State)
Date: May 15, 2026
Ubochi Nkwo Ikuku.
Published by Mazi Ugwu Okechukwu (Director Obinwannem Media)