Before immigrating to the United States in 1973
Rabbi lLapin study Torah physics economics and mathematics in Johannesburg, London and Jerusalem
Lapin was the founding Rabbi at Pacific Jewish Center a now legendary Orthodox synagogue in Venice, California
He's a frequent speaker for hundreds of groups institutions organizations and companies
Ok too many to list here. He was a keynote speaker at the Congressional bipartisan opening of 106 Congress in Washington DC
Rabbi Lapin is a noted writer his articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal
National Review commentary the Jewish press and many other periodicals his first book America's real war was the national bestseller
His second book
Buried Treasure:
The secrets for living from the Lord's language, was published in 2001. His third book was published by John Wiley
2002, continues selling well in America and has also been translated into Chinese and Korean. His latest project is the production of
audio CDs that present thousands of years of Jewish wisdom
Emanating from the Bible in ways that impact an improved modern-day life. I now give to you
Rabbi Daniel Lapin
Thank you very much indeed
appreciate the introduction and
I was a little worried that this particular time slot comes right off to lunch, and I had the vision of
people sitting back for a post lunch rest and
it falls to me to somehow disturb the slumber and and somehow well I
immediately
Hit upon the only solution to this and that was I thought I would lead you all in a rousing rendition of that anti-semitic
Classic Fiddler on the Roof song if I was a rich, man
And
an
Anti-semitic of course
simply because there's no Jew on earth who would sing a song if I was original I
Don't know about you, but we sing when I am a rich, man
But apparently the
Enthusiasm everybody has for the the work of the Institute will make that that painful song
Completely unnecessary mm-hmm still. I thank you all very much indeed for this opportunity and for this honor and
if I can also thank those
Many of whom are us or some of whom at least are responsible for me being here, but more importantly
People from whom I've learned an enormous amount and Lou Rockwell of course
Tops the list I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and
Also all I've learned from you Lou over the years appreciate that
Walter Bloch
there he is
So much learned so much from Walter, and he's done so much for me, so thank you very much indeed as well really appreciate that
Curt Doolittle is he here - did Curt make it?
Doesn't seem to be here but he's somebody in that category
Sam Silva from Atlanta who really was one of the first to expose me to
to the interface between religion and economics drove me here from Atlanta this morning and
needless to say obviously the the spirit of
Murray Rothbard
hovering palpably
In the room I think and I think Murray used to enjoy being a Rabbi to a Rabbi
and
For my part of course I was very happy to sit at his feet and and and drink of the wisdom which I did in
Good measure, so so there was always a great pleasure and something that was very comfortable for me
and you know one of the first things I did when
When Lou extended this invitation and and he didn't give me a lot of time to say yes or no, I mean
I was ready to say yes, right away, which I did before I even knew what was entailed
but
The first thing I did was I went to see like who are the people who've given this new church Memorial Lecture in the past
And I've got to be honest. I I was immediately overwhelmed by an extremely uncomfortable inferiority complex
The list was
one after the other prominent economists
people who've published in some cases dozens of books and
And I really I thought I was gonna have to come here with a paper bag over my head
Somehow and and just do my thing but you know there
I thought about it, and I thought it's the Lou Church Memorial Lecture Lou Church made money
He was a businessman and so it doesn't matter how many books you've published it matters. How many books you've sold
That's the way I looked at it and so
So we're you know I may not have published that many books audio CDs
but we are approaching a quarter million sold in the last few years three or four years or so and
I'm hoping that with your good assistants will push it over the top of that magic number in a short while, but that is
yes, I do believe passionately in the business system I
believe in making money I do and I believe in making money because my culture and
Religious background assures me that
in a reasonably free market and in a world of
honest
transparency in interactions a
World where I don't believe I have to pull a fast one over somebody else in order to make a dollar because I don't think
my dollar represents his loss
in such a world making money is
A certificate of good performance, it's a mark of virtue. That's exactly what it is and
so I
began realizing a number of years ago that there was an area of research that needed looking at and
The area of research was very simple which was why is it that Jews are?
disproportionately good with money
Now I realized of course that if anybody tried to do this anyone study this who was not circumcised
They would be instantly demonized for
Bigoted anti-semitism how dare you even?
Notice that Jews are just proportionally good with money
Well Jews represent just about two percent of American population and in the Forbes 400 list that means they should be between eight and nine
Jews maybe and there's never fewer than 60 usually closer to 100 stop that
You know it doesn't mean there. Nope were Jews. It just means Jews are disproportionately good with money, and I realized
That if this area of research was going to be done
it would have to be done by me because I realize this is probably the only field in all of
academia where removal of a small piece of skin
Converts bigotry to research
Okay that doesn't have to be that small. It's just a piece of skin all right there it it's okay
That that's what does it?
and
I
Thought we need to really study this and understand. Why is a veg news of excelled, and I obviously looked at all the the main
myths and theories one of them obviously is taken from the Oxford English Dictionary where the word jus appears as a verb as
Introduce somebody, and I thought well you know maybe Jews excel because they rip people off all the time
and there's no question about it that feeling free to rip people up all the time is a
massive advantage in business for a limited period of time so I
Studied that and found that in fact by the way, I researched
Particularly through the South I really enjoyed that because I found small town after small town naturist was was one town in the south
Where there were Jewish people who had done business with non Jews in the vicinity for?
years decades
the relationships were long and durable and warm and positive and
Friendships were part of the business relationships, and I found this to be standard across the country
It's not possible to have long term friendly
Relationships with people you're doing business with if the theory and governing principles of those people is rip them off
So I had to reject the vet here you're never a number of others such is one of them of course is the well-known
racial theory that the Cossacks killed off all the poor Jews leaving the rich ones to pass the money gene down in their sperm and
Needless to say a modern Medical Sciences yet failed to identify this mysterious gene and
In any event if there was such a thing you wouldn't find the popular phenomenon
Of usually third or fourth generation of wealthy dynasties frittering it away and somehow or another
Being populated by scions and heirs with with zero economic capacity whatsoever so the notion that somehow
Rich Jews were mainly managed to save themselves and passes on that just made absolutely no sense
I need that needed at any of the other theories leaving only
One explanation for why it is that Jews are disproportionately good with money?
the primary main
Explanation has to do with Roger Bannister
Roger Bannister was the first human being in history to run a mile in under four minutes in the year
You good you are have you noticed that people who are into economics are into reality
they're people who know things and
I mean you know most you go to a college audience
In nobody knows may 1954 anyway there
It is may 1954 does the mile in four minutes anybody know how many people ran the mile in four minutes the next year
Approximately 1, 10, hundred how many?
Yeah actually a few dozen and how about in the last five years
Hundreds right thousands properly, I don't know the exact number, but it's it's limitless
Well if it's so easy to run a mile in four minutes. There are thousands of people have done it since May 1954
How come nobody did it in January 1954 and they could have got all the fame and fortune?
It's one very simple thing
It's the same reason that last year hundreds of people went up Everest
But when Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay did it a year earlier in 1953 it was astounding?
Now I'm not saying I could do it and I couldn't run a mile in four minutes either
But it's totally doable you know why because we now know that
It can be done
That makes all the difference because we are predominantly
Spiritual creatures with a physical outfit. We are not physical creatures with a spiritual dimension
We are not people with a soul. We are souls with a body
That's how important your mental state is that's how important?
It is in health when speak about people speak about holistic health we're talking about the ability of the mind to impact the body
Lewis Thomas writes engagingly about the ability of the human mind to get rid of warts
using placebos
It's astonishing we can do anything with our minds as long as we leave in it
You got to believe it can be done. You've got to believe it's worth doing
And ladies and gentlemen the single most important reason why Jews have excelled in business over the years?
Is because they have believed
Implicitly without a shadow of a doubt
That making money is in and of itself a good thing that
When you make money you are de facto
Doing something good
You do not have to give it away afterwards in order to validate your virtue
You don't have to be the modern equivalent of the ancient pirate who raped and plundered all his life
And then built a palace and a church for the bishop to in order to acquire
Legitimacy and respectability and prestige in the community not like that at all
If you became wealthy and were not a charitable person you've still done good
It's reprehensible that you certainly still done good and
So for Jews it's a perfectly natural phenomenon
By the way, I wish what I was saying were true
For all Jews
But you know I
can't
Mislead you without stating clearly that unfortunately
somewhere between 60 and 75 percent of the people who identifies Jews in the United States of America
Would happily stone me for almost everything I am saying today
Because they don't believe it
That's one of the reasons that you do not find quite the same level of Jewish
Entrepreneurship in the community that you used to find a few generations ago
So there have been serious, and and and and and tragic changes
And I'll I'll probably have a minute or two to slowly explain how and why that is?
