BizAims

In his book, entitled "The Jewish 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of all Time," Michael Shapiro presented descriptions of world's famous Jewish people, their works and how they influenced the world.

It is worth mentioning that the author of the book, besides being a writer is a composer, pianist and lecturer, whose works were published in The New Yorker, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times Magazine.

Michael Shapiro started his book by saying that each of the 100 Jews presented in the book had an impact on mankind. All of them contributed to the way people live and contemplate today.

"Even the few who touched only the souls and minds of Jews are important to us because of their defining presence on Jewish identity," he wrote.

Seven Jews from the list of 100 were include not only as the most influential Jews but also as the most influential people of all time in the book written by Michael Hart and entitled "100 Most Influential People in History."   These seven people are:

1. Moses 

He is considered to be a religious leader, who is also a lawgiver, a prophet and a military chief. Moses is also an authoritarian prophet in Judaism and a prophet who had a significant influence on Christianity, Islam and a lot of other religions.

The book of Exodus says that the prophet's Hebrew mother, Jochebed, was the one who hid him, when he was just born, from a Pharaoh. The latter gave ordered that all Hebrew newborn boys have to be killed. Moses was later adopted by the royal family of Egypt. After he took the life of an Egyptian slave-master, he ran away and became a shepherd. Shortly after that God spoke to him saying that Moses must be the one to save Hebrews from slavery. When Egypt was struck by the ten plagues, Moses managed to get all Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. The slaves, led by Moses, traveled across the desert for 40 years. The Bible says that Moses was given Ten Commandments during this period. He never made it to the Land of Israel, dying at the age of 120.

2. Jesus of Nazareth

He was the one to inspire numerous artists, sculptors, architects, composers and writers. No one knows the exact birth date of Jesus of Nazareth. The New Statement does not say anything regarding his youth. He was a teacher, whose words were recorder in the Gospels. Jesus gathered a group of people who were meant to become his disciples. He also inspired many people to follow him throughout a three-year period in Galilee, Tyre, Sidon and Jerusalem.

Jesus was arrested by procurator Pontius Pilate from the Roman administration. In 29 A.D. the Romans condemned Jesus to die by crucifixion. After his death, the followers of Jesus gathered once again in Jerusalem, believing that their teacher resurrected.

He was the one to focus on the nearness of the God's kingdom, faith and repentance. Jesus was also known as the one to heal the ill, being concerned for the poor, the children, the elderly and the sick. Some say that Jesus of Nazareth is the most important personality in the history of humanity. The life and death of Jesus parted the history into B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (anno Domini - in the year of the Lord).

His teachings and prayers became the main knowledge for those who are looking forward to understand the Western civilization and the impact of the Christian Church. 

3. Albert Einstein

A Jew born in Württemberg, Germany on March 14, 1879, and considered to be one of the most influential physicists in history. Einstein became internationally renowned due to his theory of relativity and the equation that expresses the mass-energy equivalence E=mc2. He was the one to receive in 1921 the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to Theoretical Physics and namely for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.

Shortly after he was born, Albert's family moved to Munich, where the genius attended the Luitpold Gymnasium. Some time later, his family once again moved, and this time the destination was Italy. Einstein carried on with his education at Aarau, Switzerland. In 1896 he attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, located in Zurich, where he trained to become a teacher in physics and mathematics.

Throughout his life he received many European and American universities honored Albert Einstein with notable doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy. As a lecturer he gave lessons in Europe, United States and Far East. Music played an important role in his life. Some of the genius' most inspiring works include:

- Special Theory of Relativity.

- Relativity.

- General Theory of Relativity.

- The Evolution of Physics.

Some of his most influential non-scientific works include:

- Why War?

- My Philosophy.

- Out of My Later Years.

4 Sigmund Freud

He was an Austrian physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud is recognized as one of the most dominant thinkers of the 20th century. He worked closely with Joseph Breuer in developing the theory, which sates that the mind is a sophisticated energy-system and its structural study is the right province of psychology.

His biography was written in many languages and published in different times. However, the most important one is considered to be the biography written by Ernest Jones, who was the closest friend of Sigmund Freud.

The Austrian psychologist was born in Freiberg on 6^th of May 1856. Those who lived at that time in Moravia were mainly Czechs, but Jewish people possessed German language and were typically associated with the Austro-Hungarian ruling class.

His pioneering treatment of human dreams and actions proved to be highly productive, besides psychology, being used in different fields, such as anthropology, semiotics and artistic creativity and appreciation. One of his most controversial claims is that with the help of psychoanalysis he managed to invent a new science of the mind. 

5 St. Paul

Saint Paul is one of the most prominent early Christian missionaries. He was the one to set the tone for Christianity.

Saint Paul focused on celibacy and theory of divide grace and salvation. He was also the one to name the New Testament euangelion, "the gospel."

Probably due to his Roman citizenship, Paul of Tarsus was known as Saul, a Jewish name.

There is no date of his birth, some say he was born in the 1^st century A.D. others, however, consider the St. Paul was born in the last century B.C. During the rule of Roman Emperor Nero, St. Paul was executed.

Some of the works of Saint Paul are doubtful, others are generally accepted. Among the accepted writings of St. Paul are: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.

The disputed writing include: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, 3 Corinthians, and Epistle to the Laodiceans.

It is worth mentioning that the letters of Paul of Tarsus are the earliest surviving works of Christian literature. 

6. Karl Marx

He is one of the most influential socialist thinkers who became known in the 19^th century. Marx was a philosopher, social scientist, historian and a revolutionary. Despite the fact that during his lifetime he was often ignored at school, his social, economic and political ideas were widely accepted among socialists shortly after Marx's death in 1883.

For a long period of time about half of all people lived under regimes that were considered Marxist. The success of his ideas came mainly due to the modifications they suffered. These modifications were made according to different political situations.

The works of Marx had a great influence on society. There was often a rivalry between Marx, who was a political activist, and Marx, who considered himself a student of the political economy. A lot of his anticipations regarding the future way of the revolutionary movement did not succeed to become real. Nevertheless, Marx's ideas about the importance of the economic factor in society, as well as his study of the class structure in class conflict had a great impact on history, sociology and research of human culture. 

7. Gregory Pincus

This American scientist became well-known for his important contribution in creating the birth control pill.

His Jewish family lived in Woodbine, New Jersey, where the scientist was born. His parents had a huge passion for arts and agriculture, Pincus' father being taught at an agricultural school.

Besides his contribution to developing the pill, Pincus also studied the biochemistry of aging, arthritis, cancer, as well as the reaction of the adrenal system to stress.

The work of Picus on the pill caught the attention of one of the most popular supporters of birth control in the United States at that time, Margaret Sanger.

Katherine Dexter McCormick was one of Sanger's friends and a philanthropist. He was the one to provide financial aid to Pincus, who gathered a team of scientists to work on the creation of a hormone-based substance, which would be able to imitate pregnancy.

The scientist carried on his research in Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Mexico, and California.

Even today Pincus is considered to be the main scientist behind the development of the birth control pill. One of his major honors was membership in the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A.

 The classification of all 100 most influential Jews of all time, according to Michael Shapiro: