Why Have Jews Been So Successful in the Modern World?

For Jewish studies professor Adam Mendelsohn, it’s an age-old question: Why have Jews been so

Mendelsohn

successful in the modern world?

“I’ve never been entirely satisfied with the answer most scholars give,” Mendelsohn explains.

And admittedly, it’s a touchy subject. But, it’s one Mendelsohn tackled in his new book, The Rag Race (NYU Press), which won the Celebrate 350 Award, the top prize in the American Jewish Studies category of the National Jewish Book Awards.

“I looked very closely at the structural conditions that Jewish immigrants first encountered when they arrived en masse and sought to start their lives anew in the United States. The vast majority, who arrived near penniless, initially found a tenuous foothold in the garment industry. Was there, I wondered, something particular about the clothing trade that made their astronomic ascent possible?”

READ: You’ll find the answer to that question in The Rag Race.

Mendelsohn’s new book, the Rag Race.

Through his research, Mendelsohn learned more than he ever dreamed about the garment industry. Like the rich linguistic legacy left by the clothing trade. “Shoddy” began its life as a technical term for wool that was shredded and reused; “shoddy” clothing made using this substandard fiber often came apart at the seams. And secondhand clothing salesman were asked by customers to “hand-me-down” shirts and jackets that they stacked high above their market stalls, hence the phrase still used today.

“I assumed the knowledge I gained through research of 19th century clothing production would be dated and useless for understanding the modern clothing business. But tragically whenever I read about modern day calamities in sweatshops in Bangladesh, Pakistan or elsewhere, I’ve encountered the same systems of production so familiar to me from an earlier age. The methods of production once used to sew clothing in the Lower East Side of New York century have been exported abroad.”

WATCH: Adam Mendelsohn talks about Jewish studies at the College of Charleston.

In Fall 2015, Mendelsohn will be leaving the College of Charleston to return to South Africa, where he is from, to direct the only Jewish Studies research center in the country.

“Jews in South Africa have had a fascinating history in a complicated society. One of the things I’d like to do there is to think comparatively about their experience in South Africa with Jews in other places — certainly with those in other racially divided societies, but also searching for other areas of contrast and similarity.”