Medicine, Science, and Academia
The strong Jewish tradition of religious scholarship often left Jews well prepared for secular scholarship. In some times and places, this was countered by banning Jews from studying at universities, or admitted them only in limited numbers (see Jewish quota). In medieval and early modern times, Jews were disproportionately prevalent among court physicians. Even in recent times, Jews have been poorly represented among land-holding classes, but far better represented in academia, professions, finance, and commerce. The strong representation of Jews in science and academia is evidenced by the fact that 167 persons known to be Jews or of Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize, accounting for 22% of all individual recipients worldwide between 1901 and 2004.
Read more about this topic: Secular Jewish Culture