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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/opinion/12brooks.html
The Tel Aviv Cluster
(New York Times) David Brooks - Jews make up 0.2% of the world population, but 54% of the world chess champions, 27% of the Nobel physics laureates and 31% of the medicine laureates. Jews make up 2% of the U.S. population, but 21% of the Ivy League student bodies, 38% of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, and 51% of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction. Israel has weathered the global recession reasonably well. Analysts at Barclay's write that Israel is "the strongest recovery story" in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Some oil-rich states spend billions trying to build science centers. But places like Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv are created by a confluence of cultural forces, not money. The surrounding nations do not have the tradition of free intellectual exchange and technical creativity. For example, between 1980 and 2000, Egyptians registered 77 patents in the U.S. Saudis registered 171. Israelis registered 7,652.