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‘Foreign Policy’ Names Top Global Thinkers

Roughly a quarter are Jews; Bernanke is No. 1

by
Marc Tracy
December 01, 2009
Bernanke at a House Financial Services Committee meeting in October.(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Bernanke at a House Financial Services Committee meeting in October.(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

While conspiracy theories alleging secret Jewish control of the world shouldn’t be indulged, there is still much pride to take in the central role some Jews play in pondering global affairs. So we beam knowing that nearly one-quarter of Foreign Policy magazine’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” are Jews. (We counted 24.5—the .5 goes to International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who shares his spot with a non-Jew). Jews furthermore claim the top spot, which goes to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

One more thing: Foreign Policy’s 24.5 percent is eerily close to Jews’ 24 percent of the Museum of the City of New York’s list of the most influential New Yorkers. We hereby posit a Nearly-One-Quarter Rule of Jewish List Preponderance, and hope that Thomas Friedman—Foreign Policy’s 21st most influential global thinker—can come up with a catchier name.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.