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Dr. Gerhard Falk, a Jewish American professor of sociology:

48% of American billionaires are Jewish. It is therefore not unreasonable to project that nearly half of the most successful American business men and women are Jewish by any definition of “Jewish.”

This forum thread says:

Jewish Americans are the most powerful and influential ethnic group in America. Jewish Americans make up 2 percent of the U.S. population yet comprise 40 percent of U.S. billionaires.

Were 48% of American billionaires Jewish in 2014? And do these figures still stand for 2016?

Sakib Arifin
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    Does it really matter if it's 40% or 48%, this seems very petty. – SIMEL Jan 16 '17 at 20:57
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    See [Do the Jewish control a larger proportion of U.S. wealth than their proportion in the population?](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18916/do-the-jewish-control-a-larger-proportion-of-u-s-wealth-than-their-proportion-i) – ff524 Jan 16 '17 at 21:20
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    These questions always fall on the definition of "Jewish". The question says 'Jewish by any definition of “Jewish.”', so I expect this to mean they believe in a Judaic god, have been bar/but mitzvahed, and self-identify as Jews - not merely that they are ethnically Jews or have a Jewish grandmother. – Oddthinking Jan 16 '17 at 21:36
  • Relevant: http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/sidebar-who-is-a-jew/ – Sakib Arifin Jan 17 '17 at 07:09
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    @Oddthinking: It might be interesting to ask what percentage of the American population is Jewish, by various definitions of Jewish. – jamesqf Jan 17 '17 at 19:11
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    @Oddthinking, 'any' is OR, not AND. A.E., very good point! – Benjol Jan 18 '17 at 06:19
  • @Benjol: This is my interpretation: These figures will stand up no matter what (reasonable) definition you use. i.e. They are true "by any definition". – Oddthinking Jan 18 '17 at 08:18
  • I have made an edit to the question to make Ilya Melamed's answer relevant. – Sakib Arifin Jan 18 '17 at 14:52

1 Answers1

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NO, only 19.4% of American billionaires are Jewish in 2016

Less than 33% of American billionaires were Jewish in 2014 (this is an overestimated upper bound, read below for full details).

According to Forbes there were 540 American billionaires in 2016:

America boasts 540 billionaires, more than any other country on the planet and more than all of Europe combined.

Forbes Israel compiled a list of all Jewish1 billionaires in 2016, including their nationality, on the list there are 106 people with US citizenship starting with Larry Ellison, 5th richest man on earth and ending with Charles Zegar, 1342th richest man on earth.

In total there are 106 out of 540 which are 19.4%.

Also, according to the same list and the accompanying article Jewish billionaires comprised 11% of the world USD billionaires.

In 2014, according to Forbes there were 492 US billionaires, by taking the list of 2014 billionaires and comparing to the 2016 list2 I got a list of people who were billionaires in 2014 but not in 20163 there are at most 59 people who lost their billionaire status between 2014 and 2016, to get the highest possible number of Jewish US billionaires we would have to assume that all of the people who stoped being billionaires were Jews, and that all the Jewish billionaires in 2016 were also billionaires in 2014. This gives us a theoretical limit of 165 Jewish billionaires out of 492 which is 33%.

I can't tell for sure how many Jewish US billionairs there were in 2014, but it was at most 33%.

1 - The list is comprised of practicing Jews like Lev Leviev, non-practicing Jews like Mark Zuckerberg and people with Jewish ancestry but who are not considered Jews by the Jewish religion like Nicolas Berggruen.

2 - I copy-pasted the lists, used a Python script to compare the lists, and ran it on repl.it. I'll upload it once I figure out the best way to do so.

3 - There maybe some people who are in both lists but the script missed due to different spelling. The people who lost billionaire status includes people whose worth was reduced as well as people who died in that time.

Laurel
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SIMEL
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    The Forbes Israel article doesn't explain who qualifies as "Jewish" for purposes of that list. Presumably more/less exclusive definitions would change the %. – ff524 Jan 16 '17 at 21:25
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    Larry Ellison said "[the particular dogmas of Judaism are not dogmas I subscribe to](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Ellison)" He did not have a bar mitzvah. As he doesn't follow Judaism, he is not a Jew ' by any definition of “Jewish.”' He is only Jewish ethnically. – Oddthinking Jan 16 '17 at 21:28
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    @Oddthinking, we already had this discattion many times, the list contains non practicing Jews, like Zukerberg and Larry Ellison, when people talk about Jews it's usualy in the broader context of ethnisity and not religeous prectice, also, as I've said before, they are concidered Jews by the Jewish religeon even if they don't practice it, and even if they practice another religeon. – SIMEL Jan 16 '17 at 21:32
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    See my new comment on the question. The question explicitly says "by any definition", which means we should be strict. People who do not believe in a Judaism do not need to subscribe to the rules of Judaism. Otherwise, I will update Wikipedia to claim everyone I want as an Oddthinkingist, in accordance with the rules of my religion. – Oddthinking Jan 16 '17 at 21:39
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    @Oddthinking Doesn't "by any definition" mean "according to even the loosest definition", not "by the strictest definition"? (Although, the Forbes IL list does not specify _what_ definition it uses.) – ff524 Jan 16 '17 at 21:43
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    @Oddthinking, as ff524 "*by any defenition*" is an enclusive term not an exclusive term, so it should also consider the less strict defenitions. Please don't tell people how to define themself, again, I'm a Jew, I don't practice the religeon, nor do I believe in it. More over don't tell Jews how to define their own religion, if the Jewish religeous law says that being born to a Jewish mother is all that's needed, don't add your own demands like believing in god, Bar Mitzva or anything else. – SIMEL Jan 16 '17 at 21:54
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    @Oddthinking, you can assume that the list includes all practicing Jewish American billioneirs, so their number will be smaller than 106, so according to your defenition the precentage is 19.4% at most. – SIMEL Jan 16 '17 at 21:55
  • "people with Jewish ancestry" is the part of the definition that's most up for interpretation. It's not clear what kind of Jewish ancestry qualifies for Forbes's purposes. Possibly there could be looser definitions that would include more of the list, raising the %. – ff524 Jan 16 '17 at 22:07
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    Our main contention here seems to be whether "by any definition" means "passing all definitions" or "passing any one definition". I don't want to tell people what their religion is - including people who *don't* identify as Jews. This general issue keeps arise, and we should take it to meta. – Oddthinking Jan 16 '17 at 22:35
  • @Oddthinking Probably more of an English.SE question than a Skeptics meta question. – ff524 Jan 16 '17 at 23:18
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    @ff524 If you ask on English.se, I can tell you the answer you'll get is "by any definition" is loose, and means "by passing any one definition". – Dan Bron Jan 16 '17 at 23:48
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    @Oddthinking - i lean towards agreeing with you, but in all honesty, which definition you choose is rather subjective. My suggested compromise is to require an answer to provide both "by broadest" and "by strictest" sub-answers, in case the claim isn't specific enough. – user5341 Jan 17 '17 at 02:38
  • The article was written in 2014. – Sakib Arifin Jan 17 '17 at 07:19
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    @MohammadSakibArifin, are you suggesting that in two years the percentage of Jewish Billionaires has changed by a factor of 2? – SIMEL Jan 17 '17 at 07:37
  • It could. And the professor who wrote it sounds quite trustworthy. I am asking this to confirm whether the Neo-Nazi claim has any truths to it or not. Your data was really helpful for 2016. Thanks. – Sakib Arifin Jan 17 '17 at 08:00
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    @ff524: If "people with XXX ancestry" is the criterion, that makes me a Lakota (thanks to one grandmother), and quite possibly also black, despite my blonde hair & green eyes :-) – jamesqf Jan 18 '17 at 05:23