Although the Torah is best known as the first five books of the Bible, in Jewish tradition "Torah" has another connotation: Study. For thousands of years, study has been a central theme of Judaism and a key to Jewish survival.

In a Europe that for centuries discriminated against Jews, that consigned Jews to ghettos, denied Jews ownership of real estate, denied admittance to schools and universities, Jews overcame these terrible limitations by focusing on religious study. They studied the Torah and the other books of the Bible, the Talmud, the vast rabbinic literature, the challenging debates between the great rabbis of Jewish lore, and the poetry and thought of Jewish sages. Study, study, and more study–not just for itself but because, in the words of one of the great masterpieces of Jewish literature, the "Ethics of the Fathers," study leads to wisdom and wisdom leads to good deeds. For almost all Jews, scholarly attainment was a revered value.

Therefore, when Jews immigrated to North America in their search for freedom and opportunity, they naturally gave high priority to study and education for their children. As a result, Jews achieved unprecedented success in the arts, the sciences, and the professions as well as in business, commerce and industry.

In major universities, Jews at last overcame barriers of discrimination that existed in academia through the first half of the Twentieth Century. In colleges with the highest academic standards, Jews rose to the top. Twenty-five percent of Nobel prizes in the sciences were won by Jews, for accomplishments ranging from the development of the polio vaccine to historic discoveries in mathematics and physics.

Today, when there is increasing public commentary about the importance of education in helping people from poorer families break the barriers of poverty and become self-supporting citizens, people often mention as an example the Jewish emphasis on education and study in the classroom as well as in the home. This fundamental Jewish tradition has played a key role in the continuity of the Jewish people and in the contributions that Jewish people have made to humankind.

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