Famous Jewish geeks

To begin with, I will quote Dmitry Ushakov, a doctor of psychological sciences, who in the article “Where do geeks come from and where do they go” (newspaper School Psychologist No. XXUMX / 18) writes: “First we will define the terms. A child prodigy differs from a gifted or highly gifted child is not the degree of giftedness.

If giftedness is potential, the ability to later become a talented adult, then a child prodigy not only has potential, but also demonstrates outstanding achievements at an early age. In this sense, the talent possessed by child prodigies can be called infantile. Tragic disappointment awaited many child prodigies who were unable to develop secondary adult talent.” Statistics show that only 3-5% of child prodigies become adult celebrities.

In the United States, child prodigies are usually identified by very high scores on IQ tests. The average level is 100 points, the sign of giftedness is 130, special giftedness is over 170. 5-7% of children are usually recognized as gifted, about 2% are especially gifted. One of the highest IQs in the world, 210, belonged to the Korean child prodigy Kim Ung-Yong, who at the age of 4 could read Japanese, Korean, German and English. At the age of 3 to 6 he was a university student, at the age of 7 he received an invitation to work at NASA and at the age of 15 he became a doctor of physical sciences.

In the list of geeks, which can be read on the Wikipedia website, one can find many Jewish names, among which of undoubted interest from the point of view of comparison, the fate of Norbert Wiener and William Sidis. The last name is now little known, but at the beginning of the 20 century it was the most famous wunderkind in the United States who was considered a genius. His parents fled Russia fleeing pogroms. Father Boris Sidis taught psychology at Harvard and wanted to make his son an outstanding genius using his own educational methods, which he outlined in the book “The Philistine and the Genius”. William learned to write by the end of his first year of life, read the New York Times at the age of 1,5, read Homer in 4 in the original, studied Aristotle's logic in 6, and between 4 and 8 for years wrote 4 books, including a monograph on anatomy, 8 for years knew 6 languages, entered Harvard in 11 years and soon gave lectures at the Harvard Mathematics Club, which he graduated in 16 years. However, in his adult life, despite his exceptional abilities and free knowledge of 40 languages, he turned out to be an eccentric genius with exotic interests: he worked as a simple accountant, did not communicate with women, collected railway tickets about which he wrote a whole treatise, was socially passive, hid from of journalists.

At the same time, when Sidis was studying at Harvard, Norbert Wiener, another wunderkind who later became an outstanding scientist, the founder of cybernetics and the theory of artificial intelligence, also studied there. His father Leo Wiener, like Sidis' father, emigrated from Russia and taught at Harvard. In his book '' Former Wunderkind '' Norbert Wiener describes the father’s rigid educational methods: '' He demanded not only accurate knowledge, but also the unconditional ability to apply them. Therefore, since I came out of infancy, I don’t remember a time when I could live in peace, rejoicing at the successes achieved. ” Under the leadership of his father, Norbert read Darwin and Dante in 7 years (having written about the first scientific treatise), graduated from high school in 11, became a bachelor in 14, a doctor at Harvard at 18 and taught 19 mathematics at MIT.

Outstanding abilities in children are more often manifested in those areas where social experience is not required: mathematics, music, chess, computers. There are many examples of children who had phenomenal arithmetic abilities—child prodigies whose heads worked like a calculator. Most of them did not achieve creative success in adulthood. However, there are other examples. John von Neumann, an amazing scientific mind of the 20th century (by the way, that was the title of my article about him in the Forum), who became a pioneer in the development of the modern computer, game theory, atomic weapons, made a huge contribution to quantum mechanics, various branches of mathematics, hydrodynamics and explosion theory, meteorology and economics, computer science, was a child prodigy from an early age. At 6 he multiplied and divided 8-digit numbers, at 8 he knew the basics of higher mathematics and read 44 volumes of World History, which, having an exceptional memory, he quoted accurately. The exceptional abilities characteristic of child prodigies remained with him throughout his life. He was born in Hungary into a wealthy Jewish family of an industrialist and banker, and also in Hungary, but into a family of mathematics teachers was born another child prodigy, Paul Erdos, who at the age of 3 could quickly and accurately tell how many seconds a person had lived since his birth. The later outstanding mathematician Paul Erdos solved problems of combinatorics, number and graph theory, classical analysis, approximation theory and other branches of mathematics. He published more papers than anyone else in the history of mathematics.
Unusually gifted mathematically in early childhood, the Nobel laureate Lev Landau joked about himself: “I learned to integrate my years in 13, but I always knew how to differentiate.” He graduated from school in 13 years, and entered the university in 14 (they did not take it before), where he studied in two faculties.

Another former mathematical prodigy, whom the entire domestic and world press is now talking about, is Grigori Perelman, who was awarded the Fields Prize of 2006 million dollars for solving the Poincaré hypothesis in 1, which he declined (the last and aroused unprecedented interest of the corrupt Russian society, in which the main vital thesis is alive: give take and beat run). Now the interested public is waiting for Perelman to refuse again from 1 million, which he can receive for the recently awarded Millennium Prize. Perelman grew up in a family where his mother was a math teacher and dreamed that her son would become an outstanding mathematician. In 6 years, he easily produced mathematical operations with many-valued numbers, then he twice won the All-Russian School Mathematics Olympiad, and in 15 years he won the international competition. 2, he interned at Berkeley University, but rejecting tempting job offers in the US, he returned to Russia. His fellow students in the Mekhmat of the Leningrad State University said: '' Grisha is clever, like an alien, and closed, like a genius ''.

Interestingly, the oddities in the behavior of Paul Erdos and Gregory Perelman are just the opposite. If the first one never lived anywhere permanently, but traveled around various seminars and conferences, stayed with his many friends and colleagues in mathematical interests for a long time, and all his belongings fit in a suitcase, the second one lives in a one-room apartment with his mother, nowhere goes and does not communicate with anyone.

The largest number of geeks is, of course, among musicians, many of whom (especially in families where parents are musicians too) are achieved through tireless work, great creative successes and in adulthood. The greatest musical genius was of course Mozart. After receiving his first lessons from his father, who himself was an excellent musician, Wolfgang gave his first concert when he was 3, his first works were published when he was 7.
Among Jewish geeks, Felix Mendelssohn undoubtedly needs to be put in the first place. He wrote several serious pieces of music in 9 years, and in 12-15 years he acted as a virtuoso pianist and conductor, writing 12 symphonies for string orchestra and opera at that time.

American composer Eric Korngold wrote his first works in 9 years, and the ballet, staged at the Vienna Opera, in 11. Gustav Mahler, who listened to little Eric playing his compositions, called him a musical genius.
American pianist and composer Lev Ornstein, who was born in Russia, was admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 10 years. One of the most outstanding pianists of our time, Grigory Sokolov, performed his first solo concert in 12 years, and in 16 became the winner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition.

No less famous pianist Yevgeny Kissin played a Mozart concert with the orchestra in 10 years, gave his first solo concert in 11, and performed Chopin concerts in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 12 years.

Now they write a lot about American prodigy Etana Bortnik, the son of immigrants from Russia, who are 9 years old. He started playing the piano on 3, he composed music on 5 and now performs on prestigious scenes with many pop stars. He recently played at a big charity concert in favor of those affected by the earthquake in Haiti, which brought together such stars as Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, and others. Ethan is even called Jewish Mozart.

All Jewish violinist geeks are countless. Let's name the most outstanding. Yehudi Menuhin and Yasha Kheyfets started making music in 3, and the first solo concert with the orchestra was given in 7 years. Heifetz in 9 years began studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 10 years, Misha Elman, who was born in Russia, entered it. He received world fame in 13 after his brilliant performances in Europe and America, where he became a famous American violinist, as well as Isaac Stern, who was born in Russia and in 8 years, enrolled in conservatory of san francisco. Boris (Busya) Goldstein in 11 played for years (out of competition because of his young age) at the 1-th All-Union Violin Competition and won a special award, and in 13 took 4-second prize at the 1-th International Weniawski Competition, astounding the audience his game.

Many geeks developed their talent in the famous Odessa school of the gifted children of Peter Stolyarsky. Among them, Busya Goldstein, Nathan Milstein, Samuel Ferrer, David Oistrakh, and others. The outstanding teacher Stolyarsky spoke to parents who brought him to another prodigy: "Your boy is an ordinary genius child." At the St. Petersburg Conservatory, a wonderful violinist and teacher, Leopold Auer, brought up from a Jewish boy prodigy a whole galaxy of famous violinists, including Yasha Kheifets, Misha Elman, Efrem Zimbalist, Mikhail Polyakin, and others.

The outstanding American violinist Pinchus Zuckerman was born in Israel, studied at the Tel Aviv Conservatory from 8 years and played with a symphony orchestra in 12. One of the most prominent violinists of our time, Maxim Vengerov, made his debut in 5 years, playing with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 10 years he won the competition of young performers in Poland.

Separately, it must be said about the phenomenon of Buddy Rich, the best jazz drummer of all time and the leader of one of the most famous American big bands. He was born in Brooklyn to a family of variety artists and began performing with them in vaudeville playing the drums for 1,5 (!) Years, soon becoming one of the highest paid children in the history of the American entertainment industry. Already in 11 years he was the leader and leader of his jazz orchestra.

Among Jewish chess prodigies, the multi-time US champion born in Russia stands out and at one time one of the world's strongest grandmasters, Samuel Reshevsky, who in 8 years won against recognized players and earned money by giving simultaneous gaming sessions, very rarely losing.

And finally, one can not but recall the legendary 18 prodigy of the century Vilna Gaon (Eliah ben Shlomo Zalman), an outstanding spiritual authority of orthodox Jewry. By three years, he knew by heart all the written Torah, which he could quote even in the reverse order. In 7 years he spoke about the Talmud in the main synagogue in Vilna, astonishing the rabbis who had gathered there, by the 10 years he studied all Jewish literature. He worked on 18 hours a day until his death at the age of 77.

Relatively recently, a new term has emerged that characterizes children with exceptional abilities, which combine two bright signs: numerous talents and unusual behavior. This term “Indigo Children”, not accepted by science, was first used by American psychic Nancy Ann Tepp, who from the end of 1970's began to notice an unprecedented number of children with “indigo aura” and unusual behavior (from early childhood they behave extraordinarily for their age, different non-standard logic and thinking, unusual talents and abilities). Scientists believe that if this phenomenon takes place, it can be explained by the technical evolution of mankind, computerization and the very popular methods of prenapedy from the very end of 1970, i.e. communicating with the child when he is still in the womb, and not by supernatural powers, as psychics believe. The boom (many books, publications and even films)) around indigo children is possible intentionally, as Sergei Kirichenko writes in the Ukrainian journal Baliv, provoked by those who want to earn money on the exploitation of the feelings of parents, who believe that they, as they believe, extraordinary children, should learn special private schools for indigo children with the corresponding expensive, to put it mildly, payment.

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