I grew up hearing that "Jews ran Hollywood and the banks." The more I think about some of the things my mother has said to me about the Jewish people, the more I wonder who was the antisemitic that had my mom having some harsh words about the Jewish people. The quote above was never said in joy for the success of a race of people.

Lately my son has asked me the same things. "Why are the Jews running the banks?" With the corruption running a muck within the banking industry it wasnt a question out of curiosity. Funny that from all the events that have happened to the Jewish people, Hollywood and banks are what people think about. This mentality has always seemed bizarre to me but maybe it isn't all that far fetched. Perhaps HaShem, the G-d of the Jewish people designed his people to be doctors, lawyers, bankers, scientist, Professors and Nobel Prize winners. Oh and let us not forget, the light to the world.

Joseph was the first Hebrew to rise to power. He had so much power that he was virtually "the law!" He ruled an empire, dealt with all things economical and enlarged Pharaohs land holdings. Joseph certainly set the example of rising from the "pit" to his descendents for thousands of years.

It seems like this amazing ability to rise and maintain power causes the goyim to feel incredible jealousy. The Hebrews were eventually enslaved with a new Pharaoh that didn't know Joseph, Spain had the inquisition, Germany the holocaust and many more adversities due to jealousy and baseless hatred. All due to a Jewish elite who are/were powerful or advisors and council to the powerful.

Below is another look at Joseph from Chabad and "the power of the individual Jew to illuminate the world, through his or her own personal advance, step by step. Then, ultimately, the darkness itself will shine."

Baruch HaShem that we have the Jewish People advancing to greatness and illuminating the world with the light of HaShem. I wonder what the world would be like if people and the nations had let the Jewish people succeed and never had thrown them into a pit!
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Responsibility for the World
Kislev 26, 5778 · December 14, 2017
By Tali Loewenthal
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A situation which has occurred many times in the history of the Jewish people: the non-Jewish ruling power appoints a wise Jew to a senior position as advisor or administrator. This week's Torah reading, Mikeitz, tells of the appointment of Joseph as Viceroy of Egypt, in charge of storing and distributing grain.

Later in the Bible, the Book of Daniel1 tells of a plan by the ruler of Babylon to have a group of Jewish children brought up in the palace. His idea was that they would become a group of Jewish advisors helping him to run the country. Daniel himself was the foremost of this group.

Jews often held such positions in medieval Spain. One example among many is "Samuel the Prince," who was aide to the ruler of Granada in the l1th century. Samuel was a general of an army, and also wrote an introduction to the method of the Talmud, which is printed in the standard edition.

Naturally, one challenge for people in this kind of position is the effort to maintain their own level of Jewish observance and life.

Thus, in the case of Daniel we read of his insistence on having kosher food in the Babylonian palace. He refused to eat the meat or drink the wine, and asked for vegetarian food instead. The steward in charge of providing his food was unhappy about this—if Daniel and his friends did not look healthy, the steward himself would be put to death! "Try us out for ten days on a vegetarian diet," asked Daniel. This was successful—Daniel and his friends looked healthier than the other youths, and from then on received only vegetarian meals.

Another challenge is the need to try to elevate the moral and religious standard of the country. There have been attempts in this direction in the past: for example, the rabbis tell us that Joseph sought to introduce belief in one G‑d into polytheistic Egyptian society. However, this had only a limited effect.

It is in our own time, more than ever before, that virtually every Jew has the opportunity to make this attempt and to seek to communicate the "Seven Noahide Laws," the basic universal teachings of Judaism. By accepting this responsibility for wider society we begin to fulfil what the Torah is demanding of us as individual human beings and as Jews, the Chosen People.2

This links with the theme of Chanukah. The Talmud3 tells us that the Chanukah lights should be lit "at the entrance to one's house, on the outside." For various reasons, this is not the general custom today outside Israel. Nonetheless, many people follow the similar custom of placing the Chanukah lamp in the window, and the large public Chanukah Menorah has become a familiar feature in most Jewish communities around the world.

The Chanukah lights are intended to light up the darkness "outside." Inside the home is holy. "Outside" suggests the opposite. In a spiritual way, the Chanukah lights transform the outside and illuminate it. They do this through their constant increase: one light the first night, two the second, and so on. This also expresses the power of the individual Jew to illuminate the world, through his or her own personal advance, step by step.4 Then, ultimately, the darkness itself will shine.

FOOTNOTES
1.
Ch. 1.

2.
See the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Likkutei Sichot vol. 26 pp. 132-144.

3.
Shabbat 21b.

4.
See Likkutei Sichot vol. 1, pp. 91-92.