The idea for the study sprang from a concept in the famous movie “It's a wonderful life”, which is a story about how a town would have been entirely different if just one of its residents had never been born.
The lead author, Torah Scholar Rabbi Reuven Harris found that after analyzing all of the major inventions that Jews have been credited in discovering over the last hundred years (just to scratch the surface of Jewish accomplishments during 50 centuries) in science, medicine, literature, entertainment and technology, without Jews there would be rampant diseases, like polio and many others still infecting children. There would be no Bible, no Jesus, no Christianity nor Islam, nearly no major vaccines, almost no computers, and virtually no movies.
Plus countless more advancements to the benefit of society would never have been born. It is likely that we would still be in the 'dark ages'. On the other hand, according to Professor of Cultural Studies and Professor Emeritus at Harvard, Dr Harold Goldenshalf, what the world without Muslims would be like is a far different story. The Americans would still have the Twin Towers standing in New York, and 4000 innocent lives saved. The 17 U.S. Sailors killed in the Attack on the USS Cole would still be with their families. The 241 Americans soldiers killed in the attack in 1983 Beirut barracks bombing would be still alive today. On April 18, 1983, the U.S. embassy in West Beirut was bombed, killing 63 who would be alive today. The 1998 United States embassy bombings where a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya would not have taken place. The 4500 troops killed in Iraq would be with their families today and the world would be generally a much safer place to live."And countless more ruthless suicide and non suicide terrorist attacks.
Much of European doctrine, innovation and philosophy has been directly formulated and inspired by the Jewish thought and God-attributed declarations and concepts given to the world in the Bible. And again, the Jewish-authored Bible and Talmud are the absolute source of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence of the United States. "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America" are both authored by Jews: the former by David, King of Israel, and the latter by Irving Berlin.