My connection to Jewish heritage runs deeper than many might realize. My great grandfather, Siegfried Seelenfreund, was one of the founders of Tonga's Royal Nuku'alofa Club in 1914. He was among the small number of European Jews who settled in Tonga in the early 20th century. Siegfried arrived in 1910, having emigrated from Kraków to Tonga via Sydney in 1909. After interviewing at Burns Philips (BP) headquarters in Sydney, he sailed to Tonga to manage the firm's outpost in the Vaini district of Tongatapu.
In a personal connection that continues to this day, I currently reside in Vaini, the very same area where Siegfried first settled and opened the first Burns Philips (BP) store in the Kingdom of Tonga. Walking the same land as my ancestor, I feel a profound responsibility to carry forward his entrepreneurial spirit while honoring our shared heritage.
By 1916, Siegfried had begun a relationship with Helena Vika Tuaukilaumea, with whom he fathered three daughters. Tragically, Vika died in childbirth in 1920, leading Siegfried to leave his children with her Catholic parents and return to Kraków. There, he resumed his merchant business and married Malvine, a Jewish woman from Berlin.
The historical record suggests that Siegfried and Malvine, like most Jews in Kraków, were trapped during the German occupation in 1939. By 1943, they had likely either perished in the city's improvised ghetto or been executed in Auschwitz. It appears that Siegfried, due to his unusual return to Europe, became Polynesia's sole Holocaust victim.
Today, I'm following in his entrepreneurial legacy as the Founder of The Pasifika Web3 Tech Hub (https://pasifika.xyz/), bringing innovative blockchain technology to Pacific Islander communities from the very same district where he once pioneered commerce a century ago.
Beyond My First Blog: Expanding Our Understanding
In my previous blog post (Show Me Your Faith and I Will Show You My Work), I explored the intersection of faith and productivity. Today, I want to delve deeper by examining the seven key principles behind Jewish economic success as outlined in Steven Silbiger's "The Jewish Phenomenon: Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People," with a particular focus on how Web3 technologies enhance these principles.
As a third-generation Jewish person with Pacific Islander roots, I've often reflected on the tragic reality that my ancestors perished during the Holocaust, leaving our family without the inheritance that might have been passed down through generations. This loss connects deeply to a principle found in Proverbs 13:22: "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous."
As Pacific Islanders who identify as Christians, we often limit ourselves to Christian canonical dogma without exploring the wealth of wisdom in other traditions. My two years at The Faith Seminary led me to conclude that the canonical Bible declaration by Christian dogma is incomplete, especially considering that many texts were selected years after their original creation by authors who were often illiterate. There's much we could learn from exploring texts like the Sumerian Texts and also the Ethiopian Bible.
The Seven Keys to Enduring Wealth in the Web3 Era
The Jewish community has demonstrated remarkable economic resilience throughout history, despite facing severe persecution and displacement. Here's what we can learn from the seven keys Silbiger identifies, updated for the Web3 era:
1. Understand That Real Wealth Is Portable: It's Knowledge (and Now Digital Assets)
The Jewish emphasis on education stems from practical necessity. When you might be forced to flee at any moment, physical possessions can be confiscated, but knowledge travels with you.
In today's world, Web3 technology has created a new form of portable wealth through blockchain, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies. These digital assets can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, secured by private keys that can be memorized or stored on small devices. Like knowledge, these assets can cross borders without physical transportation. I also wrote an earlier piece on crypto security and it's portability that you can read here Crypto User's Guitar Offers More Security Than Traditional Methods.
Consider how transformative this would have been for Jewish refugees throughout history, wealth that couldn't be confiscated at border crossings or left behind during hasty evacuations. Through blockchain technology, we now have truly portable, censorship resistant stores of value that align perfectly with this first key principle.
For Pacific Islanders, this combination of knowledge and blockchain based assets offers unprecedented opportunities. We can invest in both traditional education and blockchain literacy, creating multiple forms of portable wealth that can withstand natural disasters and geopolitical instability that sometimes affect our region.
2. Take Care of Your Own and They Will Take Care of You
Jewish communities have built remarkable support networks, from interest free loan societies to educational foundations. The community invests in its own success through philanthropy and mutual aid.
Web3 has enabled new forms of community support through Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and smart contracts. These technologies allow communities to pool resources, make collective decisions, and distribute aid without relying on traditional financial institutions or centralized authorities.
At Pasifika Web3 Tech Hub, we're exploring how these technologies can strengthen Pacific Islander communities through community governed funding pools for education, entrepreneurship, and disaster relief. Smart contracts could automate interest free loans similar to those traditional Jewish free loan societies provided, but with greater reach and efficiency.
3. Successful People Are Professionals and Entrepreneurs
Jewish Americans have gravitated toward professional careers and entrepreneurship at rates far exceeding their proportion of the population. The emphasis on being your own boss or having transportable skills comes from centuries of experience with instability.
Web3 has created entirely new professional categories and entrepreneurial opportunities that didn't exist before. From blockchain developers to token economists, NFT artists to DeFi strategists, these careers offer both autonomy and global mobility.
For Pacific Islander communities, Web3 entrepreneurship represents a unique opportunity to participate in the global economy without leaving our islands. We can build products and services that generate wealth regardless of our geographic location, creating businesses that aren't limited by our region's traditional economic constraints.
4. Develop Your Verbal Confidence
The tradition of debate and discussion in Jewish religious education creates confidence in self expression and negotiation. This verbal confidence serves as an advantage in business, law, and many other fields.
In the Web3 space, communities form around shared communication in Discord servers, Twitter spaces, and governance forums. Those who can clearly articulate their ideas have outsize influence in these decentralized communities.
At Pasifika Web3 Tech Hub, we're creating spaces for Pacific Islanders to develop their verbal confidence in blockchain contexts, helping them effectively participate in these global conversations and ensuring our voices are heard in this emerging economy.
5. Be Selectively Extravagant but Prudently Frugal
Despite stereotypes about miserliness, Jewish financial wisdom is actually about thoughtful allocation: spending generously on things that matter (education, family celebrations, quality items) while being careful with everyday expenses.
Web3 technologies offer new tools for financial management. Smart contracts can automate savings plans, DeFi protocols can optimize yields on reserved capital, and blockchain transparency can help track spending patterns.
For Pacific Islanders, who often face high remittance fees when sending money to family members across islands, blockchain-based payment solutions can dramatically reduce costs, allowing more capital to remain within our communities and families.
6. Celebrate Individuality: Encourage Creativity
The Jewish tradition encourages questioning authority and thinking independently. This has fostered innovation and creativity across many fields, from science to entertainment.
The Web3 ecosystem is inherently built on this principle, questioning the authority of centralized financial systems and encouraging independent thinking. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have created new ways for creators to monetize their work directly, bypassing traditional gatekeepers.
Pacific Islander artists, musicians, and storytellers can leverage these technologies to preserve our cultural heritage while creating new economic opportunities. Through NFTs, we can ensure that creators receive fair compensation for their work and establish provenance for cultural artifacts.
7. Have Something to Prove: A Drive to Succeed
The experience of being outsiders in society has given many Jewish people a psychological drive to prove themselves and succeed. This motivation has fueled remarkable achievements.
In the Web3 space, many teams are driven by a similar outsider mentality, challenging established financial systems and proving that decentralized alternatives can work better. This pioneering spirit has pushed the technology forward despite skepticism from traditional institutions.
For Pacific Islanders, who have often been marginalized in global economic conversations, Web3 offers a chance to demonstrate our innovative capacity on a global stage. Through Pasifika Web3 Tech Hub, we're channeling our drive to succeed into building solutions that address our unique regional challenges while contributing to the global blockchain ecosystem.
Applying These Principles in Our Web3 Context
These seven keys, enhanced by Web3 technologies, represent a powerful framework for building generational wealth in the 21st century. By combining ancestral wisdom with cutting-edge technology, we can create economic resilience and opportunity for our communities.
For Pacific Islanders, blockchain technology offers something particularly valuable i.e. a way to participate in the global economy while maintaining our connection to our islands and culture. Unlike previous waves of globalization that often required physical migration to centers of economic activity, Web3 allows us to build wealth from our homeland.
In honoring the legacy of Siegfried Seelenfreund and countless others who navigated complex cultural and economic landscapes, I believe we can build technological bridges that connect our traditional values with future prosperity. From our home here on "The Hill" in Vaini, the same district where Siegfried once operated his Burns Philips (BP) store, I'm working to create digital pathways to prosperity that he could never have imagined but would surely have embraced with his entrepreneurial spirit.
As we work toward this goal, let's remember that true wealth isn't just financial, it's educational, spiritual, cultural, and relational. By investing in all these forms of wealth through both traditional wisdom and innovative technology, we fulfill the wisdom of Proverbs 13:22, becoming those who leave inheritances to future generations.
What steps are you taking to build portable wealth through knowledge and Web3 technologies? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
