Posted on 10/08/2021 9:40:34 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Is it possible for your ancestry, religious affiliation, or nationality to determine your intellect?
According to a study performed by Cambridge University called, "From Chance to Choice: Genetic and Justice," Ashkenazi Jews have a median IQ of 117.
That’s 10 points higher than the “accepted” IQ of their biggest competition, Northeast Asia, and 20% higher than the global average.
The Ashkenazim make up approximately 80% of all Jews with descendants from Medieval Germany and throughout Europe. The other 20% is made up of Sephardic Jews. I bet you’re frantically searching ancestry.com right now.
Genetic research from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine suggests that the Ashkenazi bloodline branched away from other Jewish groups there 2,500 years ago, and that 40% of them are descended from only four Jewish mothers. Approximately 80% of the Jews in the world today are Ashkenazim, with the remainder primarily Sephardic.
Other researchers state results for the Ashkenazim tests show an IQ score a little bit lower than 117, but one thing they can all agree on- they’re still topping the charts.
Researchers who study the Ashkenazim agree that the children of Abraham are on top of the IQ chart. Steven Pinker — who lectured on “Jews, Genes, and Intelligence” in 2007 — says “their average IQ has been measured at 108-115.” Richard Lynn, author of “The Intelligence of American Jews” in 2004, says it is “only” a half-standard higher: 107.5. Henry Harpending, Jason Hardy, and Gregory Cochran, University of Utah authors of the 2005 research report, “Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence,” state that their subjects, “score .75 to 1.0 standard deviations above the general European average, corresponding to an IQ of 112-115.” Charles Murray, in his 2007 essay “Jewish Genius,” says “their mean is somewhere in the range of 107-115, with 110 being a plausible compromise.”
An interesting observation that the study points out: the scores for “visual-spatial” were particularly low, and ipso-facto the math and language scores are astonishing.
According to USA Today, “Ashkenazi Jews comprise 2.2% of the USA population, but they represent 30% of faculty at elite colleges, 21% of Ivy League students, 25% of the Turing Award winners, 23% of the wealthiest Americans, and 38% of the Oscar-winning film directors.”
Since 1950, 29% of the Nobel Prizes have gone to Ashkenazim.
Wait, that’s not all!
According to the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies, “Since 1950, 29% of the Oslo awards have gone to Ashkenazim, even though they represent only 0.25% of humanity. Ashkenazi achievement in this arena is 117 times greater than their population."
In 1922, the swamp and desert land we know as Israel was inhabited by a impoverished population of 752,000. Today there are 7,746,000 residents, with an Ashkenazi majority that have elevated it into a high-tech entrepreneurial nation with the highest per capita income in the region.
With their population so small — a mere 0.25 of the world total — does it make any serious difference? The answer is YES. A “bell curve” is used to illustrate IQ percentile in a specific group — in a “general population” where IQ average is 100 the curve assumes these proportions:
Less than 70 IQ — 2.5%
70-85 IQ — 12.5%
86-100 IQ — 35%
101-115 IQ — 35%
116-130 IQ — 12.5%
greater than 130 IQ — 2.5%
Applying the same bell curve for Ashkenazim, but with a 17-point upward lift in median IQ (using the From Chance To Choice digit) produces the IQ upgrade below:
less than 87 IQ — 2.5%
88-102 IQ — 12.5%
103-117 IQ — 35%
118-132 IQ — 35%
133-148 IQ — 12.5%
greater than 148 IQ — 2.5%
This shifting upward of the bell curve by more than a standard deviation (15 points) means that more than five times as many Ashkenazim are eligible for Mensa.
That said, the important question is… Why is the IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so high? Is the reason genetic, environmental, cultural, educational? A unique combination of several?
Here are eight theories:
Squeezed Into Brilliance: Jews in Europe were officially excluded from "common" occupations such as agriculture from 800-1700 A.D. This restriction forced the Ashkenazim for 900 years into intellectually more demanding vocations, such as trade and finance. Ashkenazim who weren't mathematically and verbally adept enough to succeed in these jobs drifted away from Judaism -- low IQs were pushed out. Conversely, the most successful merchants and number-crunchers raised larger families, passing on an increasing percentage of algebraic brains.
Escape Plan: The most intelligent and/or wealthy Ashkenazim were better equipped to escape, alive, the Inquisitions, pogroms, persecutions, holocausts, and other genocidal threats because they: 1) could afford to emigrate; 2) could predict the need to do so; and 3) had social and economic opportunities in the nations they fled to. Poorer, less connected, and less astute Ashkenazi ranks thus were inexorably depleted.
Sick Genius: Ashkenazim are prey to a host of debilitating diseases that might, counter-intuitively, enhance their collective intelligence. Tay-Sachs, Gaucher's disease, Niemann-Pick disease, and Mucolipidosis type IV are all sphingolipid disorders that kill or severely weaken those who have two copies, but if you inherit just one, you get neuron growth promotion and accelerated interconnection of brain cells. A second cluster of Ashkenazi lipid storage disorders might stimulate neuron proliferation in the DNA repair genes.
People of the Book: In 64 A.D., the high priest Joshua ben Gamla insisted that Jewish fathers educate their sons in the Torah. This demanding edict reduced the Jewish population from 4.5 to 1.2 million, by pushing out the lower IQs. The remaining Jews became the first male literate ethnicity in history, with subsequent ability to move into highly-skilled professions. Judaic culture prized scholarship, abstract thought, and analytic argument, with the best Torah students marrying into the wealthiest families and having larger numbers of children.
Trading Tongues: Ashkenazi merchants plied their wares globally, from rubber in Brazil to silk in China. To prosper in the exchange, they memorized multiple languages. The stateless tribe needed diverse fluency anyway, to communicate with neighbors in their adopted lands. A "fusion" tongue was also created: Yiddish (German, Hebrew, Aramaic, plus other Slavics and a touch of Romance). Neurologists today recognize that language learning enhances memory, mental flexibility, problem solving, abstract thinking, and creative hypothesis formulation.
Check Mate: Chess historically has been a highly-favored activity among Ashkenazim; a 1905 magazine described it as the "Jewish National Game." Almost 50% of Grandmasters have been Ashkenazi. The visual, organizational, and strategic skills required for chess build up the precuneus in the superior parietal lobe, and the caudate nucleus, a part of the basal ganglia in the subcortical region.
Melodic Minds: Music has been revered in Jewish religious traditions for 3,000 years. Klezmer "reached a very high level of sophistication and ornamentation," according to the Jewish Music Institute, and Ashkenazi composers and instrumentalists contribute hugely to Western classical music (one history site declares, "The Jews 'Own' the Violin"). Have centuries of practice paid off? Researchers today believe music training optimizes neuron development and improves brain function in math, analysis, memory, creativity, stress management, concentration, motivation, and science.
Great Expectations: Success breeds success, on the neurological level. Victory provides a rush of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that activates motivation for further accomplishments. Ashkenazi children understand they are capable of high achievement, and they're obliged to develop their skills for contribution to humanity. Is stern discipline necessary to produce these results? Ashkenazim have long discouraged spanking of their children; strong familial ties, incessant encouragement, and hard focused work at excellent institutions, seems to be sufficient.
That's the range of explanations. They're all possibly correct, but what most intrigues are the "environmental" factors -- factors that are accessible to all humanity.
I wonder, if the rest of the world really wants Ashkenazi-level achievement, why don't we play chess with our children at night, instead of tossing them a violent video game? Why can't we listen to their classical compositions on the weekend, instead of urging them to get concussions on the football field? Why can't we provide them with excellent schools, entice them to learn oodles of foreign grammar, and convince them to believe in and expand their abilities, instead of forcing them to endure years of educational mediocrity and expecting nothing back but the same?
If all humanity adopted the best available characteristics of Ashkenazi culture, would we, as a whole, immensely benefit? Would we learn more quickly, more deeply, and produce greater wonders? Would we become over- instead of under-achievers?
There have been more immigrants to the USA from Germany than any another European country. I always thought it was the British Isles.
There have been more immigrants to the USA from Germany than any another European country. I always thought it was the British Isles.
Nearly Half Of Ashkenazi Jews Descended From Four 'Founding Mothers'
I remember reading somewhere that the for Ashkenazi Jews are not considered to be real Jews but claim to be and real Jews do not accept their claim to be Jews.
And scripture mentions “Those who claim they are Jews but are not”. Not that these two are connected, but could be.
My wife is an Ashkenazi Jew.
Can we please remove this Thread?
My wife doesn’t need any more confidence building.
Nope……they’re real Jews and accepted as such.
Descendants of Abraham.
The scripture you quoted was from the New Testament.
Egalitarianism is for socialists and only serves to bring the smartest and most talented down to a lower level. Better to cull the herd (through incentives to not procreate).
IQ is genetic. Doesn’t take a genius to know that. ;)
Some equate high IQ as meaning you’re part of The Tribe. My Jewish friends would try to claim me despite me being a Southern Anglo Celt who regards New Yorkers as an alien species. I have a Huguenot ancestor with the last name David so sometimes I mess with them by referring to King David as Cousin Dave.
That theory can be found in Arthur Koestler’s “The Thirteenth Tribe” although he didn’t originate it. The claim is that Ashkenazi Jews are supposedly descended from the Khazar peoples.
Tevla was great as was the entire show. Thanks for the reminder, just put Fiddler DVD on AMZ list to add to collection of old movies—new ones are dreadful.
That may have something to do with the sheer number of immigrants to North America with German hometowns. The Penn Dutch were actually Deutsch, and a great many of the religious migrations (Amish, Hutterites, Church of the Brethren, etc; the Mennonites were Swiss and Dutch) were of congregations and whole sects. The Kulturkampf in the 1870s led to some whole villages bailing out and crossing the Atlantic. A goodly fraction of German ancestor DNA turns up some Ashkenazi roots, although when I had mine done, Ancestry wasn't mapping that.
That was Margaret Sanger’s idea.
Read later.
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