Story here:
A University of Utah study of Ashkenazi Jews suggests an unusual link between their genetic diseases and their higher intellectual ability.
The study, to appear in Cambridge University's Journal of Biosocial Science, says this unusual pattern of diseases among the Ashkenazis of central and northern Europe is the result of natural selection for enhanced intellectual ability.
The study says the selective force was the restriction of Ashkenazim in medieval Europe to occupations that required more than usual mental agility, the New York Times reported Friday.
[...]
The Utah researchers say Ashkenazic diseases like Tay-Sachs are a side effect of genes that promote intelligence. They say for some 900 years Jews in Europe were restricted to managerial occupations, which were intellectually demanding.
In the United States, Ashkenazi Jews make up 3 percent of the American population but have won 27 percent of its Nobel prizes. They also account for more than half of world chess champions.
I don't really know what to make of this study. It could be complete and total crap. Or, it could provide some important data on the role genetics plays in intelligence.
Nature or nurture? Blank slate or predetermined path?
You decide...
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - marc
It's always been obvious to anyone conversant with Jewish surnames that the foremost academics from all spheres of learning are nearly all Jewish.Maybe it's survival of the smartest judging by their history of persecution by others.Is it better to be smart with a few genetic defects, or a genetically ok idiot?
2 - Bob
That intelligence (& many other personality traits) is primarily genetic is pretty obvious to anyone who views the objective evidence. However this idea has been so demonized people are afraid to say it. This is primarily because it would cut into the bedrock assumptions of the cult of diversity, as well as undermining the core leftist view of the perfectability of man. Just look at the irrational uproar over the book "the bell curve" as well as Larry Summers comments that male & female brains are different. Or the fanatical insistance that disparities of outcome must be based on Patriarchal oppression or "institutional racism"
3 - godoggo
Thomas Sowell:
"Even before Professor Flynn's studies, mental test results from American soldiers tested in World War II showed that their performances on these tests were higher than the performances of American soldiers in World War I by the equivalent of about 12 IQ points. Perhaps the most dramatic changes were those in the mental test performances of Jews in the United States. The results of World War I mental tests conducted among American soldiers born in Russia--the great majority of whom were Jews--showed such low scores as to cause Carl Brigham, creator of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, to declare that these results "disprove the popular belief that the Jew is highly intelligent." Within a decade, however, Jews in the United States were scoring above the national average on mental tests, and the data in The Bell Curve indicate that they are now far above the national average in IQ.
Strangely, Herrnstein and Murray refer to "folklore" that "Jews and other immigrant groups were thought to be below average in intelligence. " It was neither folklore nor anything as subjective as thoughts. It was based on hard data, as hard as any data in The Bell Curve. These groups repeatedly tested below average on the mental tests of the World War I era, both in the army and in civilian life. For Jews, it is clear that later tests showed radically different results--during an era when there was very little intermarriage to change the genetic makeup of American Jews."
I'm Jewish by the way.
4 - Harris Tilton
Of course Jews are smarter.And all black
folks have more rhythm, mexicans are all
thieves,women make better parents,white
people are all rich,germans humorless,
poles are all stupid,gay people all love
show tunes,etc. Yeah yeah right right.
Besides everyone knows all Asians are
smarter.... on and on.
5 - Harris Pilton
Hey, looks like somebody is trying to pretend they're me. And I don't mean Paris Hilton. I'm not her ... or she. No, really, I'm not.
By the way, I think heiresses are the smartest people. Look at me ... I mean, look at Paris Hilton. She's marrying a guy worth about 8 billion.
6 - SFC SKI
I guess that makes anyone who gives a damn about Paris Hilton pretty stupid.
7 - Harris Tilton
Ah ain't preetendin' that Im yew Pilton.
Looks like the town jes' might not be
big nuff fer the both of us, hombre.
Let's say,laptops at high noon over in
the street by Buck's Saloon/Wi-Fi Cafe?
And fer the record,ah jes hates that 'ol
Paris Hilton gal.She's 'bout useless as
a whistle on a mule drawn plow.
8 - Interesting reading...
This is one of the top results for German humor in google. :)
9 - mike
Jews should use their intelligence for something other than destroying nations and perverting culture. It's unfortunate that for every Nobel prize winning Jew, there are 100 Jews in porn, modern "art", "diversity"/integration movements, and producing Hollywood filth which is dubbed entertainment.
10 - Pat
I know a guy whose mother worked on the development of the SAT. Naturally, he did extremely well in it. Do people not think that people would create tests in which their own people would do well? Consider the math part of the SAT. What good does it do to force competition in an arena in which, other than for a few engineers, computers are more capable? With tools like Excel, virtually anyone can to amazing math. On the other hand, what about creativity and problem solving? How are these tested? They're not, yet people who are talented in these areas are discriminated against with impunity. I speak as the mother of a college student at the country's finest art school who recently was recognized as one of the best 10 freshmen; his SAT scores were in the low 90 percentile only.
I also think language is far more important than math and yet we (Americans especially) greatly undervalue its importance. I work with scientists who create standards for terminologies who assume language is 'hard' like math. This is constantly frustrating, yet the idea of bringing in linguistic expertise (or valuing it) never enters their minds. In brief: if you reward what you test for, those people who test well will be more successful. Duh. It is a very circular and prejudicial arrangement.
11 - Muntasir Hasan
Jews value education. Thats why they are smarter.
12 - Jo
They are smart money wise and they know how to entice people to do what they want them to do, but they don't have any compassion.
Why is it ok to say jews are the smartest, but not to compare each race?
13 - Jo
There are many different kinds of smartness. One person may have a good mind for math, but another for writing. Another for dealing with people or be good at sports.
In some ways a skilled sportsmen are more intelligent because they have to use their mind and body at the same time.
The tests that they give are not the best tests in the world to test how smart people are. I had a book that tested IQs and mine tested very high.
14 - hillel
A simply silly notion. In the recorded history of the world they account for less than 1/100 of 1 percent of all of mankinds accomplishments. Simply a numbers issue. They have make no significant impact on the human experience.
15 - Rauli Kumpulainen
Their abilities, talents and intelligence are overwhelmingly self-evident. All these geniuses, comedians and actors - despite Jewish people being a tiny minority, exist before our eyes and some people are finally admitting it. There be no sense of superiority since some people are shorter, taller, thinner, wider, fitter, less fit and less or more intelligent. Do you want your doctor or surgeon to be ordinary minded athlete or intelligent? You want the latter but you don't make up some superiority complex or get jealous over this fact do you? Even Microsoft realize the abilities of the Jews and setup a branch in Israel and it was Jews that helped make Windows XP (a polished version of windows 2000) their first decent operating system used on PC's today and its still in demand even though its so old.
As for these genetic diseases, I think its because Jews prefer to have children with their own people, its a mild form of incest and makes for a shallow gene pool. Diversity in sexual reproduction helps make children that keep almost a step ahead of genetic diseases from damage that constantly dividing cells and environmental factors cause.
I am sure there a ordinary Jews but the numbers of out performers in the Jewish population is astounding and it is this that makes me suspect why they are the 'chosen people'. No, I am not Jewish. Then again maybe my suspicions and observation are wrong?
16 - Ruvy
Are Jews just plain smarter? It is a flattering thought.
But nobody seems to have even looked at why there are Jews in the first place - or why we have managed to survive the persecution we have a rebuilt our nation?
We Jews have more than our share of dense fools and idiots among us. Living in a country full of them as I do, I ought to know.
But there is a purpose to our existence - to bring light unto mankind - and that is what we have been doing in various ways for the last century and a half that we've been freed of the Christian ghettos and Arab slums we were stuck it.
17 - chucky
many jews like to live by the myth that they are smarter. the reality, of course, is far different. its obviously a strongwork ethos in conjunction with demanding parents that certainly account for a lot of their success.
midnight oil, baby.
(next, we will hear how smart Asians are).
18 - chucky
another point, slightly more obvious than previous one: whatever 1 spends the majority of their time doing, they will be considered knowledgeable in that field. such as studying, or playing basketball, soccer, bowling, etc.
jews study, asians study = they learn
african americans play bball = they improve
african americans study = they learn
simple as 1,2,3
19 - ibn Danan
An all good man is not all good unless he touches evil and channels it into good. You're greedy, you sin but if you love money maybe you'll own a manufacturer and through your greed of money employ an entire town and they become wealthy too.
The truth is jewish always believed that the only thing that can not be removed from them is knowledge. With knowledge you can rebuild when you've been dropped to your knees as history repeats itself it seems.
peace out.
20 - SOL
YEAH
HOWEVER THE MAJOR MISION OF THE SUFFERED JEWISH WORLD COMMUNITY IS TO STOP VIOLENCE, DICTATORSHIPS, TOTALITARIAN REPRESSIONS, FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORISM....WHY? SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE GONE THROUGH ALL THIS NIGHTMARE AND HAVE RETAINED A VERY GOOD MEMORY OF THE BENIGHTED WORLD ATROCITIES...NOT MORE INTELLIGENT, NOT SMARTER THAN THE OTHERS ...BUT WITH A LARGER MEMORY BANK, BELIEVE ME FRIENDS!
SOL
21 - Tom Bowers
Funny how inbreeding usually causes retardation except for the jew. I wonder jew funded that study because we know jew benefits from the jew supremist lie. The average IQ in israhell is 90. Think about that you jew cult supremists!
22 - Dr Dreadful
Wrathful rebuttal from Ruvy incoming in 10... 9... 8...
(Oh wait - it's the Sabbath in Samaria. Nice timing, Tom... luckily for you.)
23 - Adam
They are really smart. The Zionists at least - they have managed to convince a lot of people that they are targeting terrorists while killing children.
24 - Fivish
As a poor Jews with an IQ of 138 I can confirm that not all Jews are rich! I have rich cousins and some poor cousins too! Not all Jews are clever either. My family was mainly tailors and barbers and now some in IT and plumbing.
While it is true that a disproportionate number of Nobel prizes have been won by Jews, that does not speak for all 12 million Jews.
Its just a matter of circumstance.
25 - Ruvy
Doctor Dreadful;
Wrathful rebuttal from Ruvy incoming in 10... 9... 8...
Go look at my comment upthread, #16, and you will see that Tom Bowers has only confirmed what I said. Also, look at the comment by godoggo - who is also Jewish. We Jews are not that smart at all when you have a whole society of us. But when sitting as a tiny slice of a larger society with roles handed down that include expectations to study and stay rich, you get a very skewered view of us.
My father, z"l, was a truckdriver who had the mind of a judge - but his truckdriver neighbor, friend and pinochle partner, z"l, though well read, was nowhere near as smart as my dad was. In fact none of his siblings were, even my uncle, z"l, the yeshiva boy.
Just because you go to yeshiva does not make you smart. In fact, it often kills off an original mind. I'm grateful as all hell that my father never had the moxie to actually send me to yeshiva. I'm an original thinker, instead of some shlepper of what some rabbi thinks, droning on about how many 'amót a man may walk on the Sabbath in a village without an 'erúv, a barrier round it, making it like one's own home.
In fact, if you read my articles here on politics in Israel, you come to realize real fast just how much Tom Bowers' comment is reflected by reality here.