Ashkenazi intelligence refers to the general intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews, the Jews of Central and Eastern European origin who are the descendants of Jews who settled in the Rhineland beginning about the year 800 CE. The general intelligence factor (abbreviated g) is a controversial construct used in the field of psychology (see also psychometrics) to quantify what is common to the scores of all intelligence tests. ... Languages Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, English Religions Judaism Related ethnic groups Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and other Jewish ethnic divisions Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (Standard Hebrew: sing. ... Central Europe The Alpine Countries and the Visegrád Group (Political map, 2004) Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ... Eastern Europe is, by convention, a region defined geographically as that part of Europe covering the eastern part of the continent. ... The Rhineland (Rheinland in German) is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany. ...

Psychometric Findings

Psychometrics research has found that Ashkenazi Jews have the highest mean score of any ethnic group on standardized tests of general intelligence, with estimates ranging from 7 to 17 points above the mean IQ of the general white population at 100, which ranges from 107 for Netherlands to 90 for Turkey according to Richard Lynn's estimates for 2006 [4]. These studies (see references) also indicate that this advantage is primarily in verbal and mathematical performance; spatial and visual-perceptual performance is average. However some statistic data on Israel, which have about 50% of Ashkenazi Jews in its population (Israel) show that Israel achieves lower average IQ scores than countries of Europe or East Asia (IQ and the Wealth of Nations). (Israel 94, England 100, Hong Kong 107). Besides being controversial, this work relies on existing studies "of questionable validity",^[1] leading to results even the authors don't believe to be correct.^{[citation needed]} Psychometrics is the science of measuring psychological aspects of a person such as knowledge, skills, abilities, or personality. ... A standardized test is a test administered and scored in a standard manner. ... Verbal Reasoning Intelligence Tests Verbal reasoning is the ability to understand and reason using concepts framed in words. ... IQ and the Wealth of Nations IQ and the Wealth of Nations is a controversial 2002 book by Dr. Richard Lynn, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, and Dr. Tatu Vanhanen, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. ...

Cochran et al.

The 2005 study Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence^[2] by Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, and Henry Harpending at the University of Utah noted that European Jews were forbidden to work in many of the common jobs of the middle-ages from C.E. 800 to 1700, such as agriculture, and subsequently worked in high proportion in meritocratic jobs requiring higher intelligence, such as finance and trade, some of which were forbidden to non-Jews by the church. Those who performed better are known to have raised more children to adulthood, according to Cochran et al., passing on their genes in greater proportion than those who performed less successfully.^[3] Gregory Cochran Gregory Cochran is a physicist and adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Utah who has developed some new ideas in evolutionary medicine and genetic anthropology. ... Henry Harpending Henry C. Harpending is an anthropologist and population geneticist at the University of Utah, where he is a Distinguished Professor. ... The University of Utah (also The U or the U of U or the UU), located in Salt Lake City, is the flagship public research university in the state of Utah, and one of 10 institutions that make up the Utah System of Higher Education. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Cochran et al. hypothesized that the eugenic pressure was strong enough that mutations creating higher intelligence when inherited from one parent but creating disease when inherited from both parents would still be selected for, which could explain the unusual pattern of genetic diseases found in the Ashkenazi population, such as Tay-Sachs, Gaucher's disease, Niemann-Pick disease, Mucolipidosis type IV, and other lipid storage disorders and sphingolipid diseases.^[4] Some of these diseases (especially torsion dystonia) have been shown to correlate with high intelligence, and others are known to cause neurons to grow an increased number of connections to neighboring neurons.^[5] Tay-Sachs disease is a fatal genetic disorder, inherited in an autosommal recessive pattern, in which harmful quantities of a fatty substance called ganglioside GM2 accumulate in the nerve cells in the brain. ... Gauchers disease (pronounced ) is the most common of the lipid storage diseases. ... Niemann-Pick disease is an inherited condition involving lipid metabolism (the breakdown and use of fats and cholesterol in the body) in which harmful amounts of lipids accumulate in the spleen, liver, lungs, bone marrow, and brain. ... Mucolipidosis type IV (ML IV) is caused by harmful alterations of a protein in the cell that is believed to be involved in the movement of molecules such as calcium across cell membranes. ... Lipid storage disorders (or lipidoses) are a group of inherited metabolic disorders in which harmful amounts lipids (fats) accumulate in some of the body’s cells and tissues. ... General chemical structure of sphingolipids. ... Torsion dystonia is a disease characterized by painful muscle contractions resulting in uncontrollable distortions. ...

Reviews of the controversial paper have been both positive and negative, with critics claiming the argument to be far-fetched and unsupported by direct evidence.^[4] Many genetically-isolated human groups have faced multifarious adaptive pressures one could cherry pick to justify presently exhibited group traits.^[6] // In the literal case of harvesting cherries, or any other fruit, the picker would be expected to only select the ripest and healthiest fruits. ...

Alternative Explanations

• Israeli Ashkenazi's scores may average lower than U.S. and British Ashkenazi, Lynn suggests, due to selective migration effects in relation to those countries, and to immigrants from the former Soviet Block countries having posed as Ashkenazim. The data isn't necessarily strong enough, however, to rule out identical scores for Ashkenazi across these nations (Malloy (2006)).

• Jews settling in the Rhineland were from the beginning mostly money-lenders and merchants (as well as rabbis). A biological (hereditary) explanation for high Ashkenazi IQ may be that modern Ashkenazi Jews are descended mostly from the several thousand Jewish settlers that belonged to these traditionally high-IQ occupations. This self-selection may also explain why Ashkenazi Jews have significantly higher IQ scores than Mizrahi Jews. An environmental (cultural) explanation for high Ashkenazi IQ is that since it was forbidden for Christians to take interest and money-lending, Jews took the opportunity and developed into a relatively wealthy social group, which traditionally can afford higher education to their children. The extent to which intelligence is hereditary (determined by genes) remains a controversial subject.

• Talent in the study of Torah traditionally contributed to one's social success in Jewish communities; those more lacking in the capacity for such study were perhaps more prone to assimilate into general culture, thereby raising the average intelligence of the given community. (Murray 2003, Shafran 2005)

• Among the devout, daily study of the Talmud was required and respected. Those who left the fold of Orthodoxy replaced daily Torah study with rigorous secular scholarship.

• The affluent tended to be more intelligent and fertile, as well as educated, propagating higher intelligence and a greater reverence for scholarship. A Torah scholar would often marry the daughter of an affluent merchant in exchange for the latter's extended financial support for the scholar's studies.
• European Jews' history of persecution selected for high intelligence, leaving a positive effect on the hereditary component of their IQ.^[7]
• Persecution led Jews to embrace education as a transportable asset, to better adapt to novel surroundings.
• Jews reached a population bottleneck in the 14th Century at the height of the Black Death when they were widely blamed for the plague. This small population allowed a few random genetic changes (genetic drift) to take root as they could not do so in a larger population that resists drift.

Full bibliography for the race and intelligence article series: Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A American Anthropological Association. ... Languages Hebrew, Dzhidi, Judæo-Arabic, Gruzinic, Bukhori, Judeo-Berber, Juhuri and Judæo-Aramaic Religions Judaism Related ethnic groups Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions and Arabs. ... Torah study is the study by Jews of the Torah, Tanakh, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature and similar works, all of which are Judaisms religious texts, for the purpose of the mitzvah (commandment) of Torah study itself, meaning study for religious (as opposed to academic) purposes. ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... It has been suggested that Tawrat be merged into this article or section. ... IQ redirects here; for other uses of that term, see IQ (disambiguation). ... A population bottleneck (or genetic bottleneck) is an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing, and the population is reduced by 50% or more, often by several orders of magnitude. ... It has been suggested that Plague doctor be merged into this article or section. ... In population genetics, genetic drift is the statistical effect that results from the influence that chance has on the success of alleles (variants of a gene). ...

See also

• Race and Intelligence
• Philosemitism

The study of race and intelligence is the controversial study of how human intellectual capacities may vary among the different population groups commonly known as races. ... Philo-Semitism, Philosemitism, or Semitism is an interest in, respect for the Jewish people, as well as the love of everything Jewish, and the historical significance of Jewish culture and positive impact of Judaism in the history of the world. ...

Notes

Torsion dystonia is a disease characterized by painful muscle contractions resulting in uncontrollable distortions. ...

References

1. Cochran, G., Hardy, J., and Harpending, H. (2005). "Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence" (PDF). Journal of Biosocial Science (Forthcoming).

2. Herrnstein, R.J. & Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: Free Press.

3. Lynn, R. and Longley, D. (2006). "On the high intelligence and cognitive achievements of Jews in Britain." Intelligence, 34, 541-547.

4. MacDonald, K. (1994). A People That Shall Dwell Alone. Westport, CT: Praeger.

5. Murray, Charles (2003). Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. HarperCollins.

6. Storfer, M.D (1990). Intelligence and Giftedness: Contributions of an Early Environment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

External links

• Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes -- from The New York Times
• Did Discrimination Enhance Intelligence of Jews? -- from National Geographic
• "Are Jews Smarter?: What Genetic Science Tell Us" -- from New York Magazine
• The evolution of intelligence: The high intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews may be a result of their persecuted past -- from economist.com
• IQ And Disease: The Curious Case of the Ashkenazi Jews by Steve Sailer, covering a broad perspective on Cochran and his work
• Jewish Genius, an article by Charles Murray in the Commentary magazine
• Jews on Jews: Jews are Great -- Dec. 2005, Seed Magazine.