The Genius of Ashkenazi Jews
In response to my article The Arab Contribution to Civilization: Nothing Lately, reader TS left this comment: "...the conditions that certain religions (not just islam) place on their followers, make it not conducive to development/science."
Normally I would agree, however I believe we may exclude Judaism from my commenter's view. In particular, Ashkenazi Jews genetically have an advantage in science, invention and discovery. Although one can convert to Judaism and thereby become a Jew in the religious sense, one cannot become an Ashkenazic Jew no matter how many bagels you eat, nor how vehemently you haggle over the price of a necklace at Bloomingdale'a, nor how agonizingly you utter "oy vey," because Ashkenazism is a race (1) and so one must be born an Ashkenazi.
Ashkenazis do not just inherit a slight advantage in the sciences - they also exhibit a genius quite disproportionate to others in the general population. Consider the following:
Wikipedia, Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence
A 2005 scientific paper, "Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence", [PDF] proposed that Ashkenazi Jews as a group inherit higher verbal and mathematical intelligence with lower spikes in spatial intelligence than other ethnic groups, on the basis of inherited diseases and the peculiar economic situation of Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages.
...
One observational basis for inferring that Ashkenazi Jews have high intelligence is their prevalence in intellectually demanding fields. While only about 2% of the U.S. population is of full Ashkenazi Jewish descent, 27% of United States Nobel prize winners in the 20th century, 25% of Fields Medal winners, 25% of ACM Turing Award winners, 6 out of the 19 world chess champions, and a quarter of Westinghouse Science Talent Search winners have either full or partial Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry...
The average IQ score of Ashkenazi Jews have been calculated to be 112–115 (Cochran et al.), and 107–115 (Murray; Entine). These measurements place them as the ethnic/racial group with the highest IQ in the world.
Some readers may object that American Ashkenazi Jews win so many Nobel Prizes because they do research in America and America wins many Nobel Prizes. However, this is not just an American phenomenon - Ashkenazi Jews win a disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes in every country in which they reside. A few examples here:
| Country | Ashkenazi Jews as % of general population | % of Nobel Prizes Won by Jews | Link to Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hungary | less than 6% | 69% | link |
| UK | less than 1% | 14% | link |
| Pre-1933 Germany | less than 1% | 40% | link |
| Soviet Russia | less than 4% | 62% | link |
Perhaps after a hundred generations of being persecuted, the most clever, the most inventive of individuals survived and so the genes of Ashkenazi Jews became most advantageous for science and other intellectual pursuits.
ENDNOTES
(1):
Ashkenazi Jews can trace their roots back to the original racial stock of the Biblical Israelites some 3,000 years ago. There are at least three Jewish racial groups: Ashkenzi, Mizrachi, and Sephardi Jews. In future articles we will explore the latter two racial groups.
