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?
I recall my father got two different results on his acceptance letter, within a few points of each other, for two separate scales.
I didn’t keep his letter or Mensa card after he passed away, but I still have his blue t-shirt. I didn’t keep my letter (like I mentioned, this was over 30 years ago), but I remember his top number and mine.
He truly enjoyed the meetings he went to and made several friends through the organization.
Inside the Shady World of DNA Testing Companies
BTW, when you give your DNA to Big Corporations, you're giving it to the Deep State.
The CEO of "23 & Me" is Anne Wojcicki, sister of CEO (& Chief Censor) of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki.
Not people to entrust with your DNA. I doubt Ancestry.com is any better.
“Mensa’s requirement for membership is a score at or above the 98th percentile on certain standardised IQ or other approved intelligence tests, such as the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales. The minimum accepted score on the Stanford–Binet is 132, while for the Cattell it is 148.[14] Most IQ tests are designed to yield a mean score of 100 with a standard deviation of 15; the 98th-percentile score under these conditions is 131, assuming a normal distribution.[15]
Most national groups test using well-established IQ test batteries, but American Mensa has developed its own application exam. This exam is proctored[clarification needed] by American Mensa and does not provide a score comparable to scores on other tests; it serves only to qualify a person for membership.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensa_International
Well I’m definitely not in the top 2% then! My high score at 18 came in at 138.
That’s okay. Means you’re likely more normal, at least.
Here is a joke: What do you get when you put two Jews together- three opinions.
“Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2Tim.3:15.
Can’t say about now, but in the 70s I attended an Ivy school with none of the requirements you mentioned, but I did have a high SAT and GPA along with national level involvement in the budding environmental movement, which I now find quite humorous. I’m in no way supportive of the leftist orientation of the Ivies, but present my experience to perhaps help separate opinion from fact.
Thank u
I try to be honest about the world and myself
Interesting. Long ago, in my 20s, I was at a children’s book convention and I kept going over to listen to interesting ethnic music at a booth run by Moses Asch. Bought stuff from him for my kids. He looked at me and said, “You must be Jewish to like this stuff.” I said,” Nope, Irish.” He said, “That explains it. The Arabs and Jews came to Ireland in the Spanish Armada.”
Sounded weird to. me, but just a few years ago, my neice got blood test done by National Geographic when they were still doing it. It revealed we started in SouthEast Africa, one of the first groups to go north. Egypt (plus Israel), Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, to Morocco, where we stayed for generations, then came to North Ireland. Probably not with the Armada, but with another group seeking conquest. Or freedom.
My daughter is the only person in the family skilled in foreign languages. Learned Arabic and went to visit friends in Tunisia, came home three years later. She had been to several countries. Tunisians liked Americans then, Algeria was a horrible mess, and she absolutely loved Morocco, a place she still recommends to traveling friends.
She lives in N Idaho now, married to the Sheriff, terrific Republican. Unfortunately unable to have kids, but four dogs are great. She actually brought a German Shep home from Tunisia, very best, smartest, largest Shep ever, named Pasha. He lived an extraordinarily long time, was NOT going to leave her safety to another dog as long as he could put one paw after the other.
Oy vey, my FRiend.
Two Jews, three opinions--about what's good for the Jews.
Perhaps it's heeding Torah rather than teachers unions when educating children. No, there may have not been unions for most of European history. But what your children learned, presuming you weren't a cultural outsider, was dictated by your betters. As was the question of whether your children should be educated at all. Probably a bigger issue.
There was an Aryan in the woodpile?
My “about” page discusses this at length.
I wonder if Vladimir Ashkenazy is any good?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsyGQYnvkMc
LOL. Yeah he is. Plays this 25% faster than I can, and infinitely more beautifully.
But political acuity is in inverse proportion to IQ. Must be.
Among them all is why Jews in Europe gained access to so many demanding professions at a time when (until the Napoleonic Code) they could not have citizenship, all across Europe.
The lack of citizenship was a curse to most but came with something positive for the brightest. No citizenship meant they could not get to political power, it was out of reach. But that also meant he smart ones could not be a threat to those in power, so those in power used them, assigning them roles - trading, international finance, farm and property management, tax collecting - rather than gives such roles to a citizen who could more easily use it to gain power for themselves. I read once how in Russia and the Ukraine there were two kinds of Jews - the poorest of the poor who had less than nothing, and the ones who managed all the serfs and the farms they farmed, for those who controlled all the land. The Jewish manager was rewarded well and got his children educated well, and the powers that be would let the Jew do all that but they’d never be a citizen, never be able to aspire to power in their own right.
RE: Among them all is why Jews in Europe gained access to so many demanding professions at a time when (until the Napoleonic Code) they could not have citizenship, all across Europe.
I guess the exception would be England. How do we explain the rise to the Prime Ministership of Benjamin Disraeli? Jewish by birth.
He became one of the most powerful and infuential men in Europe.
Is it because he converted to Christianity?
Disraeli was born in 1804, which is the very same year the Napoleonic Code was adopted and Jews began to have citizenship in more European states of their birth, and that is all after the period I was referring to.
I’m gonna to quote my deceased grandmother, born in Russia.
“Best not to mention it; they’re jealous on us.”
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