Why Jews are smarter (as a group) than most groups.

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Did you read the whole article?

But it's also true that black Americans have made the most strides in music. Does that mean that blacks are genetically inclined to be musical? I would personally say no - it's more a matter of culture that has inspired musical genius among black people. Same with the genius of Jews in science and entertainment is more a matter of culture than genetic advantage.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

This is not about some sort of genetic 'superiority.' The same inbred group that has shown disproportionate numbers of geniuses has also shown disproportionate numbers of cystic fibrosis, a horribly debilitating and fatal genetic disease. There has been one obvious benefit - intelligence, as mearsured by the IQ scale - from this breeding experiment, and numerous defecits. Both Jewish people and the rest of the world population will benefit by some outmixing.

more like constant change between several somewhat isolated groups(to prevent complete outmixing, reason below)

hybrid vigour while usefull is short lived over anthropological time, even in agriculture it only lasts a couple of generations, creating a stable variant is exceedingly difficult.

the essence of interbreeding remains the same.

It is undeniable that Jews show up in disproportionate numbers in many intellectually based undertakings and professions. Why?

I propose that it is NOT so much genetic as cultural.

And that is why Jews are smarter (as a group) than most other ethnic groups.

The smartest ethic group in the world are Asians but they are also one of the most numerous groups in the world.

I begin by reading conclusions so I don't have to waste my time reading an article by crazy people.

Because they have the higher levels of education needed for those professions, maybe?





Genetics or culture have little or nothing to do with it. The groups you mention above on average have by far the highest levels of education. Well, over 50% of them have college degrees.

Of course they are smarter. Higher education = smarter.

It is undeniable that Jews show up in disproportionate numbers in many intellectually based undertakings and professions. Why? I propose that it is NOT so much genetic as cultural. Yes, abstract intelligence is, in part, inheritable. Smart runs in families. For example the Bach Family and the Bernoulli Family.

In Jewish culture both before and after the Enlightenment there was what amounts to a breeding program that tended to mate smart men and women who for genetic reasons produced smart children. In the Jewish Shetels in Europe it was customary to arrange matches between the daughters of the most economically successful families in the village with the brightest young rabbinic scholars. Anyone who has ever attended a Talmud-Torah school or class can testify that grasping the Talmud is a skull busting exercise in non-linear logic. The Talmud contains within it exercises in induction, hypothesis formulation, analogy formation and just plain logic. To become an outstanding Talmudic scholar requires abstract intelligence of the highest degree. To be successful in business particularly in societies that are hostile to Jews requires nimble wits and a sharp eye both literally and socially. Mating prime specimens of both groups. produces smart kids. And this is just what Jewish match making customs did. Since Jews did not know any more about genetics than did Charles Darwin (he was totally unaware of genes) the genetic consequences were totally accidental and fortuitous. But real never the less.

Since the enlightenment Jews have had to compete in fields what depend on demonstrated talent rather than political and family connections. Again this weighted activities of an intellectual nature in the Jewish culture to a greater degree than in the surrounding Gentile culture. So this bias in favor of Smart shows up again and again in Jewish culture and thinking.

And that is why Jews has been Smart in disproportionate numbers.

This is not to say there are no Smart Gentiles. In fact most of the smart people on this planet are Gentiles. But then most of the people on this planet are Gentiles. In the seven billion of the human kind there are at most 25 million Jews, a mere scattering or handful. But in the population of scientists and mathematicians the primary intellectual activities Jews are found in highly disproportionate numbers.

And that is why Jews are smarter (as a group) than most other ethnic groups.

The smartest ethic group in the world are Asians but they are also one of the most numerous groups in the world.

China, for thousands of years was ten light years ahead of the West in just about every undertaking that required intelligence.

ruveyn

It is undeniable that Jews show up in disproportionate numbers in many intellectually based undertakings and professions. Why? I propose that it is NOT so much genetic as cultural. Yes, abstract intelligence is, in part, inheritable. Smart runs in families. For example the Bach Family and the Bernoulli Family.

In Jewish culture both before and after the Enlightenment there was what amounts to a breeding program that tended to mate smart men and women who for genetic reasons produced smart children. In the Jewish Shetels in Europe it was customary to arrange matches between the daughters of the most economically successful families in the village with the brightest young rabbinic scholars. Anyone who has ever attended a Talmud-Torah school or class can testify that grasping the Talmud is a skull busting exercise in non-linear logic. The Talmud contains within it exercises in induction, hypothesis formulation, analogy formation and just plain logic. To become an outstanding Talmudic scholar requires abstract intelligence of the highest degree. To be successful in business particularly in societies that are hostile to Jews requires nimble wits and a sharp eye both literally and socially. Mating prime specimens of both groups. produces smart kids. And this is just what Jewish match making customs did. Since Jews did not know any more about genetics than did Charles Darwin (he was totally unaware of genes) the genetic consequences were totally accidental and fortuitous. But real never the less.

Since the enlightenment Jews have had to compete in fields what depend on demonstrated talent rather than political and family connections.

17 percent of nobel luariates are Jewish. Jews constitute 1/290 of the Earth's population.

That is disproportionate. If things were proportional than on 1/290 of the scientists and mathematicians should be Jews. If you go by national population Jews who constitute 1.6 percent of the U.S. population occur in greater percentages in science and math. Jews are also disproportionately represented in entertainment.

Ashkenazi Jews are, on average, the smartest group of people on the planet as meausred by the IQ scale. There are flaws with this scale, but it does have some correlation with reality.

I'll just say one more thing, I gotta not get all political, but culture absolutely has something to do with it. You have to understand the religion to see why. Jew have always been required by Jewish law to study the torah.

You've missed a trick there, ruveyn. About technological inventions - here's a wee list of what Israel has given the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_inventions_and_discoveries

Not bad for some tiny little pinhead of a desert land in the Middle East.

What have oh, I don't know, the Saudis invented since 1948? Answers on a postcard please.

Anyone who has ever attended a Talmud-Torah school or class can testify that grasping the Talmud is a skull busting exercise in non-linear logic. The Talmud contains within it exercises in induction, hypothesis formulation, analogy formation and just plain logic. To become an outstanding Talmudic scholar requires abstract intelligence of the highest degree.

Here are some of my favourite Talmud quotes. (Mind-boggling stuff, I'm sure everyone would agree.)

http://www.revisionisthistory.org/talmudtruth.html

Moed Kattan 17a: If a Jew is tempted to do evil he should go to a city where he is not known and do the evil there.

Erubin 21b. Whosoever disobeys the rabbis deserves death and will be punished by being boiled in hot excrement in hell.

Sanhedrin 58b. If a heathen (gentile) hits a Jew, the gentile must be killed.

Sanhedrin 57a . A Jew need not pay a gentile ("Cuthean") the wages owed him for work.

Baba Kamma 37b. "If an ox of an Israelite gores an ox of a Canaanite there is no liability; but if an ox of a Canaanite gores an ox of an Israelite...the payment is to be in full."

Sanhedrin 57a . When a Jew murders a gentile ("Cuthean"), there will be no death penalty. What a Jew steals from a gentile he may keep.

Baba Kamma 37b. The gentiles are outside the protection of the law and God has "exposed their money to Israel."

Baba Kamma 113a. Jews may use lies ("subterfuges") to circumvent a Gentile.

Yebamoth 98a. All gentile children are animals.

Abodah Zarah 22a-22b . Gentiles prefer sex with cows.