There are four distinct ethnic groups among Jews: (1) Ethiopian Jews or falachas, (2) Oriental Jews or Mezrahim, and finally European Jews, among whom (3) Ashkenazi and (4) Sephardim.
1. Ethiopian Jews
2. Oriental Jews, the Mizrahim
3. European Jews, Ashkenazim and Sefaradim
4. Israel
5. Summary on the High Ashkenazi Intelligence
1. Ethiopian Jews
They are Ethiopians converted to Judaism. They were tested as soon as they arrived in Israel.
Their mean IQ is 68, virtually equal to the intellectual level of Africans in sub-Saharan Africa (71).
2. Oriental Jews, the Mizrahim
They are of “Middle Easterners and North Africans” race, although their endogamy resulted in a distinct ethnic group.
Their average IQ is 91, seven points above the MENA average of 84.
3. European Jews, Ashkenazim and Sefaradim
3.1 Ashkenazi Jews
Their average I.Q. is about 110, the highest in the world (Europe, America, South Africa). They also have the highest standard deviation at 17, increasing their representation among the highest I.Q.
With a population of only 10 million, they have won at least one-third of the world’s Nobel Prizes and represent 50% of the chess champions.
There is a link between their high intelligence and the particularly high frequency of certain genetic diseases in their population.
Ashkenazim also have the highest frequency of myopia at birth; myopia is correlated to +0.25 with human intelligence. The explanation could be a pleiotropic gene, i.e., a gene that impacts both the eyes and the central nervous system, namely the brain. It should be noted that the eyes are extensions of the central nervous system. Kirkegaard et al. (2009) show that Ashkenazi Jews have a higher GWAS score for educational attainment (mainly high I.Q. genes) as compared to non-Jewish Europeans.
3.2 Sefaradim
They are Jews from Portugal and Spain. In addition to these two countries, they are mainly found in the Balkans. Their average I.Q. is 98, 5.5 points higher than the indigenous population of the Balkans (92.5).
4. Israel
The Israeli population is composed of:
– 40% of European Jews with a mean IQ of 103
– 40% of Mezrahim with a mean IQ of 91.
– 20% of Arabs with a mean IQ of 84 (identical to the intellectual level of Arabs of North Africa and the Middle East).
– A few percent of Ethiopian Jews with a mean IQ of 68.
The average IQ of the state of Israel is 95, 4 points below the average of Western Europe. However, with an average IQ of 95, 11 points above the Middle East average (84), Israel is the only country in these regions to be considered developed, with a very high human development index ( 0.935) and a per capita GDP of $ 28,400 (2009 est.).
Table 6.7. Intelligence in Israel
| Age |
N |
Test |
g |
Reference | |
|
1 |
13-14 |
200 |
WISC |
95 |
Ortar, 1952 |
|
2 |
11-15 |
267 |
SPM |
95 |
Moyles & Wolins, 1973 |
|
3 |
10-12 |
180 |
LT |
97 |
Miron, 1977 |
|
4 |
10-12 |
268 |
SPM |
95 |
Globerson, 1983 |
|
5 |
11 |
2,781 |
SPM |
89 |
Lancer & Rim, 1984 |
|
6 |
5 |
52 |
CPM |
96 |
Tzuriel & Caspi, 1992 |
|
7 |
9-15 |
1,740 |
SPM |
90 |
Lynn, 1994a |
|
8 |
13 |
– |
SPM |
96 |
Kozulin, 1998 |
5. Summary on the High Ashkenazi Intelligence
References for the entire page and the summary:
Lynn, R. (2011). The Chosen People: A Study of Jewish Intelligence and Achievement. Washington Summit Publishers.
Cochran, G., & Harpending, H. (2009). The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution. Basic Books.
Deary, I. J., Cox, S. R., & Ritchie, S. J. (2018). What genome-wide association studies reveal about the association between intelligence and physical health, illness, and mortality. Current Opinion in Psychology, 27, 6–12.
Kirkegaard, E. O. W., & Lasker, J. (2019). Polygenic scores mediate the Jewish phenotypic advantage in educational attainment and cognitive ability compared with Catholics and Lutherans. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 13(4), 325–343.