Alef: The NEXT Conversation
Not Special
By Ari Averbach
I remember when I used to be smart. Somewhere around second grade, it became apparent that I was exceptionally bright and would succeed in anything I ever did. It was noticeable early on, even before Mrs. Kotal called my parents to let them know how gifted I was. My first words, according to my baby book, were “Thank you, sit down,” which should tell you right away that I was forming full thoughts at the same time most kids were just barely eking out “Mommy.”
I felt special because, well, I was special. For nearly two decades, I was riding high on a cloud made out of check-pluses and smiley face stickers. That is, until one day it all came crashing down around me. Some stupid scientists – Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy and Henry Harpending – wrote a study titled “Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence” in 2009. It claimed that Jews are naturally smarter than other people. It claimed that the DNA of Ashkenazi Jews, which makes us more prone to certain genetic disorders like Tay-Sachs and Niemann-Pick disease, also makes us genetically more intelligent. The IQ of the average American of European descent is 100. For Ashkenazi Jews, it is closer to 115.
I first came across the study when it was printed on the front page (above the fold) of the LA Times, a paper which, so far as I can tell, rarely ever prints anything pro-Semitic. It intrigued me, but confused me. It came out right before a big gathering and all the aunts and cousins were going on about the finding. At first glance, you might think, “Yeah! We’re smarter! Hooray for Jews!” but my family took the complete opposite approach. The article in the Times was written straightforward, as fact. Nowhere in the article did it question Judaism as a race, nowhere did it suggest that this is just one study of many. For a paper, which had never before shone a positive light on Judaism or Israel (at least not in recent memory), to present this study on the front page made us all a bit uneasy.
Why on earth was this ever the focus of a study? Who would care enough to devote years of their lives to proudly come to the conclusion that Jews are smarter than other Europeans? While it is fascinating that “during the 20th century, they [Jews] made up about 3% of the US population but won 27% of the US Nobel science prizes and 25% of the ACM [Association for Computing Machinery] Turing awards. They account for more than half of world chess champions,” I am baffled by who would fund this over, say, cancer research. Jews? Jews do not want to know this. We are persecuted enough as is, fighting an uphill battle to fit in. Anti-Semites? While they might want to prove that we are genetically different, this seems like an odd place to invest.
Moreover, it pointed out that I was not special, I was just Jewish. Which, really, is also special. I love being Jewish – heck, I work for two Jewish nonprofits and aspire to be a rabbi – but now I have to question every Honor Roll I was ever on. It’s like being a Kennedy or a Barrymore or royalty – I’m not actually special, I just have the right pedigree, I was born into the right family. So that explains why nearly everyone in my AP and honors classes was also Jewish. They too were just as not-special as I was. I guess I’ll have to call Mrs. Kotal and return the “My child was Student of the Month at Willow Elementary School” bumper sticker. Now, if only Cochran, Hardy, and Harpending could do a study on why I am so bad at sports.
Read more posts from Issue #10: “Geniushood.”
Photo by Joe Shlabotnik, licensed under Creative Commons.
Tags: Ashkenazi Intelligence, genetics, honor roll, LA Times, Smart
3 Responses to “Not Special”
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I enjoyed the article (don’t worry, I’m not going to define your argument as ‘smart,”clever,’ or ‘intelligent’ although it is tempting) and couldn’t help snickering thinking back to that book The Bell Curve that came out in the 90s. The Bell Curve (in case you’re not familiar) showed what ethnic groups did and did not score well on the I.Q. test and guess which ethnic group was the highest scoring? You guessed it! Never mind that we –as an ethnic group– are also predisposed to logorrhea, Crohn’s Disease and OCD just throw the baby in with the bathwater then line up the chromosomes and just watch it all click into tupperware stacks. I’m irked by exactly the same thing you are irked by and appreciate you spelling it out so clearly on everyone’s behalf. Jews are not a “race”so get use your dictionary, LA Times cause the only “race” we belong to –everyone belongs to– is the human one. Jews are a people. A culture. An ethnic group. Yes, there are certain generic markers we’ve got that might be less universal outside of the Jewish tradition. Without evidence that these markers actually connect to anything as complex as cognitive functioning, however, the supposition has no stocking power. If anything, your observations regarding AP classes, honor roll and such, legitimate the point that Jewish parents are historically, culturally and sociologically driven to push their kids to succeed and to prioritize their studies above all else when given opportunity. And I seriously doubt there’s a chromosome for that.
I am surprised that this is upsetting to anyone. There are good reasons to study statistical anomaly (yes anomaly) of over-representation of Ashkenazi Jews among Nobel prize winners. I always wondered about it myself.
As for race…well really we are all human. We are all members of human race. But there are certain traits unique among different groups of people. Note that the article dealt with “Ashkenazi Jews”, not just Jews. That’s a huge difference! Ashkenazi Jews are a unique “race” because we have more than just heritage/religion in common. We can be genetically identified out of other Europeans. We have our very own genetic disorders like Familial dysautonomia. Clearly we are genetically unique to a degree and can thus rightfully be called a race of our own.
Further, intelligence is certainly genetic. We had to be intelligent enough to survive centuries of persecution. We couldn’t marry outside of our people much. Not to mention that unlike other religions, our brightest scholars (rabbis) had many kids. In other European cultures, they had for generations taken the vow of celibacy. Need I go on?
There are good reasons we are on average a little smarter. And yes the culture of achievement doesn’t hurt but it isn’t the only underlying factor. History must be considered.
Persecution has little to do with Ashkenazi intelligence. It was the unique occupational niche which European Jews had which forced them to develop their intelligence.