Why are Jews such intelligent people?

Question

Im not a Jew but I do admire them. They have contributed so much to our world and there accumulation of wealth sets them apart. What is their secret?

Answer 1

God's choosen people?

Answer 2

First of all, I won't address the issue of genetics versus culture, because even the experts don't agree on that. Let's just note that Jews have demonstrated a high level of education and achievement in the arts, sciences, and other fields--whatever the cause.

A few points:

1. Intelligence is not a zero-sum proposition.
It's not as if there were only so much intelligence to go around, so that one group's having more means another's having less. The contention that many Jews are intelligent does not deny the fact that many Germans, Japanese, Indians, Africans, et. al. are also intelligent. And visa versa.

2. We're talking about statistical distributions here.
People who say "but I know several Jews who are unintelligent" miss the point entirely. We're talking about a statistical distribution, a curve on a graph. It's not a situation in which every Jew in the universe scores higher on iq tests than every non-Jew in the universe. It simply means that the Jews ON AVERAGE have better iq scores than other groups. There is a great deal of overlap between groups. There is a bottom to the Jewish curve, for instance, and these Jews obviously score lower than most non-Jews. Jews may have proportionately more brain surgeons or rocket scientists than many other groups, but that doesn't mean that every Jew is a brain surgeon or rocket scientist.

Look at the two lines below. If you assume that intelligence scores get higher as you move to the right, then the "o's" are on average more intelligent than the "x's." But you can see that there are quite a few "x's" who are smarter than quite a few "o's."

................................o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o..............
...................x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x................................

.................. less smart <----------------------------> smarter...............


3. Let's not make too much of the notion of "intelligence. "
No one has ever authoritatively specified what "intelligence" really is. One of the early developers of iq tests, when asked to define intelligence, reportedly answered that "intelligence is what the iq test measures." Kind of a tautology, that. This is why I've emphasized iq test scores in my posting here, rather than "intelligence" as such.

4. It is interesting to note that...
We Jews scored very low on iq tests during the first world war, when the Jews who took the tests were recent immigrants recruited into the army. In fact, we came out as a bit retarded. Yet ten to twenty years later, we were attending top universities in record numbers.

Well, of course the problem with the iq tests during World War One was probably due to differences of language and culture. Presumably the tests were cruder then, and didn't account for cultural bias or for difficulties caused by lack of fluency in English. I'm not so sure how well iq tests account for such bias today. There are mixed reviews on that.

Well, this posting is long enough, so I'll stop here. Thanks for reading my answer. :-)

Answer 3

I think there are a couple of reasons. The most important one (in my opinion) is that we value education, and educated people tend to have children who are also going to be educated and make more money because of the occupations open to them.

There's another theory floating around - that back when Jews in Europe were highly restricted in terms of the occupations that they could pursue, and could seldom own land, survival literally favored those who could do "brainy" tasks, like banking, accounting, medicine, music, etc. Those people who could do such things were the ones who prospered, and who were able to have larger families, who in turn reproduced more in their own generation. I believe a professor in Utah proposed this idea (not a Jewish individual, btw). He caught a lot of flak for it, but as a Jew, I can't help wondering if there isn't at least a LITTLE merit to the idea.

I do think that the fact that we are very open to discussion and thinking about our religion and other topics is also an important factor. We are taught that it is important to question one's beliefs, and to educate onself about religion and other topics; when a person's mind is open, that person will learn more about everything, not just religion.

Answer 4

its what they have in their genes. Chinese also score higher than caucasions on the IQ scale. On top of that because of persecution they have taken the comandment to honor your father and mother seriously as it has a promise attached to it which reads "so that your days may be long on the earth". This results in the lessons learned by the parents being successfully passed on from one generation to the next. So in their environment also they have a head start. The differances over all r not as great as it appears as they keep the not so smart ones hid and taken care of. There is a considerable amount of overlap unless they are compared to those races which have a lower average IQ than the general public like say Texans.

Answer 5

An article recently published at the University of Utah addresses this issue. Basically it states that over the past few century's the European Jewish populations have not been exposed to manual labor, as opposed to the rest of the European population which was. Instead they were bankers and merchants. The more successful (intelligent) they were, the more likely they were to breed. As time passed their inteligence increased throgh breeding.

Answer 6

does not rely, you are going to die----all of us will. you're arrogant for asking those questions....For a Jewish guy or woman you do not seem very humble. IMHO there's a such element called karma and it became into interior the form of the Holocaust. happening YA and telling human beings how super of a guy or woman you're is barely going to serve human beings disliking you. in case you have been so super or clever as you're saying, you does not be asking this to spice up your obvious low ego---you will possibly already understand. possibly somewhat of going to "regulation" college possibly you could placed funds into taking a lots mandatory sociology type. I doubt you're a real descendant of the classic Hebrews interior the bible and that i'm fairly specific you're looking greater like a Zionist nut dazzling now. besides, i'm in all likelihood as lots "Ashkenazi" Jew as you. I took a blood attempt and that i'm bearing directly to them genetically----i'm specific lots greater are who are not called "Ashkenazi" Jew, because of the fact that ALL human beings are appropriate.

Answer 7

They are not a uniformly intelligent people. You are stereotyping them, and while it is a positive stereotype that doesn't make it right.

As for "accumulation of wealth" their "secret" is being horribly discriminated against and forbidden to own land, which means you have to go into things like banking. Not a "secret" I would recommend to anyone.

~ Lib

Answer 8

I, too, greatly admire the Jews. I was raised a Christian. I notice they value education highly and have strong family ties. They also take the time to instill their values in their children. It's a win-win. Furthermore, they are open minded and know how to live and let live. They have my utmost respect.

Answer 9

Many jews learn torah (they are commanded to) and it is very deep and exercises the brain. Studying talmud definitely contributes to healthy brain function.

Even those jews who don't study torah they usually are influenced by family members who do or by parents/grandparents who did these lessons and skills are passed on.

Answer 10

They push for excellence in their families,children and education.
There is a joke that says the Jews don`t consider the fetus a viable life until it passes ----- Medical or Law School !

Answer 11

I, too, admire the Jewish people. They are not all wealthy, but most of them are intelligent, educated people.

It's really sad to see that so many people (including a lot of Christians, even some of the ones who have answered this question) don't like them.