BAMAD-113

Brit-Am Anthropology and DNA Update (2 May 2013, Iyar 22, 5773)

Contents:
1. Why is the IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so High? by Hank Pellissier
2. Irish red hair a result of our lack of sunlight by Lynne Kelleher
3. Adolf Hitler`s "Jewish DNA" a Hoax
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1. Why is the IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so High? by Hank Pellissier, Immortal Life

Extracts:
Ashkenazi Jews are smart. Shockingly brilliant, in general. Impressive in 
brain power. How did they get that way?
Ashkenazi Jews, aka Ashkenazim, are the descendants of Jews from medieval
Alsace and the Rhine Valley, and later, from throughout Eastern Europe.
Originally, of course, they were from Israel. 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.

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.'
A Jewish average IQ of 115 is 8 points higher than the generally accepted
IQ of their closest rivals 'Northeast Asians' and approximatmately 40% higher
than the global average IQ of 79.1 calculated by Richard Lynn and Tatu
Vanhanen in IQ and Global Inequity.
Plus, contemplate this astounding tidbit: Ashkenazi'visual-spatial' IQ
scores are only mediocre; in one study their median in this category was a
below-average 98. They surmount this liability by logging astronomic figures
in 'verbal IQ', which includes verbal reasoning, comprehension, working
memory and mathematical skill; a 1958 survey of yeshiva students discovered a
median verbal IQ of 125.6.
What does it mean that Ashkenazim have a high IQ, in terms of producing 'geniuses'? 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 (minimum 130 IQ) and more than five times as many have the average
IQ of an Ivy League graduate.
In reality, Ashkenazim are enrolled in the Ivies by a proportion ten times
greater than their numbers; for example they represent 30% of Yale
students, 27% of Harvard, 23% of Brown, 32% of Columbia, and 31% of Pennsylvania.
This suggests that either the 'bell's curve' is lifted for the Ashkenazi a
bit longer at the high end or there are additional factors that enhance
their ability to succeed. Regarding the first possibility, Charles Murray
notes that 'the proportion of Jews with IQs of 140 or higher is somewhere
around six times the proportion of everyone else.' Harpending, Hardy and
Cochran sport roughly the same equation; '4 out of every 1,000 Northern European
is 140+ IQ, but 23 out of every 1,000 Jew is 140+.'Murray also relays a
report from sky-high up in the genius range, when he notes that a 1954 survey
of New York public school children with 170+ IQs revealed that 24 of the
28 were Jewish.
Now that 've established that Ashkenazi have superlative IQ scores, let's
observe what they've accomplished with their highly functional brains.
In the 19th century, Mark Twain noted that:

[The Jews] are peculiarly and conspicuously the world's intellectual
aristocracy, [Jewish] contributions to the world's list of great names in
literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are
way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous
fight in this world, and has done it with his hands tied behind him.
Twain's observation is not dated. Ashkenazi Jews have continued to mentally
out-compete other demographics since his statement, often suffering
horrendous consequences for their toil. Here is a brief list of Ashkenazi
accomplishments in the last 90 years.

Nobel Prizes: Since 1950, 29% of the awards have gone to Ashkenazim, even
though they represent only a small fraction of humanity. Ashkenazi
achievement in this arena is 117 times greater than their population.
This pace isn't slowing down; it is accelerating. In the 21st century, they've received
32% of the total, and in 2011, five of the thirteen Nobel Prize winners were
Jewish - 38.5%.
Hungary in the 1930s: Ashkenazim were 6% of the population, but they
comprised 55.7% of physicians, 49.2% of attorneys, 30.4% of engineers, and 59.4%
of bank officers; plus, they owned 49.4% of the metallurgy industry, 41.6%
of machine manufacturing, 72.8% of clothing manufacturing, and, as housing
owners, they received 45.1% of Budapest rental income. Jews were similarly
successful in nearby nations, like Poland and Germany.
'Significant Figures': In 'Jewish Genius' by Charles Murray, the author
tallies up important contributing individuals in a variety of vocations,
noting how immensely over-represented Jews are compared to what could be
expected due to their small population. His conclusion in various categories is:
Biology - 'significant' Jews appear 5 times greateer their population,
Chemistry 6X, Physics 9X, Literature 4X, Music 5X, Visual Arts 5X, Math 12X,
Philosophy 14X.2
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, and
25% of the Turing Award  ["highest distinction in Computer science"]
winners. Plus,'Jews have made up 50% of the top
two hundred intellectuals- 40% of partners in the leading law firms in New
York and Washington- 59% of the directors, writers, and producers of the
fifty top-grossing motion pictures.'
Israel: In 1922 this swamp-and-desert land had an impoverished population
of 752,000 inhabitants. Today there are 7,746,000 residents, with a large
Ashkenazi population (3 million, and 60% of the workforce) that has elevated
it into a high-tech entrepreneurial nation with the highest per capita
income in the region. Israel rates 1st in the world in graduate degrees, 1st in
museums, 1st in home computers, and 1st in publishing scientific papers.
Personally, I find the Nobel Prize statistic the most amazing. Consider
this: if everybody on the planet was an Ashkenazi Jew, would the result be 117
times more Nobel Prize-winning caliber individuals, with 117 times as many
spectacular achievements, per annum? ..
(Sephardic Jewish achievement is represented in many of the categories
above.... However, when Sephardic IQ is presently recorded, the sums are no higher
than the northern European average, and definitively not as elevated as
Ashkenazi.)

...the question that my essay seeks to unravel is, Why? Whyy is the
IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so high? Is the reason due to their genetics,
environment, culture, education, or a unique combination of multiple factors?
..... Twenty theories are now listed in this expanded essay....

Babylonian Eugenics - In 586 B.C.E., Jerusalem was totally destroyeed by the
Babylonians, led by their monarch Nebuchadnezzar, who 'carried into exile -
all the [Jewish] officers and fighting men, and all the craftsmen and
artisans, only the poorest people of the land were left.' (2Kings 24:10-14)
....In 538 B.C.E., the Persian king Cyrus the Great granted Jews permission to
return to their homeland. Wealthy Jews - who had established successsful
trade routes and businesses in Babylon - financed zealous returneees who wanted
to re-settle Judah. Initial attempts failed, but eventually, 1,760
settlers led by the prophet Ezra and the governor Nehemiah rebuilt the wall of
Jerusalem and resurrected the nation. ...Cyril Darlington, in his The Evolution of Man and Society,
suggests that the temporary separation of the Jewish elite, and permanent
removal of the uneducated and unskilled, provided a genetic intellectual boost
to the creed.
...Practitioners of Judaism are required to learn and study the extensive, mentally rigorous laws. Thematic content of the
scriptural passages is not simplistic or literal, it is, conversely,
designed for comprehension on multiple, abstract, metaphorical levels. Blind
faith and slavish devotion, encouraged by other faiths, is not conducive to
Judaism. Instead, worship in the ancient monotheism demands significant
literacy skills due to the cognitive demands of the texts, with tradition
maintaining that understanding the Talmud requires 'study of seven hours a day
for seven years.' Charles Murray notes that, 'no other religion made so many
demands upon the whole body of its believers,'  with the subsequent
analysis that, 'Judaism evolved in such a way that to be a good Jew meant that a
man had to be smart.'
 
Healthy Hygiene & Diet: Professor Sam Lehman-Wilzig of Bar-Ilan University
in Israel provided me with this theory. His suggestion is based on the
fact that, due to their customary practices, the Jews proprobably enjoyed
better hygiene than Gentiles. He points to the Jewish washing of hands before
every meal, the men bathing at least once a week in the 'mikveh' (a
purification bathhouse) and the women bathing at least once a month, after their
menstruation was over. He also notes the restriction on pork prevented Jews
from contracting trichinosis. (Famous casualties of this parasitic disease
include Gautama Buddha and Wolfgang Mozart). With lower disease rates,
Jewish bodies would not have suffered as much as Gentiles and this would have
improved their mental capacities.
This notion has been repeated elsewhere. In 1953, research by Johns Hopkins
University pharmacologist David I. Macht surmised that all the dozens of
meat items banned by Jewish dietary laws in Deuteronomy and Leviticus were,
in fact, more toxic than the kosher flesh that was permitted. Additionally,
in the recent book Survival of the Sickest, author Sharon Moalem suggests
that Jews removing leaven from their homes during Passover helped keep out
the rats that spread bubonic plague in the 13th century. Last but not
least, wealthy Ashkenazi Jews dwelling in larger houses in eastern Europe would
have survived epidemics easier because they didn't suffer the same high
multiple infection rate that occurred in smaller homes with greater crowding.
...

Education Emphasized, Way Back in B.C. ,  Jeremiah Unterman of Jerussalem
informed me that the Torah instructs every Jewish father to teach the Torah to
his children, and Marisa Landau notes on a futurepundit.com 6/4/05
discussion that it's forbidden by the Jewish religion to keep child illiterate.
Additionally, Landau reports that Jewish women learned to read and write, a
phenomenon that was unique in the ancient world. Landau also mentions that
it has long been a custom among Jews to provide a full pension 'for up to
10 years' to an intelligent son-in-law who wishes to entirely devote
himself to study. The Jews, it seems, invented the notion of 'scholarships.'
In the medieval era, the French monk, Peter Abelard (1079-1142) penned this
about Jewish education: 'A Jew, however poor, even if he had ten sons,
would get them all to letters, not for gain as the Christians do, but for
understanding of God's law. And not only for his sons, but his daughters.'
Mandatory Schools For Males - In 64 A.D., the high priest Joshua been Gamla
issued and implemented an ordinance mandating schools for all boys,
beginning at age 6. Within 100 years, Jews had established universal male literacy
and numeracy, the first ethnicity in history to achieve this.
The progressive, demanding edict created a huge demographic shift. The
high, oft-times prohibitive cost of educating children in the subsistence
farming economy of the 2nd to 6th centuries prompted numerous Jews to
voluntarily convert to Christianity, leading to a decline in Jewish population from
4.5 million to 1.2 million. ..

Urban Upgrade - 80-90% of Jews were farmers in 1 AD. But only 10-200%
remained in agriculture by 1000 A.D. The education required by Joshua ben Gamla's
edict delivered verbal and math skills to Jewish boys, enabling them to
move out of subsistence rural life into highly-skilled urban professions,
involving sales, trade, and financial transactions.
Moving from a pastoral environment into cities implements an IQ boost, due
to urbanism's increased complexity, literacy, and technology. A Hanoi
National University study in 2006 showed a whopping 19.4 IQ difference between
city and country students. A 1970 survey in Greece recorded a difference of
10-13 points. Other studies note smaller discrepancies of only 2-6 points,
but unanimously, urban residents always score higher, and Jews are one of
the world's longest-urbanized ethnicities.

Dialectic and Rational Thought - Dr. Sam Lehman-Wilzig informed me that one
of the noteworthy approaches to Jewish learning is 'dialectic.' The
Talmud itself is not a 'law code' but instead, a huge compendium of ARGUMENTS.
Jews are encouraged to see different perspectives of an issue, and they're
taught to question everything, including the Law, the Rabbi's logic, and one's own belief system.
Rabbis developed argumentative principles, an entire
system of questioning that the Jews have utilized for 2,000 years in both
religious and secular debates.
...This method of learning was unique during the Middle Ages, compared to Catholic Europe's 'authoritative traditions.
Dr. Sanford Aranoff, Professor of Science and Mathematics at Rider
University, conveyed to me a similar message. In his opinion, Judaism is based on
principles of rational thought. (Rational thinking begins with clearly
stated principles, continues with logical deductions, and then examines
empirical evidence to possibly modify the principles.)
The analytic, strategic skills developed in both Jewish dialectic and
critical thinking are an important component of IQ tests, and they're essential
in legal, academic, science, and engineering careers.

Clever Clerics Propagate: A major difference between Catholicism and
Judaism is that priests have been celibate since the 4th century Council of
Carthage decreed that they abstain from conjugal relations, whereas Jewish
rabbis have always been encouraged to marry and multiply. In the Middle Age this
resulted in massive IQ depression for Catholics, because their brightest,
academically gifted boys were usually locked up in seminaries that wasted
their gene pool. Meanwhile, sage, scholastic Jewish rabbis were maarrying
smart women and creating large, clever families. ...'Our Rabbis teach, Let a man sell all that he has and marry the daughter of
a learned man. If he cannot find the daughter of a learned man, let him
marry the daughter of one of the great men of his day. If he does not find
such a one, let him marry the daughter of one of the heads of the
congregation, or, failing this, the daughter of a charity collector, or even the
daughter of a schoolmaster; but let him not marry the daughter of an illiterate
man, for the unlearned are an abomination, as also their wives and their
daughters.' Pesachim, fol. 49, col. 2.
Judaic texts like the one above emphasize repeatedly that knowledge and
intelligence are supreme virtues, with ignorance the grossest liability.
Following this dictum, the Jews enhanced their gene pool for smartnesss. In A
History of the Jews, author Paul Johnson notes that, 'among the Jews the most
intelligent people have always been very valued and sought after as
husbands, so they procreate and spread their good genes.' Charles Murray observed
another matchmaking tendency, when he notes that 'by marrying the children
of scholars to the children of successful merchants, Jews were in effect
joining those selected for abstract reasoning ability with those selected
for practical intelligence.'...

Trading Tongues: Ashkenazi merchants plied their wares over a vast area,
originally to Islamic regions, but later internationally, from rubbber in
Brazil to silk in China. To prosper in the exchange, they memorized multiple
languages. The stateless tribe needed diverse fluency anyway, to communicate
in adopted lands with their neighbors that spoke German, Polish, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Dutch, etc.
The Ashkenazi developed a 'fusion' tongue: Yiddish (German, Hebrew,
Aramaic, plus other Slavic languages and a touch of Romance). At its height ,
before World War II - Yiddish was spoken by 13 million. The polygllot language
produced exemplary culture in literature, theater, and film.
Neurologists today recognize that multiple language learning enhances
memory, mental flexibility, problem solving, abstract thinking, and creative
hypothesis formulation. .... Jews in Europe were officially excluded from 'common' occupations such as agriculture from 800-1700 A.D. Indeed, they were
usually not allowed to own land. The restrictions forced Ashkenazim for 900
years into urban vocations that were cognitively more demanding, such as
trade, bookkeeping, commerce, sales, and investment. The frequent Christian
prohibition against charging of interest in money lending, prohibbited as 'usury', assisted in opening up financial banking occupatiions for Jews.
Historical records reveal that 80% of the Jews in Roussilon, southern France,
in 1270 were money-lenders.
Later, after they were evicted from Western Europe, Ashkenazim were
welcomed in Poland as urban investors and initiators of trade who could help
modernize the nation. They were also in great demand in middle management
positions because they had mathematic and business administration skills.
...

Winnowed By Persecution: The most intelligent and/or wealthy Ashkenazim
were better equipped to escape 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 about nineteen debilitating genetic
diseases, and it's been surmised that several of them might have cognitive 'side effects' that can enhance intelligence. Many of the disorders can kill
or severely weaken those who have two copies of the gene, but if you
inherit just one, you get a heterozygote advantage' that can include neuron
growth promotion and accelerated interconnection of brain cells. For example,
having just one of the allele in Tay-Sachs and Niemann-Pick 'GM2ganglioside' could moderately increase dentrite growth.
Another Ashkenazi ailment is Gaucher's disease, which seems to promote
axonal growth and branching. A survey discovered that out of 255 employed
patients of Gaucher's disease at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Jerusalem, were
in occupations that require IQs over 120, and 15% were scientists. Another
survey of Ashkenazim with Torsion Dystomia revealed an average IQ of 121.
I interviewed Gregory Cochran via email; he's the University of Utah
co-author of the 2005 research report, 'Natural History of Ashkenazi
Intelligence.' In his words, 'any IQ boost due to Gaucher's [would be] a good deal
less than 10-15 points [but] It may be that big for Torsion Dystonia:
everyone who has treated them marvels at how sharp they are, [However] only a
fraction [of Ashkenazi IQ elevation] is due to particular mutations like
Gaucher, in our opinion.' In another interview, Cochran pinpointed the fractions
as, 'One in two thousand Askenazi, at most, carry a Tay-Sachs mutation and a
Gaucher mutation, the two most common.'
Ashkenazim are not an isolated ethnicity, after residing with Eastern
European neighbors for over a millennium. While many observers suggest that they're 30% European,
an Emory University study concluded that researchers “
were able to estimate that between 35 and 55 percent of the modern Ashkenazi
genome comes from European descent.

Positive Thinking - Aubrey Max Sandman, PhD, an electrical engineerr in
London, sent me an email asserting that positive attitude is what counts, not
genetics. His opinion is that non-Jews do not work as hard as Jews, to
attain their full potential.
In actuality, 'positive thinking' actually does elevate IQ. 2011 research
at Michigan State University revealed that a subject's 'mind set' makes a
difference in intelligence because their attitude determines if they react
productively, or self-destructively, to their mistakes. The report will
soon be published, hopefully with specific data charting IQ gains, in an
upcoming issue of Psychological Science.

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 are 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. Admittedly, these benefits are not hereditary, but youngsters
who practice the game can elevate their memory storage, strategic
planning, and IQ. ...

Melodic Minds: Music has been revered in Jewish religious traditions for
3,000 years. ...Researchers today believe music training optimizes neuron
development and improves brain function in math, analysis, memory, creativity,
stress management, concentration, motivation, and science.

Comfortable Supportive Families, With High Expectations: Success promotes
success, on the neurological level. ... Available income that allows offspring to study and develop intellectually
is also important; wealth also permits access to elite schools. Surveys
indicate that American Jews earn about twice the income of non-Jews, plus they
have 2.5 times more capital assets. The result? The average American Jew
receives 2.5 more years of education. Even during the Middle Age many Jews
were upper and middle class in economic status, a condition that secured
good education for their children....

Empathetic Rabbis - A commenter ..informed me that many rabbis were 'Einsteins of Empathy' .. 
amazingly kind, patient, loving and understanding of other humans. The
high-level 'empaths' impacted their congregations, making their lives better and
promoting their ambitions and enterprizes.
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2. Irish red hair a result of our lack of sunlight
by Lynne Kelleher - 28 April 2013
Extracts:
Irelands DNA has revealed that one in 10 Irish people have red hair but it is thought that up to half the population could be carrying the redhead gene even though they are blonde or brunette.

The DNA laboratory carrying out research into the flame-haired gene believes it is so associated with Ireland and Scotland because it is connected to a lack of vitamin D, which is related to the lack of sunlight.

It is thought Ireland, Scotland and northern England have the highest concentration of Titian-haired people in the world because the Celtic colouring is genetically programmed to work better in our sun-starved countries.

"It's to do with the cloudy climate," said Helen Moffat, marketing manager at IrelandsDNA.

"Scandinavia has perhaps less hours of sunshine but Ireland and Britain are much cloudier so the Vitamin D we get is much lower in comparison to somewhere like Scandinavia where they seem to have more sunshine.

"The fairer you are, the more vitamin D you can absorb. Red hair is associated with fair skin due to the lower melanin concentration and this has advantages as more vitamin D can be absorbed."

Alastair Moffat, managing director of the genetic research laboratory, said two of the most common redhead gene variants came from just two Asian people 70,000 years ago.

In Ireland 10 per cent of people are redheads while in Scotland up to 13 per cent have red hair and in England six per cent have red hair.

This is considerably higher than in the rest of the world. Outside Europe, only .06 per cent of people are redheaded.

For a child to have red hair, both parents must be carriers , but neither of them have to have red hair , and then there is still only a 25 per cent chance that their offspring will have it.
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3. Adolf Hitler`s "Jewish DNA" a Hoax