AEI: How did Jews get so smart?
“For two hours yesterday,” the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank writes, “two AEI scholars and a visiting bioethicist kibbitzed about a pressing cause: Why Jews are so doggone smart.” In the panel, AEI’s John Entine and Charles Murray discussed Entine’s new book, Abraham’s Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People:
Murray suggested that the rigors of Talmudic study drove out the dull Jews centuries ago. “If you were dumb and a Jew,” said the philo-Semitic Murray, “it was a lot easier to be a Christian.” Murray, best known for his incendiary book about race and intelligence, “The Bell Curve,” explored Jewish smarts in an April article in Commentary titled “Jewish Genius.”
Brought in to rebut the two scholars, Laurie Zoloth of Northwestern University floated an alternative notion: that “Jews are smart because we value learning.” […]
Murray suggested that Jews got smarter by urbanization (”the elevated Jewish IQ was making people money”), flight from Babylon (”they took the smart ones into exile”) and what he called “the ultimate hypothesis” that Jews are really “God’s chosen people.”
Milbank adds, “Left unchallenged was the question of whether Jews are indeed smarter than others — even though it would have only required a walk down the hall to the office of new AEI visiting fellow Paul Wolfowitz, whose leadership on the Iraq war and conflicts of interest as head of the World Bank demonstrate that Jews are capable of questionable judgment.”
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Ok….how does that hack Murray still have any credibility left to squander it on this crap?
October 30th, 2007 at 10:37 amJon Stewart and the Daily Show writing staff are going to have a field day with this one. They’re all so smart!
October 30th, 2007 at 10:38 amIf Jews are so smart, how come they never run for President?
October 30th, 2007 at 10:44 amOh, wait….
Apparently Douglas “The fu*king most stupid man on the earth” Feith slipped through the cracks.
-GSD
October 30th, 2007 at 10:44 amRead “The Mismeasure of Man” by Stephen Jay Gould for a great rebuttal of ‘The Bell Curve”. It is an account of how questionable science has been used to justify racism, slavery, oppression. The book was originally released in 1981, but a new 1996 edition added some specific critiques of the junk science in the Bell Curve (1994).
October 30th, 2007 at 10:47 amseriously people, they were enslaved and had to memorize the torah and other books to kep their religion alive. if you couldnt remember it you couldnt be in the group as a male. over four thousand years you weed out the stupid ya think?
October 30th, 2007 at 10:54 amchristianity, in it’s popular, current form, makes any other religion look smart in comparison.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:00 amHmmm…I thought the Asians are the Smart People and the Jews are the Chosen People.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:03 amWTF? Will humanity ever get past universalist understandings of human groups and cultures? We’re INDIVIDUALS, asshats! No one can be defined categorically!
I’d like also to note the contradiction in the following: “AEI scholars.” ‘Nuff said.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:03 amThat’s rich, the warmongering idiots at the AEI are questioning Jewish judgement.
Forrest Gump is a f*(king genius compared to anyone in the AEI.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:06 amI believe AEI has some Jewish members, thereby disproving their own theory on its face.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:09 amThey may be smart, but are they perfected?
October 30th, 2007 at 11:09 amDarwin.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:09 amUgh. What a horrible article.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:11 amThe whole topic is a steaming pointless pile o’ shi*.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:12 amHey guys–don’t break your arms patting yourselves on the back. Remember, the AEI provided lots of the brilliant Jewish thought behind the Iraq War. Is you fellows learning nothing?
October 30th, 2007 at 11:13 amJon Stewart and the Daily Show writing staff are going to have a field day with this one. They’re all so smart!
Comment by toasterhead — October 30, 2007 @ 10:38 am
Omigod….I can see the delighted grin on his face now!
October 30th, 2007 at 11:14 amThis is really a scream!
Back in 1994, during the hype for The Bell Curve, the Washington Monthly ran a really hilarious spoof review of a fictitious book called “The Jew Curve.”
The spoof review made fun of the way mainstream media and “serious” pundits gave the book’s fake scientific “findings” way more credibility than they deserved. In the spoof, “The Jew Curve” was Charles Murray’s next book.
Who knew how prophetic that would turn out to be? Further proof that truth is stranger than fiction.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:20 amI think its not a good idea to go around calling yourself the chosen one.
Because I am the CHOSEN ONE!!! And I have DNA from Indians, Germans, French, Irish and others!!! I am the TAU!! The Beksos, the bread of life and the broad field of light and nothing!!!
[joking, of course. Actually, I’m a mutt.]
October 30th, 2007 at 11:23 amAhh the AEI…They have made of mockery of academic excellence.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:24 am#19 ~ Woot for mutts! My ancestors believed in diving in the deep end of the gene pool.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:28 amSee, I am so smart I misspelled Beksos from the Phrygian word bekos.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:29 amI think the real question is: how did AEI find what surely must be the stupidest Jews on earth?
October 30th, 2007 at 11:31 amAmazing…
October 30th, 2007 at 11:33 amHomosexuality is a learned behavior, but being a smart Jew is genetic.
#19 ~ Woot for mutts! My ancestors believed in diving in the deep end of the gene pool. -BIAFLW
Which brings me to Noah, who was the sole survivor of the demiurge, and that ‘Shem’ is one of Noahs sons, in Greek it was ‘Sem’ and we get Semites. None the less Noah got drunk and well we know what happened next, basically we is all related!!
October 30th, 2007 at 11:33 amFrom the article:
“Left unchallenged was the question of whether Jews are indeed smarter than others — even though it would have only required a walk down the hall to the office of new AEI visiting fellow Paul Wolfowitz, whose leadership on the Iraq war and conflicts of interest as head of the World Bank demonstrate that Jews are capable of questionable judgment.”
October 30th, 2007 at 11:36 amAsians and Jewish people have one thing in common, maternal guilt. Not wanting to disappoint one of these mothers is a powerful tool.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:37 amAnd both cultures are strong advocates of good education and would be unlikely to vote down any school referendum as we see so many parents do.
Obviously the Jews expressing these opinions are not too bright or they would keep their big mouths shut, not everything you “think” needs to be expounded upon.
OMG. Are these idiots for real…??
October 30th, 2007 at 11:37 amWelp. there’s that.
Now if the AEI would be so kind as to tell me who’s the best in the sack, I could get on with finding a proper mate.
Hurry up AEI, I gots boinkin’ on the mind, and I aint getting any younger!
October 30th, 2007 at 11:39 aminteresting… the other day, a Nobel laureate was lambasted, fired, and ostracized for saying black people are not as smart (or, rather, not capable of being as smart as white folks…)
here we have a group saying Jews are smarter than everyone else (which means, non-Jews are not as smart as Jews)… and is there any similar outrage?
or, would that be branded as being “anti-Semitic” were anyone to criticize this incredible assertion?
October 30th, 2007 at 11:40 amIronically, conflating race and religion is not a very smart move.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:42 amor, would that be branded as being “anti-Semitic†were anyone to criticize this incredible assertion?
Comment by thelonegunman — October 30, 2007 @ 11:40 am
Uh… seems to me that every poster on this thread is lambasting the assertion.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:49 am“Jews are smart because we value learning.â€
How come you haven’t “learned” how to figure out getting along with the Palestinians and not slaughtering each other like you dummies have done for over 2 millenia then ?
October 30th, 2007 at 11:55 amDid anyone ask these people if the Jews are so smart why they hadn’t chosen to be perfected?
October 30th, 2007 at 11:56 amwhat I want to know if how jews got to be so gosh darn honest. I mean, its not like they every use thier power to engage in criminal conspiracies. thats just absurd and unthinkable… in fact, the more power jewish people get, the more honest I think they have to be. i beleive it says so in the Torah somewhere..
October 30th, 2007 at 11:56 amI think a better question is why are so many comedians Jewish?
I saw Jon Stewart at Caroline’s in NYC once (pre-Daily Show days) and it was the start of Passover and every single one of the five comedians that night were Jewish. I know that because every single one of them said something about the guilt they were feeling about working when they technically weren’t supposed to be.
They were also all very funny.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:58 amBut I don’t think a perceived sense of superiority serves any group of people well.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:59 amAbraham’s Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People
Ah , so it’s genetics that compels you to wear beanies missing their propellers as religious ‘hats’ ; nice to know now that it’s a birth defect.
Wonderful title ; and a jack-off like this John Asstwine will be the 1st to scream “anti-Semitic” towards anyone that confronts him about believing his own imbecilic belief(s)………
October 30th, 2007 at 12:00 pmBut I don’t think a perceived sense of superiority serves any group of people well.
Comment by mary — October 30, 2007 @ 11:59 am
Does for them ; anyone who dares question that immediately is branded as “anti-Semitic” , and that’s that ………..
What a joke.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:02 pmI have not done any scientific studies myself, but when I heard this theory, I just started mentally running down the list of Jewish people I know to assess their general smartness and what might have contributed to it.
I know some very smart Jewish people. I also know some who are as dumb as a box of rocks, and quite a few who can only be described as “middle of the pack”. And I can say exactly the same thing about all the gentiles I know.
But when I think about the Jews I know who seem to have an edge in gray matter, there are some common denominators. They tend to come from loving and supporting families who hold high expectations of them. They come from environments where education is valued and sought after. They come from environments where hard work is the norm.
And guess what? The gentiles I know who have these advantages are just as successful and just as smart as their Jewish brethren.
I suspect it’s less genetics and more culture that explains why Jews might be ahead of the curve on intelligence. And any culture with a value system that produces educated, well grounded people with a good work ethic is going to produce smart people. Jewish or not.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:03 pmI think a better question is why are so many comedians Jewish?
I saw Jon Stewart at Caroline’s in NYC once (pre-Daily Show days) and it was the start of Passover and every single one of the five comedians that night were Jewish. I know that because every single one of them said something about the guilt they were feeling about working when they technically weren’t supposed to be.
They were also all very funny.
Comment by mary — October 30, 2007 @ 11:58 am
And that question could have been asked any time during the last 50 years in this country. If you’re not old enough to know what the Borscht Circuit is, google it.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:04 pmI am the product of an ages-long Bene Gesserit breeding program.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:05 pmHow about the “We didn’t waste our brain cycles on mental acrobatics such as trying to explain how the trinity is 3 beings, yet one” theory.
How about the fact that Jews don’t encourage mental feebleness in their religious sermons (when do you think the religious right has ever been asked to question their faith?), thus not provoking a downward spiral of intelligence?
Anyone who tries to look at this in a Darwinian sense doesn’t know what they are talking about. I’m a biochemist, and 2000 years isn’t enough time to get any real degree of divergence in lifeforms as complex as humans. These are just ludicrous statements.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:05 pmWhy would God chose one race above the others? And why did he wait until an Israeli state had developed(3000bc?) before chosing a people? None of the people before them were worth chosing? And aren’t we all supposedly God’s children? What does it mean to be chosen? Is it easier to get into heaven if you’re chosen?
Really, none of this chosen people crap makes any sense.
Now, what does make sense is that since that’s where the religion got started and these are the people that started it: they did the same thing most religions do and decided that, big surprise, they themselves were the chosen people!
October 30th, 2007 at 12:11 pmIf Jews are so smart , how come they couldn’t figure out how to get the hell out of a friggin’ desert for half a century ?
It wasn’t like they were surrounded by a force field…………
BTW
If Jews are so mentally superior , why is Asstwine living in the US ?
Why doesn’t he move to Israel and be amongst the “chosen people” that are so “doggone smart” ?
October 30th, 2007 at 12:14 pmBut seriously, Jews have a respect for learning. Intellectual pursuits are honored in Jewish families.
Unlike most Americans.
In a culture like France, in which bureaucrats write literary criticism and authors are lionized, the jews don’t have a reputation for unusual brilliance.
The simple answer? We make them look good. They’re pro-intellectuals in an anti-intellectual land.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:19 pmThe simple answer? We make them look good. They’re pro-intellectuals in an anti-intellectual land.
Comment by pbg —
Nail, meet head.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:21 pmIt all just sounds like racism to me.
And just because it’s in the bible doesn’t make it ok.
Just like slavery isn’t even though christians are told it’s ok in the bible:
However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)
Just like sexism isn’t even though christians are told it’s ok in the bible:
1 Timothy 2:9 - 15*
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
Just like gaybashing isn’t even though christians are told it’s ok in the bible:
“And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.”
2 Kings 23:7
Hmmm….. wait a second, I’m seeing a pattern here…
October 30th, 2007 at 12:25 pmBut they haven’t been perfected yet so they don’t count.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:31 pmIt seems to me that a big part of the reason that so much bigotry still exists in our society is because it has been enshrined in the bible.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:33 pmI have a feeling the AEI people thought they were being extremely complimentary to the Jews. Like when Karl Rove said Barack Obama was “articulate.”
October 30th, 2007 at 12:45 pmOy! Ein goyische chochem!
October 30th, 2007 at 12:55 pmDoc Rock; My Yiddish ain’t that good, but shouldn’t that be- Oy Veh!?
October 30th, 2007 at 1:35 pmIf you were surrounded for how many thousands of years by the goyim, you’d be smart or extinct.
October 30th, 2007 at 1:42 pmAnd does this open the door to say that other stereotypes (mostly negative) of Jews (and Blacks, and Irish and Italian, and ……..) are genetic.
Like mentioned above, can’t wait for the Daily Show tonight !
October 30th, 2007 at 2:08 pmSo, the real question to my mind is “Was this book prepared BEFORE or AFTER the authors saw the Family Guy episode, ‘When You Wish Upon a Weinstein’?”
October 30th, 2007 at 2:55 pmThe book’s thesis and the episode’s plot are not dissimilar.
Clearly, this piece was meant to amuse those folks with enough enlightenment to realize how absurd Murray’s premise is and how ridiculous the AEI looks for having a forum to discuss it. So, why is an imbecilic bigot like McMetal bothering to comment?
October 30th, 2007 at 3:15 pmRe “Oy” vs “Oy Vey.” I meant just “Oy;” however, it should have been “ayn” vs “ein.” Too much Hoch Deutsch in my head.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:42 pm1) What about Doug Feith? He’s Jewish, yet Gen Franks described him in a manner that suggests his doubts about the level of Mr. Feith’s intelligence.
2) I would recommend surfing over to Dovbear (http://dovbear.blogspot.com/) and reading some of the comments, especially by some of the folks who claim to be industrial-strength traditional Jews who study the Talmud a lot. This would demonstate that Mr. Murray doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:00 pmJews are inordinately strong in Left Brain thinking. Clever, mentally facile, but lacking in wisdom. Inordinate interest in commerce because over the generations of persecution it was their only route to survival. A strong need to manipulate because of tremendous underlying fear. They don’t trust any gentile and who could blame them. Smarter? No. A distinct lack of serenity and self esteem because they have bought into the Anti-Semitic myths. They could be compared to African-Americans in that regard. Sad.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:27 pm