A genetic history of the Jewish people

Dave Shafer CHJ

The Torah gives a lot of Jewish

genealogies that start with Noah

and go for many generations. But

this is not science, it is hearsay.

Here we will look at DNA evidence

to trace some of the long history of

the Jewish people.

DNA research on ancestry

is quite complicated and

very technical and has

nuances and fine points

that we will skip over to

give a simpler view of this

subject.

Much of this material comes from this 2012 book

by genetic scientist Harry Ostrer, M.D., Professor of

Pathology and Genetics at Albert Einstein College of

Medicine and Director of Genetic and Genomic

Testing at Montefiore Medical Center. He has spent

over 20 years researching Jewish genetic history.

Any discussion of racial differences is a highly charged

and possibly dangerous activity. Yet there is an

increasing amount of hard scientific genetic facts that

throw much light on Jewish history as well as that of

other groups. Why should this be suppressed? Should it

be? We will discuss this after this talk. Genetic research

can reveal surprising things about our distant past.

Neanderthal man takes a selfie.

Neanderthals were very similar to

us, but with 13% larger brains than

us. Like us, when nude they always

walked with the right leg forward, to

conceal the naughty bits.

Recent genetic studies have shown that most of us

are about 3% Neanderthal in our genetic makeup, due

to this mixing shown here. But none of sub-Saharan

Africa has any and the Basques in the Pyrenees have

more than us. Genetics can show the history of a

population group’s travels very long ago.

People with an anti-Jewish and/or anti Israel

agenda can look toward this new and evolving

information in hopes of finding ammunition against

– for example – the idea of an ancient Jewish

historical “right” to the land of Israel.

Any information about innate differences

between races can lead to bad outcomes, as history

has painfully shown. But within the Jewish

community this material can lead to a better

understanding of the long span of Jewish history,

with its many separate diasporas.

At CHJ and SHJ, whether you were born Jewish

or came to Judaism, this material here ought to be

of interest as part of one’s general education about

all things Jewish.

Maurice Fishberg was a

physical anthropologist

in NYCity and wrote

this classic study in

1911. Today most

geneticists carefully

avoid the word “race”

and use euphemisms

which mean exactly the

same thing.

Jewish genetics

The extreme crowding of living and

working conditions on the Lower East Side

led many to think that these Jewish

immigrants were an unhealthy presence in

the city, with TB and other illnesses being

rampant. And that therefore Jewish

immigration should be reduced.

Maurice Fishberg set out to find the facts,

using census and medical records. The facts

proved to be the opposite to the popular

beliefs. Jewish TB rates were much less

than those of surrounding ethnic “ghettos”

in New York. He speculated that this might

be due to eating kosher food and fewer risk

factors like syphilis and alcoholism.

Annual TB deaths by ward in

New York City, 1897-1899

Lowest TB rates were

in wards 10, 11, and

13, where the % of

Jews was the highest

Was there something special about the

Jews who came to America, from other

countries, to account for this unexpectedly

good health statistic? Fishberg did more

research.

Why was Jewish

health better than

that of gentiles?

It turns out that world-

wide, back in the early 1900s,

Jews outlived Christians

everywhere. In Budapest the

life expectancy was 37 for

Jews, 26 for Christians (much

infant mortality) while in

London it was 49 years for

Jews, 37 for Christians.

Despite a low birth rate this

longevity (due to several

causes, like better hygiene,

kosher food preparation, etc. )

led to an increase in Jewish

populations.

Tsk! Tsk! Smoking is bad for you

Using the crude tools at his disposal,

Maurice Fishberg, back in the early 1900s,

started to do some basic research on a very

simple question - who are these people, the

Jews, his people? And associated with that

is the age-old question – who is a Jew?

Fishberg started out by looking for easily

measurable physical aspects of Jewish

people (eye color, hair color, head shapes,

etc.) and assembled some statistics that

sometimes led to surprising conclusions.

Fishberg approached his studies as a

scientist, with an open mind. Decades later

the Nazis would do their own studies of

this type, with a racist agenda that was

happy to fudge data to suit their pre-

existing opinions.

Fishberg measured the cephalic

index (ratio of head height to width)

of several thousand New York

Jews, both men and women. 40

years later the Nazis would make

their own measurements as part of

their racial purity campaign.

Jewish men showed a sharp peak in their data,

sharper than other ethnic groups, implying a tighter

genetic base and little intermarriage. Jewish

women showed two separate peaks, implying two

different genetic strains.

Head shape data

Fishberg also considered the status of blonde or red

head Jews – was this evidence of intermarriage? But

the Torah talks of several red headed Jews –King

David, Esau, and others. And blue eyes and fair skin

may also go back millennia in the Jewish genetic

makeup.

Woody Allen as

a Hassid in

Annie Hall

Worldwide about 4%

of Jews have red or

auburn hair,

especially beards in

men. About 20% of

Jews have blue eyes,

with a lot of country

variability. Here is

movie star Kirk

Douglas, with blue

eyes and auburn hair.

He was born Issur

Danielovitch from

Russian Jews

Young Kirk and his 6 sisters

Maurice Fishberg, 100 years ago, thought that

Jews were a distinct group in appearance and

said that “One can pick out a Jew from a

thousand non-Jews without difficulty” If that is

true it is probably only true of Jews recognizing

other Jews. Maybe there is sometimes a Jewish

expression, more than distinctive facial features,

that other Jews can recognize. This expression

may come from life experiences.

There was a Get Smart episode where two Arab

KAOS agents dressed in sheik's robes were

rhapsodizing about the impending destruction of

several free world capitals:

ARAB 1: "New York."

ARAB 2: "Gone!"

ARAB 1: "London."

ARAB 2: "Vaporized!"

ARAB 1: "Paris"

ARAB 2: "Obliterated!"

ARAB 1: "Tel Aviv"

ARAB 2: "Uh, no. Not Tel Aviv."

ARAB 1: "Why not?"

ARAB 2 whispers something in ARAB 1's ear.

ARAB 1: "Funny, you don't look it."

The old joke with the punch line “That’s funny, you don’t look

Jewish” goes back to the early 1900s and was a staple in vaudeville

and early TV. But I remember as a kid in the 1950s watching Myron

Cohen (I think) on the Ed Sullivan show tell this old joke – and he

changed the key word to “German” instead of “Jewish”. A joke told

with a heavy Yiddish accent but the word “Jew” was never

mentioned.

The classic question – “who is a Jew?”

When George W. Bush was president Hu became premier of China. Here is an imagined conversation, back then, between Bush and Marty, a

Jewish aide.

Bush – “You look pensive Marty, what’s on your mind?”

Marty – “Who is a Jew?”

Bush – “What? You’re kidding! He certainly looks Chinese to me!”

Marty – “Who?”

Bush – “Hu”

Marty – That’s what I said – “Who?”

Bush – “I’m saying, Hu doesn’t look Jewish!”

Marty - “Who doesn’t look Jewish? - What an odd thing to say!”

Bush - “Hu looks Chinese”

Marty – “Who looks Chinese? Sorry boss, I’m just not following you here. Etc. Etc.

(Credit here is due to playwright Jim Sherman for this concept)

The Nazis had no trouble answering the question “Who is a Jew” and considered all possible

family tree variations. For them it was purely genetic. These are the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

In some rare instances

a Jew could be given

the status of an

“honorary Aryan by

marriage” when the

gentile spouse was a

very important person.

An extremely rare pristine copy of a Nazi-

prepared picture book for school children,

showing them how to recognize Jews and the

dangers they posed. Here the Jewish man is

offering them candy and says you can have more

if you come with me. Fishberg found that the

stereotype with the hooked nose was actually

rare in his survey of NYCity Jewish immigrants

from all over Europe.

The book, called “The

Poisonous Mushroom” warned

that Jews are like poisonous

mushrooms, that children

should stay far from.

From the same Nazi children’s book. A

lecherous Jewish doctor is about to examine

and then abuse a pure German girl. She

bashes him in the face and runs away. A

different page in the book homes in on the

Jewish nose as a sure way to spot those who

children should stay far away from. Note here

his exaggerated nose.

These days the internet

makes it much easier for anti-

Semites to inform the public

how to spot Jews by sight – it

is that telling Neanderthal

look. But did the Neanderthals

wear glasses?

Of course you have to be

careful with info you get from

the internet. Reality is often

somewhat different from what

you find there. For example,

you may read on the internet

that the North Korean air force

has launched a training

exercise. But shown here is the

reality. Online anti-Semitic

rants depend on an uncritical

acceptance of their “facts”.

My info on Jewish genetics

comes from multiple reliable

sources and not primarily the

internet.

Some early genetic results have had to be revised

due to more sophisticated analysis techniques.

The field is still evolving and it is a good idea to

take a skeptical stance towards what you see on

the internet about genetic research.

South Korea is 99.9% Korean and .1%

Chinese. North Korea is probably

100.000% Korean and has a very proud

view of itself as an extreme of racial purity.

Race has always been a very charged

topic world-wide. In the Torah (Numbers

12:1) we read that Moses had a black wife

and his sister Miriam spoke of this is a

denigrating way. Later we will hear about

the flip side of that coin.

Genetic heritage is just one possible way

to think about being Jewish. CHJ and SHJ

do not consider it relevant, if one self-

identifies as a Jew.

Feelings of racial

“purity” often go hand in

hand with feelings of

superiority. That 0.1% of

South Korea that is Chinese

really dilutes the gene pool

and makes North Korea

clearly the place to be.

When it first came out a

few years ago about our

Neanderthal genetic

material some black South

Africans, who have none of

it, proclaimed that they

were the only ones 100%

human.

Now, over 100 years after

Fishberg’s pioneering studies,

we have DNA analysis to give

new data. We can read the

human genetic code and look

for genetic hints about Jewish

history.

For example, the European

population group most closely

related to Ashkenazi Jews are

…..the Italians, specifically

northern Italians! Stay tuned

for the explanation, which is

complicated.

Probably not what you were expecting - it is not Russia, or Poland, or Hungary,

the Czech Republic, or Germany. It is northern Italy!

It is easy to assume that in ancient times

the Jews wandered out of Israel and went

directly to Fiddler on the Roof shtetls in

Poland and Russia. Genetic evidence,

however, shows that a much more likely

scenario involves going from Israel to Italy,

hanging around Rome for a very long time,

intermarrying with local Italian women, and

then eventually settling Northern Europe and

then Eastern Europe and Russia. Not what

you would think.

Overall, at least 80 percent of Ashkenazi

maternal ancestry comes from women

indigenous to Europe, and 8 percent from the

Near East, with the rest uncertain, the

researchers estimate. But there is some

dispute about the actual % values.

We inherit genetic material

from both our father and our

mother and it is an amazing fact

of genetics that these two inputs

can be traced back separately

thousands of years.

Many people find it surprising

that human evolution is still

proceeding, and at a rate far faster

than what one might expect.

Mutations, like lactose tolerance –

which most of the world does not

possess – can arise and become

dominant in a population group in

just a few thousand years. There

have been some genetic changes

involving resistance to certain

diseases, in some population

groups, that have happened within

historical times.

Rome has one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities in the world – over

2000 years of history. Roman Jews are fond of saying that they are neither

Ashkenazi or Sephardic, because they predate those two dispersals of Jews

outwards from Italy over 1000 years ago. They lack some of the disease mutations

that later occurred among the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities elsewhere,

after they were expelled from Rome.

The ancient Roman empire included Israel as well as Egypt

(think Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra). Jewish wars

of rebellion, put down by Rome, resulted in many Jewish

slaves being taken to Rome. In Egypt the city of Alexandria

was a great commerce center and Jewish traders there often

went to Rome and sometimes settled there.

Shortly before Christianity began there was much Jewish

proselytizing (surprised by this!?) and many converts were

made as well as a lot of intermarriage. The word “proselyte”

originally meant a convert to Judaism. At one time an

estimated 10% of the Roman Empire was Jewish, mostly

converts! (That’s funny, you don’t look …..). But that

rapidly changed once Christian persecution started.

We know about Chabad

proselytizing but don’t think

of this as also something

from the distant Jewish past.

Intermarriage has made it difficult to discover any

simple genetic story about long-term Jewish history,

migrations, etc. This table here shows a recent

survey but it would be a mistake to think that

intermarriage is a relatively recent phenomenon.

From biblical times onward any time Jews are in

any place for any time span there is always some

intermarriage. Including some rather unlikely ones.

We don’t know what she was thinking but we

certainly know what he was thinking.

It would be

interesting to see

divorce rates of

mixed-marriage

couples for

Orthodox,

Conservative and

Reform groups.

Throughout Jewish history converts have

played a very important role. The biblical

character of Ruth was a convert and she was

the great grandmother of the great King

David, whose descendants are supposed to

include the Messiah when he comes.

Bill ponders going kosher

If Queen Esther had children with King Ahasuerus

they would have been half-Jewish by birth and gone

into the Jewish genetic pool.

In the interest of space we will

focus here almost exclusively on

Ashkenazi Jews and not cover

Sephardic Jews or Mizrahi-

Iranian Jews, the other two

distinct genetic groups.

Some famous

Jews with one or

two Sephardic

parents. Spinoza,

Disraeli, Pissarro,

Pasternak,

Hayworth, Dylan,

Seinfeld.

Mormons claim that

Native Americans are

very distant Jewish

descendants of the

biblical Joseph and were

transported here to the

USA by the hand of God

a few thousand years

ago. It is well known

that Native American

DNA indicates that they

came from Siberia as

well as very solid

archaeological evidence

for a route across the

Bering Strait land bridge

near Alaska. There is

almost no DNA overlap

with Jewish DNA.

Yet Mormon scientists have put forth ingenious

arguments to explain this clear contradiction between

their faith and genetic facts. Some of it is very

technical while other ideas include a route into here

through Central America and then very extensive

genetic mixing with the much larger existing

populations. Here we will take no position on this but

will not be including the Sioux in our discussion of the

Jew. See this link here for more about the Mormons.

http://www.slideshare.net/elderdavidmarques/dna-and-

the-book-of-mormon-by-david-g-stewart-jr?related=2

Sioux Jew

Ashkenazi Jewish men have a complicated mix of genetic

strains that indicate ancient Near Eastern origins mixed with

people from the Russian steppes, and then Eastern Europe (more

recently). Ashkenazi Jewish women, however, have a distinctly

different genetic heritage – small Near Eastern strains and mostly

Central Europe population types. Remember our earlier slide

showing head shapes and how Jewish woman had two different

data peaks, unlike the single one of men.

It may be that Jewish men leaving the Near East in ancient

times partly intermarried with local populations during their

migration into Europe, along a southern route. They then settled

a lot in Italy and the Vatican in Rome had a large Jewish

population for a long time. After some of this intermarriage with

local Italian women they were eventually expelled from Rome

and Italy, over 1000 years ago, and moved north into Germany

and into Eastern Europe, like Poland and parts of Russia. There

the Ashkenazi settled for a long time until the Holocaust.

A Turkish-Mongol king converted to Judaism, about 1200 years ago, and then by fiat made his whole country convert. But this did not last long and neither Ashkenazi men or women have much of a genetic strain from that population group. The writer Arthur Koestler wrote an influential book –“The 13th Tribe” in which he speculated that Ashkenazi Jews were mostly descendants from these Khazars and were not genetically related to biblical Jews. Recent genetic analysis shows that he was wrong, although there are some Khazar lineages but it is not a major component. It mainly shows up in the Levites but not the Cohens.

Our story has complicated chapters

As Europe expelled the Jews,

sometimes more than once, they often

moved into Eastern Europe and

Russia into an area known as the Pale.

After a few hundred

years of living in the

Pale, some intermarriage

with local people led the

Ashkenazi to acquire

some of that genetic

material.

Here you see some of

the movement out of

Europe as the Jews were

expelled in waves from

different countries.

It is estimated that in the 11th century Ashkenazi Jews composed only three percent of the

world's Jewish population (most Jews were still in the Near East or in Spain) while at their peak in

1931 they accounted for 92 percent of the world's Jews. Immediately prior to the Holocaust, the

number of Jews in the world stood at approximately 16.7 million. The contemporary population

of Ashkenazi Jews is between 10 and 11 million. In a rough calculation of Sephardic and Mizrahi

(Iranian) Jews it looks like Ashkenazi make up a definite majority of Jews worldwide.

Holocaust death

toll, as a fraction of

Jewish population

Mixed marriages have always

been more common than popular

belief. In the German Empire

between 1901 and 1907 about 19%

of all Jewish marriages were

mixed. In Amsterdam, with a

sizable Orthodox population,

between 1902 and 1903 it was 15%

of Jewish marriages. Today there

is only 2% Orthodox intermarriage.

Some genetic sensitivities or illnesses are very specific to Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jews. Some

Sephardic Jews are highly sensitive to fava beans and can have a fatal reaction. For one person

simply smelling fava plant flowers made him ill. Ashkenazi Jews have no reaction at all. There

are sometimes evolutionary correlations between the genes that result in these medical

susceptibilities and resistance to malaria or other diseases.

The prevalence of “stub thumbs”- missing a joint, was once though to be common among Jews.

It is not and is actually twice as common among Arabs. The subject of specific Jewish diseases

like Tay-Sachs is a big one and will not be covered here.

Actor Sasha Baron Cohen, is a Cohen – from the traditional priestly class. The

distinctive Cohen genetic lineage is estimated to have started about 4,400 years ago.

The Lemba people of Zimbabwe were found to share this some of this genetic history. They trace their

origin to Yemen. Recent studies have tempered somewhat this dramatic story. Although they definitely

have a considerable Semitic genetic heritage, this is not necessarily the same as a Jewish one. Some of

their cultural and religious practices could have an Islamic source. Kosher and halal are not that different.

There is some ambiguity in the genetic evidence to specifically tie them to the Cohens, contrary to the

initial press coverage of this story, due to more sophisticated recent genetic testing 13 years after the

original results. But there may be bias on the part of some researchers, for religious or political reasons.

And the weight of other evidence is heavily towards a distant Jewish origin. It is certain that none of the

Lemba women have any Semitic lineage, so the Orthodox do not consider them or their children Jewish.

The Levites (from the

tribe of Levi) were one

step down from the

Kohain (Cohen) in

religious importance.

They had certain tasks

like transporting the

Ark of the Covenant,

some Temple duties,

animal sacrifices, etc.

Moses was a Levite. Recent genetic analysis of Ashkenazi Levis (family name) has shown that their

lineage does not have a clear path as far back as the Cohens. In fact they, today, have multiple

genetic origins that depend on the Diaspora community from which they originally came. This

means that some Ashkenazi Levites are definitely not genetically related to the original Near East

biblical Levites and are probably descendants of ancient converts – like the Khazars. The is not true

of Sephardic Levites, who have a much closer genetic connection to the biblical Levites.

This clearly shows the hazards of looking too closely into one’s genetic family tree. Unwelcome

results may appear. At CHJ and SHJ all that counts is self-identification with the Jewish people.

I hope this material

that has been given

here is acceptable to

Jews everywhere on

the religious

spectrum.

New York, originally called New Amsterdam

by its Dutch settlers, was filled with waves of

Jewish immigrants. First by Sephardic Jews

escaping the Inquisition in Brazil. Then later

by German Jews, then lastly by Polish/Russian

Jews.

Genetic analysis of current residents today

can easily trace these influxes.

The genetic ancestor testing result that you

can get commercially is kind of like ordering a

mail order bride. The results can be surprising,

not what you had in mind, and maybe are not

very reliable. These ancestry places generally

look at only a small fraction of the possible

relevant genetic data, in order to keep the

analysis costs low. The information here,

however, is based on a much more

sophisticated genetic analysis and takes many

different genetic markers into account.

Jews excel in certain types

of intelligence but do worse

than gentiles in spatial

relations ability

Ashkenazi Jews score higher

on IQ tests than any other

ethnic group.

A 1958 survey of yeshiva students found an average verbal IQ of 125

Although Ashkenazi Jews make up 2.2% of

the US population they make up 30% of the

faculty at elite colleges and 21% of Ivy

League students. About 50% of chess

grandmasters are Jewish, like Bobby Fischer

here.

Music ability is partly genetically determined. Just before the Russian

Revolution Jews made up 5% of the Russian population but 50% of the students in

St. Petersburg Music Conservatory. In Odessa the situation became absurd. In

1916 in their music conservatory 80% of the students were Jewish. Officials

reacted by establishing an affirmative action scholarship program for gentiles.

The three greatest pianists of the 19th century are generally agreed to have been

Carl Tausig, Anton Rubenstein and Franz Liszt, shown here from left to right.

Tausig and Rubenstein were Jewish. Tausig worked very closely with Richard

Wagner and lived with the Wagner family for years. Liszt was Wagner’s father-in-

law.

A brief interesting digression, not related to Jewish topics. If you know what to

look for it is possible to tell at a glance from the outside surface of the brain whether

it belongs to a violinist or a pianist. A violinist develops a distinctive fold at a

certain position on the surface of the right brain lobe and a pianist develops one at a

similar position on the surface of the left lobe. Amazing!

If there are more Jewish “geniuses”, as a percentage,

than are in other groups what could be the reason?

There are two possibilities. One is a broader IQ bell

curve than normal but with the normal average = 100

That is the case with Scottish men and women and it

gives more Scottish men than women geniuses because

the men’s bell curve extends out further on both ends.

But the average IQ is the same for both = 100

The other possibility that would give a

disproportionate amount of high IQ Jews is if

The Jewish IQ bell curve has the same width as

that of the general population but a slightly higher

average than 100. It only takes a small shift in the

average, such as to 105, to make a big difference

in the percentage with very high IQs. In fact

Ashkenazi Jews in general have an average that is

about 112 compared to the general European

population. 4 out of every 1,000 Northern

Europeans is 140+ IQ, but 23 out of every 1,000

Jews is 140+, or 6 times higher percentage. In

America the Ashkenazi average is more like 108

compared to the general American population. In

a 1954 study of the NYCity schools, 28 students

were identified with an IQ above 170, which is

extraordinarily high. 24 of the 28 were Jewish.

Very high IQ

IQ

% of population

You can see that at a particular high IQ value the

% value height of the blue curve is several times

higher than that of the red curve. This ratio

becomes more pronounced as you go to higher and

higher IQ values. Yet the two curves are not

dramatically different in their average values.

General

populationJews

It is very likely that the most brilliant mind in all of human history was that of John Von Neumann (1903-1957), a genius

in many fields, a child prodigy, and a polymath who was born into a wealthy Hungarian Jewish family. Fluent in Latin and

Greek at the age of 6 he could also then divide 8 digit numbers in his head. He had massive memorization ability with

essentially total recall and could effortlessly recite at will whole books he had read years earlier. He made major

contributions to many branches of mathematics and physics, invented game theory and computer science. He was a key

member of the team that developed the atom bomb in the Manhattan project. He could instantly perform complex

mathematical calculations in his head and with a speed that stunned famous genius-level colleagues. Einstein was truly a

piker in brilliance compared to Von Neumann and Einstein’s contributions were just to physics while Von Neumann made

very important advances in math, physics, economics, computers and other fields. Every famous physicist or

mathematician who knew him said that he had the fastest and most brilliant mind they had ever met. He was a great wit

and liked to play practical jokes on Einstein, when they were both at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Edward Teller, father of the H-bomb and famous as a genius in his own right said that he could never begin to keep up

with Von Neumann. Nobel Prize wining physicist Hans Bethe said "I have sometimes wondered whether a brain like von

Neumann's does not indicate a species superior to that of man“

In his personal life he was very sociable and liked to throw big parties. He liked to drive - often while reading a book,

was a fancy dresser, married twice, loved to eat and drink and liked Jewish jokes.

In the endless nature versus nurture debate it is still not clear what role each plays in these high

Ashkenazi IQ values. Furthermore Sephardic Jews do not have this characteristic. But more and

more genetics is showing that IQ is mostly hereditary. Identical twins separated at birth and

raised separately clearly shows this. Various theories have been put forth about how natural

selection over centuries may have had a role in emphasizing the genetic component.

• The survival advantage of high IQ in a hazardous anti-

Semitic environment may have resulted in this being

reinforced over many generations, through Darwin’s

natural selection (an awful term when applied to

people).

• Jewish culture placed high value on learning. High IQ

makes one much more of a marriage catch, resulting in

more and earlier children than poor marriage

prospects.

• The few trades allowed to Jews (finance, medicine)

rewarded math and science aptitudes.

You may have thought that all those young yeshiva boys and

nerdy Asian students who are wearing glasses are doing so

because their vision changed because of all those many hours

studying books at close reading distance. Recent research has

shown, however, a correlation between high IQ and early vision

problems. In fact, it seems to be genetic and high IQ children

have it before they start to read and they need glasses early.

Of course being a

smart person with

musical ability does

not also make you a

good person. It is a

very perilous bridge

to cross to try to go

from genetic data of a

group to speculations

about individuals.

The historical hazards of considering race above individual

characteristics are well known. I only got about 6 feet out on

this bridge here, in Germany, before quickly turning back. I

hope that this talk today has also managed to steer clear of

most of the missteps that one might make.

This topic of IQ is very controversial and emotionally charged. It might be that cultural

differences (the nurture part of nature versus nurture) explain a lot of the IQ differences

among different ethnic groups. But recent science tends very much to not support that

idea. It might be that there are some areas of knowledge that are best left unexplored.

Furthermore, there is a lot more to a person than just their IQ. That is a great lead in to

our discussion, which starts now.

All views should be allowed airtime

Please note that this whole slideshow

has only been about Jewish genetics

and not about culturally transmitted

traits - like hypochondria, anxiety,

non-athleticism, etc. or about what

makes for being a mensch.