Kesher Talk

Genetics. A recent study purports to find a genetic basis for Ashkenazi smarts. This is not a new supposition, but the researchers claim to have verifiable evidence, which I am not qualified to judge. But there is so much evidence that intelligence is malleable that I tend to favor nurture over nature arguments. I put forth a few of these in one comment thread:

Jews prize scholarship, but this goes beyond just subsidizing the studies and genes of the smartest young men.

For centuries all male and some female children were taught to read, in places where the vast majority of the population was illiterate. All males were expected to study Torah and Talmud at least a bit. Talmud study is very intellectually demanding; it's like tort law, history, folk tales, homilies, and spiritual riddles all rolled into one. Often women would run small businesses so their husbands could study, so women had to know basic math and be able to read, even if they didn't go to yeshiva like the men. Also they would be very assertive (which gets stereotyped into "domineering" and "pushy.")

Children are encouraged to ask questions. Torah and Talmud study is traditionally done in "chevruta": pairs of students reading and discussing the text together. Any pedagogue will tell you this is an excellent method to get students to really engage with the material. Until recently almost all Jews spoke at least two and often more languages.

Also, a persecuted minority which wants to survive as a culture REALLY values its children. They are treated with great affection and concern. At an extreme, this is smothering, but in general it enhances the kid's self confidence and intelligence.

Since the Enlightenment Jews encouraged their children to attend university, Jewish immigrants in Western countries have been similar to Asian immigrants in pressuring all the children to get good grades and advanced degrees, and sacrificing to support their children's academic and professional careers.

With this kind of culture you don't need genetics to explain intellectual achievement. In fact, somebody wrote a book about 10 yrs ago on "how to raise your kids the Jewish way." He went through all these cultural practices, which are not universal in Jewish families, but ARE pretty common. They are stereotypes which are for the most part true. His thesis wasa that "these child-rearing methods will produce self-confident smart kids and you don't have to be Jewish to use them." Talk about philo-semitic!

I browsed that book at a used book store in Austin about eight years ago; I regret that I didn't buy it, because I have not been able to track it down since.

More discussion here.

Thomas Sowell and Amy Chua have also written on how the values of an ethnic culture influence choices of profession, achievement, and wealth. What is striking in the numerous examples they cite is just how pervasive and persistent cultural values are, and how inadequate intelligence tests are at measuring anything innate.

UPDATE: Intelligence is not the only malleable cultural characteristic:

I did a research project in junior high school that required me to go through old periodicals such as Newsweek and Time. I found an article from the 20s or 30s (I think but am not sure it was one or the other) that tried to explain why Jews were better than Gentiles at - you guessed it: Basketball!!!

More on cultural factors from Corner readers:

I do believe it was in their most recent book that Stephen and Abigail Thernstrom did some research that would shed light on your current Corner topic. Though I didn't read the book, I do know that they discussed how many different geographic (and, I'd imagine, also genetically distinct) groups of Jews throughout history have all maintained a strong cultural affinity for learning. Apparently the first Jews to start establishing themselves in Russia showed up as somewhat of a footnote in the first Czarist census, remarking that even amongst the poorer classes, Jews had far more books in their homes and were far more literate than anyone else.

The real money line that I recall from the book was in an interview (I think on CSPAN) when Abigail was asked why Jews do so well on standardized tests: "Because they've been studying for them for 8,000 years."

Heh.

Also, the various discussions note how scholars have long been the most prized matrimonial matches in traditional Jewish life. (This is still true in Orthodox communities, and even in liberal, more secular Jewish circles, highly educated men are considered most desirable.) However, no one has mentioned that the daughters of rabbis - especially famously learned rabbis - were considered the most desirable brides. Rabbinic dynasties for the most part married each other, and this is still true in the frum world.

UPDATE: According to this article the genetic sciences establishment is pretty skeptical.

UPDATE: More here.

posted by Judith @ 6/06/2005 12:13:00 PM