Ever since I wrote the article, JEWISH NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS…..Why So Many?  back in October 2007, it has generated a healthy amount of heated on and offline debate.

One of the commenters reminded me of Charles Murray, co-author of the controversial book,  The Bell Curve and his article titled “Jewish Genius.”

Murray takes notice that of all of the articles published in Commentary magazine on Jews and Judaism, there has not been one discussion of one of the most obvious topics of all: the extravagant overrepresentation of Jews, relative to their numbers, in the top ranks of the arts, sciences, law, medicine, finance, entrepreneurship, and the media.

In the Jewish Genius article, Charles Murray covers three topics: the timing and nature of Jewish accomplishment, focusing on the arts and sciences; elevated Jewish IQ as an explanation for that accomplishment; and current theories about how the Jews acquired their elevated IQ.

Murray begins with the contributionsJews have made during various “ages” throughout history stating that, “the sparse representation of Jews during the flowering of the European arts and sciences is not hard to explain. They were systematically excluded, both by legal restrictions on the occupations they could enter and by savage social discrimination. Then came legal emancipation, beginning in the late 1700’s in a few countries and completed in Western Europe by the 1870’s, and with it one of the most extraordinary stories of any ethnic group at any point in human history.”

“As soon as Jewish children born under legal emancipation had time to grow to adulthood, they started appearing in the first ranks of the arts and sciences. During the four decades from 1830 to 1870, when the first Jews to live under emancipation reached their forties, 16 significant Jewish figures appear. In the next four decades, from 1870 to 1910, the number jumps to 40. During the next four decades, 1910–1950, despite the contemporaneous devastation of European Jewry, the number of significant figures almost triples, to 114.”

He continues, “from 1870 to 1950, Jewish representation in literature was four times the number one would expect. In music, five times. In the visual arts, five times. In biology, eight times. In chemistry, six times. In physics, nine times. In mathematics, twelve times. In philosophy, fourteen times.”

What accounts for this remarkable record? A full answer must call on many characteristics of Jewish culture, but intelligence has to be at the center of the answer. Jews have been found to have an unusually high mean intelligence as measured by IQ tests since the first Jewish samples were tested.

In fact, New York City’s public-school system used to administer a pencil-and-paper IQ test to its entire school population. In 1954, a psychologist used those test results to identify all 28 children in the New York public-school system with measured IQ’s of 170 or higher. Of those 28, 24 were Jews.

Murray expounds on the several theories he has as to why Jews throughout history have excelled in many different cultures and geographic locales. For a more in depth accounting I urge you to read “Jewish Genius.”

Whatever you may believe concerning the inordinate amount of Jewish Nobel Prize winners or superior IQs there is enough historical data to raise serious questions and debate.

One question and answer that I remember hearing throughtout my own life was:
Q – Who are the three most influential people of the 20th century?
A – Sigmund Frued, Karl Marx, and Albert Einstein ….. ALL JEWS!

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE:

Colorado: Jewish intelligence, Sept. 9 - The Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado will offer a program on "The Natural History of Jewish Intelligence - Benefits and Costs." Denver University professor emeritus of psychology Bernard Spilka, who has written on psychology and …

Henry Ford wrote about the Jewish intelligence: - "The genius of the Jew is to live off people; not off land, nor off the production of commodities from raw material, but off people. Let other people till the soil; the Jew, if he can, will live off the tiller. …

Outrage as Jewish newspapers ban pictures of Israel’s new PM … - … intelligence, integrity – a different kind of politician who represents the feminine side of politics.’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1059789/Outrage-Jewish-newspapers-ban-pictures-Israels-new-PM-shes-woman.html …