My peeps are smarter than your peeps

Oh, to have been in DC on Monday when the author of Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People spoke at the American Enterprise Institute. The discussion centered around the supposed genetic predisposition of Jewish people to be smarty-pants. (That's a very technical term, you know!) :)

The average IQ of Ashkenazi Jews is 107 to 115, well above the human average of 100.

But what if the genes that make us smart also make us sick? I never thought about it this way, but the Jewish population of the world is one of the most in-bred groups in existence. Makes sense, though, with all of our mothers urging us to find a "nice Jewish boy," or avoid the "shiksas." ;)

The question is, are we all smart because our genetics have made that happen? Or are we smart because the Jewish culture & religion place a heavy value on study and learning? Or is it a combination of both? And are we smarter at the expense of being less coordinated? or even at the expense of our health? (Tay-Sachs, anyone?)

Supposedly, Jews are deficient in visio-spatial skills, possibly because their brains allot extra space for verbal intelligence.

I know I'm a klutz... a smart, Ashkenazi Jewish klutz! Mozart, Einstein, (Leonard Nimoy) and me! What does Nimoy have to do with it, you ask? The "live long and prosper" Vulcan gesture made by Spock in "Star Trek" was apparently a symbol used by Jewish high priests, that he learned in synagogue. [See, there's a reason to go to shul!]

So the next time I bump into something, or find a bruise I didn't know I had, I'll remember that clumsiness is the price I pay for having extra-powerful brain cells. ;)

(And yes, I understand the inherent racial undertones of this whole mess, which, as someone at the AEI event pointed out, is how so many people have come to hate us. But that's another topic for another day.)