Nathan Cofnas's Jewish Apologetics (rebuttals to K. MacDonald)

[Archie]

Cofnas has been getting attention lately due to his involvement in the Jason Arday scandal. This prompted me to revisit his debates with Kevin MacDonald on the Jewish question. In 2018, Cofnas published a paper in an academic journal responding in detail to MacDonald (note that MacDonald was a professor and all three books in his trilogy were originally published by Praeger, an academic publisher). This resulted in a reply by MacDonald, which generated replies to the replies, and so on.

For the full exchange, see here:
https://nathancofnas.com/debate-with-kevin-macdonald/
https://www.kevinmacdonald.net/replies.htm

Likely few people have read this entire, excruciating back-and-forth. But the main ideas are of interest and can be boiled down.

Cofnas's "Default" Hypothesis

Cofnas is a right-wing "race realist" and his arguments reflect that worldview. It's telling that the only serious rebuttal of MacDonald has to take a tack that is normally not allowed. Cofnas concedes Jewish overrepresentation (usually a big no-no) and argues essentially that this is to be expected on HBD grounds using Bell Curve style arguments (another no-no). His basic argument is that things that anti-Semites blame on "Jews" are explained mostly by IQ and "geography"/urbanism. He calls this the "default" hypothesis.

Individual Counterexamples

Cofnas also spends a lot of time pointing out that there are individual Jews on every side of an issue, often in key leadership roles of opposing positions, and these in his view serve as counterexamples to MacDonald's theory. Cofnas is of course correct that at the individual level, all bets are off. Some Jews become anti-Semites, anti-Zionists, Holocaust deniers, etc. And a few of them might even be sincere! But so what? The relevant question is what the overall net impact is of Jews as a group. Cleary someone has been supporting Zionism. Founding a new country that was already inhabited is not something that just happens. That some Jewish intellectuals are nominally against Israel in some totally ineffectual way (probably because they couldn't maintain credibility if they were open hypocrites) is really neither here nor there. A good rule of thumb here would be that the side that actually gets its way is the real Jewish position.

The Jewish Question - Big Picture

Cofnas also complains about falsifiability along the lines of "oh, no matter what Jews do you'll say it's some Jewish agenda." In a way, yes! The idea that Jews generally support Jewish interests in my mind is an obviously true statement that is true pretty much by definition, and it's crazy to me that Cofnas wants to spend tens of thousands of words contesting this.

Below is my attempt to summarize "the Jewish Question" as concisely as possible.

1) Jews promote Jewish interests (self-evident)
2) Jews are REALLY good at promoting those interests (this point could be expanded by with discussion of dominance of finance, media and other nodes of power)
3) Jewish interests are often in conflict with the interests of their Gentile host populations
4) Because of 3, they often must attempt to conceal or deny their activities (or say that the people doing a certain thing are only coincidently Jewish)

They are basically like a political and cultural apex predator or invasive species. (I know that sounds harsh, but I think it fits). The Cofnas critique appears to me to be mostly an attempt to stall the discussion at point #1 forever. Because he deconstructs the very idea of group interests, he has no framework for discussing conflicts of interest among groups (#3).

Appendix on Jewish IQ

For some background reading on Jewish/Ashkenazi IQ, see the two articles below. The first argues for an average of around 110 based on a meta-analysis. The second argues that the numbers are not well established and that there are not many good datasets with actual IQ tests on representative samples of Jews.

"Pinpointing Jewish IQ," by Cremieux Recueil, 28 Dec 2023
https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/pinpointing-jewish-iq

"The Myth of Jewish High IQ," by Neema Parvini (AKA Academic Agent), 26 Nov 2021
https://forbiddentexts.substack.com/p/t ... sh-high-iq

While there is no conclusive figure for average Jewish IQ, I will go ahead and assume it's 110 (+2/3 SD) just to show that even assuming this is true, it would not explain the overrepresentation that we see.

Assumptions: Jewish Mean =110, SD=15; Gentile Mean =100, SD=15; Jews = 2% of the population (Gentiles 98%)

We can calculate the Jewish share of the pool above a given threshold.

115+ - 4.5% Jewish
130+ - 7.6% Jewish
145+ - 12.9% Jewish
160+ - 21.7% Jewish

If we test out different means in the range of 107-117, the 160 share would range from 12% to 57% (so it's highly sensitive to the mean). The range for the 130 share would be 5.3%-14.8%. A good intuitive way to think about this is as follows: An IQ of 130 is roughly the top 2% of the overall population. Well, that means there are about the same number of 130 IQ people as there are Jews. And Jews certainly are not all 130+, so Gentiles must predominate at that level just by sheer numbers. Only with a high mean and very extreme threshold would Jews begin to approach 50%, but I don't know of any professions with an IQ threshold of 160. Even the MIT physics department is probably not that high.

Moreover, a lot of stuff Jews dominate is not extraordinarily cognitively demanding. What's the IQ threshold for pornographers? It's not 160! Hence the extreme overrepresentation in many domains can't be explained by IQ. Basically all of the early Hollywood studios were founded by Jews and Hollywood (especially at the top producer and studio exec level) is still really Jewish. This didn't happen randomly. I believe the most significant goy studio was the Walt Disney Company. When the Disney family lost control of the company in the 80s, it was taken over by a Jewish CEO, Michael Eisner. Because of course that's what happened. An apologist might argue that Jews are just good at media or like working in media or something like that. But it also sure seems like they have benefited greatly from dominating the means of communication.

When you think about it, high IQ is really a red herring in that ethnic conflict is possible with or without group differences in IQ. You could even argue that high IQ makes the problem worse because a high IQ group is more capable and dangerous.

All of that said, I can't say I really dislike Cofnas. I would actually be really curious to see him work his way through some revisionist material to see how he would respond. I would actually be surprised if he hasn't read any of it.

[Wetzelrad]

Only with a high mean and very extreme threshold would Jews begin to approach 50%, but I don't know of any professions with an IQ threshold of 160. Even the MIT physics department is probably not that high.

The average person has no idea what IQ is normal for elite professions, and that information is often, probably intentionally, left out of the discourse. It's not very high at all.

In 2023 one Tobias Wolfram ranked occupations by average IQ. The highest on his chart was ~114 IQ. Some of the occupations that you might expect to require exceptional intelligence like financial manager landed at ~112 IQ. (From "(Not just) Intelligence stratifies the occupational hierarchy: Ranking 360 professions by IQ and non-cognitive traits" in Intelligence, 2023.)



In 2017 a paper led by Ernesto Dal Bó looked at the IQs of politicians and other professions using Swedish government data. He revealed that, on average, Swedish Parliamentarians were around ~110 IQ, CEOs ~106-113, legal professionals ~113, economists ~115. (From "Who Becomes A Politician?" by Ernesto Dal Bó et al. in The Quarterly Journal of Economics.) This was charted by one of the Aporia guys.



Based on these numbers, we can (generously) use the 115+ IQ pool you calculated as being only 4.5% Jewish. Therefore the claim that IQ explains Jewish overrepresentation is not compelling.

[Callafangers]

Cofnas's "Default" Hypothesis

Cofnas is a right-wing "race realist" and his arguments reflect that worldview. It's telling that the only serious rebuttal of MacDonald has to take a tack that is normally not allowed. Cofnas concedes Jewish overrepresentation (usually a big no-no) and argues essentially that this is to be expected on HBD grounds using Bell Curve style arguments (another no-no). His basic argument is that things that anti-Semites blame on "Jews" are explained mostly by IQ and "geography"/urbanism. He calls this the "default" hypothesis.

What this misses is that "antisemites" are not blaming good things on Jews. If Jews were behaving nobly and bestowing joy and prosperity to all people and nations they interacted with, any discussion of 'blame' would be a positive one for Jews. But this is not what is observed, as you noted:

3) Jewish interests are often in conflict with the interests of their Gentile host populations

This is key. The problem has never been simply that "Jews acquire power" -- it is how they use that power, and this pattern is consistently (near-100% of the time) one that opposes the interests of other population groups (unless, of course, certain groups are useful temporarily for broader Jewish interests).

Also, on the question of Jewish IQ, it would seem this belongs here:



From the video description (incl. sources):

0:00 - Intro
1:12 - Argument Breakdown
3:01 - Scientific Studies
3:25 - Backman (1972)
4:31 - Levinson (1957)
5:46 - Lynn (2003)
8:08 - MacDonald
9:40 - Storfer (1990)
12:49 - Herrnstein + Murray
13:08 - Studies Conclusion
13:30 - Explanations for High IQ
13:40 - The Nurture Argument
14:41 - Talmudic Explanation
16:21 - Oppression Explanation
19:35 - How IQ works
21:32 - Nobel Prizes
23:10 - Chess
24:23 - Misc Points
26:51 - Israeli IQ
28:32 - Faked Studies Possibility
29:39 - Even if Claims are True
31:58 - Conclusion

SOURCES CITED:
[1]: Backman, M. E. (1972) Patterns of mental abilities: ethnic, socioeconomic, and sex differences. American Educational Research Journal 9,1–12.
[2]: Levinson, B. M. (1957). The intelligence of applicants for admission to Jewish day schools.
[3]: Richard Lynn (2003), “The Intelligence of American Jews,” Personality and Individual Differences.
[4]: MacDonald, K. B. (2002). A people that shall dwell alone: Judaism as a group evolutionary strategy, with Diaspora Peoples. Writers Club Press.
[5]: Storfer, M. D. (1990). Intelligence and giftedness: The contributions of heredity and early environment. Jossey-Bass.
[5.1]: Ramsden S, Richardson FM, Josse G, Thomas MS, Ellis C, Shakeshaft C, Seghier ML, Price CJ. Verbal and non-verbal intelligence changes in the teenage brain. Nature. 2011 Oct 19;479(7371):113-6. doi: 10.1038/nature10514. Erratum in: Nature. 2012 May 31;485(7400):666. PMID: 22012265; PMCID: PMC3672949.
[5.2]: Lynn, R. (2011). The chosen people: A study of jewish intelligence and achievement. Washington Summit Publishers.
[6]: Herrnstein, R. J., & Murray, C. A. (1997). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American Life. Free Press.
[7]: Cochran G, Hardy J, Harpending H. Natural history of Ashkenazi intelligence. J Biosoc Sci. 2006 Sep;38(5):659-93. doi: 10.1017/S0021932005027069. PMID: 16867211.
[8]: Botticini, Maristella; Eckstein, Zvi (2004) : Jewish Occupational Selection :
Education, Restrictions, or Minorities?, IZA Discussion Papers, No. 1224, Institute for the Study
of Labor (IZA), Bonn
[9]: Daniel Klein, The Islamic and Jewish Laws of Usury: A Bridge to Commercial Growth and Peace in the
Middle East, 23 Denv. J. Int'l L. & Pol'y 535 (1995)
[10]: Micceri, T. (1989). The unicorn, the normal curve, and other improbable creatures. Psychological Bulletin, 105(1), 156–166. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.105...
[11]: https://math.stackexchange.com/questi... (*Not citing the wikipedia page. This is not a scholarly paper, but offers a great easy to understand explanation of how test scores are normalized for IQ.)
[12]: • Top 10 Chess Grandmaster Hikaru takes an I... - GM Nakamura scores a 102 on an IQ test. Sure this is just an online test, but they do ask questions which are similar to the more "official" IQ tests out there. Surely this is enough to give us an idea of what his "true IQ" might be. I am not taking away anything from Nakamura, who is great, I'm only showing the flaw in the argument that success in chess implies high IQ.
[13]: Transcript of an interview which can be found here [ • Video ]. Bobby fischer talking about how chess has had the soul taken out of it by the over reliance on theory and opening moves.
[14]: Merim Bilalić, Peter McLeod, Fernand Gobet, Does chess need intelligence? — A study with young chess players, Intelligence, Volume 35, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 457-470, ISSN 0160-2896,
[15]: DAVID, H., & LYNN, R. (2007). INTELLIGENCE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND ORIENTAL JEWS IN ISRAEL. Journal of Biosocial Science, 39(3), 465-473. doi:10.1017/S0021932006001660

There has been some criticism of the above video, some valid. Below is a summary of the video's claims followed by a critical deep-dive (AI-assisted, new sources gathered) in an attempt to distill the bottom-line on this complex subject:

Part 1: Summary of the Leather Apron Club Video

Video: "High Jewish IQ Debunked – Joe Rogan Followup" by Leather Apron Club (Oct 24, 2022)

• Premise: Following a prior video showing Jews are ~42% of political guests on Joe Rogan's podcast (vs. 2% of U.S. population), the video examines whether the common justification — "Jews are simply more intelligent" — holds up to scrutiny.

• The argument being challenged: Ashkenazi Jews allegedly have an average IQ of 107–115. Combined with a normal distribution (SD = 15), this would yield ~173,000 Jewish Americans with IQ ≥ 145 vs. ~302,000 white Americans — a ratio far above their 2% population share — purportedly explaining overrepresentation.

• Study-by-study critique:
  • Backman (1972): The most-cited study. 1,236 Jewish high schoolers scored high on verbal/math but low on visuospatial and memory. Averaging all six subtests, Jews scored 51.88 vs. whites' 51.22 — essentially no general intelligence difference. The high-verbal / low-spatial profile is the real finding.
  • Levinson (1957): Tested 5,494 kindergarten applicants at private Jewish day schools in New York. Argued for IQ ~118. Critique: non-representative sample (wealthy, urban, selected), no comparable white cohort — only "all non-Jews" (including low-scoring minorities). Cannot generalize to all Ashkenazim.
  • Lynn (2003/2004): Used a nationally representative vocabulary test (GSS data, n=150 Jews, n=5,300 gentiles). Found verbal IQ ~107.5 — not 115. Notes non-Jewish "whites" may include Hispanics, and pan-European IQ of 100 understates Western European ancestry of most U.S. whites. When all Backman subtests are averaged, Jews' overall IQ ≈ 100.
  • MacDonald (1994/2002): Cites Levinson and others uncritically; notes the unusual Ashkenazi cognitive profile (verbal-performance correlation only 0.31 vs. 0.77 in general population), indicating any IQ advantage is almost entirely a verbal advantage.
  • Storfer (1990): Tested children in kibbutzim — highly educated, communal environments — and estimated Ashkenazi IQ at 117. Also absurdly estimated Sephardic IQ at ~111–116, when it's known to be ~91. If similarly off by 20 points, real Ashkenazi IQ ≈ 104. Also, child IQ is unreliable; scores tend to regress with age.
  • Herrnstein & Murray (1994): The Bell Curve mentions Ashkenazi IQ of "107–115" only once, citing — Storfer (1990). So it's not independent corroboration.

• Studies conclusion: Jews consistently score slightly above average on verbal IQ (~107) but below average on visuospatial/memory, averaging out to ~100 overall (the pan-European mean). The claim of 115 is unsupported by the best available data.

• Explanations for high IQ — all found wanting:
  • Nurture/culture: Possibly valid but unfalsifiable; doesn't explain why Sephardic/Mizrahi Jews — who share much of the same culture — score ~14 points lower.
  • Talmudic eugenics: Unfalsifiable; European gentiles also had intelligent non-monastic classes (army officers, merchants, yeomen) with reproductive success; Sephardic Jews practiced the same Talmudic traditions without the same result.
  • Oppression/occupational eugenics: Jews weren't forced into banking — Botticini & Eckstein (2004/2012) show Jews voluntarily chose finance even where unrestricted; Sephardic/Mizrahi Jews also became moneylenders under Muslim usury bans yet didn't gain IQ; money-lending doesn't require genius, just competence plus inherited capital and connections.

• How IQ works — a key technical point: IQ scores are normalized — they're rankings, not raw intelligence scores. General intelligence (g) is not normally distributed; it has a longer right tail. This means a group with lower average IQ could actually have more geniuses than a group with higher average IQ. The normal-distribution argument is therefore potentially misleading.

• Nobel Prizes: Jews are ~21.5% of laureates (137× overrepresentation). But: (1) if IQ were the cause, East Asians should be equally overrepresented — they're not; (2) prizes are awarded by committee, where verbal/persuasive skills matter; (3) genius is not "chosen by committee."

• Chess: 54% of world chess champions had Jewish parents. But Bilalić et al. (2007) found no correlation (even negative) between intelligence and chess skill among elite young players; practice is the dominant predictor. Countries with low average IQs (e.g., Nigeria in Scrabble) excel when they prioritize the game.

• Miscellaneous points:
  • Episcopalians have a higher average IQ than American Jews, yet aren't proportionally overrepresented on Rogan.
  • U.S. whites (largely Western European descent) average ~104, not 100 — dramatically increasing expected white geniuses vs. Jewish ones.
  • Advocates always use the high-end 115 estimate; using 107, expected Jewish geniuses drop to ~42,560 (~5% of genius-tier).
  • Ashkenazim are 30–50% European by DNA; mixing a mid-90s IQ Semitic population with ~100–105 Western Europeans would not be expected to yield 107–115 descendants.
  • Verbal IQ advantage is of limited real-world value for engineering, physics, problem-solving — the skills that build civilization.

• Israeli IQ check: Israel's national IQ ≈ 94. With known IQs for Mizrahi (~91), Sephardic, and Arab populations, working backward, Ashkenazi IQ can be at most ~103 for the national average to come out at 94. Using 115 yields a predicted national IQ of 98.35 — too high. This independently argues against 115.

• Possibility of faked/manipulated studies: Notes the reproducibility crisis; non-representative sampling, easier testing, data fabrication. Chinese IQ figures (105–109) are widely called out as inflated without accusations of racism; similar skepticism toward Jewish IQ figures is deemed "antisemitic" — a double standard.

• Even if claims were true: Overrepresentation by one ethnic group — even if smarter — is anti-democratic; assumes Jews prioritize the host country's interests over their own group's (unrealistic); no other country (China, India, African nations) would accept such a state of affairs.

• Conclusion: The high Jewish IQ claim "lacks any sound basis in research," rests on unfalsifiable arguments, and serves as an ex-post-facto rationalization for overrepresentation — a "ready-made explanation" to avoid confronting the real question.

________________________________________


Part 2: Critical Review and Key Findings

Critical Review of "High Jewish IQ Debunked"

Overview

The Leather Apron Club (LAC) video undertakes a systematic dismantling of the claim that Ashkenazi Jews possess an average IQ of 107–115 and that this explains their outsized representation in positions of influence. The video is methodical, well-sourced, and raises genuine and important objections. However, it also contains analytical errors, overstatements, and selective reasoning that undermine some of its conclusions. Below is an honest assessment of where the video is right, where it overreaches, and what the best available evidence actually supports.


________________________________________


Where the Video Is Strongly Correct

1. The 115 figure is poorly supported and routinely misused.

This is the video's most important and well-supported point. The widely-cited figure of 115 comes almost entirely from:

• Levinson (1957): a non-representative sample of private day school applicants — effectively testing already-selected, affluent, urban children.
• Storfer (1990): kibbutz children whose environment was hyper-educational; the same book absurdly estimated Sephardic IQ at 111–116 when it is known to be ~91.
• Cochran, Hardy & Harpending (2006): a theoretical paper that cited prior studies (the same flawed ones) for its claim of 112–115, then built a genetic hypothesis on top. It did not conduct new IQ testing.

The most methodologically sound study — Backman (1972), using Project TALENT data (n = 1,236 Jewish, n = 1,051 gentile white 12th graders, nationally representative) — found a Jewish verbal IQ of 107.8, a math IQ of 109.7, but a visuospatial reasoning IQ of 91.3 and a memory IQ of 95.1 (Lynn, 2004, p. 202, summarizing Backman). When all subtests are averaged, the overall IQ is approximately 100 — no different from the pan-European mean.

Lynn's own 2004 study (n = 150 Jews, n = 5,300 gentiles, nationally representative GSS vocabulary test) confirmed a verbal IQ of 107.5 — the lower end of the claimed range — and Lynn himself wrote that "the best reading of the verbal IQ of American Jews is 107.5" (Lynn, 2004, p. 205). He explicitly stated this was "well below previous estimates of Jewish verbal ability."

Verdict: The 115 figure is not supported by the best data. A verbal IQ of ~107 is. The claim of a general IQ of 115 is essentially false.

2. The cognitive profile is verbal-tilted, not uniformly elevated.

Multiple studies confirm a characteristic Ashkenazi pattern: high verbal, high math, low visuospatial (Backman, 1972; Levinson, 1959/1977; Lynn, 2004; David & Lynn, 2007). The correlation between verbal and performance IQ in Ashkenazim is only 0.31, compared to 0.77 in the general population (MacDonald, 1994, p. 190, citing Backman). This is an unusual and important finding: the Ashkenazi "IQ advantage" is narrowly concentrated in crystallized/verbal intelligence (g_c), not in general intelligence (g) or fluid reasoning.

Verdict: Correct and important. The video properly emphasizes this.

3. The Israeli IQ arithmetic is a strong independent check.

Israel's measured national IQ is ~94 (Lynn & Vanhanen, 2002; worlddata.info). Given that Ashkenazim are ~33% of Israel's population, and using known IQ figures for Mizrahi Jews (~91; David & Lynn, 2007) and Arabs (~85; Kugelmass, Lieblich & Bossik, 1974), the math works backward:

• If Ashkenazi IQ = 115 → predicted national IQ = ~98.4 (too high)
• If Ashkenazi IQ = 107 → predicted national IQ = ~95.7 (still too high)
• If Ashkenazi IQ = 103 → predicted national IQ = ~94 ✓

This is a robust internal consistency check. Israeli Ashkenazi IQ of ~103–106 is corroborated by Lynn's (2011) own review of 9 Israeli studies, which averaged 106 — notably lower than the 109–111 found in American/British studies. The LAC video's use of this argument is sound and is one of its strongest points.

Verdict: Correct. The Israeli data independently argues against 115 and suggests ~103–106 for Israeli Ashkenazim.

4. The chess-IQ argument is weak.

Bilalić, McLeod & Gobet (2007) found that among elite young chess players, intelligence was not a significant predictor of chess skill, and if anything correlated negatively (r = −.51). Practice was the dominant predictor. The video's citation of this study is accurate. Chess mastery is a domain of pattern recognition and deliberate practice, not general intelligence.

Verdict: Correct.

5. Non-representative sampling is a real and pervasive problem.

The video correctly identifies that the studies finding the highest IQ figures (Levinson, Storfer) used non-representative samples — private school applicants, kibbutz children. This is not a minor methodological quibble; it is a fundamental sampling bias that inflates results. The studies finding lower figures (Backman, Lynn's GSS data) used nationally representative samples.

Verdict: Correct and important.


________________________________________


Where the Video Overreaches or Makes Errors

1. The claim that overall Jewish IQ ≈ 100 is an overstatement.

The video averages all of Backman's subtests and declares the result ~100. But this is methodologically improper. IQ is not computed by averaging disparate subtest z-scores equally; psychometricians weight subtests by their g-loading. Verbal and mathematical subtests are typically more g-loaded than perceptual speed or short-term memory tasks. Averaging them equally understates general intelligence.

More importantly, the most recent and sophisticated evidence — Dunkel et al. (2019) — used polygenic scores (PGS) for educational attainment and cognitive ability in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (n = 53 Jews, n = 4,630 Christians). They found:

• Jewish IQ: 109.7 (SD = 14.4)
• Catholic IQ: 101.5
• Lutheran IQ: 101.4
• Cohen's d for IQ = 0.57 (medium effect)
• Cohen's d for PGS = 1.33 (very large effect)
• The PGS partially and significantly mediated the IQ gap.

This is critical new evidence the video (made in 2022) does not address. It suggests a genuine IQ advantage of approximately 8 points (not 15, but not 0 either), and that a substantial portion of this gap is attributable to genetic differences captured by polygenic scores.

Verdict: The video's claim of "no difference" is too strong. The evidence supports a modest overall advantage (~5–8 points), concentrated in verbal/crystallized intelligence, with a genetic component.

2. The "US whites average 104" argument needs context.

The video claims U.S. whites average IQ 104 and uses this to inflate the expected number of white geniuses. The figure of 104 (or ~103) for U.S. whites of Western European descent is plausible (Lynn, 2006), but it narrows rather than eliminates the gap. If Ashkenazi verbal IQ is ~107–110 and overall IQ is ~105–109, the gap with white gentiles at ~103 is only 2–6 points — far smaller than 15, but still nonzero.

3. The 30–50% European admixture argument is weak.

The video argues that because Ashkenazim are ~50% European by ancestry (confirmed by multiple genomic studies: Bray et al., 2010; Carmi et al., 2014; Xue et al., 2017), and because Middle Eastern populations have IQs in the mid-80s to low-90s, mixing with ~100 IQ Europeans shouldn't produce 107–115 descendants.

This reasoning is flawed because:

• The European component is predominantly Southern European (Italian/Greek), not Northern European (Carmi et al., 2014; Xue et al., 2017). Southern European IQ is estimated at ~96–100, not 104+.
• Admixture arithmetic doesn't work as simple averaging of population means when selection has occurred post-admixture. The Cochran et al. (2006) hypothesis is precisely that directional selection acted on the admixed population over ~40+ generations, raising IQ beyond what either ancestral component would predict.
• The PGS evidence (Dunkel et al., 2019) shows that Jews have higher polygenic scores than either Catholics or Lutherans — meaning the relevant genetic variants are enriched in the Jewish population, regardless of admixture proportions.

Verdict: The admixture argument does not disprove elevated Ashkenazi IQ. It is a non sequitur.

4. The normal distribution / IQ-ranking argument is technically interesting but speculative.

The video argues that because IQ scores are normalized rankings (not raw intelligence), and because g is non-normally distributed (with a longer right tail), comparing IQ curves between groups is misleading. This is a real statistical point (Micceri, 1989), but the video offers no evidence that the specific distributions of Jewish vs. gentile g differ in a way that would reverse the expected genius counts. It is a theoretical possibility, not a demonstrated fact.

Verdict: Interesting but unproven. Cannot be used to dismiss the IQ gap.

5. The cultural/Talmudic explanation is dismissed too quickly.

The video treats the "nurture" argument as "possibly valid but unfalsifiable" and notes that Sephardic/Mizrahi Jews share much of the same culture yet score lower. This is a fair objection, but it understates the evidence:

• Botticini & Eckstein (2012), winners of the National Jewish Book Award, argue persuasively that the rabbinic decree (c. 70 CE) requiring universal male literacy created a self-selection mechanism: Jews who found literacy too costly converted out, leaving a remnant disproportionately capable of — and culturally oriented toward — verbal/textual work. This selection operated for centuries and affected Ashkenazim more intensely because of their particular economic niche in medieval Europe.
• The Talmudic tradition of pilpul — intense textual analysis, conceptual disputation, and legalistic reasoning (Wikipedia, "Pilpul") — is a form of sustained, high-level verbal reasoning practice. Whether this raises IQ or merely trains verbal skills that translate to test performance is debatable, but the cultural mechanism is real and well-documented.
• The Dunkel et al. (2019) finding that PGS partially (not fully) mediates the IQ gap suggests that both genetic and cultural/environmental factors contribute.

Verdict: The video underweights the cultural mechanism. The evidence supports a role for both culture-gene coevolution and direct cultural/environmental effects.


________________________________________

The Central Question: How Much of the Difference Is Genetic?

Based on the totality of evidence reviewed:

Code: Select all

| Factor                                                                          | Estimated Contribution                                                                           |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Polygenic score differences (Dunkel et al., 2019)                               | Significant partial mediation; PGS Cohen's d = 1.33                                              |
| Sphingolipid/DNA-repair heterozygote effects (Cochran et al., 2006)             | Theoretical; Gaucher patient occupational data is striking but no direct IQ test of carriers yet |
| Cultural/environmental factors (Botticini & Eckstein, 2012; Talmudic tradition) | Substantial; cannot be fully separated from genetic selection (culture-gene coevolution)         |
| Sampling bias inflating reported figures                                        | Confirmed; 115 is inflated, but 107 verbal / ~105–109 overall appears genuine                    |

Best estimate of the genetic component alone:

The Dunkel et al. (2019) polygenic score study is the most direct genetic evidence available. It found that PGS partially and significantly mediated the Jewish-non-Jewish IQ gap, but did not fully mediate it — meaning environmental/cultural factors also contribute. The PGS captured only ~5–10% of IQ variance (typical for current PGS), so the genetic contribution is almost certainly underestimated by the PGS mediation alone.

A reasonable synthesis:

• Overall Ashkenazi IQ advantage over white gentiles: ~5–8 points (not 0, not 15).
• Of this, perhaps 3–5 points are attributable to genetic factors (polygenic selection + possible heterozygote effects from sphingolipid/DNA-repair variants).
• The remaining 2–4 points are attributable to cultural/environmental factors — the Talmudic educational tradition, occupational selection, and intergenerational transmission of verbal-reasoning skills.
• The advantage is concentrated in verbal/crystallized intelligence (g_c), not in general fluid intelligence (g).

This is consistent with:

• Backman (1972): verbal 107.8, visuospatial 91.3
• Lynn (2004): verbal 107.5
• Lynn (2011): Israeli Ashkenazi overall ~106
• Dunkel et al. (2019): overall ~109.7 (American, possibly selected sample)
• David & Lynn (2007): Ashkenazi-Mizrahi gap of ~14–15 points in Israel

The answer to "how much is genetic": approximately 3–5 IQ points, out of a total observed advantage of ~5–8 points. This is real, modest, domain-specific (verbal), and consistent with culture-gene coevolution over ~800–1,000 years. It is nowhere near the 15-point (one standard deviation) gap commonly claimed, and it does not come close to explaining the observed levels of overrepresentation in elite positions.


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Final Assessment of the Video

The LAC video is substantially correct on its core thesis: the 115 IQ claim is unsupported, the best studies show a verbal advantage of ~107 with no overall IQ elevation to 115, and the studies supporting higher figures are methodologically flawed. The video's strongest arguments are the Backman data, the Israeli IQ arithmetic, and the non-representative sampling critique.

However, the video overcorrects in claiming overall Jewish IQ ≈ 100 with no meaningful advantage. The best available evidence — including data the video does not address (Dunkel et al., 2019; polygenic scores) — supports a modest overall advantage of ~5–8 points, predominantly verbal, with both genetic and cultural components. The video also underweights the well-documented Talmudic/cultural mechanism and makes a weak argument from European admixture.

The video's most important and valid conclusion — that even a genuine IQ advantage of this magnitude cannot account for the levels of overrepresentation observed (e.g., 42% of political guests on a major podcast, 21.5% of Nobel laureates, disproportionate representation in media, finance, and academia) — stands. A 5–8 point verbal advantage, concentrated in one cognitive domain, does not produce a 20× overrepresentation. Other factors — ethnic networking, in-group preference, cultural capital, institutional gatekeeping — must account for the remainder, and the IQ claim functions primarily as a shield against examining those factors.


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Sources

Code: Select all

 #  | Source                                                                                                                                        | URL                                                                                                                                                         |
| -- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1  | Backman, M.E. (1972). Patterns of mental abilities. American Educational Research Journal, 9(1), 1–12.                                        | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/00028312009001001                                                                                                  |
| 2  | Lynn, R. (2004). The intelligence of American Jews. Personality and Individual Differences, 36(1), 201–206.                                   | https://richardlynn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/lynn2004-4.pdf                                                                                           |
| 3  | Cochran, G., Hardy, J., & Harpending, H. (2006). Natural history of Ashkenazi intelligence. Journal of Biosocial Science, 38(5), 659–693.     | https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-biosocial-science/article/abs/natural-history-of-ashkenazi-intelligence/170E96F5581A9F39524DAC717886D945 |
| 4  | David, H. & Lynn, R. (2007). Intelligence differences between European and Oriental Jews in Israel. J. Biosocial Science, 39(3), 465–473.     | https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021932006001660                                                                                                                   |
| 5  | Dunkel, C.S. et al. (2019). Polygenic scores mediate the Jewish phenotypic advantage in educational attainment and cognitive ability.         | https://gwern.net/doc/genetics/selection/natural/human/2019-dunkel.pdf                                                                                      |
| 6  | Botticini, M. & Eckstein, Z. (2012). The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70–1492. Princeton University Press.                | https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691144870/the-chosen-few                                                                                    |
| 7  | Xue, J. et al. (2017). The time and place of European admixture in Ashkenazi Jewish history. PLOS Genetics, 13(4), e1006644.                  | https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1006644                                                                            |
| 8  | Carmi, S. et al. (2014). Sequencing an Ashkenazi reference panel. Nature Communications, 5, 4835.                                             | https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5835                                                                                                                  |
| 9  | Bilalić, M., McLeod, P., & Gobet, F. (2007). Does chess need intelligence? Intelligence, 35(5), 457–470.                                      | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289606001139                                                                                     |
| 10 | Levinson, B.M. (1957). The intelligence of applicants for admission to Jewish day schools.                                                    | (cited in Backman 1972 and Lynn 2004)                                                                                                                       |
| 11 | Storfer, M.D. (1990). Intelligence and giftedness. Jossey-Bass.                                                                               | (cited in Herrnstein & Murray 1994)                                                                                                                         |
| 12 | Herrnstein, R.J. & Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve. Free Press.                                                                             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve                                                                                                                |
| 13 | MacDonald, K.B. (1994/2002). A People That Shall Dwell Alone. Writers Club Press.                                                             | (cited in LAC video)                                                                                                                                        |
| 14 | Micceri, T. (1989). The unicorn, the normal curve, and other improbable creatures. Psychological Bulletin, 105(1), 156–166.                   | https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.105.1.156                                                                                                                 |
| 15 | Wikipedia: "Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence" (overview of debate)                                                                               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jewish_intelligence                                                                                                 |
| 16 | Wikipedia: "Pilpul" (Talmudic disputation method)                                                                                             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilpul                                                                                                                        |
| 17 | Wikipedia: "The Chosen Few (book)" (summary and criticism)                                                                                    | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chosen_Few_(book)                                                                                                         |
| 18 | Lynn, R. (2011). The Chosen People: A Study of Jewish Intelligence and Achievement. Washington Summit Publishers. (Israeli Ashkenazi IQ ~106) | https://richardlynn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/1.pdf                                                                                                    |
| 19 | Erfurt medieval Jewish genomes (2022). Genome-wide data from 14th-century German Jews.                                                        | https://reich.hms.harvard.edu/sites/reich.hms.harvard.edu/files/inline-files/2022.05.13.491805v1.full_.pdf                                                  |
| 20 | Levinson, B.M. (1977). Cognitive style of Eastern European Jewish males. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 45(1), 279.                             | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pms.1977.45.1.279                                                                                                  |

[Archie]

Blogger Steve Sailer (who is philo-Semitic) has periodically tried to estimate how many of the Forbes 400 and related lists are Jewish. He suggests something like 1/3 of the top billionaires are Jewish which is rather amazing.

https://www.unz.com/isteve/forbes-100-3 ... re-jewish/