Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence

Whether Ashkenazi Jews (Hebrew plural form: Ashkenazim) have higher average intelligence than other ethnic groups, and if so, why, has been an occasional subject of scientific controversy. Intellectual successes have also been attributed to Jewish culture's promotion of scholarship and learning.
IQ tests and success in various professions
Certain agglomerations of psychometric tests, including those written by supporters of eugenics, found above-average verbal and mathematical intelligence by participants identifying as Ashkenazi, along with slightly below-average spatial intelligence, in the fields of natural and social sciences, mathematics, literature, finance, politics, media, and others. In those societies where they have been free to enter any profession, they have a record of high occupational achievement, entering professions and fields of commerce where higher education is required. Ashkenazi Jews have won a large number of the Nobel awards. While they make up about 2% of the U.S. population and 0.1% of the world population, 27% of United States Nobel prize winners in the 20th century, and 25% of Westinghouse Science Talent Search winners have Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.
Proposed explanations
One type of explanation for higher intelligence in Ashkenazi Jews is differences in culture which tend to promote the cultivation of intellectual talents.
For example, after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Jewish culture replaced its emphasis on the ritual with an emphasis on study and scholarship.
* Ashkenazim (as well as other ethnic Jews) were marginalized by discrimination, and therefore had to put more effort to survive and be outstanding.
Assuming that there is a meaningful statistical difference in IQ between Ashkenazim and other ethnic groups, certain controversial commentators, notably Henry Harpending and Gregory Cochran, have argued that there are genetic factors at work.
Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker suggested that "the most obvious test of a genetic cause of the Ashkenazi advantage would be a cross-adoption study that measured the adult IQ of children with Ashkenazi biological parents and gentile adoptive parents, and vice versa," but noted, "No such study exists, so 's evidence is circumstantial."
The methods and findings of Harpending and Cochran and some of the other studies have been disputed by scientists such as Harry Ostrer, who said: "It's bad science - not because it's provocative, but because it's bad genetics and bad epidemiology." Critics point to studies from the 1900s or 1910s which concluded that Ashkenazim in the United States (the majority of whom were ) had lower-than-average IQ, and to the fact that other ethnic groups in the US—such as Chinese—also display higher-than-average scores on IQ tests.

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