Richard Lynn writes in his book, The Chosen People: A Study of Jewish Intelligence and Achievement:
Jewish children scored much higher than the other three groups on verbal ability, about the same as the Chinese on reasoning and numerical abilities, but below the Chinese on spatial ability. It appears, therefore, that the European Jews have particularly strong verbal ability and somewhat less strong reasoning and numerical abilities, but their spatial ability is not nearly so good, not only compared with Oriental Jews but also with other racial groups, namely, Chinese, Blacks, and Puerto Ricans. This pattern of European Jewish abilities confirms the theory that these abilities evolved because they found a niche in Europe as money-lenders and tax farmers, for which verbal, reasoning, and numerical abilities were required, and were excluded from the craft occupations for which spatial ability is required…
The Ethiopian Jews in Israel have all the characteristics of a low IQ population. They are a social problem and “make up one of Israel’s poorest communities” (Clayton, 2000, p. 12).
“Many are not equipped with sufficient language, professional and social skills for Israeli society. There is a large proportion of Ethiopians living in relative poverty, and many do not or cannot improve themselves; the number of high school drop-outs as well as crime figures among the young are rising significantly…. In the 1990s, Ethiopian youth gangs made their appearance, terrorizing shopkeepers and neighborhoods.”
Ethiopian Jews identify with an “aggressive and semi-criminal African-American youth culture” and have become “a kind of ethnic underclass” (Abbink, 2002, p. 13).
A report on the social problems of the Ethiopian immigrants has been issued by the Brookdale Institute (2004) based on a survey of about 15,000 Ethiopians in eight Israeli cities. The principal findings were: (1) In 2004, Ethiopians accounted for 4.1 percent (933 of 22,839) of juvenile crimes—double the proportion of Ethiopians in Israel’s youth population. (2) Each Ethiopian immigrant costs the taxpayers about $100,000 over the course of his or her lifetime. (3) Thirty percent of the Ethiopian family units are single-parent families compared with nine percent for Israel (Lazin, 2002). (4) Ethiopian Israelis have a school dropout rate of six percent, compared to four percent among the general Jewish population. (5) At age 17, some 25
percent of Ethiopians in 2002 were not in schools under the auspices of the Ministry of Education compared to about 15 percent of all 17 year-old Israeli youth. (This statistic is based on data from the Ministry of Education on the number of Ethiopian students in school and on estimates from the Central Bureau of Statistics on the size of the age cohorts.)(6) Poor school achievement: according to the national achievement tests of the Ministry of Education in 2002, some 75-80 percent of the Ethiopian children in fifth and eighth grades were below the national average in English, Science, Mathematics, and Hebrew. A national study was conducted in 2000 for the Ministry of Education on achievements of Ethiopian children in fifth, eighth, and 11th grades. It found that the average achievement scores in Mathematics and Hebrew of Ethiopian children are 60-70 percent of the average of all Jewish children in the fifth grade and declined to 40-60 percent of the average in the 11th grade. Data from the national evaluation survey of 2003 found that the average scores of Ethiopian children aged three in language and basic concepts were some 70 percent of the scores of all Israeli children. At ages five, six, and eight, the average scores of Ethiopian children in language skills were 62 percent, 56
percent, and 43 percent of the average scores of Israeli children, respectively. In mathematics, the scores of Ethiopian children at ages five, six, and eight were 65 percent, 60 percent, and 39 percent of the average scores.(7) High School Matriculation Exams: Ethiopians do poorly in the matriculation exams taken at the end of high school, which are the basis for acceptance to higher education. Table 11.18 shows pass rates for 2003 for Ethiopian and for all Israeli 17-year-olds for the matriculation pass rate (Level 1) and the higher-level pass rate (Level 2) required for university entry. Thirty-one percent of Ethiopians achieved a Level 1 pass compared with 52 percent of all Israeli students, while 13 percent of Ethiopians achieved a Level 2 pass compared with 45 percent of all Israeli students.
The authors of the report comment: “These findings reinforce the need for a greater effort to enhance the educational achievement of Ethiopian Israelis and reduce the educational gaps. At the same time the findings also point to an opportunity. They reveal that there is a large group who has successfully passed the matriculation exams, yet not at the level that meets university requirements. There is a high probability that with extra assistance they can take this significant additional step ahead.”
(8) Employment rates: in 2003, about 45 percent of Ethiopian men age 18-64 were employed. This is a decline from 54 percent in 1995-1996. This decline reflects the growing difficulties that unskilled workers have experienced in Israel in the last decade. Among women of the same ages, there was an increase in employment from 24 percent in 1995-1996 to 32 percent in 2003. This reflects a significant increase in the number of women looking for work, which is particularly influenced by their length of stay in Israel. Indeed, along with the increase in those employed, there was a significant increase in the percentage of Ethiopian women who were looking for work but still unemployed. The authors of the report comment: “There is a serious concern that
the immigrants may develop a reliance on public assistance rather than becoming integrated into the labor force.”(9) Family structure and size: some 60 percent of Ethiopian families have five or more children (ages 0-18); 20 percent of families with children are single parent; a large percentage of single-parent families have three or more children.
(10) Hebrew proficiency: about 45 percent of Ethiopian parents are unable to hold a simple conversation in Hebrew, and most (about 75 percent) are unable to read or write simple Hebrew. This
is true even of a large proportion of those who have been in the country for a relatively long time.(11) Demographic status: some measures obtained in a 1995 survey of the socioeconomic status of Ethiopians compared with all Israelis are summarized in Table 11.19. Rows 1 through 4 show the low levels of education of the Ethiopians. Row 5 shows the higher percentage of single-parent families (18 percent compared with 10 percent). Row 6 shows that 41 percent of Ethiopian children were being raised in families without an earner and were therefore dependent on welfare support, compared with only nine percent of all Israeli children.
(12) Delinquency: the most reliable data on the delinquency rate of Ethiopian children are for 1996, when a police file was opened for 2.6 percent of Ethiopian children, as opposed to 1.4 percent of non-Ethiopians. It was found that Ethiopian children become delinquent at an earlier age and have more offences on average than do non-Ethiopian offenders.
(13) Military service: the report notes, “the serious problems of Ethiopian families impact on Army service…and about 25 percent do not complete their Army service.” (It does not give the corresponding figure for all Israelis.) The authors of the report conclude:
“There are a number of worrying trends among Ethiopian youth. The special characteristics and challenges facing Ethiopian families place many of them in risk situations. About half the families are known to the social service departments and receive assistance for a variety of needs, ranging from household equipment to help with difficulties in the functioning of the family. Because of the difficulties facing the families, the percentage of Ethiopian children known to the social services is three times the percentage found in the general population, reaching a third of all Ethiopian children. In light of the special difficulties faced by the immigrants from Ethiopia, Israel adopted a strategy of affirmative action and from the beginning provided
special assistance beyond that available to other immigrants. This is consistent with the overall framework of differential assistance to immigrant groups within absorption policy in Israel.”The authors of the report fail to note the low IQ of the Ethiopian immigrants and that this goes a long way toward explaining the social problems of poor educational attainment, high unemployment, single motherhood, and high rates of crime. There is considerable reluctance to acknowledge, or even mention, the low IQs of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Girma Berhanu is an
Ethiopian working at Goteborg University in Sweden who has attempted to analyze why the Ethiopian Jews do poorly at school. He contends that the problem is that “Ethiopian students are in
a state of identity crisis as they grapple with two cultural systems and structures of meaning which confuse their sense of direction.“In the process, meaningfully propelled learning dispositions and an affectively driven urge to achieve scholastic excellence deteriorate. Thus, the lagging academic performance of these children is partly caused by the school system, which has little knowledge of the way these children and their parents feel and think in terms of identity, belongingness and negotiation of meaning. It is not that Ethiopian students are unmotivated; they work hard to achieve excellence. It is more that the process of learning a new code of behavior, values and school culture is taking place rapidly without the original culture’s active participation as a basic link and a vehicle for further learning.” (Berhanu, 2005, p. 51)
The Ethiopian Jews have several of the characteristics of the Black underclass in the United States and Britain, including low average IQs, poor educational attainment, and high rates of unemployment, single motherhood, crime, and HIV infection (Pollack, 1993). The Ethiopian Jews have become ghettoized because many white Jews prefer not to live in communities with a large number of black Jews (Lavin, 2000)…
It has not proved possible to find anyone of any distinction produced by the Ethiopian Jews.
