What kills you makes you stronger

Or vice versa.

Researchers at the University of Utah believe that high occurances of genetic diseases in Northern and Central European Jews [Ashkenazim] has links with their greater than average intelligence.

The greater than average intelligence part, the researchers believe, stems from being hamstrung into managerial positions for centuries. Not allowed to either rule or do agrarian labor, Jews from the early middle ages to the 18th century pretty much had to learn the intellect intensive trade of money-lending and banking. Thus natural selection for intellect was of primary importance. The researchers extend that

Proof that these Jews are smarter than your average homo sapiens? While 3 percent of Americans are decendents of Ashkenazim, 27% of America's Nobel Prize Winners are Ashkenazi.

Half the world's chess champions are too, though none were from America [Bobby Fischer is a self-hating Jew, but whether he was Ashkenazi is unknown].

Whether that equates directly to contracting Tay-Sachs or one of a cluster of other genetic abnormalities that have shown up in that population remains to be seen, but the researchers state that the hypothesis is easily testable: people with these disorders should have higher than average IQs.

The delightful NYTIMES article

Jared Diamond, who wrote Guns, Germs and Steel, forwarded a similar hypothesis in the early nineties, linking the diseases to intellect stemming from having to avoid religious persecution at every turn.