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Yes

I went as a trip to celebrate my life as a mark of 1 year past beating cancer in 2016


The Israeli culture is the way it is more from a degree of danger and uncertainty, people are very impatient but also value their time and the culture is akin to something like a survivalist mentality. I would not describe the Israeli culture in sum as autistic. Take a person and put them under a high level of stress, and have their adrenaline spike repeatedly throughout the day and they become impatient for things like small talk and tolerating people and things they can't stand.

The rocking back and forth is largely thanks to the Bal Shem Tov and the Chasidic movement which wanted an all encompassing prayer experience that utilized the body, mind, voice, soul altogether working in tandem to praise HaShem. Before Bal Shem Tov, this was not necessarily a custom.


Sure, it also has a feel of obsessive compulsive

Maybe


Potentially true. Amongst the rule abiding orthodoxy there could definitely be a feeling of obsessive compulsion

I believe this is true for left-handedism as well. There are more Jewish left-handers compared to the general population. There are also more Israeli left-handers as well.


There is definitely a higher basal level of obsessive compulsion amongst the orthodoxy as necessitated by their observance. I would not be surprised if there are higher incidences of Asperger's/HFA amongst Ashkenazi Jews just simply because Asperger's/HFA is considered a "disorder of intelligence" and while the average intelligence of the Ashkenazi population is only slightly higher and statistically insignificant as a whole, the number of individuals with an IQ 3-4 standard deviations above mean are overwhelmingly of an Ashkenazi origin and odds are high these people could be described as having Asperger's/HFA.

It's less easy for me to blend in the older I get. In my school days and university days it was easier. My social functioning in the corporate American work environment where I now am is impaired. I understand how to approach work like it is a passive war and to anticipate that the people around you absolutely could not care less about you, I do not understand how to layer this with a feigned social interest in people and going along with the make-believe that anyone actually cares about anyone else. Two layers of social engagement that I don't exactly prefer stacked upon each other. It leaves me feeling always that I am not in step with the prevailing social norm.

Well, not exactly. Social encounters are usually not meaningful. I don't entirely understand what people enjoy about them, meaning a large group of people spending time together. These are not necessarily meaningful, yet most people are wired for them and crave them. Forming meaningful friendships isn't necessarily the same as socializing. Most people will socialize their entire life, but will stop forming meaningful friendships past their mid 20s.


It's not really about time, it's just about interest. All the positions are filled so there's just no reason or interest in interviewing people etc.

Veto this word. No titles for me kiddo.

I learned in biology class that the tendency for Ashkenazi Jewish populations to intermarry due to population bottlenecks creates a greater chance they will carry autosomal recessive genetic traits than the wider population. Although autism isn't monogenic; polygenic traits do concentrate in groups like Ashkenazi jews and other populations who also practice cross-cousin marriage.

Marissa Peer's recording sounds hauntingly beautiful! I periodically listen to Tibetan bells for meditative purposes. Great to take time-outs for awhile via meditative practices!

I have never before considered the connection between Judaism and autism. I am half Ashkenazi and half Sephardic, and years ago when I received a genetic test for completely different reasons, I discovered I was a carrier for a degenerative nerve disease. Probably came from the Ash side and the Seph probably shored up the ol’ bloodline a bit. I wonder if there is a difference in the proportionate presence of autism between the different Jewish sects too.

It would appear most of the current literature focuses on Ashkenazi populations given the relative homogeneity of this population and its cluster of associated genetic mutations that are unique to this group. A happy byproduct of inbreeding which Sephardi populations did not experience to the same degree. While it is true that Sephardi populations are the second closest related group to Ashkenazi populations, the genetic closeness within the Ashkenazi gene pool is allegedly as if all Ashkenazi's are 16th cousins. Allegedly roughly 40% of the Ashkenazi population descend from the same 4 women...

There just isn't quite the same level of genetic closeness within Sephardi and Mizrachi groups. Haven't looked much into the Temeni - but I feel like they also have dealt with inbreeding, just not for as many generations.

Yes- the Ashkenazi are the largest group of Jews in the world, and the largest group in the USA. But they branched off relatively recently (like a 1000 years ago) from a relatively small number of founders, but multiplied fast.

Tay Sachs disease, which is genetic, has a high incidence among that group. So its not totally surprising that autism might be more common among them too.

"Kiddo"?
Please lose this title for me.
Besides, I am a lot older than you.

When I was a highschool student in the early 1980s the biology textbooks under the topic of "Mendelian genetics" would use two human populations to demonstrate inheritance of autosomal recessive genes
1. European royal families
2. Ashkenazi jews

Two fairly small gene pools

They are small (agreed) but used for illustrative purposes by the textbook authors.

That was clear from you first mentioning this yes thank you.

This woman has uplifting content as well.



She had a book followed by a PBS Special "Building Your Field of Dreams"

She's definitely a little "woo woo" for some people. Not quite as "woo woo" as ABRAHAM-Hicks, but more or less in that genre.

Speaking of ABRAHAM-Hicks...

Theres too much to quote in previous posts on this thread so...

I'm an Ashkenazi Jew, I've been accused of being a yehki by many of my orthodox friends. If you don't know what that is, its your typical German Jew who is characterized by being fastidious, clean freak, obsessive compulsive, persnickety ... you get the picture. I think part of why I wasn't diagnosed on the spectrum until last year maybe because of this. Even my conservative Jewish friends or secular friends called me persnickety all the time. So in my experience I see y'alls point that maybe Jews have a higher prevelance of at least autistic like behaviors ingrained into us. Lol. I hadn't really thought about it before now.

Also, when I lived in Israel for a short time I felt at peace. I always say it was the happiest time of my life.
1: because I love the desert.
2: I love the culture and lifestyle.
3: because my social skills didn't stand out. People just accepted me and I could converse more easily and effectively with others. I didn't constantly feel like an outsider.

I also, felt totally at ease in the orthodox community in NY and in Texas. When I'm in a secular community I feel much more exhausted and apparently mask a lot more. ............ so there may be something to this theory y'all have.