Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence "Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence" proposed that Ashkenazi Jews as a group inherit higher verbal and mathematical intelligence with somewhat lower spikes in spatial intelligence than other ethnic groups, on the basis of inherited diseases and the peculiar economic situation of Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages. Ashkenazi Jews have had success in a variety of academic fields disproportionate to their small population size, including science, technology, politics, and law. For instance, Ashkenazi Jews have won more than one quarter of Fields Medals, Turing Awards, and Regeneron Science Talent Search awards. People of Ashkenazi Jewish descent are also disproportionately represented
Ashkenazi Jews in Israel class, and the disparity between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim diminished (but did not completely disappear), with Mizrahi political expression becoming increasingly linked to the Likud and Shas parties; Shas was founded as a party to represent Mizrahim while Likud, the largest right-wing party, in Israel became increasingly influenced by Mizrahi political articulation, with the Mizrahi middle class' political coming-of-age held by political science commentators to be embodied by the rise of Mizrahi Likud politicians such as Moshe Kahlon and Miri Regev. The Ashkenazi vote has, aside from electorally limited majority-Ashkenazi ultra-religious parties such as Habayit Hayehudi, long been associated with secularism