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
Haredim and Zionism Sephardi or Mizrahi rabbis is far lower than among Ashkenazi rabbis, and these constitute a small minority of the Sephardi Haredi leadership. The Sephardi Haredi political party in the Knesset is Shas, which represents the vast majority of Sephardi Haredim, and is headed by Aryeh Deri. In 2010, Shas joined the World Zionist Organization, and officially became the first Zionist Haredi party. The party's long-time spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, opposed saying Hallel in the Yom HaAtzmaut prayer service, but writes that, "One may say Hallel after the completion of the prayers, without the blessing..." While in the past, when