Uriah

That's certainly very possible. Also, I wonder if the average IQ of the Ashkenazi Jews who were killed in the Holocaust was closer to the U.S. Ashkenazi Jewish average or to the Israeli Ashkenazi Jewish average.

you would think that those who got out of europe early were smarter than the ones who didn't. =/

What you should think is that most of the German Jews got out in time, and hardly any of those in Poland or western USSR.

"hardly any" was too strong, but most of the Jews in the western Soviet Union were killed by the Germans.

... that most of the ones who remained were killed by the Nazis, though. Also, this does get back to my overall question--could there have been a selection effect for intelligence among the Jews who either moved to the West or moved to the interior of the USSR before the Shoah?

Probably not.

If you'd look at the percentage of high scores in Israel in regards to PISA and combine this with the fact that 30-40% of Israel's total population is Ashkenazi, you'd probably get an average Ashkenazi IQ in Israel in the range of 107 (in PISA, I suspect U.S. Jews have IQ ~113).

Actually having heard Ashkenazi IQ scores in Israel probably biases me. Looking for one-generation selective effects is a mug's game.