Like others mentioned, the emphasis on education and fostering skills plays a huge role. Another factor is of darwinistic nature: as a group that was persecuted everywhere for centuries, Jews had to be more successful and savvy than non-Jews to survive. A normal oaf could survive and procreate as a farmer or servant or soldier. Chances are that a Jewish oaf got lynched before turning 20...
Another factor is that Jews traditionally specialized in activities which hold a lot of social power and were stigmatized by the powers that be for this very reason - the prime example of course being banking/money lending. During the eras of discovery and enlightenment, the old power structures (monarchy, church) lost strength and control while the power of things like trade, banking and academia increased - fields in which Jews already had a headstart.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Apr 12 2022 04:22pm