Except for the inconvenient fact that the vast majority of the Jews who worked in finance and the professions were murdered during the Second World War, and the bulk of modern Jewry are descendants of the dirt poor shtetl Jews of Poland and the Ukraine and the similarly circumstanced Mizrachim of Northern Africa.
It is obvious that from the days of at least the Babylonian Captivity the Jews had a reputation as a highly learned and competent population.
exactly. It isn’t brain surgery- apparently this particular family/tribe of Jews, which has proven itself to be freakishly bright, obviously was sired by a very bright fellow, and he attracted intelligent women, and so on and so forth through the generations. Not being able to marry outside the faith obviously kept the high iq genes at home.
Many educated Jews escaped Europe before the darkness completely took hold, and you err in assuming that financial circumstances in the 19th century (when most European Jews came to America) necessarily indicates the ancestral circumstances of these Jews' forebearers. Being kicked out of one country for being too successful, and being shut out of opportunities for advancement in the country you've fled to, will result in your being a "dirt-poor shtetl", even if you've got a 150 IQ.
It is obvious that from the days of at least the Babylonian Captivity the Jews had a reputation as a highly learned and competent population.
Not so. There's nothing from classical times to suggest that the Jews were especially on the ball ahead of other peoples, intellect-wise. They were certainly outshone in just about every area of intellectual endeavour by the Greeks, and their insistence on revolting from the Romans every couple of decades, even when they were certain to be crushed mercilessly, while showing a certain amount of bravery, also demonstrates some blockheaded stupidity.
It's interesting. A good friend of mine recently told me that there was no evidence of any exodus across the desert from Egypt. But "modern scientists" thought it was possible that Moses and the Jews were actually a band of about 20 raiders who crossed the desert--and then the story just got out of hand over time.
I pointed out that the Old Testament has no peer in the pre-Greek world. It stands utterly by itself. For example, almost every major idea in modern philosophy appears in Genesis, well developed and well thought out. The culture required to sustain such an oral (later a written) tradition could not possibly have been 20 guys raiding caravans. Surprisingly, other civilizations of that time (the Babylonians and Egyptions) were much more powerful and wealthy. But they produced nothing comparable to Pentateuch, which is the granddaddy of one of the two intellectual traditions that produced the modern world.
I don't think most people stop and think about what truly remarkable folks the ancient Jews really were. The Torah and the Bible are just facts of life to us today. It is uttely astonishing the Torah was produced at that time.
That might be a bit of a stretch--if you're taking that from accounts in the Bible (in which case you could also include Joseph in Egypt). The Bible showed Jews God used. The Babylonian leadership could have easily drawn plenty of people from other conquered peoples as part of their 'adviser staff,' but they weren't mentioned by nationality.