Well well well, haven't you waded onto some pretty controversial waters here.
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/
https://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/blog-post/jews-america-numbers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laureates
Of course, Jewish people aren't one single hivemind, but we can still look at averages and find useful data. It seems that Jewish people are vastly over-represented when it comes to high achievement. Of course, for someone who believes that there can be differences in the average IQ of different people, there is no mystery or a conspiracy here (we do not need to rehash the IQ debate in this thread, we can simply agree to disagree). It would seem that Jewish people are over-represented due to merit, and that this benefits everybody.
However, I've heard the progressive argument made backwards by people who do not believe in IQ. Because there cannot be any innate differences in ability, Jewish success can only be attributed to some conspiracy shenanigans. Also, another factor which probably leads to more anti-semitism is Jewish involvement in financial institutions. I don't have any data for this, but at least the stereotype is that Jewish people are over-represented in banking institutions. I imagine that's a factor in anti-semitism, especially following a big recession. Of course, it would be wrong to blame Jewish people for the failures of our banking systems, but not everybody is going to see it that way
What you say is moreover based on the modern societies where meritocratic elements are in the equation of success. And whether that comes from better environment, more (needed) determination or genes is a discussion that we should not have in this thread imo.
If you look at the past 2000 years, and look at the last 500 years where international banking becomes important, and the last 100-150 years where internationality emerges, that short modern period does not really plays a role anymore when it is about why Jews have such high degree of international contacts and why there are rich Jewish families.
I've always understood diaspora as one of the reasons jews excelled in finance and trade, their families maintained connections even when spread across vast distances. This goes back at least the past millennia though does it not? I've never understood why this generates resentment.
Yes... if you have to rescue your life all the time through the centuries from pogroms you do become international. And if some of the family stay behind as crypto Jews, officially but not really converted to christianity, you have already a network.
It is perhaps good to note that many, many Jews were very poor throughout the centuries. Somehow discussions on Jews always zoom in on those rich families.
During the period 1500-1940 many Jews from all over Europe ended up in Amsterdam. Spanish-Portugeses Jews after the pogroms there, the first big wave. But the Medieval pogroms in the Holy Roman Empire had already caused many Jews to flee North and Westward. Most of them were poor refugees, skilled in a limited number of professions, because farming and traditional guilds were forbidden (thanks to the church)..
In Amsterdam they did all kinds of small trade, selling at markets, and new manufacturing techs like sugar refining etc etc (not in the hands and rules of the traditional guilds). Around 1900 the Jewish diamond union emerged with successful strikes sponsoring the founding of other unions incl solidarity strikes. Again: I try to show that most Jews were poor, certainly around 1900 when pogroms in East Europe brought many new Jewish refugees to Amsterdam. The few rich Jews living in other neighborhoods than the poor Jews.
And that all in a merchant city where in 1650 the VOC was 5 times as big in market cap as Google now, and new banking techs were developed that were taken over everywhere else. The wealth of the rich Jews stayed concentrated in the rich families, that played a big role in the economical growth of Amsterdam.
The rich Jewish families were most Sephardic, that came for Spain-Portugal. And many of them left also again along the trade routes of the VOC and mainly the WIC (trading with the Americas). Manhattan Sephardic Jews are often former Amsterdam families, that went to Brazil, and after that through Curacao or directly, ending up in Manhattan.
EDIT
Around 1940 only about 3% of the Jews were Sephardic, and not all of them rich.
And I would guess that the old Manhattan Jewish families were typical descendants of the few rich Jewish families, as they hopped from trade hub, to trade hub. The poor Jewish immigration to the US is of much younger date, after that Jews are rich impression was already branded in the US.
For me the real bottom line is family trust and family loyalty of a few rich Jewish families, being strong enough to handle big amounts of money long distance. That family trust and loyalty greatly strenghtened by a separate religion under surpression, forging strong ingroup morals.
You want to set up an international network for international money ? Rothschild send his 5 sons to 5 big European cities to do it.
It is not unlike the Mafia loyalty-trust system, only without the violence.
Modern multinationals need rigid accounting systems and transparency to get that long distance trust by mechanical means, and have imo a lower degree of effectivity, especially in countries with a corruption culture. Risk assessments of such companies include and quantify those long distance risks.
