Judaism is as much an ideology as a religion
I mean, It depends heavily on where you lay the dividing line between ideology and religion, Judaism has a huge number of rules, but there's a lot more dispute about how to follow them than in a religion like islam which has a tighter set of rules and adheres to them more strictly. Another issue with the religious connection is that ultra-religious jews hate money, israel, and corporations with a fiery passion. (Which is why it's funny when /pol/ posts pictures of ultra-religous Jews on phones saying 'shut it down' and 'die for israel' and shit. The guys in funny hats hate Israel)
And in it, the Torah emphasizes intelligence and wisdom.
The torah isn't really as much of a singular document as the new testament, book of Mormon, Quran, et. cetera. There's the old torah, (which is just the old testament) genesis through Deuteronomy, and that's as much a part of christian tradition as Jewish, so I'm not sure why only Jews would get the advantage of this. There's also the much larger group of rabbinical traditions and scholarship associated with the torah. The rabbinical tradition has much more emphasis on wisdom and learning, but it's also a lot looser and isn't particularly organized or streamlined. Its really a collection of random Jewish outlooks on life.
This is also similar to the history of Jews, living in slavery, wilderness, always beating the odds. If underhanded tactics can ensure the survival of your people? So be it.
Many ethnic groups have suffered slavery (African Americans, gypsies), wilderness (aboriginals, native Americans) and genocide, but aren't really in a similar position to jews in modern society. Even some subgroups of Jews aren't as well off as people think: the 'Mizrahi' Jews who lived in the arab world aren't very well represented among high level corporations or the worlds most wealthy. There's even a subgroup of Ethiopians who are Jewish (religiously, not ethnically), and follow Jewish laws, yet they were nowhere near other Jews in terms of influence in their society. (They had to get airlifted out of Ethiopia because the surrounding villages attacked, now they all live in Israel) Almost the entirety of people's view of Jews as being wealthier than average and controlling big corporations, is really a view of Ashkenazim Jews, the Jews who migrated to Germany and Central Europe. So I'm not sure that the whole biblical history and the influence of the Torah is relevant.
Also 'underhanded tactics' aren't always what you think they are. For instance, many people believe that Jews had a leg up in the middle ages because they weren't subject to the christian concern for Usury, so they profited from the innocent townsfolk. In reality though, the Jews were often merely being used by local lords, loaning and collecting money on the lord's behalf (so the lord could maintain standing with the anti-usury catholic church) and then acting as a scapegoat when the townspeople fell into too much debt.
This is why you’ll see Jews give other Jews a leg up in fields (Elena Kagen, current SCJ, was known to abuse this in her academic positions) Is it an advantage? Sure. Unfair? I suppose.
Do they? That's a bit of a wild claim, for a number of reasons. For one: even minorities that are given a mandatory leg up through affirmative action have quite a lot of trouble becoming CEOs and CFOs. How many black executives are there compared to Jewish execs? Its hard to reach the top consistently, no matter what help you get. For another, aren't (for instance) black communities at least as tightly knit as Jewish ones are? How come cooperation only works for one group? And finally, if Jews really are just hoisting one another up, what accounts for all their success in purely quantitative fields? You can't nepotism your way to a proper understanding of surface calculus. If you look up the success of Jews in math and physics it's arguably greater than in areas like Law, which are easier to appear good in due to connections.
(plus, I'm a kike, and I'm still doing blue-collar retard work. Why haven't I gotten my free Jewish CEO job?
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