[mea36]

The reasons Jews stereotypically have a lot of money is because for the majority of history it was illegal for them to own land. Instead they turned to business and banking. Since it's forbidden to lend in the Christian religion, Jews excelled in this area.

Not the best source but check out the first paragraph of this http://www.jewishhistory.org/the-rothschilds/

"In the Middle Ages, the Church, in a misapplication of the Biblical prohibition against charging interest, forbade interest in all instances. The Talmud, in contrast, created an economic system in which loans could be converted into investments, so interest could accrue from them, but under the Christian interpretation, no credit market was possible. The way the Church got around that was by forcing the Jews to become the bankers. "