I am conservative jewish, and of Hungarian descent on my mother's side. Russian on my fathers. Neither parent has a Ph.D. I do, and one of 2 brothers is a DDS, other is MS in CS. Daughter is double majoring in math and physics, with now a minor in complex systems. Going to grad school next year. She's half me, half my wife (Mexican American).
Conservative and orthodox jews tend to have quite a bit of familial pressure with regards to education. You are expected to go to school. Expected to excel. Expected to pursue a professional or medical career. I recall this growing up in the 1970s.
My dad is an EE, with a penchant for math. My mom is more psychologically inclined. Wife has an MS in Physics, and teaches college prep high school math. Daughter started out as an Art major. I kid you not. Transitioned over to Physics in her second year.
Ok, with that as the back story, a few observations.
Many of my fellow jewish students, easily a majority, have gone to post graduate education, and are doctors, lawyers, scientists, and engineers. Very few have not. The familial pressure was common, and we all talked about it in our groups. I see a very similar trend with Indian and Chinese American families. Same drive to succeed, with pushes from family.
Jews are not a "racial" group, we don't share locus of genes that can be used to easily identify us as such. Apart from certain families with markers for Tay-Sachs or others.
Conservative and Orthodox jews do share a culture where education is seen as the pathway to success, a better life, taking care of the extended family, etc. That is, its kind of built in to our way of life.
I interpret this to mean a number of things.
1) Genetics, while important, isn't the dominant feature of highly successful people.
2) Nurture, culture, society, support systems, etc. are the things that matter. Put another way, if you set low bars, you get results appropriate to setting of low bars. If you set high bars, and provide both a support system, and strong cultural motivation, you will get results appropriate to the setting of high bars.
For me, the martians have always been fascinating. JvN was foremost, though Paul Erdos was always a fascinating character. I don't think genetics/religion was the deciding factor for them. I think it was their environment. If it was an aberration for this time and place, or if it was common, that environment, the support systems behind it, should be studied, and leveraged.