Why do Jews win so many Nobel prizes?

As a Jewish theoretical physicist, I have often been asked by colleagues, both Jewish and not, why Jews are so overrepresented among Nobel prize winners.

The data shows the impression of many Jewish Nobel prize winners is unambiguously accurate. Below I have plotted the proportion of Nobel prizes won by Jewish people in academic categories, adding the Fields Medal, the equivalent top prize in mathematics.

The numbers are astonishingly high — in the 1970s, for example, more than 30% of Nobel laureates were Jewish.

My playful response to the question of why is usually along the lines of, ‘Well, like pugs being bred for their funny looks, Jews have spent two millennia un-naturally selecting for literary analysis.’

Jokes aside, however, the phenomenon is so pronounced that it merits more serious analysis.

I strongly object to any explanation involving Jewish people being mentally superior to non-Jews — assigning cultural trends (good or bad) to genetic predisposition is a dangerous game. I know many stupid people, Jews and gentiles alike. Nor do I believe that this trend has anything to do with bias on the part of the Nobel selection committee.