I'm less sure about this as I ponder. So there is definitely such a stereotype, and there is also a long-running meme of "be a rich" (부자되세요), originated from a 2002 credit card advertisement, which cemented a notion of money being a virtue to the general public since then. The problem is that the Talmud craze definitely predates this meme, probably dating back to 1980s. But I can't conclusively say that this was nothing to do with that stereotype at that time---it might be just that jews are seen as a model minority.

Something like gleaning ancient Chinese wisdom from the Tao Te Ching?