Judaism also kinda helped, they valued education, they were forced to read 4 times a week. Combine that with Christian help of outsourcing usurious practices to them, and you see why they had enough space to up their game quite a bit.

Yep. When you have a culture which prizes education and literacy, is isolated and ostracized from normal society, but isnt legally allowed to own anything, then you'll end up with a culture that values things that get you what you want. Christianity and Islam's ban of usury further solidified these values.