Okay, we've got a few myths to work through here:
Chosen People: Means chosen to follow the many laws in the torah. Not chosen for any particular preferential treatment. Jewish tradition states that it's harder for a Jew to get into heaven than a non-Jew, because they have more rules to follow.
Pharisees: The gospel writers got this one wrong because by the time they were putting pen to paper the Pharisees were the only Jews around. Jesus was himself a Pharisee - or at least his viewpoints reflect Pharisaic beliefs at the time. The sect who ran the temple and had political power with the Romans was the Sadducees but with the destruction of the temple in 70AD their powerbase was lost.
Rich/smart/whatever: In the dark-middle ages, the Vatican put out a ruling that Christians couldn't charge interest on loans to other Christians. Seeing as the only other non-pagan group at the time was the Jews, all the money lenders at the time were Jewish. Of course, no-one likes someone that they owe money to, so Jews gained a nasty reputation of being tight with money. In reality, Jews tend to give far more than the average to charity as it's a fairly fundamental part of the religion.
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Spending as long as I do here, it's easy to forget that Oddworld has actual fans.
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