I haven't read many opinions about why anti-semitism has been so persistent and prevalent around the world for thousands of years, but the best explanation I can think of also accounts for the Jews' phenomenal success: Ashkenazic Jews have an average IQ a full standard deviation higher than other whites. In more concrete terms, normalizing IQ so that an average white of European extract has an IQ of 100, the average Ashkenazic Jew has an IQ of around 115. Since IQ correlates very closely with all forms of intellectual achievement (lifetime earnings, graduation rates, etc.) it's no surprise that Jews tend to outperform other groups, and it's likewise not surprising that this success leads to resentment among those groups who simply can't compete.
