Is being Jewish a religon or a ethnicity?

Question

is it racest to call someone a jew?

Answer 1

Judaism is a religion. Being Jewish entails not only being part of this religion, however; it includes an entire culture. In a certain sense, being Jewish is an ethnicity; since the Jewish people did not have a homeland until 1949, it was long considered an ethnicity; the Soviet Union considered Jews as a separate ethnic group, for example. Therefore, Judaism was originally only a religion, but today has become much more than that; it is an ethnicity with a culture and long tradition of over 5000 years. And no, it is not necessarily racist to call someone a Jew. It all depends upon how it is said and how it is perceived.

Answer 2

No, it is not racist to call someone a Jew. We all are proud to call ourselves Jews.

The reason it's so difficult to define "who is a Jew" is because Judaism is about "community." We are all individually obligated to God, but even moreso as a community. Secular Jews still call themselves Jews even though they aren't religious because they still celebrate Jewish holidays and traditions. Many (most?) of Israel's Jews are secular and many Israelis are NOT Jews.

Jews have always accepted converts, even when Jews were being killed by Christians because they wouldn't convert to Christianity, therefore you will find that Jews come from every nation on earth. Because of the history of the word "race," I find it offensive when anyone refers to Jews as a race. I am proud to be an anglo-saxon American Reform Jew!

Shalom

Answer 3

It's both. It's not racist to call someone a Jew if they are Jewish. That is the proper name for someone who practices Judaism, not any sort of slang or derogatory term.

And to those above pretending to be all politically correct, Hebrew is a language, not a type of person.

Answer 4

It's both, but an ethnic Jew who isn't a religious Jew is more properly referred to as a Hebrew.

It's not racist to use the word "Jew".

Answer 5

It's commonly used to refer to both. But the ethnicity is Hebrew, the religion is Judaism, so the word is actually a reference to the faith.

Answer 6

Judaism is a religion. Yet, it is very culturally based and centered mainly in Israel.

Answer 7

It is a religion but to be politically correct they are Hebrew.

Answer 8

it is a religion. there are middle eastern jews, european jews, german jews, black jews etc.

Answer 9

religion

Answer 10

Are you stupid? Its a religion. Bigot!