why do Jews act like their religion is a nationally you ask a Jew what are they and they say Jewish?

Question

when someone ask me what I am i don't say catholic

Answer 1

Because Judaism is both a race of people and a religion. So it is correct for someone to say they are Jewish when asked their Nationality.

Answer 2

Originally, Jews were a uniform cultural, religious body, the religion and ethnicity were indistingusihable. After the Jews were forced out of Israel by the Romans and were scattered all over the world (known as the Diaspora) then Jews settled all over the world, and took on different ethnicities.
Another reason is because gentiles (those who are not Jewish) throughout the ages imposed the view that Jews were not only of a different religion, but of a different ethnicity, through the various acts of anti-semitism that took place (the Inquisition, Pogroms, Holocaust.)
But I don't think this a unique phenomenon to just Jews. Roman and Irish Catholics , for example, probably view their religious faith as being a strong part of their identity as much as their cultural background.

Answer 3

The term "Jew" originally came fore "Judah" or a member of the tribe of "Judah", one of the 12 tribes of Israel. After King Solomon's reign, the kingdom split into 2 separate kingdoms, Judah and the rest. the other tribes were exiled by Senacharib, who also besieged Jerusalem but failed to conquer it. Those exiles assimilated into Assyria, and are commonly referred to as the "lost tribes". Judah continued on its own, until it too was conquered and all the people of Judah, "Jews", were exiled to babylon. Unlike the tribes, the people of Judah managed, with difficulty, to maintain a distinct cultural identity. Many would return to Israel 70 years later and rebuild the temple, which stood until the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE. By then the only people left who practiced the religion of the Israelites were the people of Judah, which is why the religion was called Juda-ism, and the land of Israel Judea. So in answer Judaism refers to a people with a shared hereditary and cultural history, thereby comprising a race. Catholocism in contrast, from your example, has no such history. There is no native catholic group of shared history, rather various groups who adopted the religion over time.

Answer 4

Because being Jewish isn't so much of a religion as a heritage... My best friend is Jewish, but she believes in a more agnostic view. But her family is Jewish, and it is more the traditions and the heritage than the religion. I can't answer for all Jews, though.

Answer 5

The Hebrew Religion of Abraham became an established religion of the people of Judea, which was what Palestine was formerly called. As the traditions of the religion became established over time, the religion became known as Judaism... the traditional religious practices of the people of Judea. In a way, at that time, the religion and the culture were identified as one, but the religion itself goes back to ancient Hebrew teachings.

Answer 6

Jew is a Ethnic group like Serb. That's why the term "non practicing Jew" meaning a person of the tribe but not of the religion. And then there are converts like Cate Capshaw, who is a non ethnic Jew but a religious one.

Answer 7

I ask that same question and they could never explain the answer. If they claim to be a Israelite call themself Israelites and stop using Jew.

Answer 8

Why does President George W. Bush say he's a "Texan" instead of an "American"?

Your own President is a Texan before he is an American. Great.

Answer 9

I've wondered the same thing.