Most Jewish people I know respond to this question with the same answer.?

Question

When you ask people where they come from, a familiar response is "I'm Italian or Irish or from some other country. Why do jewish people answer "I'm Jewish?" I never understand why jews respond with their religion to this question. There is no Jewland!
My grandparents were from Russia and I'm an American. Yet I too answer that I'm jewish. Any jewish people out there know why this is the traditional answer?

Answer 1

Because as a people who went thousands of years with no country, we became more than a religion. We became a distinct ethnic group within the diaspora by functioning within secular societies and maintaining Jewish homes, families and traditions. For instance I am of both spanish and german descent. Am I spanish? No, and I'm sure not german.
I recently had a conversation in which someone asked me if I am Jewish first, or American first. The answer is, definitely Jewish first, as that is the larger part of my every day life and my greater loyalty is to both Judaism and the jewish people.

Answer 2

Oh certain no situation. For illustration, I am a red meat consuming vegan (insert sarcasm right here) You CANNOT be xian and Jewish even as. The 2 theologys are diamatrically adversarial and it can not occur even though a few xians desire to mention they're "messianic Jews" or "xian Jews". That is like being a PETA member who works in an abattoir or a Jewish observer of the legislation of kashrut, consuming a bacon cheeseburger. It does no longer and CANNOT occur. Some matters simply don't move in combination A Jew who has changed to xianity is a a xian. A xtian who performs Jewish get dressed up is a xian. A man or woman who accepts jesus because the messiah is a xian.

Answer 3

I'm not Jewish, but I think for centuries the Jewish people saw themselves as a people in exile, a people without a country. Rampant anti-Semitism certainly did nothing to change that view. It wasn't until the re-establishment of the State of Israel that Jewish people had the possibility of a Jewish homeland. And yet one can not properly call themselves Israeli unless one is a citizen of Israel. Besides, its pretty hard to change a response that is a couple thousand years old. I do hope that you'll get a response from someone with more knowledge of the history of the Jewish people.

Answer 4

For the longest time, that's all we could identify ourselves with. We were pushed out of place after place we'd forget which country we were in so simply stated our religion.

(I agree with you sweetheeb.)

Answer 5

I guess you need to ask yourself why you don't answer that you are Russian. Or a Russian Jew.
I had a friend who was an Israeli Jew, and she & her family went back periodically to visit relative... she use to say she was from Israel. Maybe to her it was more obvious the correlation. (??)

Answer 6

I don't know the answer, but its a brilliant question.