Are The Jews Considered A Race Or A Religion?

Question

Sometimes it gets to be confusing because there are Jewish from all nationalities. I know some people who claim to be half Jewish because their mother/father is Jewish. Even one girl I know is half Jewish, it's weird because her father is an African-American and she refers to herself as half-Jewish rather than half-black.

Very confusing; are the Jews a race or a religion?

Answer 1

JEWISH is the ethnic/tribal designation that applies to all Jews regardless if they are religious or atheist. It can refer to anyone descended from one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel (the descendants of Abraham through Jacob).

JUDAISM is the religion, and as you seem to be aware of not all Jews believe in or practice Judaism. It is possible to practice Judaism without ethnically being a Jew and it is possible to ethnically be a Jew without practicing Judaism.

I'll throw you another curveball. the term anti-semitic also means being anti-Arab since Arabs and Jews are BOTH semitic peoples as were the ancient Phoenecians.

Hope this answers your question.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
For two thmbs down I would like to know where I am wrong!

Answer 2

There is no such thing as "half Jewish". A person is Jewish by birth because their mother is Jewish. What their father is makes no difference. It is the mother who passes down being Jewish. If the mother is Jewish, so are the children.

If the father is Jewish and the mother is not Jewish, the children are not Jewish.

When a Jewish man marries a non-Jewish woman, their children are not Jews according to Torah law. This man has just cut off his entire branch of Judaism. It will not exist after his death, because his children are not Jews.

See:
"Will Your Grandchildren Be Jewish?"
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/WillYourGrandchildrenBeJews.htm

There has also been genetic foundations found for the "Jewish Gene", and it was discovered on the FEMALE mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This is passed down by the female to both her male and female children, but only the FEMALE children are able to continue to pass it on to their own children. The male children MUST marry a Jewish female for this gene to be passed on so that the children will be Jewish. Just like the Torah describes. Science has finally caught up with it.

The Reform Jewish movement changed the law for themselves to say that even if the father is Jewish and the mother is not, as long as the children are raised Jewish, they are to be considered Jews.

The Reform movement is the largest branch of Judaism. However, their changing this law for themselves does not negate Torah law, and it also does not pass down being Jewish to these children genetically. What the Reform movement is actually doing by changing this law for themselves is causing the largest annihilation of Jews since Hitler.

To answer your question: Jews are both a race and a religion. Those who convert to Judaism are said to be so changed it's even said that their very DNA changes into Jewish DNA when they immerse in the Mikvah. IF the conversion is done according to Torah law, that is. So there may be people from all races and areas of the world who have converted to Judaism, but if they have undergone a Torah true conversion, according to Torah law, then they have become genetically Jewish as well as joining the religion.

I personally would like to see this proven (or disproven, as the case may be). We have discovered the "Jewish Gene", so I'd like to see some converts tested on that. Both on those who undergo a conversion that's not done according to Torah law (like the Reform do) and on those who have undergone a conversion according to Torah law. It would be very interesting to see the results.

Answer 3

Let us try to clear the ground by attempting, not so much a definition as a characterization of Judaism. Judaism is not a religion in the Western sense of the word. Judaism is the precipitated spiritual experience of the Jewish people. The idea of Judaism is inseparable from the idea of the Jewish people, and the idea of the Jewish people is inseparable from the idea of the Jewish land. You may see this in every form and expression of Jewish religious life. Individual prayer, prayer for the individual Jew alone, is exceedingly rare. When the Jew prays, he prays not simply for himself, but for all Israel; and this national conception permeates prayer even in what might be considered to be the most personal and individual incidents of life: birth, marriage, death.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/191907/sacher
.

Answer 4

A Jew is all people who practices the religion of Judaism its not a race, I recommend Madonna grew to develop right into a Jew & she's French/Canadian not midsection jap. regardless of the shown fact that the race it extremely is traditionally talked approximately because of the fact the Jews are generally the Hebrews or Israelis/Israelites.

Answer 5

Both and neither.

Taken from http://www.jewfaq.org/judaism.htm which explains the whole thing:

It is clear from the discussion above that there is a certain amount of truth in the claims that it is a religion, a race, or an ethnic group, none of these descriptions is entirely adequate to describe what connects Jews to other Jews. And yet, almost all Jews feel a sense of connectedness to each other that many find hard to explain, define, or even understand. Traditionally, this interconnectedness was understood as "nationhood" or "peoplehood," but those terms have become so distorted over time that they are no longer accurate.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has suggested a better analogy for the Jewish people: We are a family. See the third essay in his recent book, We Jews: Who Are We and What Should We Do. But though this is a new book, it is certainly not a new concept: throughout the Bible and Jewish literature, the Jewish people are referred to as "the Children of Israel," a reference to the fact that we are all the physical or spiritual descendants of the Patriarch Jacob, who was later called Israel. In other words, we are part of his extended family.

Like a family, we don't always agree with each other. We often argue and criticize each other. We hold each other to the very highest standards, knowing that the shortcomings of any member of the family will be held against all of us. But when someone outside of the family unfairly criticizes a family member or the family as a whole, we are quick to join together in opposition to that unfair criticism.

When members of our "family" suffer or are persecuted, we all feel their pain. For example, in the 1980s, when Africa was suffering from droughts and famines, many Jews around the world learned for the first time about the Beta Israel, the Jews of Ethiopia. Their religion, race and culture are quite different from ours, and we had not even known that they existed before the famine. And yet, our hearts went out to them as our fellow Jews during this period of famine, like distant cousins we had never met, and Jews from around the world helped them to emigrate to Israel.

When a member of our "family" does something illegal, immoral or shameful, we all feel the shame, and we all feel that it reflects on us. As Jews, many of us were embarrassed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, or the Jack Abramoff affair, because Lewinsky and Abramoff are Jews. We were shocked when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was killed by a Jew, unable to believe that one Jew would ever kill another member of the "family."

And when a member of our "family" accomplishes something significant, we all feel proud. A perfect example of Jews (even completely secular ones) delighting in the accomplishments of our fellow Jews is the perennial popularity of Adam Sandler's Chanukkah songs, listing famous people who are Jewish. We all take pride in scientists like Albert Einstein or political leaders like Joe Lieberman (we don't all agree with his politics or his religious views, but we were all proud to see him on a national ticket). And is there a Jew who doesn't know (or at least feel pride upon learning) that Sandy Koufax declined to pitch in a World Series game that fell on Yom Kippur?

Peace

Answer 6

They are both. There are Jews by biology and may or may not be Jewish by religion. Then there are those who are of the Jewish religion but not biologically Jewish.

Answer 7

In the 1980's the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Jews are a race (for protective purposes). This offends some Jews.
Of course, Judaism is the religion.

Answer 8

They are both a nationality and a religion. I once had a doctor who was clearly of Jewish descent but he was a Roman Catholic.

Answer 9

I consider it a religion only. I'm not Jewish but this is my understanding. Jews accept converts from all races.

Answer 10

confusing yes.....best answer.....both...

i do know there is something about your mother needing to be jewish to be considered jewish...but can't remember the exact thing about it.