Are Jews a race?

Answer 1

Interesting you should ask this question. Often, if you ask a Jewish person what their background, nationality or lineage is, they will say "I'm Jewish." While this isn't necessarily a race in the context we're used to seeing it in (black, white, Latino, Asian, etc.), it can be used as a race. This is because frequently, Jews are a mixture of any of the following: Russian, Austrian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, German (yes, German), and pretty much any other eastern European country. The entire concept of race, however, is constructed by people. What I mean by this is, there is no "black" race: there are Jamaican blacks, Haitian blacks, Dominican blacks, etc. There is no "Latino" race: there are Spaniards, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans... there's no such thing as race - - but we refer to it as a group of people. In that sense, Jews identify themselves frequently as a race.

Answer 2

To speak of human races is by itself a racist concept. There is only ONE human race. As for the Jews forming a cultural or religious group, this is an altogether different question. Israel is peopled by Jews of different religious denominations. Could an Israeli be a non-Jew ? Is a convert to Judaism, a Jew ?These questions have been asked. Deep down it boils down to whether someone identifies with a particular history, a particular culture. But a race, different from the human race ????? No way. Claude.

Answer 3

The Jews are a cultural group in which several of the numerically smaller races predominate. You don't usually hear about races other than White (or Caucasian), Black (or *****), and Asian (or Mongoloid). However these race designations, with the possible exception of White, are perhaps overly broad.

Asians, for example, can be grouped into Moderns and Yoyois. You can usually tell the difference between them by looking. The Modern Asian has a big head (and a big brain), has glossy, straight black hair, and is generally a pretty good-looking fellow. The Yoyoi Asians, uh, well maybe I'd better take my grandma's advice on knowing when to shut up.

Again, Blacks vary greatly in their heredity. In Africa, you have races of Blacks for which six-feet adults are normal. But you also have other races of Blacks whose adults seldom rise above five feet, with about four feet being the norm.

The Jews are like that, too. They come in several races, not even considering the recent converts to their traditional religion. (It must be pointed out here that not all Jews have Judaism as their religion; some Jews belong to other religions and some Jews are atheists.)

The predominant race among the Jews today, in wealth, in numbers, and in political influence, are the Ashkenazim, often referred to as the "East European Jews." This is the race of Jews which is the most rapacious in business and in politics, which invented Zionism, and which runs Israel, owns the media, and controls American politics today. Their ancestry traces back into the Turks (that's where "the nose" comes from), the ancient Persians, and various Semitic groups of antiquity.

The Ashkenazim have have recent biological ties with a number of White groups also, but not so much as they might want you to believe. As is true with all races, the Ashkenazi Jews have a spectrum of traits, and when they infiltrate a gentile country, the ones who enter in the greatest numbers are the ones who occupy the part of their own racial spectrum that most nearly meshes with that of the host race. So, rather than true biological assimilation, what's going on is a kind of racial chameleony.

Answer 4

This is an *old* question.
No, Jews are not a "race". There are Jews from Ethiopia who are black, Jews from India and China who look just like their neighbors, and European Jews who are blond, redheaded, blue-eyed, etc. Also, you can become a full-fledged Jew by converting, whereas you cannot change your "race" by choice. We are not a race, and we never were! Even as long ago as our sojourn in Egypt (ca. 1800 BCE), it was a "mixed multitude" which followed Moses, Aaron and Miriam out of Goshen in the Exodus.
Judaism is a religion, but it is also a peoplehood. We are a nation (whether or not we have a country, the Jewish people survived without their homeland for 2000 years).
In anthropological terms, we technically qualify as a tribe.

Answer 5

Jew stands for the religion of a person. Semitic is a language. Asia and Africa are geographic locations.

Race needs to be based on something besides the amount of melanin to have any meaning. It should mean an isolated population that has developed some distinctive characteristics. Jews don't qualify under that definition.

Answer 6

Yes and no. Historically, Jews are of Semitic origin. (So are the Arabs). However, a person of any race may convert to Judaism.

Answer 7

no

many blood jews are a member of the semite race, which also includes many blood muslims and some blood catholics

Answer 8

No. There is no such thing as the Jewish race... though historically they are of semetic origin-- to be Jewish is to claim a specific ehtnic heritage / identiy.

Answer 9

A godly race and a sad one too

Answer 10

There is both: the Jewish race - people from Jerusalem, and then the people who follow the Jewish religion.