are jews a race?

[justasking]

I'm debating with someone about jews. He said they are not a race they are a religion and im sying their both. I could be wrong though and i want to know if i am wrong. I thought a jew was someone who's descendants where from jerusalem or someone who is of jewish faith. People call chinese people chinese even if they were born in england so is it the same for a person whos mother and father is jewish but who is christian? Would they still be a jew. Thanks.

[acorn]

Hard question. I would say they are not JUST a race. People convert to Judaism so are not 'born' Jews and therefore this confirms perhaps that it is a religion but i am sure persons born in a Jewish family would see themselves as in the Jewish race. At the end of the day we are all part of the same race - the human one.

[justasking]

yes i agree, but the person im debating with is saying they are JUSt a religion and not a race at all.

[shaneystar2]

Jews are followers of Judaism or, more generally, members of the Jewish people (also known as the Jewish nation, or the Children of Israel), an ethno-religious group descended from the ancient Israelites and converts who joined their religion at various times and places.

Being Jewish is not a race because Jews do not share one common ancestry or biological distinction. People of many different races have become Jewish people over the years.

Being Jewish is not a nationality because Jews have been dispersed throughout the world for almost two thousand years. People of many different nationalities are Jewish.


Wikepedia will tell you all about it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish

[noxlumos]

Whilst shaneystar is probably spot on with her definition, my wife who is Jewish is arguing vehemently that Jews are also a race, with members of other cultrues embracing the religion of her race and being therefore "called" Jewish and being mambers of the Jewish faith but not member of the Jewish Race.She's pointed out that there are several genetic diseases only affecting Jews so that also point to a core race amongst the wider faith and that Judaism doesn't generally welcome converts, in the sense that it is not evangelical in any way. If you wish to convert to Judaism it won't be because someone has twisted your arm, as it's quite a discouraged practice very often.

[shaneystar2]

Sorry if I may have upset your good lady in any way noxlumos... Was only trying to help justaking by giving some facts . Not decry any one for their race or beliefs.Just by Googling I have come across some very interesting information.My husband has distant relatives who were lost in the Holocaust who were Jewish.This little snippet here is interesting.
http://www.amhaaretz.org/zionism/who-are-the-jews.html
Hopefully our good friend Clanad will be along soon to give us the benefit of his wisdom. He is ace with any thing like this.

[noxlumos]

No, she's not offended shaneystar far from it, just sticking her two pen'orth in, so please don't worry. It's one of those questions where almost everyone is right and it's a very intangible thing to try to pin down, especially since there is a vast difference between liberal and ultra orthadox Jews as well as there being distinct cultures within Judasim (Sephardic, Azkenazim etc).I'm Catholic so it doesn't matter to me:)

[helpinout33]

to be honest JUSTASKING i think that Jew is a religion not a race. My ethnicity is black and i am a christian. However i can be converted into a Jew by religious belief if i so please. The Jewish racial myth flows from the fact that the words Hebrew, Israelite, Jew, Judaism, and the Jewish people have been used synonymously to suggest a historic continuity. But this is a misuse. These words refer to different groups of people with varying ways of life in different periods in history. Hebrew is a term correctly applied to the period from the beginning of Biblical history to the settling in Canaan. Israelite refers correctly to the members of the twelve tribes of Israel. The name Yehudi or Jew is used in the Old Testament to designate members of the tribe of Judah. so i believe that Jew is only a religion not a race. BUT this is a very difficult question to answer