Are you all Jews if Jews are a race because you all come from the same blood line?

Answer 1

Answer

There is a mistake implicit in the question, which is the assumption that Jews are a race. In actuality, they are an ethno-religious group (which is explained in detail below). As part of an ethno-religious group's ethnic component, membership is passed down through the bloodline. This is similar to how a person is born Italian or born Japanese. Neither of those is a race either, but an ethnicity. Additionally, there are Jews of every skin color (Caucasian, Middle Eastern, Indian/Brown, African, East Asian).

Judaism as an Ethno-Religious Group

Judaism is typically considered to be an ethno-religious group. It has certain elements that are common to all ethnicities, such as a common language, a common ancestry, particular customs of association, and a view of common historic nation-hood. It also has certain elements that other religions share such as a belief in divine beings and a God, specific divine mandates, houses of worship, and holy scriptures. (Other ethno-religious groups include the Druze and Yazidi.)

Some people like to say that Judaism is similar to a nationality since it bears many of the traits of an ethno-religious group. Ethno-religious groups, unlike other common religions, prevent a person from converting out. This is because the ethnic component of Judaism ties a person to Judaism regardless of what they believe. This is as opposed to a pure religion, like Christianity, where failure to believe in the Christ makes a person a non-Christian. However, a person can gain a nationality through a difficult process of citizenship-acquisition. This is because the religious component of Judaism accepts conversion. This is as opposed to a pure ethnicity, like Italian. A person cannot convert to Italian as much as he may like spaghetti and Pizza.