Is judaism a race or a religion?

Answer 1

Judaism is defined as both a religion and an ethnicity. It's an ethnicity because Jews are descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives: Jews, despite their diversity, are related to each other (as has been shown by DNA analyses of far-flung Jewish communities). And it's a religion, because Judaism is defined as the religion of Moses; the religion of the Torah, which includes people born Jewish as well as converts.

Judaism, however, is not a "race" since Jews do not have a uniform appearance in the same way that Blacks have a uniform appearance. There are Caucasian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Chinese, and Black Jews.

Answer 2

In the modern sense, Jewish can refer to either someone's race or religion while Hebrew is generally a reference to the language. It wasn't always this way, however.

Originally, the race was Hebrew and the religion was Judaism. Over time however, the usage of each term became more blurred.

Jewish can mean a Semitic race or the religion. As a race, Jews trace their roots to Abraham the Hebrew, so technically the race is called Hebrew and is a division of the Semitic races.
Judaism is a religion and has never been a race. With the original exodus from Egypt, not only the Israelites escaped slavery, other groups joined them and were then absorbed into the Israelite population. The Jewish people have always been of different races and this is noted in the Tanach (Jewish Bible) and Talmud (Jewish records).

Answer:Quote, from a dictionary: "Race is a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups by heritable phenotypic characteristics, geographic ancestry, physical appearance, ethnicity."

Based on all of those delineations except appearance, it would be possible to call the Jews a race. Recent DNA analyses has shown that Jews are a Middle Eastern people and share certain genetic markers.

Answer 3

In classical Jewish sources such as the Torah, the Israelites are spoken of as a nation (with shared ancestry), with Judaism being the national code of living.
Today, the term ethno-religious group is often used to describe the Jewish people. Jews have certain elements that are common to all ethnicities, such as a common language, particular customs of association, a shared history, and a common ancestry. Jews are descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives, from the Hebrews of the Fertile Crescent. Despite their diversity, Jews are related to each other (as has been demonstrated by DNA analyses of far-flung Jewish communities).
At the same time, Judaism is a religion, because it's defined in dictionaries as the religion of Moses; the religion of the Torah, which includes people born Jewish as well as non-ethnic Jews (converts).

It is worth noting that the term "ethno-religious group" is not unique to Jews; it just happens that Jews are more widely known than other such groups, which include the Yezidi, Druze, Maronites, and Yarsan.See also:

Are Hebrews, Israelites and Jews the same people?

Answer 4

Judaism is neither a "race" or strictly-speaking a "religion". 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.

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 entrance to an ethno-religious group through a difficult process of conversion because the religious component 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. Unlike many other religions, conversion to Judaism is difficult and generally not encouraged. This keeps the the ethnic pool of Jews relatively homogeneous.

Answer 5

There is no Jewish race. Judaism is a religion with a culture and nation.