Who are the children of Israel?

Answer 1

A:

According to biblical tradition, the Hebrew people living in Israel and Judah were the descendants or children of Israel, whose former name was Jacob. The Israelites were scattered by the Assyrian conquest of Israel in 722 BCE and can no longer be identified, so modern Jews (who are descendants of Judah) take on the mantle of being the children of the legendary Israel.

Answer:

According to our tradition, Abraham founded Judaism 3800 years ago, and it is the children of Israel who are his spiritual heirs. Abraham's grandson, Jacob, had twelve sons from whom the Jewish people descend (together with a percentage of converts).

Every one of the twelve tribes of Jacob is represented among us, since the tribes intermingled to some degree before the nation split into two (in 1 Kings ch.12). However, the large majority of modern Jewry is from Judah (son of Jacob), with significant numbers also from Levi, Benjamin and Simeon (Shim'on). Though few of us still possess family-lineage records going all the way back, recent DNA studies have confirmed that the Jewish people are all inter-related, with Middle Eastern origin.