Are Jews a religion or a race or both?

Answer 1

This is a difficult question and is still much debated by historians, ethnographers, and other types of intellectuals who study these matters. As a result the Answers below have been categorized by type prior to number.

Religion Only Answers

Answer 1

Jews are a religion. According to traditional Jewish values, and because the religion has rules that helps guide one's life, it is considered a "way of life" to be observed at all times, not just on holiday or in synagogue.

Answer 2

There is no Jewish race. Judaism is a religion that has a cultural offshoot. There is also the Jewish Nation. However, Jews have always been made up of different races from the point of the Exodus from Egypt.

Race Only Answers

Answer 1

While there are certainly traditions passed down in Jewish families, in many cases these would seem to be on par with those passed by Irish families. Sure, most of the Irish faithful pray the same way, but nobody would call "Irish" its own religion. However, no matter where an Irish person lives, he still considers himself part of the Irish diaspora (unless he lives in Ireland), which is an ethnic or racial category. Further to this point, there are genotypical attributes linking Jews, such as a prevalence for Tay-Sachs, the recently-identified "Cohen" gene, and other such markers which would classify Jews as an ethnic group. As concerns religion, in addition to Judaism being a religion open to anybody (as opposed to Druze for example), most Jews today (more than 50%) are non-religious (secular Jews) and are identified only by this historical legacy, not by faith.

Both Religion and Race Answers

Answer 1

You can be of Jewish descent and religion because it's a religion as well as a group of people.

Answer 2

Judaism is a religion, and Jews are those whose religion is Judaism. In that sense, Jews are members of their religion. You can also call us a people ("race"), because we are descendants of Israel (Jacob) in the Tanakh (Bible), plus those who have converted to Judaism. DNA analysis has shown that we are identifiable as one people.

Answer 3

I think that your question is really "Does the word 'Jew' refer to a member of a ethnic group, or a member of a religious group?"

This is complex. The short answer is: both.

Being a Jew is something that you "are", not something that you "do". It is contrasted with the American expectation of religiosity, where one participates in religious activities, and is thereby a member of that religion by choice and virtue.

Answer 4

The answer is relatively straightforward. Jews are part of a religion, since their shared cultural history and beliefs are of a nature to constitute a faith distinct from all others. Nobody has ever disputed if Judaism is a unique religion; and since the Jews do not proselytize it, the rate of conversion was not high enough to highly dilute the ethnic stock of the people carrying that faith. Genetic research has confirmed these similarities between widely-dispersed Jews, and their distinctness from the peoples in whose territories they lived. This would lend credence to the idea of them being one ethnicity or race. Therefore, they are both, and are often termed an ethno-religious group.

Answer 2

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 the Related Links.

Link: Jewish ancestry

Link: Are Hebrews, Israelites and Jews the same people?