Where do Jews decend from?

Answer 1

According to tradition, all Jews are descended from Abraham (through his grandson Jacob).

The Jewish people are descendants of Abraham, whose Semitic ancestors lived in the Fertile Crescent and who lived most of his life in the Middle Eastern country of Israel (Canaan) 3800 years ago. Abraham is called a Hebrew (Genesis ch.14) because Hebrew (Ivrim) means descendants of Eber (Ever). Ever was an anscestor of Abraham (Genesis ch.10-11) and the early Hebrews were Abraham's uncles and cousins for several generations back. They were Western Semites and lived in northern Mesopotamia, near the confluence of the Balikh and the Euphrates.

Abraham gave birth to Isaac and Isaac gave birth to Jacob. Jacob was later renamed Israel (Genesis ch.35), which is why we're called Israelites. There were 12 sons of Israel, who formed the 12 tribes. The Israelites worshiped One God. One thousand years after Jacob, the bulk of the tribes were exiled to points unknown. The only tribes left were Judah, Benjamin and part of Levi. The few who remained from the other tribes joined the Tribe of Judah; and modern Jews are mainly descendants of this tribe (the word "Jew" comes from Judah). Even now, through DNA analysis, Jewish communities worldwide have been shown to come from a common Middle Eastern tribe. The Cohanim, a family of the tribe of Levi, also share common genetics.

Today, "Judaism" and "Jewish" refer to all members of the tribes of Israel.

As to which of the twelve tribes each individual Jew is from, we don't generally possess that knowledge today (except for Kohens and Levites).

Note that converts, though not genealogically descended from Jews, are nonetheless fully Jewish and are spiritually descended from Abraham.

Answer 2

Abraham.