Are Jewish People Part Of An Ethnicity, A Race, A Religion, Or All Of The Above?

Are Jewish People Part Of An Ethnicity, A Race, A Religion, Or All Of The Above?

Are Jewish people part of an ethnicity, a race, or all of the above? It's a question that has been answered with varying degrees of specificity throughout history. In the modern era, for example, some scholars have argued that Jews belong to an ethnicity (like European). In contrast, others argue that they are part of both an ethnicity and a religion (like Christianity).

But what does it mean to be "part" of something? That's where things get tricky! And In this blog post, we will discuss Jewish people's religion and beliefs so that we get a clear idea of their beliefs and where they stand regarding race and ethnicity.

What is Judaism? Who are the Jewish people?

Like other monotheistic religions, Judaism is also a school of thought that believes in One God. The believers of Judaism are called Jewish, and a large part of the world today follows Judaism. However, there is a huge doubt regarding Jewish people since some consider them an ethnic community or a race, while some believe they are an ancient Abrahamic religion. Let’s dig in further to find what is true.

Judaism: A faith, religion, belief?

The Jewish civilisation has been followed in the Middle East since Bronze Age for at least 4000 years. The religious aspect believes there is only One God (monotheistic), and the prophet Abraham, who was a Hebrew man, is the descendant of God.

The “Torah’’ more commonly known as the ‘’Hebrew Bible’’ is the Holy book that was revealed by Prophet Abraham. Abraham's children, the offspring of him. Isaac and his grandson Jacob are also believed to be worshipped by the Jewish community.

Contrary to the popular Islamic belief, which states that there is only God and Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet of God, Jewish people believe that their Messiah is yet to come. The majority of the Jewish population, estimated at around 14 million today, lives mainly in the United States and Israel. Over the years, Jews went through several maltreatment and neglect, among which the major events include:

• The Granada Massacre: On 30th December 1066, approximately 1000 Jews families were butchered in a mass murder by a Muslim mob.
• The Spanish Expulsion: The Spanish leaders, during 1492, declared to oust all the Jew population if they refused to convert to Christianity (another religious faith). Over 200 thousand Jews were expelled, and thousands of them died.
• The Holocaust: One of the villainous acts of violence in today’s age was the Holocaust when the Nazis commanded the mass killing of Jews, and above 6 million Jews were put to death.

Post-Holocaust, the majority of Jews came back to Palestine, their land of birth, and converted to Zionism. Israel came into legal existence in 1948, which is considered a tremendous success for Jews and Judaism. However, the rift between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jewish has been the world's talk for years.

Jewish Population:

According to 2010 reports, Jews account for 0.2% of the total global population. As discussed earlier, the Jewish population is largely present but not limited to Israel and the United States. Besides this, Judaism is also observed in other regions like Canada, Argentina, and Brazil, and we find a relatively small population in Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay.

However, in western unique, France is the 3rd leading country with a Jewish population, followed by the United Kingdom. Besides these countries, small populations of Jews are found in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Judaism Sects:

Despite all the arguments above, it must also be noted that Judaism has been divided into several sects as well, which are stated below:

• Orthodox Judaism: Typical old-school Judaism, which observes strict religious commandments and adheres to spiritual norms.
• Reform Judaism: A relatively liberal Judaism community that, although it follows all religious rituals and activities, also endorses progressive ideas and alterations. Majority of Jews living in the United States follow Reform Judaism.
• Conservative Judaism: A blend of Orthodox and Reform, where Jews observe religious values along with modernised civilisation.
• Reconstructionist Judaism: It came into being in around 1922 by Mordecai Kaplan, where it was believed that Judaism community was consistently developing and evolving.
• Humanistic Judaism: founded by Rabbi Sherwin in 1963, The Humanistic Judaism community rejoices the Jewish cultures and values while believing in humanity over any religion.

Are Jewish people a religious group, an ethnic group, or a race?

No. Jews are not any one of these things. They are simultaneously all three; there is no such thing as “just” an ethnicity or race—they both include religious groups and vice versa. We can think of them as being like the colour yellow: it exists in the spectrum between orange and blue (which makes it a hue), but you wouldn't say that someone's skin colour was just "the shade between" red and green (that would be oxymoronic).

The same is true of Jews. We can talk about Jews as a religious group (the ones who follow Judaism), an ethnic group (the ones descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), or a race (the people with similar physical traits). But if someone asks you whether Jews are one or the other, you should respond by saying that they are all three at once.

Jewish people are a mixture of different ethnicities.

Jewish people are a mixture of different ethnicities. They have a shared religion, culture and history. They also share a common language (Hebrew), which is spoken by around 7 million Jews worldwide today.

Conclusion

So there you go, everything you could ever learn about Jews people's religion. Despite all the facts discussed, it can be understood that Judaism is not only restricted to a race or an ethnic culture but is one of the oldest religious civilisations with a proper history.

We hope this article has shed some light on what Jewish people are and what makes them unique. It is important for us all to remember that there are many different ways in which people can identify.