It depends if you accept the religious ground, most of the former comments resume that a) you are a Jew if your mom is Jewish and/or b) you are a Jew if you.
![Jew Jew](http://jewornotjew.com/img/people/j/julia_louis-dreyfus.jpg)
Return to the Who Are The Jews? SynopsisThis chapter conveys the history, religion, and culture of the Jewish people from its Biblical origins to the present.
![Jew or not jew quiz Jew or not jew quiz](/uploads/1/2/4/7/124780836/944584008.jpg)
These characteristics of the Jews set them apart from their neighbors and contributed to the prejudice, discrimination and persecution that were the roots of the Holocaust. INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES Students will learn:1. The history of the Jewish people from origins to the present.2. The basic rituals, observances, and customs of the Jewish religion.3. Why the differences between the religion and culture of the Jews and those of their neighbors caused conflict, which was a precursor of anti-Semitism.4.
That the physical isolation of Eastern European Jewry in ghettos slowed assimilation. CHAPTER CONTENTThe Jews have a 5,750 year history, tracing their origins to Biblical times. Evolving out of a common religion, the Jewish people developed customs, culture, and an ethical system which identified them as Jews regardless of their individual religious attitudes. The ancient Jews were both conquerors and the conquered. But they were among only a handful of ancient peoples to survive, despite centuries of persecution, massacres, and their dispersion amongst all of the world’s nations. Where other peoples assimilated, the Jews adopted some local customs and folkways, but held onto the basic tenets of their religion and culture.This chapter describes the history, religion, customs and culture of the Jewish people.
An understanding of “who are the Jews” is a prerequisite to understanding the roots of anti-Semitism, which, in its most vile form, sowed the seeds of the Holocaust which had as its ultimate objective the total annihilation of the Jewish people. JudaismJudaism is the religion of the Jews. There are an estimated 14 million followers of the Jewish religion around the world.
Most of the world’s Jews are concentrated in three countries: the United States (six million), Israel (3.7 million), and the Soviet Union (2.5 million). Other nations with significant Jewish populations are France (650 thousand), Great Britain (400 thousand), Canada (300 thousand), Argentina (300 thousand), and Brazil (150 thousand).Judaism was the first religion based on monotheism, the belief in one God. All of the major Western religions found their roots in Judaism.A central tenet of Judaism is that God, the Creator of the World, made a special agreement called a covenant (berit in Hebrew) with Abraham, from whom the Jewish people descended. The covenant provided that the Jews would be blessed with God’s love and protection if they remained true to God’s law and faithfully worshipped Him, and be accountable for sins and transgression against God and His laws. The Jewish People have often been referred to throughout history as the “Chosen People” because of the belief that the Jews were singled out among all of the ancient peoples to receive God’s laws and His blessings.