Is "Jewish" a race?

@mott-the-hoople said
Jew is a race, the Jewish religion is just that, a religion. Jews go by the old testament, Todays Christians believe both the old and new testament., known as being Jewish in faith. Then you have Messianic Jews that are Christian but think they know more about how this works that actual Jews.

Jewish can refer to a race or a religion.

@mott-the-hoople said
As the holocaust was brought about because Hitler wanted to eliminate an inferior race (his words) I dont think there is any question whether or not the holocaust was racist.

@vivify said
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147176721000389

This article mentions "Jews as the least excluded ethno-religious outgroup" in Europe, among groups including Muslims, and others.

So Suzianne is correct.

@earl-of-trumps said
A Russian Jew v. a Russian non Jew is like comparing Irish Catholic v. Irish Protestant.
Race is not a factor. As best I know, the first synagogue in Europe was built in the 15th century.
So what were these people *before* Judaism was brought to the region? Russian, Ukrainian. Whatever.
The ethnicity does not change just because the religion does. My opinion

@mott-the-hoople said
explain black Jews then

@athousandyoung said
Palestinians are of Greek origin not Semitic though of course by now they’ve been thoroughly Arabized.

@vivify said
Then is race nothing more than a label? If a group can simply decide they are its own separate race, the word has no meaning.

@earl-of-trumps said
Those black Jews are the Sephardi. And they were the only Jews in the world until about the 15th century.

White Jews, or Ashkenazi, are Johhny-come-lately Europeans.

@moonbus said
No, race is not nothing more than a label which any group can simply adopt or not as and when it pleases, as if belonging to a race were like belonging to a political party. As Shav pointed out, "race" is a construct, and it is constructed out of several factors, no one of which is alone determinative of race.

See the discussion about Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews -- there ...[text shortened]... at does not mean we cannot tell the difference between night and day. Same with "race" and "Jewish".

As an Ashkenazi Jew of German, Polish and Russian descent, I am absolutely both a white person and a Jewish person.

Frankly, in a vacuum, I don't have an inherent problem with what Whoopi said (nor do I think she hates Jews).

In context, though, the term "racism" has been overused and abused and broadened by everyone and everything so badly over the past few years that to exempt Hitler from it (even in this one limited context) does seem a bit insensitive.

In accordance with my general predilection on these things, I am NOT in favor of suspending her over these remarks, though.

@mott-the-hoople said
explain black Jews then

@athousandyoung said
Yes Nordic as in Germanic, not Semitic. Isaac, Abrams, Cohen and Levi are actual Jewish last names. English is a Germanic language.

My first Chemistry class was taught by a tall blonde Swedish American named Landberg. And I’m sure you’ve heard of icebergs.

@athousandyoung said
Palestinians are of Greek origin not Semitic though of course by now they’ve been thoroughly Arabized.

@shavixmir said
That’s not what I was taught. And it sounds to me like a load of old bollocks.

I believe the Greeks named it a Palestine (or a form of it) and referred to the people there as Syrians or Palestine Syrians. Or something like that.

But the people living there weren’t Greek.

Here's what some people here are missing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_is_a_Jew%3F

The term "Jew" lends itself to several definitions beyond simply denoting one who practices Judaism. The historical Israelites and/or Hebrews, who promulgated Judaism, were not simply a homogeneous assemblage united by a common ideology, that being the Jewish religion; they constituted an ethnoreligious group from whom a majority of modern Jews directly descend, and thereby constitutes an ethnic form of Jewish identity alongside the religious form of Jewish identity. As such, the concepts of Jewish ethnicity, nationhood, and religion are strongly interrelated, however, through conversion, it is possible for one who has no historical connection to the historical Jewish population to become a Jew, in that sense.

In essence, the word "Jew" can be defined as a conglomerate of several different, albeit closely related, ideas:

A Jew is one who practices the Jewish religion, Judaism. This includes both converts and those who have been members of the Jewish religion since birth.
A Jew is one who is a descendant of the ancient Israelite ethnic group, and therefore is a member of the Jewish people. This includes those who may not be observantly religious, or may be irreligious altogether, and claim an overtly cultural connection.
A Jew is one who, regardless of current religious identity, is directly descended from a Jewish ancestor. Traditionally, this has only applied to matrilineal ancestry, however, some Jewish groups also recognize Jewishness by way of patrilineal descent.

TL;DR: "Jewish" describes both: people who observe Judaism as their religion, and people who are descended from historical Israelites and/or Hebrews, regardless of their intercorrelation.