Is Jewish an ethnicity?

Is Judaism an ethnicity? In short, not any more. Although Judaism arose out of a single ethnicity in the Middle East, there have always been conversions into and out of the religion. read more

Jewish ethnic divisions refers to a number of distinctive communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered one single self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinctive ethnic subdivisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, mixing with local populations, and subsequent independent evolutions. read more

It is an ethnicity because people can practice the Jewish culture and be part of a Jewish family or social group, yet not practice the religion. It is a religion, because it it is a particular system of faith and worship. read more

Jews are an ethnoreligious group, meaning that Jewish identity is both ethnic and religious, or for some, only one of the two. In the same way there is both the Native American religion and the Native American ethnicity, and the Hindu religion and the Indian ethnicity, there is the Jewish religion and the Jewish ethnicity. read more