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Concept
Who is a Jew?
Summary
"Who is a Jew?" (מיהו יהודי ˈmi(h)u je(h)uˈdi) is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question pertains to ideas about Jewish personhood, which have cultural, ethnic, religious, political, genealogical, and personal dimensions. Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism follow Jewish law (Halakha), deeming people to be Jewish if their mothers are Jewish or if they underwent a halakhic conversion. Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism accept both matrilineal and patrilineal descent as well as conversion. Karaite Judaism predominantly follows patrilineal descent as well as conversion.
Jewish identity is also commonly defined through ethnicity. Opinion polls have suggested that the majority of Jews see being Jewish as predominantly a matter of ancestry and culture, rather than religion.
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 therefore an ethnic form of Jewish identity exists 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.
Official source
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