What say u freepers? Anti-semite nuts need not comment.

Both. For more research look up "who is a jew" there are numerous sites on this topic from all of the denominations of Judaism (and some white supremecy sites too, I'd imagine)

I believe that "Jewish" applies to (1) a race, (2) a culture, and (3) a religion. Or any or all of the above.

I've always considered being Jewish a religion the same as being Catholic.

If you have to ask this question then you are not a Jew.

I ask this question as I don't want to be defined as a Jew along the lines that Hitler and his buddies used.

But, there are "practicing Jews" and "non-practicing Jews" which establishes the existence of non-religious Jews. Hence, it is more than a religion.

Well, Gentiles can convert to Judism, which I suppose makes them Jews. No?

Bible says that "not all Israel are Israel". IOW, not all Jews by birth are Jews in their hearts.

Maybe the better way to say it is that being Hebrew is the result of heritage and family blood line...i.e. birth (flesh gives birth to flesh), but being a Jew is the result of a heart choice (but Spirit gives birth to Spirit).

Hope that helps.

What is the point?

It's a tribe.

U ask this question after such "much needed" threads including 50 relating to Lord of the Rings and "women trade their xmas undies for other things?"

I would say Jews are part of both a religion and a nation. Not any single race. The ultimate defining aspect is the acceptance of the religion, through either heritage or voluntary association, which then makes you part of the nation.

Fortunately, Catholics are not prone to certain genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs. Like the "African-Americans" who are prone to sickle-cell anemia and other genetic diseases, people of Jewish ancestry belong to a sufficiently small gene pool to be considered a separate race, in my opinion (for whatever the heck that's worth).

Hitler said that Jews are a race, not a religion. The US Supreme Court agreed about a decade ago in interpreting a 19th century statute (since race meant more like ethnicity then).

There is a recent article in one of the serious science journals finding that Jews from Turkey and from N. Africa/Spain are virtually identical genetically and mid-European Askenazi Jews are only very slightly different. Thus Jewish ethnicity has maintained itself over the generations.

So Judaism is a religion, but almost all Jews are an ethnic group as well.

Race is an arbitrary concept. Are there 3 races or 5 races or 7 races or dozens? There are "lumpers" or "splitters" on race. In the modern sense of race (meaning 3-5 races), Jews are not a race, but they are both a religion and for almost all, an ethnic group.

As a Catholic with a Jewish girlfriend I can only say we treat each other very well and to be honest she is not very religious in a Jewish way.

Because I am Catholic I consider the Jews and the faith as our grandparents since Christ was a Jew.

But for the life of me what I DON'T understand about many Jews is after Hitler how can SO MANY be pro-abortion and not respect life. Not all, but many feel that way it seems and I don't think God would bless that view or all the peoples in America who support it or have done it.

I understand maybe rape, incest and the true life/death health of the mother. But the other 99.99999995% I don't go for at all. Those are a current holocaust.

I ask this question as I don't want to be defined as a Jew along the lines that Hitler and his buddies used.

I believe the person who said: race, culture and religion is correct--in the contemporary understanding of Jewish identity. The Orthodox would probably disagree, but as I understand it Jewish identity is a nettlesome issue these days--especially for non-practicing (remember the hard Orthodox consider anyone not Orthox as non-practicing & intermarrying persons of Jewish heritage. The traditional test of being racially Jewish (according to the Jews, not the Nazis) was whether your mother was Jewish. Antisemites of all stripes have gone back further than that...oddly. Rumour is that Hitler himself was 1/4 Jewish--and some of history's worst antisemites were supposedly partly Jewish, but self-hate amoung maniacs is another issue...

One of the most interesting things to me as a Christian, is how a person can be considered Jewish by the Jewish community regardless of his religious beliefs (if any) EXCEPT if he chooses to believe that Jesus (you know the Jewish carpenter, direct descendent of King David?) is the Jewish Messiah. To do that is a sin far worse than Atheism it seems.

Interesting...

To clarify my post above, the US Supreme Court said that Jews were a race for one statutory purpose, the Court did not say that Jews weren't a religion.

I believe Hitler considerd one Jewish even if he had 1 grandparent of Jewish descent. Even if he was not religous. This formed the basis of the Isreali Law of Return (if grandparent is Jewish)