What is a Jew?
Q: What is a Jew?
A: A Jew is a person who is of Jewish heritage or who has converted to the Jewish religion. Jews typically consider themselves as a people and not only as adherents of a religion, so it's not just someone who practices Judaism, but also someone with Jewish ethnic heritage.
Q: Where did Jews originate from?
A: Jews originated as an ethnoreligious group in the Middle East.
Q: How does traditional Jewish law define being Jewish?
A: According to traditional Jewish law, called Halakha, someone is considered Jewish if their mother was a Jew or if they have converted to Judaism.
Q: Is there any country that has a majority of Jews?
A: Yes, Israel is the only modern country with a majority of Jews. However, there are also many other places in the world where there are significant populations of Jews such as the United States, Argentina, Europe and Australia. Both Israel and the U.S. have over five million Jews each.
Q: How many Jews were living in the Soviet Union before its collapse?
A: Before its collapse, there were more than two million Jews living in the Soviet Union but many of them moved to Israel, the U.S., and other Western countries since then.
Q: What happened during World War II that affected millions of Jews?
A: During World War II almost six million Jews were killed by Nazis which became known as The Holocaust.
