Jew
ethnoreligious group and nation from the Levant / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jewish people are of the God according to Bible, and Jewish is someone who is of Jewish heritage or who has converted to the Jewish religion. Jewish people typically consider themselves not only as adherents of a religion, therefore a Jew is not only one that practices the religion of Judaism, but it is also one who is of Jewish ethnic heritage. Jews originated as an ethnoreligious group in the Middle East. According to traditional Jewish law, called Halakha, someone is Jewish if their mother was a Jew or if they have converted to Judaism.[3] Judaism has been described as a religion, a race, an ethnic group, a culture, a nation, and an extended family.[4]
יְהוּדִים (Yehudim) | |
---|---|
Total population | |
14.6–17.8 million Enlarged population (includes full or partial Jewish ancestry): | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Israel (incl. occupied territories) | 6,558,000–6,958,000[1] |
United States | 5,700,000–10,000,000[1] |
France | 453,000–600,000[1] |
Canada | 391,000–550,000[1] |
United Kingdom | 290,000–370,000[1] |
Argentina | 180,000–330,000[1] |
Russia | 172,000–440,000[1] |
Germany | 116,000–225,000[1] |
Australia | 113,000–140,000[1] |
Brazil | 93,000–150,000[1] |
South Africa | 69,000–80,000[1] |
Ukraine | 50,000–140,000[1] |
Hungary | 47,000–100,000[1] |
Mexico | 40,000–50,000[1] |
Netherlands | 30,000–52,000[1] |
Belgium | 29,000–40,000[1] |
Italy | 28,000–41,000[1] |
Switzerland | 19,000–25,000[1] |
Chile | 18,000–26,000[1] |
Uruguay | 17,000–25,000[1] |
Turkey | 15,000–21,000[1] |
Sweden | 15,000–25,000[1] |
Languages | |
| |
Religion | |
Judaism |
Israel is the only modern country with a Jewish majority, but there are Jewish minorities in many places in the world. Most of them live in large cities in the United States, Argentina, Europe and Australia. Both Israel and the U.S. have over five million Jews.[5] In the Soviet Union there were more than two million Jews, but many of them moved to Israel, the U.S. and other Western countries since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Jews have been victims of various persecutions. The most well known happened during the Second World War, when almost six million Jews were killed by the Nazis. The event is known as the Holocaust.