The Jewish people are believers in Judaism, or are non-believers who maintain the traditions and culture that have formed around the religion. In Jewish tradition, people are technically Jews if they have a Jewish mother or if they have converted to Judaism. The Jewish people are not a specific race, but rather are people of every race and color who share a religion and a culture.
Judaism is based on the Hebrew Bible, which in Christian tradition is called the Old Testament. Christianity broke away from the Jewish faith when the followers of Jesus of Nazareth — who was himself a practicing, believing Jew — proclaimed him to be the Messiah, the son of God. The two religions parted ways over the issue of Jesus’ divinity, but continued to share their worship of the same God.
Judaism endured as it had for thousands of years. Its sacred tradition evolved with the development of the Talmud, a commentary and legal system based on the Bible.
Since that time, the survival of the Jews as a people has been periodically endangered — at first by the pagans of Rome and then by Christianity after it became the dominant religion in Europe. The Nazis embraced a modern form of antisemitism that was based on the pseudo-scientific myth that the Jews are a race with a distinct genetic essence. Motivated by stereotypes, myths, and the need for a convenient scapegoat, they determined that Jews were inherently bad and had to be eliminated. Their attempted genocide of the Jews during World War II precipitated the establishment of the State of Israel, a specifically Jewish nation in the ancient Jewish homeland. Still, most Jewish people live elsewhere, and are integrated harmoniously into the patchwork of humanity that covers the globe.
