As early as 1919, Adolf Hitler defined Jews as "a racial and not a religious group." His judgment was wrong and deadly.

Not all Jews practice Judaism, but any person can become Jewish through religious conversion. Traditionally, anyone whose mother is Jewish has been identified as Jewish, but that condition is not necessary for Jewish identity, either. Presently, many Jews are citizens of the modern state of Israel, but a majority of the world's Jews do not fit that description. Who is a Jew? It's a complex question.

Jews trace their origins to the biblical patriarch Abraham, who lived almost 4000 years ago. Judaism, a distinctively monotheistic religion, is rooted in the exodus of the ancient Hebrew people from Egyptian slavery and in experiences they shared under Moses' leadership at Mount Sinai. The early Jews' ritual laws and ethical rules distinguished them from other groups.

Eventually occupying the Mediterranean coastal land of Canaan, the Jews established the kingdom of Israel. Unable to sustain the unity and autonomy it enjoyed from about 1000 to 922 b.c.e., the kingdom was split by internal divisions, besieged, and occupied by a variety of conquerors. In 70 c.e., the Romans ruthlessly put down a sustained Jewish rebellion. Most of the surviving Jews were dispersed to various parts of the Roman Empire. Exiled Jews have lived in European lands for more than 2000 years.

Whether their outlooks are secular or religious, their homes in Israel, Europe, the United States, or anywhere else in the world, Jews are not a race but a people unified by memory and history, culture, tradition, and religious observances that are widely, if not identically, shared.