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Jew is a term used to denote both
followers of a religion and members of an
ethnicity (adj. Jewish).
In a
religious sense, the term refers to
followers of
Judaism. In an ethnic sense, it refers
to the people, or "nation", that traces its
ancestry from the Biblical patriarch Abraham
through his son Isaac and in particular
Jacob, Isaac's son, as well as to those who
subsequently joined them over the course of
history as "converts". Ethnic Jews include
both "Observant Jews", meaning those who
practice the Biblical and Rabbinic laws,
known as the
Mitzvot,
and those who, while not practicing
Judaism as a religion, still identify
themselves as Jews in a cultural or ethnic
sense. |
