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Jewish race

Jews
Hebrew: יהודים‎‎ (Yehudim)
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 063.jpg
According to Jewish tradition, Jacob was the father of the tribes of Israel.
Total population
14.4–17.5 million
Regions with significant populations
 Israel 6,484,500
 United States 5,300,000–6,800,000
 France 460,000
 Canada 388,000
 United Kingdom 290,000
 Argentina 180,700
 Russia 179,500
 Germany 117,000
 Australia 113,000
 Brazil 94,200
 South Africa 69,500
 Ukraine 56,000
 Hungary 47,600
 Mexico 40,000
 Netherlands 29,900
 Belgium 29,500
 Italy 27,400
  Switzerland 18,800
 Chile 18,300
 Sweden 18,000
Rest of the world 214,900
Languages
Historical languages:
Sacred languages:
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Samaritans,Druze, other Levantines,Arabs,Assyrians

The Jews (/dʒuːz/;Hebrew: יְהוּדִיםISO 259-3 Yhudim, Israeli pronunciation [jehuˈdim]), also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jewish ethnicity, nationhood and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish people, while its observance varies from strict observance to complete nonobservance.

Jews originated as a people and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, in the part of the Levant known as the Land of Israel. The Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE (Late Bronze Age). The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, and the Kingdom of Judah. Some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as 'Hebrews'. Though few sources in the Bible mention the exilic periods in detail, the experience of diaspora life, from the Ancient Egyptian rule over the Levant, to Assyrian Captivity and Exile, to Babylonian Captivity and Exile, to Seleucid Imperial rule, to the Roman occupation and Exile, and the historical relations between Jews and their homeland thereafter, became a major feature of Jewish history, identity and memory.


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