Are "Jews" a race?

[Purity]

Alright, I figured this would be the best place to post this on this site so..

Anyways, a friend and I have been debating with another friend of ours regarding this question.

What are your thoughts?

[Tonus]

Technically, no. "Jewish" is, IMO, equivalent to "Christian" in what it actually defines. But I'm sure I've used the term "Jew" or "Jewish" in place of race many times, as have others.

I think the deciding factor is that people will often describe a Jewish person by his ethnicity (ie, "an Ethiopian Jew" or "a Puerto Rican Jew" etc). If you need to specify a race when describing a Jewish person, you're essentially saying that it isn't a race.

Edit to add: It's funny that I did not think of this before, probably because it's been a long time since it happened last. But for most of my life, strangers who try to guess my race almost always say "Jewish."

[Purity]

Yeah that is what most people think about the subject. But saying that would mean that Hitler mis-used the word "race". Hitler wanted to exterminate the Jewish RACE for a pure Aryan race.. you know what I mean?

[CyberKing]

Hitler was bum-fuck crazy too.

[Grunthos]

The Hebrews are a race... Judiasm is a religion practiced by multiple races.

That Hitler misunderstood the concept of race should surprise no one.

[Purity]

We all know that Judaism is a religion.

Does it not make sense they are an ethnicity? Practicing Jewish culture when one may or may not be religious.

And does it not make sense that Jews having a distinct set of DNA that nobody else has, make them a race?

[Grunthos]

Whether or not the term "Jew" depicts a race, a nationality, or the member of a religion depends on usage.

Check out the dictionary definitions of the word; some point to tribal membership (the tribe of Judah) which could be seen as racial or quasi-racial.

Others point to membership of the nation of Israel, wither by birth or conversion (you cannot 'convert' your DNA... at least not yet)

Still others point to membership in the Jewish faith.

The problem you are running into is an attempt to find a logical conjunction between two words which have either multiple meanings ('Jew') or which are considered scientific but in fact are largely subjective ('race.')

A person's "race" is not scientifically clear-cut, in terms of DNA. "Jew" has multiple definitions. Trying to intersect the two will give you problems without a lot of context.

[elduderino110]

It's both. You can be a Jew by religion and you can be a Jew by heritage. I'm not really sure if Jews are a separate race. Whenever somebody talks about whether Jews are a race or religion there is always that one scientific Nazi so it makes the whole conversation go south.

I'm Jewish by heritage, but I don't practice the faith and nobody in my family has for several generations. I don't think anybody has practiced Judaism in my family for over 200 years. Parts of my family left Europe because of Anti-Semitism but they weren't practicing Jews.
But yeah it's both.

[NervousWreck]

"Jew" is one of those weird words because while it is a religion, the religion itself defines itself as a clan or tribe. That's how you can have people who "find out" that they are Jewish. If "Jewishness" were just a matter of religious conviction, they couldn't be Jewish with out knowing it.

As for membership in the tribe of Judah, I am not a member of that tribe on either side of my family, yet I'm a visibly practicing Jew with beard, tzitzit and the whole nine yards.