Jews
The Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים, ISO 259-2: Yehudim, Israeli pronunciation: [jehuˈdim]) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group[12] and nation[13][14][15][16][17] originating from the Israelites of the ancient Near East,[18][19][20][21][22] and whose traditional religion is Judaism.[23][24] Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly interrelated,[25][26] as Judaism is an ethnic religion,[27][28] although not all ethnic Jews practice it.[29][30] Despite this, religious Jews regard individuals who have formally converted to Judaism as part of the community.[29][31]
"Jew" redirects here. For the word, see Jew (word). For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation).
יְהוּדִים (Yehudim)
6,905,000–7,401,000[1]
6,000,000–11,500,000[1]
150,000–460,000[1]
175,000–310,000[1]
118,000–225,000[1]
118,000–145,000[1]
92,000–150,000[1]
43,000–140,000[1]
47,000–100,000[1]
52,000–75,000[1]
40,000–50,000[1]
30,000–53,000[1]
29,000–40,000[1]
27,000–41,000[1]
18,000–25,000[1]
16,000–24,000[1]
16,000–24,000[1]
15,000–25,000[1]
15,000–21,000[1]
The Israelites emerged from within the Canaanite population to establish the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah.[32] Judaism emerged from Yahwism, the religion of the Israelites, by the late 6th century BCE,[33] with a theology considered by religious Jews to be the expression of a covenant with God established with the Israelites, their ancestors.[34] The Babylonian captivity of Judahites following their kingdom's destruction,[35] the movement of Jewish groups around the Mediterranean in the Hellenistic period, and subsequent periods of conflict and violent dispersion, such as the Jewish–Roman wars, gave rise to the Jewish diaspora. The Jewish diaspora is a wide dispersion of Jewish communities across the world that have maintained their sense of Jewish history, identity and culture.[36]
In the following millennia, Jewish diaspora communities coalesced into three major ethnic subdivisions according to where their ancestors settled: the Ashkenazim (initially in Western Europe), the Sephardim (initially in the Iberian Peninsula), and the Mizrahim (Middle East and North Africa).[37][38] While these three major divisions account for most of the world's Jews, there are other smaller Jewish groups that do not fit in any of those.[39] Prior to World War II, the global Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million,[40] representing around 0.7% of the world population at that time. During World War II, approximately 6 million Jews throughout Europe were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.[41][42] Since then, the population has slowly risen again, and as of 2021, was estimated to be at 15.2–19.9 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank[1] or less than 0.2% of the total world population in 2012.[43][note 2] Today, over 85% of Jews live in Israel or the United States. Israel, whose population is 73.9% Jewish, is the only country where Jews comprise more than 2.5% of the population.[1]
Jews have significantly influenced and contributed to human progress in many fields, both historically and in modern times, including in science and technology,[45] philosophy,[46] ethics,[47] literature,[45] governance,[45] business,[45] art, music, comedy, theatre,[48] cinema, architecture,[45] food, medicine,[49][50] and religion. Jews wrote the Bible,[51][52] founded Christianity,[53] and had an indirect but profound influence on Islam.[54] In these ways, Jews have also played a significant role in the development of Western culture.[55][56]
Contributions
Jewish individuals have played a significant role in the development of Western culture,[55][333] advancing many fields of thought, science and technology,[45] both historically and in modern times,[334] including through discrete trends in Jewish philosophy, Jewish ethics[335] and Jewish literature,[45] as well as specific trends in Jewish culture, including in Jewish art, Jewish music, Jewish humor, Jewish theatre, Jewish cuisine and Jewish medicine.[336][337] Jews have established various Jewish political movements,[45] and Jewish religious movements, and, though the authorship of the Hebrew Bible and parts of the New Testament,[51][52] provided the foundation for Christianity,[53] and for Islam.[54] More than 20 percent[338][339][340][341][342][343] of the awarded Nobel Prize have gone to individuals of Jewish descent.[344]