Jews (people)

Jews. The Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites of the ancient Near East, and whose traditional religion is Judaism. There are about 15 million members around the world. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly interrelated, as Judaism is an ethnic religion, although not all ethnic Jews practice it.

Jewish diaspora communities coalesced into three major ethnic subdivisions according to where their ancestors settled: the Ashkenazim (Western Europe), the Sephardim (Iberian Peninsula), and the Mizrahim (Middle East and North Africa).

Prior to World War II, the global Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million, representing around 0.7% of the world’s population at that time. During World War II, approximately 6 million Jews throughout Europe were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany in a genocide known as the Holocaust.

Since then, the population has slowly risen again, and as of 2021, was estimated to be at 15.2 million. Today, over 85% of Jews live in Israel or the U.S. Israel, whose population is 73.9% Jewish, is the only country where Jews comprise more than 2.5% of the population.

Endogamy is the cultural practice of mating within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting any from outside of the group or belief structure as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships.

This tradition often creates ethnoreligious groups such as the Amish (0.5m), Armenian (15m), Assyrians (4m), Balinese Hindus (4m), Copts (10m), Deccan (12m), Druze (1m), Greeks (15m), Jews (15m), Mahar (10m), Maronites (10m), Minangkabau (8m), Sikhs (30m), Tibetans (8m), WASPs (2m), and Yazidis (1m).