Ethnicity, Race, And Ethno-Religion, In Regards To The Jews

What Are The Differences Between Ethnicity, Race, And Ethno-Religion?

In my series of articles on the Jews, even though most people liked them, a lot of people conflated race and ethnicity, and of course, accused me of being a racist anti-Semite.

I don’t assent to anti-Semitism even being a thing, but I still think I need to clarify some things.

Ethnicity, race, and ethno-religion are 3 different things.

It’s especially important to make these distinctions when it comes to the Jews.

First off, let me go over where the term Jew comes from, since this confuses many people.

The Hebrews were a group of ancient Semites that lived in the Levant.

A subgroup of Hebrews were the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, who worshipped the God of Abraham.

And Jacob, or Israel, had 12 sons, one of which was named Judah.

Moreover, the Israelites named the southern kingdom of the Israelites, Judah, after the tribe of Judah who mostly inhabited it.

The Greeks and Romans referred to Judah as Judea, and all the Israelites there, no matter which tribe they descended from, were Judeans (Iudaei in Latin).

Old English slightly modified the Latin Iudaei to Iudeas.

And then the influence of the Old French giu modified the word Iudeas to the Middle English Iew (pronounced the same as today) (basically dropping the “d”), which became the Modern English Jew (after English changed the “i”s to “j”s).

Thus, this is where the word “Jew” originated.

Now let’s move onto race.

On Race

Race is biological. It’s your phenotype. Race is genetic, intrinsic and nobody can change their own race.

Everyone agrees that there are Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid phenotypes.

Some think there are Australoid, Amerindian, Dravidian and other races.

Others just take the 3 main phenotypes and break them down into sub-races.

Either way, Semites are just a sub-race of Caucasoids that originate in the Near East.

Hebrews are Semites, but so are Palestinians, Samaritans, Jordanians, Lebanese, Arabs, Syrians, and others!

And if you look at that list of peoples, you can see that many of those people are Christians and Muslims.

So it’s not the case that all Semites are Jews, whatsoever! There are a lot of Semitic Catholics even!

Although I do have to again point out that being a “Jewish Catholic” is not a thing, unless you strictly mean a racially Hebrew Catholic.

I would highly recommend calling such converts “Semitic Catholic”, “Hebrew Catholic”, or just plain “Catholic” because saying “Jewish Catholic” confuses people into believing that one can be both.

But even more confusing than this, is the tendency to confuse race with ethnicity.

On Ethnicity

Ethnicity is not the same as race, and this is especially important to understand when talking about the Jews.

Again, race is an intrinsic, biological, unchanging phenotype.

On the other hand, ethnicity comes from the Greek word ethnos, which essentially means a group identity.

This identity can be based on race, which cannot be changed.

But it can also be based on other things, like language, nation, region, culture, and religion.

For instance, we call Hispanics as such because they share the Spanish language.

We also refer to Latinos as such because they come from the Latin America region.

But what about the Jews?

As I said before, Jews aren’t a race. Many of them have Semitic, or Hebrew genetics.

However, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews are mixed race as a rule.

Jews aren’t an ethno-linguistic group.

Some of them speak Hebrew or Yiddish, but there are many Jews who speak many different languages.

Jews aren’t a group with a shared nation or region.

They originated in the Levant, but since they have spread out all over the world and intermarried and converted others, it’s not logical to see them as a nation.

That just leaves culture and religion. Jews do share a culture and also have their own ethno-religion.

To be a Jew, you don’t have to be a practitioner of Judaism.

All you have to do is be born from a Jewish parent.

That makes you a Jew, even if you have 0.001% Semitic DNA and don’t practice Judaism.

And I have already went into this before, but cultural Jews tend to be at the forefront of anti-Christian cultural movements.

On The Ethno-Religion Of Judaism

As far as their ethno-religion goes, that too is anti-Christian.

Even though they believe in God the Father and value the Tanakh and Torah, they reject Christ.

Also, they blaspheme Our Lord and Lady and speak ill of Christians.

Moreover, there are some extremist Jewish religious cults that commit child sacrifice.

Thus, even though not all Jews practice Judaism, like the cultural Jews, religious Jews are also anti-Christian.

Hopefully, after reading all of this, the distinction is much clearer.

As Catholics, we worship Christ, Who is both God and a Jew.

We also venerate His Mother, Sts. Joseph, John the Baptist, the Apostles, St, Paul, St. Stephen, etc.

These were all Jews in the sense that they were of Hebrew blood, but they were the original Catholic Christians that accepted Jesus as their Messiah and Son of Man, God the Son!

Since then, there have been many Jewish converts to Catholicism.

Some became Saints or had descendants that were Saints, like St. Teresa of Avila, granddaughter of conversos!

So what’s my point here?

The point is that the Jews we are criticizing are specifically either religious Jews or cultural Jews who reject Jesus Christ.

Those Jews that reject Christ, whether they practice Judaism, atheism, or any other non-Christian belief, are the ones that are accursed for killing Christ.

These Jews are whom Christ is referring to in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9 because they are false Jews – meaning they were called to accept their Messiah but instead reject Him.

That makes them the Synagogue of Satan.

If you happen to be of the Hebrew stock but accept Christ? Then that makes you a brother-in-Christ.

It’s that simple. I hope this clarifies things. God bless!

Read More About The Social Kingship Of Christ