Ethnonyms: Yehudi, Yehudim, Jew, Judean, Judaean, Hebrew, ĘżIvrim, Israelite, YisreĘľelim, Ioudaios, Judaeus
Total population: 15.7 million
Ethnolinguistic classification: Afroasiatic → Semitic → West Semitic → Central Semitic → Northwest Semitic → Canaanite → South Canaanite
Homeland: the Land of Israel
Regions with significant populations: the Middle East and North Africa / West Asia and North Africa, North America, Western Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Oceania, Sub-Saharan Africa
Languages and dialects: Hebrew, Aramaic / Jewish Aramaic, Yiddish, Ladino / Judeo-Spanish / Judezmo / Sephardic, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Italian, Judeo-Greek, Judeo-Catalan, Judeo-Georgian, Judeo-Tat / Juhuri, Judeo-Tajik / Bukharian, Judeo-Amazigh, Haketia, Jewish Malayalam, Jewish English, Jewish French, Jewish German and Western Yiddish, Jewish Russian and Jewish Latin American Spanish
Religion: Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism (majority), Reconstructionist Judaism, Humanistic Judaism, Jewish Renewal, secular / cultural Jewish identity
Jewish people are best understood as an ethnoreligious group: in reference works, “Jew” can mean someone who follows Judaism, but more broadly it also refers to people who belong to the worldwide Jewish people through descent or conversion, linking modern communities to the ancient Hebrews and Israelites of the Bible. Their history is deeply shaped by the Jewish Diaspora, meaning the dispersion of Jewish communities outside the land of Israel, especially after the Babylonian Exile and later the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE; over time, Jewish centers shifted across regions, and communities developed distinctive local customs, ritual styles, and cultural expressions while still maintaining a shared historical and religious connection. That long dispersion produced striking internal diversity rather than a single uniform culture: major historical branches include Ashkenazic Jews of central and eastern European background and Sephardic Jews of Iberian background, while other communities, such as Beta Israel, are Jews of Ethiopian origin. Language is another marker of this diversity. Hebrew has been central as a liturgical and literary language for centuries and was revived as a spoken language in the 19th and 20th centuries, while Yiddish developed among Ashkenazi Jews and became one of the major literary languages of Jewish history; Ladino served Sephardic communities in places such as the Balkans, North Africa, Greece, Turkey, and Israel. In short, Jewish identity is historically continuous yet internally varied, shaped by ancient origins, diaspora experience, religious tradition, and the many regional cultures that Jewish communities have formed over time.
