Jews: Difference between revisions

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* [[Semitic people|Semitic-speaking people]]s such as [[Samaritans]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Genes, Polymorphisms and the Making of Societies: How Genetic Behavioral Traits Influence Human Cultures |last=Kiaris|first= Hippokratis|publisher=Universal Publishers|year=2012 |isbn=978-1-61233-093-8 |page=21}}</ref><ref name="evolutsioon" /><ref name=DigitalSamaritans>{{Cite book |title=Digital Samaritans: Rhetorical Delivery and Engagement in the Digital Humanities |last=Ridolfo |first=Jim |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-472-07280-4 |page=69}}</ref> [[Arabs]],<ref name="evolutsioon">{{cite journal |last1=Shen |first1=Peidong |last2=Lavi |first2=Tal |last3=Kivisild |first3=Toomas |last4=Chou |first4=Vivian |last5=Sengun |first5=Deniz |last6=Gefel |first6=Dov |last7=Shpirer |first7=Issac |last8=Woolf |first8=Eilon |last9=Hillel |first9=Jossi |last10=Feldman |first10=Marcus W. |last11=Oefner |first11=Peter J. |title=Reconstruction of patrilineages and matrilineages of Samaritans and other Israeli populations from Y-Chromosome and mitochondrial DNA sequence Variation |journal=Human Mutation |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=248–260 |doi=10.1002/humu.20077 |pmid=15300852 |s2cid=1571356 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Studies Show Jews' Genetic Similarity|first= Nicholas|last= Wade|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/science/10jews.html |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nebel |first1=Almut |last2=Filon |first2=Dvora |last3=Weiss |first3=Deborah A. |last4=Weale |first4=Michael |last5=Faerman |first5=Marina |last6=Oppenheim |first6=Ariella |last7=Thomas |first7=Mark G. |title=High-resolution Y chromosome haplotypes of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs reveal geographic substructure and substantial overlap with haplotypes of Jews |journal=Human Genetics |volume=107 |issue=6 |pages=630–641 |doi=10.1007/s004390000426 |pmid=11153918 |s2cid=8136092 }}</ref><ref name="sciencedaily">{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/05/000509003653.htm |title=Jews Are the Genetic Brothers of Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese |publisher=Sciencedaily.com |access-date=12 April 2013}}</ref> [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]],<ref name="Abraham 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Atzmon |first1=Gil |last2=Hao |first2=Li |last3=Pe'er |first3=Itsik |last4=Velez |first4=Christopher |last5=Pearlman |first5=Alexander |last6=Palamara |first6=Pier Francesco |last7=Morrow |first7=Bernice |last8=Friedman |first8=Eitan |last9=Oddoux |first9=Carole |last10=Burns |first10=Edward |last11=Ostrer |first11=Harry |title=Abraham's Children in the Genome Era: Major Jewish Diaspora Populations Comprise Distinct Genetic Clusters with Shared Middle Eastern Ancestry |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=86 |issue=6 |pages=850–859 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.04.015 |pmid=20560205 |pmc=3032072 }}</ref> and [[Levant]]ines<ref name="evolutsioon" /><ref name="sciencedaily" /><ref name=DigitalSamaritans/>  

[[Judaism]] shares some of the characteristics of a [[nation]],<ref name="Nicholson2002">{{cite book|author=M. Nicholson|title=International Relations: A Concise Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HvI8DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA19|year=2002|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-5822-9|pages=19–}} "The Jews are a nation and were so before there was a Jewish state of Israel"</ref><ref name="Neusner1991">{{cite book|author=Jacob Neusner|title=An Introduction to Judaism: A Textbook and Reader|url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoju0000neus|url-access=registration|year=1991|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-25348-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontoju0000neus/page/375 375]–}} "That there is a Jewish nation can hardly be denied after the creation of the State of Israel"</ref><ref name="Dowty1998">{{cite book|author=Alan Dowty|title=The Jewish State: A Century Later, Updated With a New Preface|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vL8r4U1FKSQC&pg=PA3|year=1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-92706-3|pages=3–}} "Jews are a people, a nation (in the original sense of the word), an ethnos"</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://louisville.edu/law/library/special-collections/the-louis-d.-brandeis-collection/the-jewish-problem-how-to-solve-it-by-louis-d.-brandeis|title=The Jewish Problem: How To Solve It|first=Louis|last=Brandeis|author-link=Louis Brandeis|publisher=University of Louisville School of Law|access-date=2 April 2012|quote=Jews are a distinctive nationality of which every Jew, whatever his country, his station or shade of belief, is necessarily a member}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Edward Henry|author-link1=Edward Henry Palmer|title=A History of the Jewish Nation: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofjewishn00palm|access-date=2 April 2012|year= 2002|orig-year=First published 1874|publisher=Gorgias Press|isbn=978-1-931956-69-7|oclc=51578088}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://press.princeton.edu/einstein/materials/jewish_nationality.pdf|title=How I Became a Zionist|first=Albert|last=Einstein|author-link=Albert Einstein|work=[[Einstein Papers Project]]|quote=The Jewish nation is a living fact|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|access-date=5 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105012335/http://press.princeton.edu/einstein/materials/jewish_nationality.pdf|archive-date=5 November 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> an [[ethnicity]],<ref name="Jews-are-ethnoreligious-group" /> a [[religion]], and a [[culture]],<ref name="GordisHeller2012">{{cite book|author1=David M. Gordis|author2=Zachary I. Heller|title=Jewish Secularity: The Search for Roots and the Challenges of Relevant Meaning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWrSy8Ckd5UC&pg=PA1|year=2012|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0-7618-5793-8|pages=1–}}: "Judaism is a culture and a civilization which embraces the secular as well"</ref><ref name="Kunin2000">{{cite book|author=Seth Daniel Kunin|title=Themes and Issues in Judaism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=St_TAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|year= 2000|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-304-33758-3|pages=1–}}: Although culture - and Judaism is a culture (or cultures) as well as religion - can be subdivided into different analytical categories..."</ref><ref name="Mendes-Flohr1991">{{cite book|author=Paul R. Mendes-Flohr|title=Divided Passions: Jewish Intellectuals and the Experience of Modernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBuFygk2C-AC&pg=PA421|year=1991|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=0-8143-2030-9|pages=421–}}: "Although Judaism is a culture - or rather has a culture - it is eminently more than a culture"</ref> making the definition of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/whojew1.html|title=Who is a Jew?|access-date=6 October 2007|last=Weiner|first=Rebecca|year=2007|encyclopedia=[[Jewish Virtual Library]]}}</ref>{{better source needed}} Generally, in modern secular usage, Jews include three groups: people who were born to a Jewish family regardless of whether or not they follow the religion, those who have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage (sometimes including those who do not have strictly [[Matrilineality in Judaism|matrilineal descent]]), and people without any Jewish ancestral background or lineage who have formally [[Conversion to Judaism|converted to Judaism]] and therefore are followers of the religion.<ref>{{cite book|title=World Religions: An Introduction for Students|last=Fowler|first=Jeaneane D.|year=1997|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=1-898723-48-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldreligionsin0000unse/page/7 7]|url=https://archive.org/details/worldreligionsin0000unse/page/7}}</ref>

Historical definitions of [[Jewish identity]] have traditionally been based on ''[[halakha|halakhic]]'' definitions of matrilineal descent, and halakhic conversions. These definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the [[Oral Torah]] into the [[Talmud|Babylonian Talmud]], around 200 [[Common Era|CE]]. Interpretations by Jewish sages of sections of the Tanakh – such as {{bibleref2|Deuteronomy|7:1-5}}, which forbade intermarriage between Jews' [[Israelites|Israelite ancestors]] and seven non-Israelite nations: "for that [i.e. giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,] would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods" <ref name="John Day pp. 47"/>{{Failed verification}} – are used as a warning against [[Interfaith marriage in Judaism|intermarriage]] between Jews and [[gentile]]s. {{bibleref2|Leviticus|24:10}} says that the son in a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an [[Egyptians|Egyptian]] man is "of the community of Israel." This is complemented by {{bibleref2|Ezra|10:2–3}}, where Israelites returning from Babylon vow to put aside their [[gentile]] wives and their children.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/faq/10-11.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961018024300/http://shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/faq/10-11.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 October 1996|title=What is the origin of Matrilineal Descent?|access-date=9 January 2009|publisher=Shamash.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.torah.org/qanda/seequanda.php?id=318 |title=What is the source of the law that a child is Jewish only if its mother is Jewish? |access-date=9 January 2009 |publisher=Torah.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224205847/http://www.torah.org/qanda/seequanda.php?id=318 |archive-date=24 December 2008}}</ref> A popular theory is that the rape of Jewish women in captivity brought about the law of Jewish identity being inherited through the maternal line, although scholars challenge this theory citing the Talmudic establishment of the law from the pre-exile period.<ref name="Klein2016" /> Another argument is that the rabbis changed the law of patrilineal descent to matrilineal descent due to the widespread rape of Jewish women by Roman soldiers.<ref name="Schott2010">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6iFx-wHhMJMC&pg=PA67|title=Birth, Death, and Femininity: Philosophies of Embodiment|author=Robin May Schott|year=2010|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-00482-6|pages=67–}}</ref> Since the anti-religious ''[[Haskalah]]'' movement of the late 18th and 19th centuries, ''halakhic'' interpretations of Jewish identity have been challenged.<ref>Dosick (2007), pp. 56–57.</ref>

The Jewish community in the Land of Israel made numerous attempts to recover from the disastrous effects of the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]], with varying degrees of success. However, they never truly recovered,<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Ehrlich |first=Michael |title=The Islamization of the Holy Land, 634–1800 |publisher=Arc Humanities Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-64189-222-3 |location=Leeds, UK |pages=3–4 |oclc=1302180905 |quote=The Jewish community strove to recover from the catastrophic results of the Bar Kokhva revolt (132–135 CE). Although some of these attempts were relatively successful, the Jews never fully recovered. During the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, many Jews emigrated to thriving centres in the diaspora, especially Iraq, whereas some converted to Christianity and others continued to live in the Holy Land, especially in Galilee and the coastal plain. During the Byzantine period, the three provinces of Palestine included more than thirty cities, namely, settlements with a bishop see. After the Muslim conquest in the 630s, most of these cities declined and eventually disappeared. As a result, in many cases the local ecclesiastical administration weakened, while in others it simply ceased to exist. Consequently, many local Christians converted to Islam. Thus, almost twelve centuries later, when the army led by Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in the Holy Land, most of the local population was Muslim.}}</ref> and Jewish presence in the region significantly dwindled.<ref>Oppenheimer, A'haron and Oppenheimer, Nili. ''Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society''. Mohr Siebeck, 2005, p. 2.</ref> The Jewish community in [[Galilee]], which became the center of Jewish life in the Land of Israel after the revolt, reached a cultural apex during the [[Syria Palaestina|late Roman period]] and two major rabbinic texts, the [[Mishnah]] and the [[Jerusalem Talmud]], were composed there in the second to fourth centuries CE.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Leibner |first=Uzi |url=https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/43969 |title=Settlement and History in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Galilee: An Archaeological Survey of the Eastern Galilee |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |isbn=978-3-16-151460-9 |pages=321-324; 362-371; 396-400; 414-416 |language=English}}</ref> But as the Roman Empire was replaced by the [[Historiography of Christianization of the Roman Empire|Christianized]] [[Byzantine Empire]] under [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]], Jews came to be persecuted by the church and the authorities, and many immigrated to communities in the diaspora. In the fourth century CE, Jews are believed to have lost their position as the majority in the Land of Israel.<ref name="Kessler20102">{{cite book |author=Edward Kessler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87Woe7kkPM4C&pg=PA72 |title=An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-70562-2 |page=72 |quote=Jews probably remained in the majority in Palestine until some time after the conversion of Constantine in the fourth century. [...] In Babylonia, there had been for many centuries a Jewish community which would have been further strengthened by those fleeing the aftermath of the Roman revolts.}}</ref><ref name=":12" />

The long-established Jewish community of Mesopotamia, which had been living under [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] and later [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] rule, beyond the confines of the Roman Empire, became an important center of Jewish study as Judea's Jewish population declined.<ref name="Kessler20102" /><ref name=":12" /> Under the political leadership of the [[exilarch]], who was regarded as a royal heir of the House of David, this community had an autonomous status and acted as a place of refuge for the Jews of the Land of Israel. A number of significant [[Talmudic academies in Babylonia|Talmudic academies]], such as the [[Nehardea Academy|Nehardea]], [[Pumbedita Academy|Pumbedita]], and [[Sura Academy|Sura]] academies, were established in Mesopotamia, and many important ''[[Amoraim]]'' were active there. The [[Babylonian Talmud]], a centerpiece of Jewish religious law, was compiled in Babylonia in the 3rd to 6th centuries.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title=Talmud and Midrash (Judaism) :: The making of the Talmuds: 3rd–6th century |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581644/Talmud-and-Midrash/34869/The-making-of-the-Talmuds-3rd-6th-century#ref=ref24372 |access-date=28 October 2013}}</ref>

In the 19th century, when Jews in [[Western Europe]] were increasingly granted [[Jewish emancipation|equality before the law]], Jews in the [[Pale of Settlement]] faced growing persecution, legal restrictions and widespread [[Pogrom|pogroms]]. Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] as a national revival movement, aiming to re-establish a Jewish polity in the Land of Israel, an endeavor to restore the Jewish people back to their ancestral homeland in order to stop the exoduses and persecutions that have plagued their history. This led to waves of Jewish migration to [[Ottoman Syria|Ottoman-controlled Palestine]]. [[Theodor Herzl]], who is considered the father of political Zionism,<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Kornberg|1993}} "How did Theodor Herzl, an assimilated German nationalist in the 1880s, suddenly in the 1890s become the founder of Zionism?"</ref> offered his vision of a future Jewish state in his 1896 book ''[[Der Judenstaat]]'' (''The Jewish State''); a year later, he presided over the [[First Zionist Congress]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Chapter One |url=http://www.jewishagency.org/israel/content/23396 |access-date=21 September 2015 |website=The Jewish Agency for Israel1}}</ref>

[[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] is the [[liturgical language]] of Judaism (termed ''lashon ha-kodesh'', "the holy tongue"), the language in which most of the Hebrew scriptures ([[Tanakh]]) were composed, and the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries. By the 5th century BCE, [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]], a closely related tongue, joined Hebrew as the spoken language in [[Judea]].<ref name=Grintz>{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/3264497|title=Hebrew as the Spoken and Written Language in the Last Days of the Second Temple|first=Jehoshua M.|last=Grintz|journal=Journal of Biblical Literature|volume=79|issue=1|pages=32–47|publisher=The Society of Biblical Literature|jstor=3264497}}</ref> By the 3rd century BCE, some Jews of the diaspora were speaking [[Koine Greek|Greek]].<ref>Feldman (2006), p. 54.</ref> Others, such as in the Jewish communities of [[Asoristan]], known to Jews as Babylonia, were speaking Hebrew and [[Jewish Babylonian Aramaic|Aramaic]], the languages of the [[Babylonian Talmud]]. Dialects of these same languages were also used by the Jews of [[Syria Palaestina]] at that time.{{Citation needed}}

In some places, the mother language of the Jewish community differs from that of the general population or the dominant group. For example, in [[Quebec]], the Ashkenazic majority has adopted English, while the Sephardic minority uses French as its primary language.<ref name="forward">{{cite web|url=http://forward.com/articles/5434/quebec-sephardim-make-breakthroughs/|title=Quebec Sephardim Make Breakthroughs |publisher=forward.com|access-date=12 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYyiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR22|title=Contemporary Sephardic Identity in the Americas: An Interdisciplinary Approach|author=Edna Aizenberg|year=2012|page=xxii|isbn=978-0-8156-5165-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fIZ6wftL3oQC&pg=PA449|title=Canada's Jews: A People's Journey|author=Gerald Tulchinsky|pages=447–49|isbn=978-0-8020-9386-8|year=2008}}</ref> Similarly, [[History of the Jews in South Africa|South African Jews]] adopted English rather than [[Afrikaans]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gbTFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA51|title=Institutions, Ethnicity, and Political Mobilization in South Africa|author=Jessica Piombo|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|page=51|isbn=978-0-230-62382-8|year= 2009}}</ref> Due to both Czarist and Soviet policies,<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TIMoQbjAmhgC&pg=PA31|title=World War I and the Remaking of Jewish Vilna, 1914–1918|author=Andrew Noble Koss (dissertation)|publisher=Stanford University|year=2010|pages=30–31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ic5Kth7aiusC&pg=PA781|title=Jewish and Non-Jewish Creators of "Jewish Languages"|author=Paul Wexler|chapter=Chapter 38: Evaluating Soviet Yiddish Language Policy Between 1917–1950|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|year=2006|page=780|isbn=978-3-447-05404-1}}</ref> Russian has superseded Yiddish as the language of [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian Jews]], but these policies have also affected neighboring communities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-russian.html|title=Jewish Russian|author=Anna Verschik|publisher=Jewish Languages Research Website|access-date=1 April 2014|archive-date=16 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016171323/http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-russian.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Today, Russian is the first language for many Jewish communities in a number of [[Post-Soviet states]], such as [[Ukraine]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoPZu79hqaEC&pg=PA1007|title=Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture, Volume 1|page=1007|isbn=978-1-85109-873-6|last1=Ehrlich|first1=Mark Avrum|year=2009}}</ref><ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Ukraine: A History, 4th Edition|author=Subtelny, O.|publisher=University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division|isbn=978-1-4426-9728-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ktyM07I9HXwC|access-date=12 March 2015}}</ref><ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=Multicultural Perspectives in Working with Families|author1=Congress, E.P.|author2=Gonzalez, M.J.|publisher=Springer Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8261-3146-1|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780826131454|url-access=registration|access-date=12 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/jerusalem-babylon/.premium-1.579733 |title=The Jews who said 'no' to Putin |author=Anshel Pfeffer |newspaper=Haaretz |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326082731/http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/jerusalem-babylon/.premium-1.579733 |archive-date=26 March 2014}}</ref> and [[Uzbekistan]],<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary2">{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Bukharan_Jews.html|title=Bukharan Jews &#124; Jewish Virtual Library|publisher=jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=12 March 2015}}</ref>{{better source needed}} as well as for Ashkenazic Jews in [[Azerbaijan]],<ref name="Maoz">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_AR3BksrUcC&pg=PA135|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704020626/http://books.google.com/books?id=W_AR3BksrUcC&pg=PA135|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 July 2014|title=Muslim Attitudes towards Jews and Israel|author=Moshe Ma'oz|pages=135, 160|isbn=978-1-84519-527-4|year=2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/AZ |title=Azerbaijan |quote=Like many immigrant communities of the Czarist and Soviet eras in Azerbaijan, Ashkenazi Jews appear to be linguistically Russified. Most Ashkenazi Jews speak Russian as their first language with Azeri being spoken as the second.}}</ref> Georgia,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UNczHm67tjIC&pg=PA72|title=DNA & Tradition: The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews|author=Yaakov Kleiman|publisher=Devora Publishing|year=2004|page=72|quote=The community is divided between 'native' Georgian Jews and Russian-speaking Ashkenazim who began migrating there at the beginning of the 19th century, and especially during World War II.|isbn=978-1-930143-89-0}}</ref> and [[Tajikistan]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AgkVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA165|title=Readings in the Sociology of Jewish Languages|author=Joshua A. Fishman|year=1985|pages=165, 169–74|quote=Jews in [[Tadzhikistan]] have adopted [[Tajik language|Tadzhik]] as their first language. The number of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazic Jews in that region is comparatively low (cf. 2,905 in 1979). Both Ashkenazic and Oriental Jews have assimilated to Russian, the number of Jews speaking Russian as their first language amounting to a total of 6,564. It is reasonable to assume that the percentage of assimilated Ashkenazim is much higher than the portion of Oriental Jews.|isbn=90-04-07237-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idAfAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA72|title=Language in Ethnicity: A View of Basic Ecological Relations|author=Harald Haarmann|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year=1986|pages=70–73, 79–82|isbn=978-3-11-086280-5}}</ref> Although communities in [[North Africa]] today are small and dwindling, Jews there had shifted from a multilingual group to a monolingual one (or nearly so), speaking French in [[Algeria]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f4Mp4qy8lbUC&pg=PA234|title=Transnational Spaces and Identities in the Francophone World|page=234|isbn=978-0-8032-2465-0|last1=Gafaiti|first1=Hafid|year=2009}}</ref> [[Morocco]],<ref name="Maoz" /> and the city of [[Tunis]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=45exFa6wDIIC&pg=PA258|title=Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa|pages=258, 270|isbn=978-0-253-00146-7|last1=Gottreich|first1=Emily Benichou|last2=Schroeter|first2=Daniel J|year= 2011}}</ref><ref name="jdc">{{cite web|url=http://www.jdc.org/where-we-work/africa/tunisia.html|title=Tunisia|publisher=jdc.org|access-date=12 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016211752/http://www.jdc.org/where-we-work/africa/tunisia.html|archive-date=16 October 2013}}</ref> while most North Africans continue to use [[Arabic]] or Berber as their mother tongue.{{Citation needed}}

The studies also show that [[Sephardic Bnei Anusim]] (descendants of the "[[anusim]]" who were [[Forced conversion|forced to convert]] to [[Catholicism]]), which comprise up to 19.8&nbsp;percent of the population of today's [[Iberia]] ([[Spain]] and [[Portugal]]) and at least 10&nbsp;percent of the population of [[Ibero-America]] ([[Hispanic America]] and [[Brazil]]), have Sephardic Jewish ancestry within the last few centuries. The [[Bene Israel]] and [[Cochin Jews]] of [[India]], [[Beta Israel]] of [[Ethiopia]], and a portion of the [[Lemba people]] of [[Southern Africa]], despite more closely resembling the local populations of their native countries, have also been thought to have some more remote ancient Jewish ancestry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forward.com/articles/155742/jews-are-a-race-genes-reveal/?p=all |title=Jews Are a 'Race,' Genes Reveal |publisher=Forward.com |access-date=12 April 2013}}</ref><ref name=discovermagazine/><ref name="in.reuters.com">{{cite news |last1=Begley |first1=Sharon |title=Genetic study offers clues to history of North Africa's Jews |url=https://in.reuters.com/article/us-science-genetics-jews/genetic-study-offers-clues-to-history-of-north-africas-jews-idINBRE8751EI20120806 |work=Reuters }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA"/> Views on the Lemba have changed and genetic [[Y-DNA]] analyses in the 2000s have established a partially Middle-Eastern origin for a portion of the male Lemba population but have been unable to narrow this down further.<ref name="SpurdleJenkins">{{Citation | title = The origins of the Lemba "Black Jews" of southern Africa: evidence from p12F2 and other Y-chromosome markers. | pmid = 8900243 | pmc=1914832 | volume=59 | issue = 5 | date=November 1996 | journal=Am. J. Hum. Genet. | pages=1126–33 | last1 = Spurdle | first1 = AB | last2 = Jenkins | first2 = T}}</ref><ref name="Soodyall">{{cite book|author1=Himla Soodyall|author2=Jennifer G. R Kromberg|editor1-last=Kumar|editor1-first=Dhavendra|editor2-last=Chadwick|editor2-first=Ruth|title=Genomics and Society: Ethical, Legal, Cultural and Socioeconomic Implications|publisher=Academic Press/Elsevier|isbn=978-0-12-420195-8|page=316|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9icBAAAQBAJ&q=Cohen+Modal+Haplotype+Lemba&pg=PA309|chapter=Human Genetics and Genomics and Sociocultural Beliefs and Practices in South Africa}}</ref>

According to the 2007 estimates of [[The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute]], the world's Jewish population is 13.2&nbsp;million.<ref name="haaretz.com">{{cite news|title=Percent of world Jewry living in Israel climbed to 41% in 2007|first=Anshel|last=Pfeffer|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/percent-of-world-jewry-living-in-israel-climbed-to-41-in-2007-1.236675|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=10 October 2012}}</ref> Adherents.com cites figures ranging from 12 to 18&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_408.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031009075924/http://adherents.com/Na/Na_408.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=9 October 2003|title=Judaism, continued...|work=adherents.com|access-date=26 August 2015}}</ref> These statistics incorporate both practicing Jews affiliated with [[synagogue]]s and the Jewish community, and approximately 4.5&nbsp;million unaffiliated and [[Jewish secularism|secular Jews]].{{Citation needed}}

Prior to 1948, approximately 800,000 Jews were living in lands which now make up the [[Arab world]] (excluding Israel). Of these, just under two-thirds lived in the French-controlled [[Maghreb]] region, 15 to 20&nbsp;percent in the [[Kingdom of Iraq]], approximately 10&nbsp;percent in the [[Kingdom of Egypt]] and approximately 7&nbsp;percent in the [[Kingdom of Yemen]]. A further 200,000 lived in [[Pahlavi Iran]] and the [[Republic of Turkey]]. Today, around 26,000 Jews live in Arab countries<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rosenberg|first=Jerry M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdAdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44|title=The Rebirth of the Middle East|publisher=Hamilton Books|isbn=978-0-7618-4846-2|language=en}}</ref> and around 30,000 in [[Iran]] and [[Turkey]]. A small-scale exodus had begun in many countries in the early decades of the 20th century, although the only substantial [[aliyah]] came from [[Yemen]] and [[Syria]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Simon |editor1-first=Reeva Spector |editor2-last=Laskier |editor2-first=Michael Menachem |editor3-last=Reguer |editor3-first=Sara |year=2003 |title=The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-50759-2 |page=327 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VxEJrEY22egC&pg=PA327 |quote=Before the 1940s only two communities, Yemen and Syria, made substantial aliyah. }}</ref> The [[Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries|exodus from Arab and Muslim countries]] took place primarily from 1948. The first large-scale exoduses took place in the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily in [[Iraq]], Yemen and [[Libya]], with up to 90&nbsp;percent of these communities leaving within a few years. The peak of the exodus from [[Egypt]] occurred in 1956. The exodus in the Maghreb countries peaked in the 1960s. [[Lebanon]] was the only Arab country to see a temporary increase in its Jewish population during this period, due to an influx of refugees from other Arab countries, although by the mid-1970s the Jewish community of Lebanon had also dwindled. In the aftermath of the exodus wave from Arab states, an additional migration of [[Iranian Jews]] peaked in the 1980s when around 80&nbsp;percent of Iranian Jews left the country.{{Citation needed}}

Rates of [[Interfaith marriage|interreligious marriage]] vary widely: In the United States, it is just under 50&nbsp;percent,<ref>{{cite web|title=NJPS: Defining and Calculating Intermarriage |url=http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=46252 |access-date=2 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812024158/http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=46252 |archive-date=12 August 2011}}</ref> in the United Kingdom, around 53&nbsp;percent; in France; around 30&nbsp;percent,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-prod.akadem.org/medias/documents/Rapport-Erik-Cohen.pdf |title=Les juifs de France: La lente progression des mariages mixtes |trans-title=The Jews of France: The slow progression of mixed marriages |last=Cohen |first=Erik H. |publisher=Akadem |language=fr |access-date=12 October 2020 |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416230622/http://www-prod.akadem.org/medias/documents/Rapport-Erik-Cohen.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> and in Australia and Mexico, as low as 10&nbsp;percent.<ref>{{cite web|title=Australia|url=http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/communities/show/id/2|publisher=World Jewish Congress|access-date=2 April 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521082932/http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/communities/show/id/2|archive-date=21 May 2012}}</ref> In the United States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate with Jewish religious practice.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jppi.org.il/uploads/Annual%20Assessment%202007.pdf|title=Annual Assessment 2007|access-date=3 July 2008|last=Waxman|first=Chaim I.|year=2007|publisher=Jewish People Policy Planning Institute ([[Jewish Agency for Israel]])|page=61}}</ref> The result is that most countries in the [[Jewish diaspora|Diaspora]] have steady or slightly declining religiously Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the countries in which they live.{{Citation needed}}