what does it mean to be jewish

Being Jewish can mean different things to different people, and there is no single, uniform answer to what it means to be Jewish. In the US, Jews see being Jewish as more a matter of ancestry, culture, and values than of religious observance. Many American Jews prioritize cultural components of Judaism over religious ones, and most Jewish adults say that remembering the Holocaust, leading a moral and ethical life, working for justice and equality in society, and being intellectually curious are “essential” to what it means to them to be Jewish. However, what is essential to being Jewish tends to vary according to the respondent’s branch or stream of Judaism. Orthodox Jews generally attach much more importance to the religious elements of being Jewish, while for Jews by religion, caring about Israel is much more central than it is for Jews of no religion. The definition of who is a Jew varies according to whether it is being considered by Jews on the basis of religious law and tradition or self-identification, or by non-Jews for other reasons, sometimes for prejudicial purposes. In general, being Jewish can include characteristics of an ethnicity, a religion, or peoplehood, and the definition depends on either traditional or newer interpretations of Jewish law and custom.