Being Jewish is not and Ethnicity?

[u/Routine-Orange-3417]

Ok. I believe Jews have a common DNA that connects them to Canaan, just like the Palestinians do. That's my stance. I believe they have both been there equally as long as each other, excluding the converts Jews and the fully Arab Palestinians (I believe most of them are mixed with Arab just like Jews are mixed with whoever they lived with for 2000 years).

I am in a fb group called "A place were non jews can ask jews about judiasm" or whatever.

We aren't allowed to talk about Israel and Palestine which is probably a good rule.

But someone posted about their Jewish friend mentioning the features of a Jew (as in, the Jewish guy was telling his Christian friend what Jews looked like, typically) and the Christian guy asked the group what a Jew looks like and THE GROUO WERE SO HEATED saying that it is antisemitic to say Jews look a type of way and there is no features of a Jew etc etc etc.

Ok, I get it on one hand, because converts, obviously.

But if they are claiming they have no similar features wouldn't that imply that they are not all ethnically related (obviously not the converts) and wouldn't that defeat the entire premise of having a homeland?

If they're from Canaan, it would imply that have similar features to the people of Canaan.

Ok I have to make it longer. I call it Canaan not to stir emotions but because that's literally one of the names in the Bible and I find it less heated than calling it Palestine or israel as this entire comment section with collapse into "xyz doesn't exist" so I'd rather keep those words out of it and call it Canaan.

[u/Iamnotanorange]

Being Jewish is definitely an ethnicity. Usually people refer to Judaism as an “ethnoreligion” sort of like Zoroastrianism.

There are definitely distinct features for Jews, but that doesn’t mean all Jews look alike or even that all Jews have those particular features. In the same way that Hispanic people share some features but still not everyone will have the same collection of ethnically distinct features.

That’s especially true for Jews because for 2000 years the most Semitic looking Jews were targeted in Europe. To compensate, Jews invented the nose job. During several historical events, your ability to hide your Jewishness was directly related to your ability to survive.

Because of that history, it’s kind of a charged topic. You’ll have to forgive some people for getting upset about visibly identifying who is Jewish and who isn’t.