In fact, there is no such thing as a Jewish race or a Jewish people, as it never has been. It does not exist in the same way as a Christian or Muslim race or people. Just like Christianity and Islam, the Jew is a religion whose name is Judaism. That’s why the Nazis were wrong about Jews.
There has never been such a thing as a Jewish people in history. In the Old Testament, the people were called Israelites, sons of Israel, or Hebrews. Israel had twelve tribes, of which Judah, from which the Jews later got their name, was only one. At least according to tradition. These tribes lived in two small Semitic kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The latter included the largest tribe, Judah.
According to rabbinic tradition, the ten tribes of Israel were lost forever under Assyrian rule, and the two southern tribes merged together and were then carried off into captivity under the Babylonian empire. As result, the Israelites ceased to exist as a people or as a state, but Judaism as a religion was created. In other words, we can talk about Jews only after that, but not as a people, but as a religion.
The word ‘Jew’ is never found in the Old Testament until the Captivity. Ninety percent of Jews living today are descendants of Slavic and Turkic tribes converted to the Jewish faith of the medieval Khazar Empire or Khaganate. Thus they are not Semitic, as their language, Yiddish also not a Semitic language.
The Ashkenazi Jews, in other words the European Jews, are also of non-Semitic origin, but they are descendants of Gauls, Germans, and Franks who converted to Judaism in ancient times. In other words, a Jew living in France today is nothing more than a Frenchman of Jewish faith.
Hebrew, as the sacred language of their religion, is often spoken just as much as Christians speak Latin or Indonesian Muslims speak Arabic. The Sephardim, although they are descendants of Spaniards and Moors, as can be inferred from the word, are largely non-Semitic.
The conclusion of contradiction
Now I ask, what makes a person who is not of Semitic origin, who does not speak any Semitic language, his religion is not Jewish, but not even a Zionist (if that even matters) a Jew? What makes George Soros Jewish, for instance? For me, only the that one can be Jew, who practices this religion. No one else. Because it is a religion, nothing more.
The above argument does not appeal to those who only like to portray Jews in a negative light, because if we state that only religious people can be Jews, it is almost impossible to portray them in a negative light. This argument completely removes the ground from under anti-Semitism, because anti-Semitism itself loses its meaning. Anti-Semite means counter Semitism, so the word contains the term Semitic.
However, ninety percent of Jews living today are of non-Semitic origin and language, unlike Arabic, which is a Semitic language. And these are only those who practice Judaism today.
If we also include those who no longer practice the Jewish religion, but only call themselves Jews, then the Semites do not even make up one percent of the total Jewish population all around the world.
And since there was no major population change in the holy land in history, only the rule changed, so today’s Palestinians are much closer to the Israelites of the Old Testament than those who call themselves Jews today. A Palestinian living near Hebron today is not much different from an Israelite who lived there three thousand years ago, only his religion is different.
Only those Jews who are descendants of Arabs who converted to Judaism can call themselves Semitic, or they themselves are converted Semitic Arabs, but only because Arabic is a Semitic language and not because of the Jewish religion.
In conclusion, if anti-Semitism had any meaning, it should be directed against the Arabs, who are Semites. However, the vast majority of Arabs are Muslim and not Jewish.
If you are interested in this topic in more detail, I recommend reading this book: The Invention of the Land of Israel by Shlomo Sand.
Thanks for reading!