Why are you explaining where the word "Jew" came from? I know where it originated, but that doesn't exclude others who are not direct descendants of Judah or Benjamin. The fact is that anyone descending from Abraham who believes in the God of Abraham can be called a Jew, as are many who live in Israel and elsewhere and do not practice the Jewish religion.
The point being that your comment saying that "Jews only represent those Israelites whose forefathers were Judah and Benjamin" is not true..
Who is a Jew?" (
Hebrew: מיהו יהודי pronounced
[ˈmihu jehuˈdi]) is a basic question about
Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish
self-identification. The question is based in ideas about Jewish personhood which have
cultural,
religious,
political,
genealogical, and
personal dimensions. The definition of who is a Jew varies according to whether it is being considered by Jews based on normative religious statutes or self-identification, or by non-Jews for other reasons. Because Jewish identity can include characteristics of an
ethnicity,
[1] a religion,
[2] or conversion, the definition depends on many aspects that must be considered.
[3]
According to the simplest definition used by Jews for self-identification, a person is a Jew by birth, or becomes one through religious conversion. However, there are differences of opinion among the various branches of Judaism in the application of this definition, including:
Who is a Jew? - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia