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Jew
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The term Jew is usually used to refer to a follower of [[Judaism]], the Jewish religion. There is a very close connection between the followers of Judaism and those descended from Abraham's grandson [[Jacob]] who was also called Israel and thus the word Jew is also often used in a racial sense, similar to the word [[Hebrew]], to refer to the all the descendants of the patriarch, [[Jacob]] (who was also known as Israel) whose life story was recorded in the [[Book of Genesis]]. All of the major Western religions find their roots in Judaism.
Jewish ancestry is traced back to the Biblical patriarch [[Abraham]] and his son [[Isaac]] and grandson [[Jacob]] and their wives [[Sarah]] (wife of Abraham), [[Rebecca]] (wife of Isaac) and [[Leah]] and [[Rachel]] (wives of Jacob) who lived in the ancient land of Canaan probably around the 18th century BC.
Judaism is the first recorded religion that recognized the existence of only one God, a God who revealed himself by the name [[Yahweh]]. Christianity of course has its roots in Judaism, with Jesus himself being Jewish. The first Christians were Jewish but the early church quickly incorporated non-Jewish people known as [[Gentile]]s. Although some Jews became followers of Jesus, many did not and the distinct Jewish religion and ethnic race continued even when the Jewish homeland was razed by the Roman Empire.
Sadly there has been animosity between the Jewish people and many other peoples, including Christians throughout history. The Jewish people have perhaps been one of the most persecuted group of people throughout history, with the greatest and most terrible of these persecutions occurring under the Nazi rule All of the major Western religions found their roots in Judaism. A central tenet of Judaism is that God, the Creator of the World, made a special agreement called a covenant (berit in Hebrew) with Abraham, from whom the Jewish people descended.
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