Determining who is a Jew is often not an easy task to complete because being Jewish encompasses a nation, a ethnicity, a religion and culture. Who determines who is considered to be a Jew or not? Ultimately, is it God deciding who is included in His blessed people, His Chosen ones? What makes someone Jewish – their religious practices or their blood line?

Who is Considered to be Jewish?
Isn’t everyone Jewish? If everyone originally came from Noah’s descendants, are we all related? If someone were to look far enough in their geneology and found that a distant relative was Jewish, does that automatically make that person Jewish? Is there some way to trace your genealogy to determine if a person is of Jewish lineage? If so, even though that person was never raise nor worshiped like a Jew, are they still Jewish by default? Is it just a matter of being circumcised?

Jewish Descent
How can someone tell if they are of Jewish descent? If someone isn’t Jewish, doesn’t have Jewish ancestry and then converts to Judaism, does that make them Jewish? If that’s the case, then aren’t all the Christians who have converted to Messianic Judaism now considered Jewish? If so, then why does the term "Messianic Gentile" exist? If a Gentile converts to Judaism, are they considered to be Jewish in God’s eye and part of His Chosen People, despite not having an ounce of Jewish blood in their veins? 

Religion vs. Ethnicity
Because the religion and culture of Judaism are so interrelated, what determines someone’s Jewry? Is it both a religion or a culture? Can it be one without the other? Can someone be Jewish by faith but be pure Mexican by culture…and still be Jewish? Can someone be born into an Israeli Hebrew-speaking family and be a practicing Buddhist…and still be Jewish?

What a Jew is Not
Sometimes it may be easier to determine what a Jew is NOT. Being Jewish does not mean that you are committed to the Torah because there are many, many Jews who know very little about Judaism or the Torah and are considered "secular" or even atheist. It is not a culture because American Jews differ greatly in language, food, dress and customs than Spanish Sephardic Jews do. Being Jewish is not a specific location, despite Israel being the only Jewish-state because Jews are spread all across the world and are everywhere. It’s not just DNA, as different hair colors and complexions give away, and there are convert Jews that have no Jewish DNA at all. It’s not a language because many American-Jews couldn’t speak Hebrew even if they wanted to. Being Jewish is not just a matter of being a descendant from a Holocaust survivor.

So, what does it mean to be Jewish?