Are Jews not indigenous to the Middle East anymore?

I find it a bit strange that the majority of people regard someone to be of middle eastern descent if they are Arab yet act as if they are the only group that belongs in the middle east. What about the other populations that were conquered like the Assyrians, Coptic Egyptians, Canaanites, Amazigh, Hebrews, Kurds, Druze, Armenians, Greeks, and various other ethnic groups that were forcefully removed from their land in the middle east? Seems like that history is forgotten...

Jewish is a religion and an ethnic group. They do not represent a race. If I convert to the Catholic Religion does that mean that my DNA changed me into a Roman/Italian? Does that mean that suddenly my ancestors lived in Rome and not Scotland? Of course not. And the same is true for everyone who converted to Judaism and all of their descendants. The Caucasian Jews are the Ashkenazi and they are the Majority of Jews today.

Arabs are a race. And there are Jewish Arabs BTW.

Originally posted by Malichai
Jewish is a religion and an ethnic group. They do not represent a race. If I convert to the Catholic Religion does that mean that my DNA changed me into a Roman/Italian? Does that mean that suddenly my ancestors lived in Rome and not Scotland? Of course not. And the same is true for everyone who converted to Judaism and all of their descendants. The Caucasian Jews are the Ashkenazi and they are the Majority of Jews today.

Arabs are a race. And there are Jewish Arabs BTW.

Jewish Arabs do not exist, Arab is not a race either but a cultural identity.

A Somali can be considered as much of a Arab as a Syrian. That would be equivalent to calling a Lebanese man an Arab or a Assyrian or Berber an Arab. Merely speaking Arabic doesn't make someone an Arab.

My family is from Syria and we are Mizrahi background and we never called ourselves Arab.

There is a difference between Catholic and Jewish because Catholicism derives from a religious belief but the Jewish people primarily opposed mixing with outsiders unless they were Jewish, and conversions to Judaism were rare. You can even tell if someone converts to Judaism today because they will have the name [name] bat Avraham or Avinu v'Sarah

The Israelites were merely a composition of Semitic peoples that started believing in Torah and circumsized themselves. This made up a cultural and ethnic identity which includes the Hebrew language, Israelite/Jewish culture and identity, the Jews being from the tribe of Judah and would classify as a "ethno-religious" group. Even the Europeans did not class the Jews as one of them but classed us as some sort of foreigners who were merchants and came into the land. Most Jews today that have Germanic names were simply settled down in those countries and given German names based on their trade similar to how many Native Americans in the US have British, Irish or German surnames, that doesn't take away from identity.

That would be equivalent to a Chinese man living in England, it does not make them English origin.

Catholicism on the other hand was used as a way to spread through Europe and unite the European people under the church, there is quite a big difference between the 2.

My surname Cohen for example is not of European origin but middle eastern origin, Jews who were assimilated into Eastern Europe or Western Europe either assumed Germanic or Slavic names depending on their trade just like other groups in the Middle East that were conquered by the Arabs assumed Arabic names.

I find it very strange that people associate Islam or Arab identity as belonging in the middle east yet the idea of being Jewish or Christian is seen as foreign there even though these groups existed long before Islam?

[edit on 4-9-2010 by pill]

Originally posted by Malichai
Jewish is a religion and an ethnic group. They do not represent a race. If I convert to the Catholic Religion does that mean that my DNA changed me into a Roman/Italian? Does that mean that suddenly my ancestors lived in Rome and not Scotland? Of course not. And the same is true for everyone who converted to Judaism and all of their descendants. The Caucasian Jews are the Ashkenazi and they are the Majority of Jews today.

Arabs are a race. And there are Jewish Arabs BTW.

better bone up on your histroy, jews came from the nation of Judea, and Israel, before they were taken into exile

i've read the 2nd and 3rd post and thought i might add this post i made another thread, after looking at it
i see that i didnt have all my fact right, but i think in histroy class i might have got a b or c. so here is a post i made on another thread and a link to a pretty good source.
www.abovetopsecret.com...


do you even know where the word jew came from, israel was once 12 tribes. then at some point the nation broke into, northern half was called
israel, southern half called judah. when the assyrians made thier push to rule the world they killed most of the isrraeliets and took the rest into exile
to babylon, leaving the southern kingdom judah with a puppet king.after this there was no land called israel until 1947or 48 not sure about the year.

now when the 12 tribes got along and even after the split, they called themselfs iraelites or hebrew not jews.
the word jew came from defferent ways of saying the word judah, some say french, some middle english,some old english and some latin or greek all still mean a inhabitant of judah
ever notice the german way of saying it juden
now the religon of judiaism started with abraham and his family when they left canaan. before this he and his family were the same pagen worshippers as the other canaaniets, i think they worshipped baal not sure about this so please dont quote me, then moses gave the people Gods word on it, and they worshipped the way moses said, after the exile they realy didnt remember how to worship the way moses said and so theyput bits of it togatherand frormed what is todays modern judaism that was about 1000yrs ago if i remember right

google search and awiki link will show up 1st
The Word "Jew" and the Scriptures this one has alot of good info, even talks about the jews moving into europe through the caucaus mts.and making the great european nataions, thus the word caucasians.and this would have burned hitlers ass bad(franco-german eastern and central european jews) know ashkenazi jews makes up about 90% of the jews today
also there are many different views to what i stated above, some agree with mine some dont. and as i was thinking about this i might have the time lines mixed up on the exile and puppet kings, there are 3or4 time frames and both israel and judah both wind up in exile

so i guess both are ture
and i thank you for my hand shake now
assemblyoftrueisrael.com...