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where are jews originally from

Jews are originally from the ancient land of Israel in the Southern Levant (often called the Land of Israel or ancient Canaan), in what is today Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Core answer in simple terms

  • Historically, Jews trace their origins to the Israelites and Hebrews , a group of Semitic-speaking tribes who lived in the highlands of Canaan (the Southern Levant) in the Iron Age.
  • These tribes formed the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah , centered around cities like Jerusalem. Modern Jews are named after and largely descended from the people of the Kingdom of Judah.
  • Over centuries, conquests and exiles (especially by the Assyrian and Babylonian empires) led to Jews being dispersed around the Middle East and, later, across Europe, North Africa, and eventually the whole world, creating the Jewish diaspora.

In short: Jews did not “start” in Europe or North Africa; those later communities developed from a much older origin in the ancient land of Israel.

A brief historical sketch

  1. Ancient Israelite roots
    • The earliest extra-biblical reference to “Israel” as a people appears on the Egyptian Merneptah Stele , dated around 1200 BCE, referring to a group living in Canaan.
 * Archaeology and historical sources place the Israelites in the central highlands of the Southern Levant, where many small settlements appeared between the 12th and 10th centuries BCE.
  1. Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
    • Over time, these tribes formed two related kingdoms: Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south).
 * The northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the **Neo-Assyrian Empire** around 720 BCE; the southern Kingdom of Judah fell to the **Neo-Babylonian Empire** in 586 BCE, when Jerusalem and the First Temple were destroyed and many Judeans were exiled to Babylon.
  1. From ancient Hebrews to “Jews”
    • The term “Jews” derives from “Judeans,” the people of Judah. After the Babylonian exile and the return of some exiles to rebuild the Temple, the identity centered more on the Judean community, its laws, and traditions.
 * Over time, the religious tradition that formed around these people becomes known as **Judaism** , but ethnically and historically it is rooted in these Israelite/Judean populations of the Southern Levant.

How Jews ended up “from everywhere”

Even though the origin is in the Land of Israel, Jews today are found worldwide, with distinct communities that formed in different regions over centuries.

  • Middle Eastern & North African Jews (Mizrahi, Sephardi, etc.)
    Developed in places like Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Morocco, Egypt, and elsewhere after ancient exiles and later migrations, while still tracing ancestry back to the Israelite/Judean population.
  • European Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardi in Europe)
    • Ashkenazi Jews formed mainly in Central and Eastern Europe, especially after the Middle Ages, through a combination of migration from the Middle East and Mediterranean and later internal growth.
* **Sephardi Jews** lived for centuries in Spain and Portugal before expulsions in the late 15th century pushed them into the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, and beyond.
  • Modern global communities
    In the last two centuries, large Jewish communities have developed in the Americas, South Africa, Australia, and elsewhere, again as part of this long- standing diaspora pattern.

Yet across these branches, the shared historical narrative and many cultural and religious ties point back to ancient Israel/Judah as the original homeland.

Different viewpoints you may hear

You’ll encounter a few different emphases when people answer “where are Jews from?”:

  • Historical-ethnic angle:
    Focuses on Jews as a people originating from the Israelites/Hebrews of ancient Israel and Judah in the Southern Levant, supported by archaeology and textual evidence.
  • Religious angle:
    Emphasizes Judaism as a religion that took shape among the ancient Hebrews and Judeans, with some scholars highlighting key stages like the Persian or Second Temple periods in defining Judaism as we know it.
  • Diaspora & identity angle:
    Points out that Jews have lived for many centuries in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, so you can be, for example, French and Jewish or Moroccan and Jewish , with layered identities, while still sharing an ancestral connection to ancient Israel.

A common way some Jews explain it to kids today is: “All Jews originally came from the Land of Israel a very long time ago, and over thousands of years our families spread all over the world, but we’re still connected by being Jewish.”

Forum-style summary with today’s context

In recent years, especially with intense public debates about Israel/Palestine and Jewish history, the question “where are Jews originally from?” shows up a lot in online discussions and forums.

  • Historically grounded sources describe Jews as originating from the Iron Age Israelites and Hebrews in the Southern Levant , centered on ancient Israel and Judah.
  • Modern Jewish communities—from New York to Paris to Casablanca or Tehran—are the result of two millennia of diaspora , migrations, expulsions, and returns, not separate unrelated origins.

TL;DR: Jews are originally from the ancient Israelite and Judean people of the Southern Levant (the Land of Israel/Canaan). Over thousands of years they spread across the globe, forming many local communities, but their deep historical roots trace back to that region.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.