Jews originated as an ancient people in the Southern Levant , in the land historically known as Israel and Judah (ancient Canaan), not in Europe or elsewhere.

Core origin in one line

Historically and archaeologically, Jews trace back to the ancient Israelites —a group of Semitic‑speaking tribes that formed the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the highlands of Canaan (roughly modern Israel/Palestine and surrounding areas) during the Iron Age, over 2,800 years ago.

Mini‑section: Ancient roots

  • The earliest outside reference to “Israel” as a people appears on the Egyptian Merneptah Stele around 1200 BCE, locating them in Canaan in the Southern Levant.
  • Archaeology shows many small hill‑country villages in this region between the 12th–10th centuries BCE that match early Israelite culture (dietary rules, simple rural shrines, lack of pig bones, etc.).
  • Over time, these Israelites formed the kingdoms of Israel and Judah ; “Jews” originally meant people from Judah , and later the term expanded to cover the wider people and religion.

Mini‑section: From ancient Israelites to Jews

  • The ethnic and religious ancestors of Jews are the Israelites and Hebrews of ancient Israel and Judah, whose identity centered on the god Yahweh, Hebrew language, and shared ancestry stories (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/Israel).
  • After conquests and exiles (especially to Babylonia in the 6th century BCE), Jewish communities spread through the Middle East and then across the Mediterranean and beyond, but they retained traditions linking them back to this Levantine homeland.

Mini‑section: Why people argue about this

Modern discussion—especially online—often asks if Jews are “from Europe” because many Jews today (Ashkenazim) lived for centuries in Central and Eastern Europe. But:

  • Historical records, archaeology, and genetics all converge on Levantine origins , showing that Jewish communities around the world share deep ancestry with other peoples of that region.
  • European and other local ancestries are layered on top of that older Near Eastern base, reflecting centuries of migration, conversion, and intermarriage.

Mini‑section: Short story‑style picture

If you zoomed out on a time‑lapse map, you’d see a small cluster of related tribes in the hills of ancient Canaan slowly coalescing into Israel and Judah. Conquests scatter them: some to Babylonia, others across the Mediterranean, later into Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East—yet they keep texts, rituals, and memories that point back to that same strip of land on the Eastern Mediterranean coast.

In short: Jews are originally a Near Eastern people whose story begins in ancient Israel and Judah, even though today they are a global people with many different regional histories.

TL;DR: Jews did not “originate from Europe”; they originate from the ancient Israelite and Judean populations in the Southern Levant (historical Israel/Judah/Canaan), and later spread worldwide through centuries of exile, migration, and diaspora.

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