Army - Jewish Faith Chaplain Veteran - MugJews (Hebrew: ISO 259 2 Yehudim, Israeli pronunciation [jehudim]) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group[10] and a nation[11][12][13] originating from the Israelites[14][15][16] and Hebrews[17][18] of historical Israel and Judah. Jewish ethnicity, nationhood, and religion are strongly interrelated,[19][20] as Judaism is the ethnic religion of the Jewish people, while its observance varies from strict observance to complete nonobservance.