Jewish is strictly speaking of someone's religous beliefs. Jewish people are not from one place.

Strictly speaking, being "Jewish" can refer to a person's Religion, to their Nationality, OR to their Race. The term is origionally based on a "God" theme, so the origions are religious, as God interacted with a Race/Nation. There are African and Irish people who can "convert," and "become Jewish." That is definitely religious. In a mixed marriage family, if the Mother is Jewish, the children are considered to be Jewish. That is the "Race" part of the equation. The physical Nation of Israel is a Jewish Nation. And to complicate international law a little more, any Jewish person is free to claim citizenship in the Nation of Israel. Simple answer, It depends on the Jewish person you are talking to. Ask them, if you require more clarification.

If your Mother, or your Mothers Mother, or your Mothers Mothers Mother (you get the idea) is/was Jewish, you can be said to be Jewish. Judaism BY RACE is entirely Matrilineal. It is possible to convert to Judaism, although many more Orthodox Jews will not accept that you are properly Jewish unless you are born Jewish. The process and practice of conversion is much easier and more prevalent in the USA than most other places. It's not that common over here in the UK!! The nationality point is a little different. It is not necessary to be Jewish to be Isreali, for instance, but, as mentioned in another answer, any Jew has the right of Isreali Citizenship, wherever they are originally from. A sort of, 'You don't have to be Jewish to live here, but it helps.'

Actually, it refers to their relgion. because actually when we say religion, it has a lot of branches and they call the followers according to their religion. for example: christianity=christians. in Israrel, we call the people Israelites.

It is important to understand, when approaching an answer to this question, that "nation" has not always had the meaning and connotations it has acquired in the past century. Because of the association with the word "nation" with "geopolitical entity", I will avoid its use in my response, preferring "ethnicity" or "people" in its stead. That said, the answer to your question is quite complex--in fact, the existence of the modern "denominational" structure of American Judaism is predicated upon a struggle to define ourselves in such a context...which context? To quote Shakespeare, (hmmm...was he in fact, Jewish???) "there's the rub"... The Reform movement http://www.rj.org/ developed out of a desire to cast Judaism and Jewishness in new terms. Why "new"? Because within Judaism, the word for Judaism, in Hebrew, is "Yehadut", which is most accurately translated as "Jewishness"! The Reform movement set about to excise from "Jewishness" what it saw as "extraneous trappings": understandings of what is acceptable as "modest apparel", proper interaction with gentiles, etc. The result ended up being a rejection of all of what before then was "Jewishness" but the liturgical, which was itself modified, not only by its adaptation of the local vernacular [originally German, more recently, for the vast majority of its adherents, English]. What remains therefore, cannot be called "Jewish" in the sense by which Jews have traditionally defined themselves, but only in the loosest of definitions, "Jewish Religion". Without the context of Jewish Law, however, this "Jewish Religious" approach is viewed as utterly un-Jewish by adherents of more traditional forms of Judaism...so much so that, on the occasion of the first ordination of Reform rabbis, so great is the rejection of Jewish Law by the Reform movement [although this rejection has lessened in PRACTICE, if not in DOGMA (itself a concept alien to Judaism)], non-kosher food was served, as a direct result of which, the Conservative movement http://uscj.org/ was formed. The Conservative movement holds that Jewish Law is NOT rejectable wholesale [the Reform movement reject Jewish Law as authoritative, giving liberty to its adherents to adopt for themselves whatever parts thereof they deem applicable or appropriate to their lives]... At the same time, however, it holds that interpretations of Jewish Law are mutable, more specifically, time-specific...that each aspect of Jewish Law should be evaluated in light of the present. Out of the Conservative movement developed the Reconstructionist movement http://www.jrf.org/ which is in some ways more "liberal" than the Reform movement, yet in other ways more traditionalist than the Conservative movement. Then there are the myriad groups who are dismissively lumped together as "The Orthodox Movement", which is not actually a "movement" so much as it is the expression of Judaism just as it has existed, in its many various forms, for centuries. [disclaimer: I am "orthodox", whatever that means] Orthodoxy is not a movement, especially not in any way analogous to which "reform", "reconstructionist" and "conservative" are "movement"s, in fact "orthodox" was originally used by the Reform movement as a slur against anyone who didn't agree with their "reforms". Now. Given that background on Jewish RELIGIOUS groups, we finally get around to answering the question: Is "Jewish" a religion or a nationality? For the Reform, Judaism is exclusively a religion. For the Reconstructionist, Judaism is almost exclusively a national identity, to the extent that most are irreligious, yet observe Jewish rituals. For the Conservative, Judaism is a dichotomy, religious on the one hand, and cultural on the other...you will find a wide range of belief and practice, in fact, encompassing the entire spectrum from Orthodox to Reconstructionist [or Reform, depending on whom you decide to place at the other "end" of the spectrum.]... Within Orthodoxy, however, "Jewish" is exclusively "(legitimate) identification as a member of the Jewish people". What constitutes "legitimate"? Anyone who is born to a Jewish woman or who converts [under orthodox auspices of whatever sort] to Judaism. Given this definition, it is inappropriate to apply the term "nationality" based on the geopolitical context which the term has taken on in the past 90 years, and it is likewise inappropriate to ascribe a religious connotation to the term, since someone who is Jewish can be Orthodox, Reform or even Atheist, and still be Jewish. To better understand it, consider a[n admittedly weak] example [especially in light of the fact that I just got done saying that it shouldn't be thought of in geopolitical terms!]: An American [USian, whatever] is an American, how? by being born to American parents or by "converting", altho this is called "naturalization" in this example. How does one cease to be American? By leaving and renouncing their American citizenship. This is likewise the only way to stop being Jewish if you happen to be born to a Jewish mother and wish to not be Jewish (altho, according to Jewish law, you are still Jewish, you are not counted from then on, in a minyan, etc.)...in fact, here American law and Jewish law diverge a bit, if you renounce your citizenship, you aren't American...if you renounce your Jewishness, you're technically still Jewish, you're just not able to participate in Jewish events as a Jew...there is a "back door" for your descendants however, while no such back door exists in American immigration law. So, "Judaism" in the modern sense of the word is "Jewish Religion", and "Jew" is a member of the ethnicity who are the exclusive practitioners of that religion. Not everyone who is a Jew practices Jewish religion, but every practitioner of Jewish religion is Jewish. "Nationality" as we understand it in 2004 is very different from what it meant even 100 years ago. Given that, Jewishness is a nationality, a "membership" in a people. It is not a reference to "nation" in the sense of "nation state", but only to "a people", in the same sense that the Kurds are a nation/people, and the Ainu, and the Navaho, and the Yupik and the Xhosa. You don't need an independent nation state, or even an autonomous region to be a people. The claim that it is refers to religion is patently incorrect. There are many (even prominent) Jewish atheists. Ayn Rand comes immediately to mind. Atheism is not, in any way, a "part" of Judaism, the religion of the Jews. On the other hand, the only way for non-Jews to BECOME Jewish, is by converting to Judaism. (In this response, I'll avoid delving into addressing the presently contentious situation surrounding who is capable of determing the parameters for conversion...) So, as Mr. Harryman says, if you want to know what someone Jewish means when they call themselves Jewish, you'll hafta ask them. :-)

Both. And for all that it doesn't seem like a satisfactory answer, that's just how it is. It doesn't even really matter if you're Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform, so don't worry about trying to distinguish among them if you don't know the difference. "Nationality" is a recent invention. Forgive me, but I'm going to discard that word because it doesn't fit here. Let's look at it in terms of "ethnicity" or "ancestry" instead, because those terms are more readily applicable to ancient history. -- Judaism is a religion. Jews believe in God, they follow His rules from the Old Testament (okay, some follow more than others, but the 10 Commandments are pretty standard!), they have certain prayers that they make in certain situations. And you can convert to Judaism. There are no Jewish missionaries. They won't go looking for converts, but if you prove that you're serious and you really want to be Jewish you can do it. Some people may be more welcoming than others, but converts to Judaism are definitely Jewish. -- Judaism is an ethnicity. When Jews read the Old Testament, they take the "12 tribes of Israel" very seriously. They are, indeed, a tribe. Some Jews (most notably those with the last name "Cohen") can tell you exactly which tribe they come from, because their families have been keeping track. Those Biblical patriarchs aren't just prophets; they're ancestors. And remembering the destruction of the temple or the Exodus from Egypt is just as important as remembering the Holocaust, because it's all family history for all the Jews. In the synagogue, it is common practice to refer to members of the congregation with their fathers' name. Except converts: converts are automatically referred to as the sons of Abraham. Why? Because they didn't just change their religion; they joined the family and they need a place in the family tree. You can convert into Judaism, but you can't convert out of it. Many Jews are self-professed atheists and still proudly call themselves Jews. Others might say that they're not good Jews, but they're still Jews. So, really, it's both and there's just no getting around it, no matter how contradictory it seems to people who grew up in other religious traditions (and no, I'm not Jewish, so I've spent years puzzling over this). Most Jews don't necessarily understand it themselves. They just know with every fiber of their being that it's true.

Someone is Jewish if they are born Jewish (they have a Jewish mother) or if they have converted to Judaism. Therefore Jews do not fit cleanly into any boxes; we are a nation and a religion. It is also important to note that the Jews are not a race but an ethnicity.

If we are being Polictically correct your nationality is what it says on your passport.I do not yet believe any passports give nationality as Jewish. Judaism is a faith and a way of life not a nationality. The Jewish state is Israel not Judah