Jewish Group

This is my analysis as to the question of, "Is Judaism a religion, or a culture, or a race?" People who come/came from this area carry the mores and characteristics of that civilization. They may have different religions and taboos, but their commonality is their area of origin. People from the originally named Judea are not all Jews, nor are they all Arabs, Muslims, Christians, or Druze. In my opinion, one of the confusions is that people don't always get to define what group they belong to. One could identify as not a member of a religion or place of origin, but the decisions of who was/is killed based on group membership was/is not up to the people assigned to the different groups. Likewise, the religions and the different law structures passed/pass laws against supposed miscegenation. That reinforces a morphological similarity within groups. "Funny, you don't look Jewish."

I have been accustomed to saying that I am a secular Jew. Or, a Jewish atheist. Or, a Golda Meir Jew (she was also an atheist). I've been doing a lot of reading, and have been watching a lot of presentations and interviews by Middle Eastern scholars since the Hamas hordes overran the kibbutzim. I have come to the conclusion that I am Judean American, rather than a Jewish American. I carry the culture and the civilization, the mores and the ethics of the region, but not the religion. I do understand that there are Jewish congregations who are redefining the religion for their congregants (Reconstructionist) to get rid of the most egregious of the inequalities, taboos, and required performances. But for me, I am more comfortable in affirming the culture, and having ancestral roots in Judea.