A people claiming descent from the ancient Israelites of the Old Testament or who practise Judaism. During the Exile from the land of Israel (597–538 bc) following the Babylonian conquest, their religion developed from a sacrificial temple cult into an elaborate code for daily living, which became the basis for communal identity. The revolt of the Maccabees in 167 bc showed their determination to preserve that identity, which survived the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 ad and of Jerusalem in 135 ad.

Dispersed (see diaspora) throughout the Roman empire, they suffered much discrimination at the hands of its Christian successors and often welcomed Arab conquests, which brought greater toleration. In Christendom, they were free to engage in usury, a sin for Christians, and were herded into ghettos. Though they were tolerated for their usefulness, they suffered periodic persecution. The Jews who went to Spain and Portugal in the Diaspora are known as the Sephardim (from Sepharad, Hebrew for a region in the Bible thought to be modern Spain). Many of them held high rank in the Arab civil service. Having been expelled from Spain in 1492, the Sephardim, speaking Ladino, a Spanish dialect, found refuge in north Africa, the Levant, the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and Italy. Jews who went to France and Germany in the early Middle Ages are known as Ashkenazim (from the biblical Ascanians of Phrygia, taken to be inhabitants of modern Germany). They spoke Yiddish, a variant of German, and established themselves in north-west and eastern Europe.

It is estimated that there are about 14 million Jews worldwide, with about 40% in each of the USA and Israel and significant numbers in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, and the UK.

Mainly city-dwellers in their recent history, many Jews are immigrants following massive population movements as a result of anti-Semitism, which found its most violent expression in the Holocaust of World War II, when an estimated 6 million Jews were murdered by the Germans. More recently, large numbers of Soviet Jews have emigrated to Israel, following the relaxation of Soviet emigration laws. However, in most societies Jews are now more assimilated than ever before, while retaining a Jewish ethnic identity, although many have rejected the religion. They retain prominence far beyond their numerical significance in world political, cultural, and economic affairs.