The Jewish People: Race, Ethnic Group, or Religion?

For years there has been an on-and-off, unofficial debate among Jewish and non-Jewish scholars as well as lay people on whether or not Jews constituted a race, ethnic group, or are just a group of people living all over the world in different cultures, united only by a common religion. Let's examine, if only superficially, what these concepts are.

Here below are a few definitions of race :

1. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics.

2. A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race.

3. A genealogical line; a lineage.

4. Humans considered as a group.

Okay, so what is an ethnic group?... [via Tikkun Olam]