Originally posted by popcornbird
I always thought of most Jews as being part of the same race. From what I know (correct me if I'm wrong) non-Jews cannot convert to Judhism because Jews are supposedly the *chosen* people, and people outside of them can't covert to the religion, which is why the Jewish population is SO tiny especially comparing to other monotheist religions (Islam and Christianity) both of which welcome new converts because they believe that God's guidance is for all of mankind. This is what I've heard all my life so I'm unsure of this. I know there are American/European Jews, but I believe they all originate (from thousands of years)from the same *race* which is from Israel. I always heard that today's Jews are from the generations of the followers of Prophet Moses, so the same people/same race, just going down in generations and spread out. Again, I'm not sure of this but this is what I've always heard. I'll look for resources later.
I'm not Jewish, but I think that non-Jews CAN convert to Judaism, it's just not always looked highly upon. Correct me if I'm wrong, that's just what I've heard.