>>12532822Judaism is a religion, but there are ethnic Jewish populations as well. The two largest being Ashkenazis and Sephardis. They stayed seperated enough in Europe, whether by choice or by law, to distinguish themselves genetically from the surrounding populations. To be born from one of them you do not have to follow the religion, but you are still of the same ethnic background. In comparison, the populations sharing the Catholic religion were spread much too widely to become one genetically distinct group
Hope this clears it up for you ^_^
