What makes a Jew?

We have all heard of Jews and understand that Israel is now considered their land, but Israel is a very young country and Jews are the most ancient of people. The Jewish people had no nation, no land, and no empire for centuries yet they survive as strong as ever. Through the centuries they have been persecuted, exiled and slaughtered which makes it even more remarkable that they have survived.
A decade after Israel’s independence a bill was passed called the Law of Return. This law guaranteed automatic citizenship and right of entry to every Jew around the world. Because of this law the Israeli government had to come up with a definition of what makes a Jew. They said that ‘Anyone declaring in good faith that he is a Jew, and who does not profess to any other religion, shall be registered as a Jew’. Because this statement basically says that you are a Jew if you say you are, Israel’s Supreme Court had to define it further, stating that ‘for purposes of this Law of Return, a Jew is someone born to a Jewish mother, or converted to the Jewish faith and not a member of another religion’.
Of course, Jewish identity goes back much further to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Because there are different denominations of the Jewish faith, interpretation of what is a Jew is still a little blurred. Reform Jews believe that a Jew can have either a Jewish mother or father, whereas the Orthodox Jews and Conservative Jews still hold with tradition and believe you are a Jew if your mother is a Jew. As for converted Jews, which denomination converted you? Orthodox Judaism has very strict standards, Reform Jews are much more liberal and the Conservatives are somewhere in between. The Supreme Court did not make it clear what they meant by conversion and this is a grey area, even today.
One thing is for sure, Jews are not a race. A Jew can be American, French, German, or English and be as loyal to that nation as anyone else. When Jews speak of a Jewish nation it is meant in a spiritual way rather than a geographical way.