A Jew is a person who is of Jewish or who has converted to the Jewish religion. Jews typically consider themselves as a people and not only as adherents of a religion, therefore a Jew is not only one that practices the religion of Judaism, but it is also one who is of Jewish ethnic heritage. Jews originated as an ethnoreligious group in the Middle East. According to traditional Jewish law, called Halakha, someone is Jewish if their mother was a Jew or if they have converted to Judaism. Judaism has been described as a religion, a race, an ethnic group, a culture, a nation, and an extended family.