Considered by many the oldest widely-practiced religion, Judaism claims its beginnings in the ancient Sumerian city of Ur (pronounced like the expression of dazed incomprehension), where an idol-maker's son named Abraham heard a voice that carried him halfway across the Known World.
These days, Jews exist primarily in the United States and Israel, with isolated pockets in almost every country on Earth. Their numbers are estimated in the tens of millions.
All Jewish communities are divided along sharp ideological lines. It is said that if you gather nine rabbis (Jewish spiritual leaders) into one room and ask them a subjective question, you will get at least ten different responses, each one defended to the death. Particular issues of debate include: The roles of women, the politics of Israel, relations to Non-Jews, etc.
For all the division in the Jewish communities, American Jews are still courted as a single political unit, since they vote disproportionately to their actual place in the population. Hence, Jews are considered important political allies, much like women, who also do not vote as a bloc.