so long story short....is being jewish a race or a religion?

I'd say it can be a race. After I had cancer, since I was so young I had genetic screening to see if I was predisposed to any other cancers... A common question asked by various specialists/genetic counselors was if I had any Jewish ancestry. They asked that because Ashkenazi Jewish people are predisposed to carrying several so-called 'founder mutations' that make them more likely to get certain types of cancer.

Now I'm no geneticists, but I am fairly certain cenetic mutations aren't passed down via religious belief. So they are obviously more than just a social/religious group.