(Jewish Group) How many Jews live in the U.S.? That depends on how you define Jewish.

[MosheFeingold]

3. Being a product of WWII

I tend to follow David Ben Gurion's definition politically: anyone dumb enough to declare themselves Jewish, is Jewish.

Being Orthodox, I have both a narrower (Orthodox conversion, maternal only) and wider (maternal line means you are Jewish, regardless of what you believe) definition.

In particular, now being a Stranger in a Strange Land (a German Jew, raised in NYC, in the wilds of New Mexico), I have come across any number of the old ranching families (both Anglo and Hispanic) who are maternally Jewish, but (generally unhappily) practice Roman Catholicism.

I see a large well of potential not-so-much-converts, but reverts, in the American Southwest.

Ancestry.com (and equivalent) have helped a lot in this regard.

The Chabad Shul in El Paso has a number.