Hobie, here's some info that may be useful.

(From Holman's Bible Dictionary)
"JUDAH (Jew' duh) Personal, tribal, and territorial name meaning, "Praise Yahweh," but may have originally been related to the mountain of Jehud. 1. In Genesis 29:35, the fourth son of Jacob and the progenitor of the tribe of Judah. His mother was Leah. Though Judah is prominent in the Genesis narratives, he seldom occupies center stage. Genesis 38 is an exception. It relates the seduction of Judah by his daughter-in-law Tamar. Their union resulted in the birth of Pharez and Zarah. Genesis 49:8-12 preserves the blessing of Judah by Jacob. Through Judah ran the genealogical line that led to Jesus.

2. The tribe of Judah occupied the strategically important territory just to the west of the Dead Sea. The city of Jerusalem was on the border between Judah and Benjamin. David was from the tribe of Judah. 3. When the kingdom was divided following the death of Solomon, the southern kingdom took the name Judah. See Judas; Tribes of Israel; Patriarchs; Israel.

4. The province set up by the Persian government to rule a conquered Judean kingdom (Neh. 5:14; Hag. 1:1). Judah formed one small province alongside Samaria, Galilee, and Idumea. All these reported to the Satrap of the Persian satrapy of Abarnaharah which encompassed the land west of the Euphrates River with its center in Damascus (Ezra 5:3,6; 6:6,13). The satrap reported to a higher official over Babylon and Abarnaharah with headquarters in Babylon. When Judah's exiles returned from Babylon, Zerubbabel was governor of Judah; Tattenai, satrap of Abarnaharah or Beyond the River; and Ushtannu, satrap of Babylon and Abarnaharah.

5. Priest whose sons helped Zerubbabel and Joshua begin work on restoring the Temple after 537 B.C. (Ezra 3:9; compare Neh. 12:8). 6. Levite whom Ezra condemned for having foreign wife who might tempt Israel to worship other gods (Ezra 10:23). 7. Member of tribe of Benjamin who lived in Jerusalem after the return from Exile and was second in command over the city (Neh. 11:9). He may be the official who joined Nehemiah in leading the celebration of the completion of the Jerusalem wall (Neh. 12:34). 8. Priestly musician who helped in Nehemiah's celebration (Neh. 12:36). 9. An obscure geographical reference in the description of the tribal borders of Naphtali (Josh. 19:34). The earliest Greek translators could not understand the reference and so did not translate it. (Compare TEV, NIV). Naphtali's territory does not touch that of the tribe of Judah. Some try to define Judah here as the sixty towns of Jair east of the Jordan (Josh. 13:30). Others translate Judah as "low-lying land" (REB). Some scholars try to make another place name such as Jehuda out of the reference. It may be that a copyist confused Jordan and Judah, which resemble one another in appearance in Hebrew writing, and miscopied Jordan as Judah and then copied Jordan. No sure solution exists to explain Judah in this text. 10. City of Judah (2 Chron. 25:28) is Jerusalem."

The only direct reference to Jew first comes in Esther...and is only mentioned in the entire Bible 32 times in 32 verses.

(Est 2:5 KJV) "Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite;"
2:6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away."

The word is defined by Strong's like this:

3064. Yehuwdiy, yeh-hoo-dee'; patron. from H3063; a Jehudite (i.e. Judaite or Jew), or desc. of Jehudah (i.e. Judah):--Jew.

Gray

: Someone was wondering about whether Jews are a distinct racial
: type. Someone else mentioned that the conflicts in the
: Middle East really are between "brothers".

: Genesis chapter 10 (after the Flood) lists the
: "generations" of Noah's 3 sons, Shem, Ham and
: Japheth. It mentions _where_ each branch of the family tree
: settled down, but the names are mostly old ones and it's
: hard to know how the correlate with modern names. (Gaza is
: mentioned, tho, and Beth-el.)

: Shem's lineage begat Terah who begat Abram, Nahor and Haran.
: (Haran was Lot's daddy.) Terah took Abram and Lot and some
: others "from Ur of the Chaldes, to go into the land of
: Canaan; and they came unto Haran" which must be where
: Abram's brother Haran had staked his claim. Then Abram got
: word from God to move "unto a land that I will shew
: thee". Eventually Abram "dwelled in the land of
: Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain [of
: Jordan]."

: Lots of drama occurred. Then: "And Melchizedek king of
: Salem [which means Peace] brought forth bread and wine: and
: he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him,
: and said, Blessed be Abram...." (This is a rare
: appearance by Melchizedek, suggesting a most significant
: blessing.)

: Eventually Abram was newly named Abraham, and his wife Sarai,
: Sarah. They had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac had two
: sons, Esau and Jacob; Jacob eventually had 12 sons (with
: two wives and their two handmaidens, in Syria), who became
: the Tribes -- Jacob was newly named Israel.

: None of this mentions "Jews" yet. But there's a
: brief reference to "Abraham the Hebrew". The
: roots of the question must be in here somewhere.

: I've heard that the ongoing troubles in the Middle East stem
: from a conflict, somewhere in the Old Testament, between 2
: women. I don't know which two that would be. Maybe somebody
: else does? There was some mischief recorded--a lot of
: mischief, in fact, but it's not clear what was forgiven and
: worked out well at the time versus what was not forgiven
: and might be the seeds of the tensions that still are
: present today.

: For example, Jacob "bought" his older brother Esau's
: birthright-of-the-firstborn, "for a mess of
: pottage" (lentil stew) -- but I think Esau understood
: he had made the choice himself. Later, Jacob's mother
: persuaded Jacob to pretend to be Esau and thus to
: "steal" the blessing of Isaac that would more
: rightly have been given to Esau. But later, after twnety
: years or so, Esau and Jacob rejoin and seem to be happy
: with each other.

: Meanwhile, the bloodlines of Noah's other two sons were also
: "multiplying" and expanding in nearby lands.

: The details are not clear, but yes, it does look like it could
: be said that conflicts in that part of the world could be
: between "brothers" or between lineages of the two
: women, whoever they are.