BTW, Joseph was not a Jew and could never be; Judah, the father of the Jews, was his elder half-brother.
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well, ok.
but it looks like you’re playing with definitions.
Joseph was the brother of Benjamin. They were sons of Jacob by his favorite wife Rachel. Was Jacob not in the line of promise?
Joseph’s two sons were Ephraim and Manasseh. They inherited portions of land in the land of Canaan, which was promised to the Israelites by God.
Were they not partakers of God’s blessing? Were they not inheritors of God’s promise to Moses?
And then God’s blessing passed from them. But only in later generations.
A thousand years later the 10 northern tribes were carried off. (but before that were they not Jews)Their remains are today’s samaritans. Their numbers are few. Even in Jesus day they were despised by Jews for being of mixed blood. So you can say — because Ephraim and Manasseh were part of those 10 northern tribes — they are not considered to be jews in today’s understanding of who is a jew.
But it appears that Israel is less discriminating about who is —strictly speaking—a Jew. For example, they’re happy to take in Ethiopian Jews —because they are by the definition of the state of Israel ...Jews.
Now I’m sure there are plenty of Jews in Israel belonging to many sects and plus plenty of secular Jews who do not think of the Ethiopian Jews as Jews.
So I don’t really care about this point. Have it any way you want.
There is some speculation that Israelites spread themselves worldwide when the Assyrians took away their kingdom. Many cultures around the world have practices that cannot be explained in absence of Judaism. Like Dan being so prominent throughout Northern Europe or why some native tribes have tales that are similar to the tales in Judaism.