Question:

Hello Rabbi, I hope your day is going great. I have a question. I recently found out that im 5% Jewish. Other close family members also have Jewish ancestry. Would I be considered a Jew and should I start practicing the Religion?

Answer:

I appreciate your inquiry. It can be confusing because ancestry/DNA companies use "Jewish" differently than the Jewish community does. While they typically focus on nationality, they recognize that the Jewish community was mobile and didn't usually mix genetically with the various nations that hosted them. 

Judaism looks at Jewishness differently. The traditional definition is that one is Jewish when born to a Jewish mother or by conversion supervised by a rabbi. Consequently one either is or isn't Jewish and we don't recognize partial percentages of Jewishness. 

I should add that Judaism isn't monolithic and there are branches of Judaism that now accept patrilineal descent which means that they will accept someone as Jewish without conversion who only has a Jewish father as long as that person is raised in the Jewish community. 

To further complicate matters, we live in a time where self-identification is accepted by many. And there are people who have one parent who is Jewish and one who is not and identify themselves as half Jewish and may participate in two religious traditions. 

And as a final factor in this realm, when Israel established their Law of Return that allows Jews to become citizens, they adopted a standard of a person who has at least one Jewish grandparent, accepting that being "25% Jewish" is a benchmark of some sort. 

With all that as background my answer to your question is that the results if your DNA test do not make you Jewish. If you are interested in exploring Judaism, then I would encourage you to find a local rabbi in your community. I'm happy to help you so.