Slomo Sand errs as to not realizing patrilineal law as the determining factor of why the “Jewish” cannot be Jews. However, he does notice “Jewish” inventiveness and help people wake up to their history and give them some doubt as to the myth of being a Jew. A Jew before the time of Jesus the Christ was a patrilineal Hebrew (Numbers 36:5-13). Our famous Esther was a Hebrew woman from the lineage of Benjamin, (a subrace of Jacob/Israel), as was Mordecai. However, she was not able to bear Hebrew/Benjamitic children because her husband, Ahasuerus, the king of the great Persian empire, was not a Hebrew. Therefore, fulfillment of the patrilineal law could not be performed between the two spouses. Nevertheless, Ruth was a Moabitic woman but she married Boaz, who was from the tribe of Judah (a subrace of Jacob/Israel), and she was able to bear Hebrew children to the tribe of Judah because of the kinsman redeemer and patrilineal law (4:18-22).

Newshound - Shlomo Sand There are no Jewish people, there are Israeli people
RT Top Stories, NEWSHOUNDBIZ, Nov 3, 2009

The converts at the time of Esther from the provinces from India to Ethiopia were not Hebrews/Jews by Hebrew patrilineal law, but perhaps they could have been accepted as “Jewish” proselytes because they changed their religious culture to that of the Hebrews and Jews. Not long after the mass conversion and the return from exile, Ezra and Nehemiah separated non-Hebrew people from the Hebrew people. So, you had Hebrew people through patrilineal law and people (proselytes) who had converted to the Hebrew religion living in Israel. Nevertheless, a covenant and patrilineal law was upheld. Later on in New Testament times, this was confirmed by the genealogical testimony of the birth (Mt.1:1-21) of Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, who was a Benjamite as Mordecai and Esther.

As you can see, patrilineal genetics was a key factor at the time of the return from exile. So was patrilineal genealogy (Ezra 2:62). The people in modern Israel today have neither the genetic nor genealogical requirements to pass for a patrilineal Hebrew. Their citizenship law and matrilineal law attests and confirms their rejection. By the way, you can be Semitic but that does not make you a Hebrew/Jew. Hitler did not understand Hebrew genetic and genealogical law either. The myth of the modern “Jewish” as being Jews has been normalized by the offender and the offended, and both have been guilty of ignoring God's law. As a matter in fact, the modern “Jewish” are not even good converts: they defy patrilineal law whereas the people after the exile return respected the patrilineal law. Thus, modern Judaism is not the Judaism of old: it is an ethnic cult of mixed peoples (Herzl Matrilinealists), some Semitic, Japhethic and Hamitic, and others hybrids, but none of them can qualify as a Hebrew or Jew under continuous, patrilineal law.

Regardless, the Hebrew tribes and Jews remained some time after Jesus the Christ. According to James 1:1, they were united. After that, especially after the destruction of Titus, and before Maimonides, it seems they became extinct.