When someone says Jew in a modern context I think I a religious Jew, as opposed to Israeli. When someone says Hitler persecuted Jews I thing of a ethnicity. If I were to refer to a writers of the Torah I would say Jew, but I might also use, Israelite, or even Hebrew.
What are the academic conventions used to differentiate?
Can you explain in more detail why you think Jew or Jewish people is inadequate?
When someone says Jew in a modern context I think I a religious Jew, as opposed to Israeli.
This is a mistake on your part. The Jews are an ethno-religious group, and most people who self-identify as Jews today are not at all religious.
In some languages like Russian and Greek, the word Hebrew is used to refer to the nationality, and Jewish is used to refer to the religion (in Russian an ethnic Jew is an "еvrei" whereas the Jewish religion is "iudaism").
In English, this may be considered offensive.
If I were to refer to a writers of the Torah I would say Jew, but I might also use, Israelite, or even Hebrew.
"Jew" and "Hebrew" are both valid terms for this. "Israelite" is not, since it refers to a group of people who lived between the 15th to 6th centuries BCE, prior to the writing of the Torah. On the other hand, if you are referring to the people that the Torah describes, Israelites is the correct term and Jews/Hebrews is not.
What are the academic conventions used to differentiate?
You can simply say "religious Jews", "ethnic Jews", and "secular Jews".
