By george dwarves are british, i think

[piosenniel]

Here is a re-cap from this publication:

Then, in a 1971 BBC radio interview two years before he died, he [Tolkien] was asked if the different races in The Lord of the Rings represent specific character-istics, "the elves wisdom, the dwarves craftsman-ship, men husbandry and battle, and so forth?"

"I didn’t intend it, but when you’ve got these people on your hands you’ve got to make them different, haven’t you?" he replied. "The dwarves of course are quite obviously — wouldn’t you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic. The Hobbits are just rustic English people."

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And HERE's the whole 1971 interview.

~*~ Pio