judaism a history. biblical judaism c. 1800 – 300 bce

JudaismJudaismA HistoryA History

BIBLICAL JUDAISMBIBLICAL JUDAISMc. 1800 – 300 BCE

According to tradition, the Jewish religion began with God’s first Covenant to Abraham – Abraham promised to worship Yahweh alone and Yahweh promised to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as stars in the land of Palestine

Slavery in EgyptSlavery in Egypt• According to the Book of

Genesis, the descendants of Abraham (the Hebrews) fled into Egypt to escape famine, where they were eventually enslaved.

• The Exodus The Exodus – the Hebrews fled from Egypt after God inflicted Ten Plagues on the Egyptians

The Jewish Law , including the Ten Commandments, was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai

The Kingdom of IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel

The Hebrew people first established a nation under King David around 1000 BCE. David and his army quickly conquered most of the surrounding nations, bringing about a period of peace and prosperity for the people who are now called “Israelites”.

David was also known for composing many hymns to Yahweh which became the basis of the Biblical book of Psalms

The Kingdom of Israel reached its political and economic height during the reign of David’s son, Solomon

Solomon’s Temple

The Divided KingdomThe Divided Kingdom

• After the death of Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel split into North and South

• The Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 726 BCE

• The Southern Kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and most of its population was taken into Exile in Babylon

• The Exile lasted until Babylon was conquered by the Persians in 536 BCE.

• The Persian king Cyrus the Great allowed the exiles to return home and begin rebuilding Jerusalem and their Temple the next year

The Torah was completed some time during the fifth century BCE and may have been first read to the Jewish people by EzraEzra after their return from the Babylonian Exile

THE HELLENISTIC AGETHE HELLENISTIC AGE322 BCE – 135 CE

Alexander the GreatAlexander the GreatConquered Israel in 322 BCE

• Alexander’s successors imposed a policy known as HellenizationHellenization – attempting to bring Greek culture, philosophy and religion to all the people of Alexander’s Empire

• This policy reached its height during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who made the practice of the Jewish religion illegal and punishable by death

• This lead to the . . . .

Maccabean RevoltMaccabean Revolt

Led by Judah MaccabeeJudah Maccabee, the Jews defeated the Syrians, re-dedicated their Temple to Yahweh and established the Hasmonean Kingdom, ruled by Judah’s brother, Simon.

This rebellion would be the origin of the Jewish festival of HanukahHanukah, which celebrates the miraculous re-dedication of the Temple

The Hasmonean Kingdom will last for nearly 100 years. During this time -

• The Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin – a religious body of priests, scholars, lawyers and political leaders will be established

• The Pharisees The Pharisees – a religious group who believe that the Law must be interpreted to meet the needs of contemporary Jews, will be established

• The Essenes The Essenes – a monastic group who are waiting the “Teacher of Righteousness”, establish their monastery at Qumran near the Dead Sea

The RomansThe Romans

• The Roman general Pompey brought troops to Jerusalem to end a dispute between two rival claimants to the Hasmonean throne

• Those troops never left• Gradually, between 60 BCE and 4 CE, the

Romans increased their authority in Israel, ruling through Roman procurators and client kings

Herod’s TempleHerod’s Temple

Begun by Herod the Great in 19 BCE, it took over 70 years to complete

Roman occupation and oppression led to. . . .

• The formation of the Zealots• Numerous small rebellions and assassinations• The Jewish Revolt of 66 – 70 CE• The Bar Kochba Revolt of 135 CE• The Diaspora

The Destruction of JerusalemThe Destruction of Jerusalem

Detail from the Arch of Titus Arch of Titus in Rome

THE TALMUDIC PERIODTHE TALMUDIC PERIOD135 – 600 CE

“Council of Jamnia”

• Shortly before 70 CE, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai established a rabbinical school in Jamnia

• Rabbis there are credited with establishing modern rabbinical Judaism

• The Jewish canon of the Bible was decided upon there

• Christianity and Judaism officially split around 80 CE when the Jamnia rabbis expelled Christians from the synagogues

• The decisions of the rabbis at Jamnia and the compilation of the Talmud resulted in the development of what is called “Rabbinical Judaism”

• Judaism has changed very little from the religion that developed between 70 and 500 CE and today

The TalmudThe Talmud

• Prior to 70 CE, most discussions on the Law (the “Oral Torah”) were not written down

• Two major schools of interpreting the Law developed – The School of Hillel and the School of Shammai

• After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the dispersion of religious leaders, it was important for the preservation of the Jewish religion to collect the decisions of the Oral Torah

• This became the Talmud• The Talmud consists of the Mishnah and the Gemara

The MishnahThe Mishnah

• Collected sayings and decisions of rabbis between 70 – 200 CE

• Edited by Rabbi Judah haNasi and his son, Rabbi Yehuda Nesi'ah

The GemaraThe Gemara

• Word means “completion”• Rabbinical commentaries on and analysis of

statements found in the Mishnah• Compiled in both Babylon and Palestine

between 350 and 500 CE

Babylonian TalmudBabylonian Talmud

THE JUDEO-ISLAMIC AGETHE JUDEO-ISLAMIC AGE600 – 1200 CE

• The Muslim religion was founded by the Prophet Muhammad c. 622

• After Muhammad’s death, Islam spread quickly throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa

• In 711, the Muslims conquered the Visigothic Kingdom of Spain

• From the beginning, Jews were welcomed in Muslim Spain

Influential JewsInfluential Jews

• Hasdai ibn Shaprut Hasdai ibn Shaprut – court physician to Caliph Abd al-Rahman, poet and patron of Jewish studies at the University of Cordoba early in the 10th century

• Samuel Ha-Naqid ibn Nagreb Samuel Ha-Naqid ibn Nagreb – vizier and commander of the army of the King of Granada; poet

• Judah HaLevi Judah HaLevi – poet and philosopher

Moses ben Maimon Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides)

• Born in Cordoba in 1135• Studied to be a physician

and was the physician to Saladin and his family

• Formulated the Thirteen Principles of Faith

• Wrote an extensive commentary on the Mishnah

• Considered to be one of the greatest Torah scholars of all time

RashiRashi

• Born in Troyes France in 1040

• Wrote an extensive commentary on the Talmud and helped establish an authoritative edition of the books

• His commentary on the Tanakh, especially the Torah, is used by Jews today to study the weekly readings

During this period Jews developed into two distinct cultural groups:• AshkenazimAshkenazim = European• SephardimSephardim = Spanish and Middle Eastern

These groups have distinct language and cultural differences that remain among their descendants today

THE EUROPEAN AGETHE EUROPEAN AGE1200 – 1700 CE

• Medieval Christians blamed all Jews for the crucifixion of Christ

• Many Christians believed Jews to be the enemies of all Christians and thought that , given the opportunity, they would crucify Christ again

• Some Christians believed that Jews were in league with Satan

A period of sporadic persecution

• Although the Catholic Church condemned the persecution of Jews and excommunicated those who did, official Church condemnation had little effect on anti-Jewish feelings or activities throughout Medieval Europe.

• Jews were blamed for everything bad that happened – war, famine and plague

Laws against Jews:

• Forbidden to own land• Often required to wear special clothing that

identified them as Jews• Expelled from:

• England (1290)• France (1394)• The Germanies (1350-1450)• Spain (1492)

Many Jews went into medicine or money lending (banking) because those were practically the only careers open to them

Medieval Anti-SemitismMedieval Anti-Semitism

“Blood Libel”

Jews were accused of murdering Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals

Fresco in a Polish Church

Desecrating the Consecrated Host

• Jews were accused of stabbing, burning or otherwise destroying the consecrated host

• Many Christians believed Jews were killing Christ again

Jews were accused of poisoning wells and causing the Black Death Black Death – even though as many

Jews died during the Plague as did Christians

The Crusades

• During the First Crusade, crusading armies frequently attacked Jewish communities in Eastern Europe

• Crusaders believed that it was only logical to exterminate the enemies of Christ at home before moving on to remove His enemies from His Holy Land

• This was especially true of the followers of Peter the Hermit during the so-called “People’s Crusade”

• 800 Jews were massacred in Worms

• 1,100 were killed in Mainz

• Several hundred in Prague

• Nearly the entire Jewish population of Jerusalem was killed when the Crusaders took the city in 1099

As a result of six centuries of persecution, forced baptisms, and expulsions, there

were very few Jews left in Western Europe by the year 1700

THE MODERN ERATHE MODERN ERA1700 - today

During the Middle Ages, when the Jews were expelled from most European countries, many had been welcomed in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, and in areas of the Balkans controlled by the Ottomans

The Russian “Pale of Settlement”

• Established by Empress Catherine the Great in 1793 along Russia’s western border

• Nearly all Russian Jews were required to live there

• At one point, 40% of the world’s Jews lived within the Pale

• Most lived in shtetl’s = small villages

The “Pale”

A Russian-Jewish teacher with his studentsA thriving Jewish culture

developed within the Pale, including:• development of the Yiddish language•Religious schools equal to the top universities in Europe•Development of pietistic groups within Judaism, such as Hassidism

Sholom Aleichem

• Russian-Jewish author whose stories chronicle life in the Russian Pale

• Wrote in Yiddish• Stories became best

sellers throughout Europe and the United States

• Most famous – the story of Tevye the Milkman

Jewish Immigration

• After Jews were wrongly blamed for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, persecution (called pogroms) increased

• Russian Jews began to emigrate back into Western Europe

• Over 2 million went to the United States• A smaller number began to go to Palestine

The Soviet government abolished the Pale in 1917 – but the majority of Russian Jews continued to live there until World War II

Jewish EmancipationJewish Emancipation

• France was the first country to allow Jews equal rights in 1789

• Other Western European nations quickly followed

• By 1900, most Jews had assimilated into European culture

New MovementsNew Movements

• HaskalahHaskalah – stresses assimilated into general culture; sending Jewish children to public schools, while still remaining Jews

• Reform Judaism Reform Judaism – modern approach to Jewish laws and rituals

• ZionismZionism – movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine

The “New” Anti-SemitismThe “New” Anti-Semitism

• Anti-Semitism prior to 1800 had been based on Judaism as a religion Judaism as a religion – the Jews had killed Christ and needed to be punished for it

• After the mid-1800, anti-Semitism tended to be racist – the Jews as a raceJews as a race were inferior to the European Aryans and so needed to be controlled

• These ideas were based on Social-DarwinismSocial-Darwinism

“Protocols of the Elders of Zion

• Written c. 1903 in Russia• Anti-Jewish propaganda possibly written by

members of the Cheka• Details a Jewish plot to control the world

through wars, control of banking, and other means

• Still widely published and read today

The ShoahThe Shoah• Nazi’s came to power in

Germany in 1933• Nuremberg Laws – 1935• Kristallnacht – Nov. 9,

1939• More than 200

synagogues burned and thousands of Jewish businesses and homes destroyed

• Many Jewish religious and political leaders taken to concentration camps

Interior of burned out Berlin synagogue after Kristallnacht

Establishment of the Ghettoes

• Beginning in 1940 after the conquest of Poland

• Jews from all over Europe deported to Poland

• The largest was in Warsaw

Ghetto wall, Warsaw

Over 75,000 people died of starvation and disease

Warsaw GhettoWarsaw Ghetto

The Big Question – How to eradicate 8 million Jews from Europe?

“I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear”

Hans Frank, Nazi Governor of Poland

The EinsatzgruppenThe Einsatzgruppen

• German SS troops and local police and militia

• Ukraine and other parts of the western Soviet Union

• Jews were forced to dig their graves, then shot

15% of Jewish population of the occupied territories killed this way, including:

• Babi Yar (Kiev) - 33,770• Odessa – 36,000• Riga – 25,000• Transnistria – 40,000

But this was too slow and took too high a toll on the soldiers doing the killing! The Memorial to the children

killed at Babi Yar

The Final SolutionThe Final Solution

• The Wannsee Wannsee ConferenceConference, Jan. 24, 1942

• Hitler, Eichmann, Muller, and 12 other Nazi leaders

• Decided that the 8 million Jews in Nazi controlled territory would be taken to extermination camps and gassed once they could no longer work Auschwitz-Birkenau

Deportations and CampsDeportations and Camps

“Work Makes Free!”Auschwitz

“Selections” at Birkenau – - Go to the right = gas chambers- Go to the left = slave labor and a small chance to survive

The Warsaw Ghetto UprisingThe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising• End of 1942, residents of

the ghetto learned of the existence of the Death Camps

• Decided to fight rather than die quietly

• Began Jan., 1943 and ended May 16, 1943

• 13,000 Jews died fighting; another 50,000 captured and sent to Treblinka

Deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto, 1942

German soldiers in the ghetto

Women resistance fighters after being arrested

The Warsaw Ghetto after the UprisingThe Warsaw Ghetto after the Uprising

MemorialMemorial

Jewish Resistance Jewish Resistance • Treblinka, 1943 – 200

escape• Uprisings in the Bialystok

and Vilna ghettoes in 1943

• 1943 600 Jewish and Russian prisoners escape from Sobibor death camp

• Jewish partisan units fought throughout eastern Europe behind enemy lines

Jewish partisans in Belorussia

The End of the WarThe End of the War

• Allied troops began liberating the death camps in 1945

• Although most records had been destroyed, it is estimated that 6 6 millions Jews had died millions Jews had died – over 2/3 of Europe’s Jewish population

THE CREATION OF THE THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAELSTATE OF ISRAEL

1918 - 1950

ZionismZionism

• “Dreyfus Affair” – anti-Semitism in France 1894

• Jews realized that even in Enlightened nations there was still latent anti-Semitism

• Jews need their own homeland to be completely safe

Theodore Herzl –Theodore Herzl –“The Father of Zionism”“The Father of Zionism”

• Viennese journalist who covered the Dreyfus Affair

• Wrote “The Jewish State” – Jews must have their own homeland!

• Founded the World Zionist Organization in 1897

Jewish ImmigrationJewish Immigration

• Small numbers of ultra-Orthodox Jews had lived in Palestine for centuries

• After 1880, Russian Jews began to emigrate to Palestine and bought land for farms and villages from Arab landowners

• The Hebrew language is resurrected and modernized

• 1909 the city of Tel Aviv is begun

The Balfour DeclarationThe Balfour Declaration

• In return for Jewish support during WWI, the British promise to support the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine after the war

• After the War, the League of Nations gives Britain a “Mandate” to establish both a Jewish and an Arab State in Palestine

• Increased Jewish immigration after 1917 leads to anti-Jewish riots led by Arabs religious leaders – Britain stalls on implementing the Mandate

1917 – 1939 1917 – 1939

Chaim Weizmann – Zionist leader and first

President of Israel

Mohammed Amin al-Husayni, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and leading opponent of a Jewish

State

• Britain restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine from 1939 – 1948

• 1948 – the United Nations voted to establish two nations in Palestine – a Jewish state and an Arab one

• Arab leaders immediately objected and promised to attack the new State of Israel as soon as the British pulled out

Partition of PalestinePartition of Palestine

• Partition was based on population density – those areas strongly Jewish would become Israel

• Jerusalem was to be administered by the United Nations

Declaration of the new State of IsraelDeclaration of the new State of IsraelMay 14, 1948

• Arab nations attacked Israel as soon as the nation declared its independence

• The war lasted for nearly a year

• Israel gained territory• Jerusalem was divided

Israel and her Arab neighbors have gone to war several more times since 1948:

• Suez War (1956) against Egypt• “Six Day War”(1968) against Egypt, Jordan and

Syria• “Yom Kippur War” (1973) against Syria and Egypt

• After the Yom Kippur War the United States was instrumental in working out a peace agreement (The Camp David Accords) between Israel and Egypt

Since 1973 most of Israel’s battles have been against groups that sponsor terrorism such as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) or Hammas. These groups are often sponsored by Syria and/or Iran

Jews worldwide as well as the United Nations and especially the Unite States support the continued right of the Nation of Israel to exist – even though they often disagree with Israel’s policies, especially as regards the treatment of Palestinians

JUDAISM TODAYJUDAISM TODAY

PopulationPopulation

• There are a little over 13 million Jews in he world today

• Nearly 6 million Jews live in Israel (41%)• About 5 million Jews live in the U.S.• Only 1 ½ million Jews live in Europe• The remainder are scattered through Asian

Russia, Latin America, Canada and Australia

American JewsAmerican Jews

• Jewish immigrants first arrived here during the early colonial period

• During the early 1880s, many Jews emigrated from Germany

• During the late 1800s, Jews came from Eastern Europe and Russia

The Tuoro Synagogue in Rhode Island, built in 1759, is the oldest synagogue in the United States

Famous American Jews include:

• Film director and actor Woody AllenWoody Allen• Science Fiction writer Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov• Singer and composer Neil DiamondNeil Diamond• Actor Richard DreyfussRichard Dreyfuss• Physicist Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein• U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner

Henry KissingerHenry Kissinger• Comedians the Marx BrothersMarx Brothers• Director of the Manhattan Project Robert Robert

OppenheimerOppenheimer• Actress Sarah Jessica Parker Sarah Jessica Parker • Comedian Adam SandlerAdam Sandler

• Comedian Jerry SeinfeldJerry Seinfeld• Director Stephen SpielbergStephen Spielberg• Olympic Gold Medalist Mark SpitzMedalist Mark Spitz• Feminist Gloria SteinemGloria Steinem• Actress and singer Barbra StreisandBarbra Streisand• Currently 13 members of the U.S. Senate are

Jewish, including both the Senators from California

• Joe LiebermanJoe Lieberman, Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 Presidential election, is Jewish