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Judaism
A History
c. 1800 – 300 BCE
BIBLICAL JUDAISM
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 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
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 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 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 Ezra after their return from the
Babylonian Exile
322 BCE – 135 CE
THE HELLENISTIC AGE
Alexander the Great
Conquered Israel in 322 BCE
• Alexander’s successors imposed a policy
known as Hellenization – 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 Revolt
Led by Judah 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 Hanukah, which
celebrates the miraculous re-dedication
of the Temple
The Hasmonean Kingdom will last for
nearly 100 years. During this time • The Sanhedrin – a religious body of priests,
scholars, lawyers and political leaders will be
established
• 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 – a monastic group who are waiting
the “Teacher of Righteousness”, establish their
monastery at Qumran near the Dead Sea
The 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 Temple
Begun by Herod the Great in 19 BCE, it took over
70 years to complete
Roman occupation and oppression
led to. . . .
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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 Jerusalem
Detail from the Arch of Titus in Rome
135 – 600 CE
THE TALMUDIC PERIOD
“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 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 Mishnah
• Collected sayings and decisions of rabbis
between 70 – 200 CE
• Edited by Rabbi Judah haNasi and his son,
Rabbi Yehuda Nesi'ah
The 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 Talmud
600 – 1200 CE
THE JUDEO-ISLAMIC AGE
• 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 Jews
• 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 – vizier and
commander of the army of the King of
Granada; poet
• Judah HaLevi – poet and philosopher
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
Rashi
• 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:
• Ashkenazim = European
• Sephardim = Spanish and Middle Eastern
These groups have distinct language and
cultural differences that remain among their
descendants today
1200 – 1700 CE
THE EUROPEAN AGE
• 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-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 – 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
1700 - today
THE MODERN ERA
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 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
A Russian-Jewish
teacher with his
students
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 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 Movements
• Haskalah – stresses assimilated into general
culture; sending Jewish children to public
schools, while still remaining Jews
• Reform Judaism – modern approach to Jewish
laws and rituals
• Zionism – movement to establish a Jewish
homeland in Palestine
The “New” Anti-Semitism
• Anti-Semitism prior to 1800 had been based
on 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 race were inferior to
the European Aryans and so needed to be
controlled
• These ideas were based on Social-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 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
Warsaw Ghetto
Over 75,000 people died of starvation
and disease
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 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
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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 Solution
• The Wannsee
Conference, 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 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 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 Uprising
Memorial
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 War
• Allied troops began
liberating the death
camps in 1945
• Although most records
had been destroyed, it
is estimated that 6
millions Jews had died
– over 2/3 of Europe’s
Jewish population
1918 - 1950
THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
Zionism
• “Dreyfus Affair” – antiSemitism 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 –
“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 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 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
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 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 Israel
May 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 TODAY
Population
• 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 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:
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Film director and actor Woody Allen
Science Fiction writer Isaac Asimov
Singer and composer Neil Diamond
Actor Richard Dreyfuss
Physicist Albert Einstein
U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Henry Kissinger
Comedians the Marx Brothers
Director of the Manhattan Project Robert
Oppenheimer
Actress Sarah Jessica Parker
Comedian Adam Sandler
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Comedian Jerry Seinfeld
Director Stephen Spielberg
Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Spitz
Feminist Gloria Steinem
Actress and singer Barbra Streisand
Currently 13 members of the U.S. Senate are
Jewish, including both the Senators from
California
• Joe Lieberman, Al Gore’s running mate in the
2000 Presidential election, is Jewish