Online Encyclopedia
Jew
Jew is a term used in a wide number of ways, but generally refering to either a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or a member of the Jewish culture or ethnicity. This article discusses Jews as an ethnic group; for a consideration of the religion, please refer to Judaism.
In an ethnic sense, the Jews are members of the people, or a nation that traces its ancestry from the Biblical patriarch Abraham through his son Isaac and in particular Jacob, Isaac's son, as well as to those who subsequently joined them over the course of history as converts. See also Israelites. The name "Jew" came into existence when the Kingdom of Israel was split between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. Hence, the Israelites (who were later destroyed by the Assyrians) were those of the northern kingdom and the Jews (who survived) were those of the southern kingdom. Overtime, the word "Jew" has come to refer to those of the Jewish faith rather than those from Judah. Ethnic Jews include both so-called "observant Jews," meaning those who practice the Biblical and Rabbinic laws, known as the halakha, and so-called "secular Jews," those who, while not practicing Judaism as a religion, still identify themselves as Jews in a cultural or ethnic sense.
 The Star of David, a Jewish symbol |
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| Total population: | 13 million (est.) 3 |
| Significant geographic populations: |
United States: 5,671,000 (est.)3 |
| Languages: | Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed lashon ha-kodesh, "the holy language"), and is the language of the State of Israel. Jews today speak the local languages of their respective countries. Yiddish is the historic language of many Ashkenazi Jews, and Ladino of many Sephardic Jews. |
| Related ethnic groups: |
• Jews |
Etymology
The name for the Jewish people in Hebrew is "Yehudim".
There are different views as to the origin of the English language word Jew. The most common view is that the Middle English word Jew is from the Old French giu, earlier juieu, from the Latin iudeus from the Greek. The Latin simply means Judaean, from the land of Judaea. There is some scholarly controversy over whether Judaea is a patronymic or if it was a purely geographic term of uncertain Semitic origin. If indeed it is patronymic, it corresponds to the Hebrew y'hudi (or yehudi) Judah in English, a member of the Twelve Tribes of the Children of Israel, i.e., Jacob's sons. According to Genesis, Judah was the fourth son of the patriarch Jacob, from whom the tribe descended. The Old English equivalent was Iudeas, meaning "Judean".
Classical Rabbinic literature has a tradition which traces the word Jew to Genesis 29:35, which says that Judah's mother — the matriarch Leah — named him Judah because she wanted to praise God for giving birth to so many sons: "She said, 'This time let me praise (odeh) God,' and named the child Judah (Yehudah)." Thereafter in the Biblical narrative, Judah vouchsafes the Jewish monarchy, and the Israelite kings David and Solomon derive their lineage from Judah. Indeed, there is the tradition that the "Judaeans" (Jews) are named for him, their ancient tribal ancestor.
In Hebrew, the name "Judah" contains the four letters of the Tetragrammaton — the special, holy, and ineffable name of the Jewish God. The very holiness of the name of Judah attests to its importance as an alternate name for "Israelites" that it ultimately replaces.
A much less common view is that the word Jew is from Jewry, from the Greek evrei meaning Hebrew, which some speculate comes from the ancient Egyptian hiberu or habiru, which meant stranger. Under the latter view, Abraham, Israel and other patriarchs are regarded as Jews while under the former only the descendants (ethnically or physically) of the Judaeans from the Kingdom of Judah would be Jews, strictly speaking. In the Hebrew language the word "Hebrew", ivri, means "one who 'passes' over" as did the patriarch Abraham who "passed over" from being a gentile to becoming a "convert" to the faith of Monotheism. Another theory is this root is derived from the name of patriarch Eber.
Ancient terminology
In some places in the Talmud the word Israel(ite) refers to somebody who is Jewish but does not necessarily practice Judaism as a religion: "An Israel(ite) even though he has sinned is still an Israel(ite)" (Tractate Sanhedrin 44a). More commonly the Talmud uses the term "Bnei Yisrael," the Children of Israel (another name for Jacob)" to refer to Jews. This Talmudic distinction is comparable to the contemporary distinction between "religious Jews" and "secular Jews." In modern English, the term "Israelite" is never used to refer to contemporary Jews, but can be used to refer to Jews of the Biblical era. The Jews of today's State of Israel are called Israelis and do not call themselves "Israelites".
Usage by non-Jews
The term "Israelite," has also been appropriated by various non-Jewish groups, for example the Rastafarians, who claim descent from the tribes of Israel.
The word "Jew" has been used often enough in a disparaging manner by anti-Semites that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was frequently avoided altogether, and the term "Hebrew" was substituted instead (e.g. Young Mens Hebrew Association). Even today some people are wary of its use, and prefer to use "Jewish". Indeed, when used as an adjective (e.g. "Jew lawyer") or verb (e.g. "to Jew someone"), the term "Jew" is purely pejorative. However, when used as a noun, "Jew" is preferred, as other circumlocutions give the impression that the term "Jew" is offensive in all contexts.
In the past, the term Jewess was sometimes used for Jewish women. This word, like "Negress" or "poetess" is now at best an archaism, and is generally taken as an anti-Semitic and/or sexist insult.
Who is a Jew?
Judaism is the Jewish religion, but Jews, religious or not, also form a non-exclusive ethnic group. Those not born to a Jewish mother may become religiously accepted as Jews through a formal and usually difficult process of conversion, and they and their children are then accepted as Jews as well. This is still relatively rare, and typically discouraged. Orthodox Judaism does not accept the validity of non-Orthodox conversions. Conservative Judaism may accept the validity of some Reform conversions, but only if they include (at a minimum) brit milah/circumcision (for men), immersion, and the appearance before a beit din.
Jewish law/Traditional Jewish view
Halakha, Jewish tradition and law, defines a Jew as someone who is either
- the child of a Jewish mother, known as matrilineal descent, or
- a person who converts to Judaism in accordance with Jewish law.
This standard is mandated by the Talmud, the record of oral law that explicates the Torah, the text on which Jewish law is based, and is held by Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, and many in Reform Judaism, and has been followed for at least 2,000 years (and possibly as long as 3,300 years). As a result, mere belief in the principles of Judaism does not make one a Jew. Similarly, non-adherence by a Jew to Jewish principles of faith, or even formal conversion to another faith, does not make one lose one's Jewish status. Thus the immediate descendants of all female Jews (even apostates) are still considered to be Jews, as are those of all her female descendants. Even those descendants who are not aware they are Jews, or practice a faith other than Judaism, are technically still Jews, as long as they come from a documented unbroken female line of descent. As a corollary, the children of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother are not considered to be Jews, even if raised practising Judaism.
All Jewish denominations welcome the return of any Jews who have left (or who have been raised in a faith other than) Judaism, and these individuals would not require a formal conversion, though they would be expected to abandon their previous beliefs and adopt Judaism. Males would be required to have either a full brit milah (ritual circumcision), or a symbolic one (if already circumcised).
Views in the State of Israel
The situation in Israel is somewhat ambiguous. One area where the definition of Jew is relevant is in deciding who qualifies to make aliyah and acquire citizenship under the Law of Return. The requirements here differ significantly from the definition of a Jew under halakha, in including anyone with a Jewish grandparent, as well as non-Jewish spouses of Jews. However they specifically exclude Jews who have converted to a faith other than Judaism. This definition is not the same as that in traditional Jewish law; in some respects it is a deliberately wider, so as to include those non-Jewish relatives of Jews who were perceived to be Jewish, and thus faced anti-Semitism, but in other respects it is narrower, as the traditional definition includes "apostate" Jews.
A second area where the definition of Jew is relevant is in marriages and divorces, which are under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior that, unlike the Law of Return, defines Jews strictly according to halakha.
A third relevant area is in the registering of "nationality" on Israeli identity cards. This is also controlled by the Ministry of the Interior, which has generally only registered as a "Jew" those who meet the traditional definition. However, in a small number of cases the Supreme Court of Israel has forced the Ministry to register as Jews individuals who did not meet that definition.
Some secular Israelis consider themselves to be "Israeli" enjoying a new Israeli culture and reject the title "Jew" as derived from Jewish religious law (Halacha). They assert that one who is devoted to Zionism, believes and lives in the modern State of Israel, serves in the Israel Defense Force, and works for the Ingathering of the Exiles from the diaspora, is "the real Jew." According to this redefinition, even a Gentile who meets these criteria can be an "Israeli." They scorn the older generation of European Jew s who they believe went "like sheep to the slaughter" to the death camps of the Holocaust and berate them for having a "galut (exile) mentality". They have a particular dislike for Haredi Jews whom they regard as old-fashioned relics of the Middle Ages, and whom they accuse of "religious coercion." This is part of an ongoing kulturkampf, or cultural divide in Israeli politics.
Views of Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism
In the last half of the 20th century, two theologically liberal (primarily American) Jewish groups—Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism—have allowed people who do not meet the classical halakhic criteria to define themselves as Jews. They no longer require converts to follow traditional Jewish procedures of religious conversion, and they accept a person as a Jew even if their mother is non-Jewish; in the case of Reform, so long as the father is a Jew and the person performs "appropriate and timely public and formal acts of identification with the Jewish faith and people". This is commonly (though mistakenly) known as patrilineal descent.
This has thus resulted in a serious schism among the Jewish people; today many Reform Jewish and secular American Jews born from originally Gentile mothers, (who were not born Jewish themselves), consider themselves to be Jews, although they are not considered Jewish by Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, and even by many Reform Jews outside of the United States.
Some Reform Jews view Judaism as a religion alone, and thus they view Jews who convert to another faith as non-Jews. For example "...anyone who claims that Jesus is their savior is no longer a Jew..." [Contemporary American Reform Responsa, #68]. This contrasts to the traditional view that Jews are a people, not merely followers of a religion, and that those who adopt the beliefs of another religion are still seen as Jews, though apostates.
Jewish cultural traits
Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life," which has made the job of differentiating between Jews and Judaism almost impossible.
In many times and places, such as the Hellenization during ancient Greece, the Enlightenment in Europe, and in contemporary United States and Israel, cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews with others around them.
In most of Europe up until the late 18th century, and in some places to an even later date, Jews were prohibited by Roman Catholic governments (and others) from owning land. Conversely, most forms of Christianity and Islam traditionally did not allow their members to lend money at interest. Also, the strong Jewish tradition of religious scholarship often left Jews well prepared for secular scholarship, although in some times and places this was countered by Jews being banned from studying at universities, or admitted only in limited numbers. Even into recent times Jews were little represented in the land-holding classes, but far better represented in academia, the learned professions, finance and commerce.
In some places where there have been relatively high concentrations of Jews, distinct secular Jewish subcultures have arisen. For example, ethnic Jews formed an enormous proportion of the literary and artistic life of Vienna, Austria at the end of the 19th century, or of New York City 50 years later, and for the most part these were not particularly religious people.
Ethnic divisions
The most commonly used terms to describe ethnic divisions among Jews: Ashkenazi (meaning "German" in Hebrew, denoting the Central European base of Jewry); and Sephardi (meaning "Spanish" in Hebrew, denoting their Spanish and North African location), actually refer both to religious and ethnic divisions. (Some scholars hold that Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of those who originally followed the Palestinian Jewish religious tradition, and Sephardic Jews are descendants of those who originally followed the Babylonian religious tradition.)
Jews have historically been divided into four major ethnic groups:
- Ashkenazim are Jews who lived in Germany or France before migrating to Eastern Europe.
- Sephardim are Jews who lived in Spain or Portugal before their explusion in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella.
- Oriental or "Mizrahi" Jews (edut hamizrach in Hebrew are Jews who lived in the Middle East and North Africa, but later spread to Central Asia and South Asia). (Note: In common usage, most Oriental Jews are now referred to as Sephardic, as the religious rites of Oriental and Sephardic Jews are essentially the same.)
- Yemenite Jews are Oriental Jews whose geographical and social isolation from the rest of the Jewish community allowed them to develop a liturgy and set of practices sufficiently distinct from other Oriental Jewish groups so as to be recognized as a different group.
Of these communities, the largest by far are the Ashkenazim, comprising approximately 70 percent of the Jewish total, with Oriental Jews comprising most of the remainder. Many Sephardim live in France (the majority of French Jews are Sephardic), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (small numbers), and the United States (a very small number), but most are in Israel (about 50 percent of Israelis), where they have created their own large ethnic political party called Shas guided by rabbis such as Ovadia Yosef.
Smaller groups
These groups are described in terms of their historic geography; significant numbers of these Jews live today in Israel.
- Gruzim are Georgian-speaking Jews from Georgia in the Caucasus.
- Juhurim are mountain Jews mainly from Daghestan in the eastern Caucasus.
- Bene Israel are the Jews of Mumbai, India.
- Cochin Jews are also Indian Jews.
- Romaniotes are Greek-speaking Jews living in the Balkans from the Hellenistic era until today.
- Ethiopian Jews and various other small African Jewish populations are also found.
- Bukharan Jews are Jews from Central Asia. They get their name from the Uzbek city of Bukhara, which once had a large community.
These smaller groups number in the thousands or tens of thousands, with the Gruzim being most numerous at about 100,000. Many members of these groups have now emigrated from their traditional homelands, largely to Israel. For example, only about 10 percent of the Gruzim remain in Georgia.
Jewish languages
Main article: Jewish languages
Almost all Jews in the State of Israel today speak Modern Hebrew also called "Israeli Hebrew", based on the Biblical Hebrew, but having adopted new words and having an affinity for absorbing words from American English. Jews mostly speak the languages of their countries of residence. Prior to the Holocaust, Yiddish (Judaeo-German; the very word means "Jewish") was the common language of Eastern European Jews. Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) was spoken by many Sephardim. Jews in Arab lands spoke Judaeo-Arabic; in other Islamic countries they spoke Aramaic or Persian. Many other smaller Jewish populations spoke "Jewish" versions of their respective local languages.
Migrations
Main article: Jewish history on the many Jewish migrations.
The notion of migration seems to be inter-twined with Jews and their history. Often in history, Jews have been both immigrants ("coming as settlers") and emigrants ("leaving countries"). For example:
- The patriarch Abraham was a migrant to the land of Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees.
- The Children of Israel are strongly identified with the Exodus (meaning "departure" or "going forth" in Greek) from ancient Egypt, as recorded in the Book of Exodus.
- The Kingdom of Israel was sent into permanent exile and scattered all over the world by Assyria.
- The Kingdom of Judah was exiled first by Babylonia and then by Rome.
- The 2,000 year dispersion of the Jewish diaspora beginning under the Roman Empire, as Jews were spread throughout the Roman world and, driven from land to land, and settled wherever they could live freely enough to practice their religion.
- Forced migrations during the rise and growth of Islam.
- Following the Spanish Inquisition, the Sephardic Jews were dispersed, some migrating mainly to Southern Europe, others migrating to North Africa and the Middle East.
- The Pogroms in Eastern Europe, the rise of modern Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and the rise of Arab nationalism all served to fuel the movements and migrations of huge segments of Jewry from land to land and continent to continent, until they have now arrived back in large numbers at their original historical homeland in Israel.
- The arrival of millions of Jews in the New World, such as during the history of the Jews in the United States (Colonial Era-1906).
Famous Jews
Main articles: List of Jews, List of Jews by country
Despite the relatively small number of Jews worldwide, many influential thinkers and leaders in modern times have been ethnically Jewish. Ethnic Jews have stood at the basis of modern psychology, philosophy, socialism, capitalism and many important scientific and technological advances were first discovered by Jews.
The list of famous Jews includes: Moses Maimonides (rabbi and philosopher); Baruch Spinoza (philosopher); Karl Marx (founder of Marxism, parents converted to Christianity when he was young); Benjamin Disraeli (baptised by parents into Anglican Church, British Prime Minister); Leon Trotsky (creator of the Russian Red Army and philosopher); Sigmund Freud (father of psychoanalysis); Albert Einstein (physicist who proposed the theory of relativity); Richard P. Feynman (physicist); Haym Solomon (financier of the American Revolution); Judah Benjamin (Confederate leader); Edward Teller (father of the hydrogen bomb); Theodor Herzl (founder of modern secular Zionism); Ludwig von Mises (economist); Ayn Rand (writer); Noam Chomsky (linguist, philosopher, and social theorist); Hyman Rickover (admiral, father of U.S. nuclear navy); David BenGurion (founding Prime Minister of Israel); Henry Kissinger (U.S. Secretary of State); Milton Friedman (economist); Kirk Douglas (movie actor); Steven Spielberg (movie producer); Michael Bloomberg (billionaire financier and New York City mayor); Moshe Feldenkrais (founder of the Feldenkrais Method); Andrew Grove (co-founder and chairman of Intel).
Conversion to Judaism
Main article: Conversion to Judaism
The laws of conversion to Judaism are based in discussions in the Talmud. Jewish law is generally interpreted as discouraging proselytizing, and religious conversion is also discouraged. However, a rabbi convinced of the prospective convert's sincerity may allow him or her to follow the process of conversion, and thus appear before an established three judge Jewish religious court known as a Beth Din to be tested and formally accepted. There is no specific time frame for the conversion process and procedures. The convert is taught the basic laws and beliefs of Judaism, and must show an ability to keep the laws and make a commitment to keep them.
As discussed above, some denominations of present-day Judaism do not follow traditional Jewish laws concerning conversion. As a result, their converts may not be recognized by other Jewish denominations.
Ancient Israelites and Judeans
Related articles: History of ancient Israel and Judah, Timeline of Jewish history
Historical geography
Looking at the timeline of Jewish history, the first two periods of the history of the Jews is mainly that of Palestine or Judea. It begins among those peoples of Syria which occupied the area lying between the Nile river on the one side and the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers on the other. Surrounded by ancient seats of culture in Egypt and Babylonia, by the mysterious deserts of Arabia, and by the highlands of Asia Minor, the land of Canaan, later Judea, then Palestine, then Israel, was a meeting place of civilizations. The land was traversed by old-established trade routes and possessed important harbors on the Gulf of Akaba and on the Mediterranean coast, the latter exposing it to the influence of the Levantine culture.
Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
Jews descend mostly from the ancient Israelites (also known as Hebrews), who settled in the Land of Israel. The Israelites traced their common lineage to the biblical patriarch Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. A kingdom was established under Saul and continued under King David and Solomon. King David conquered Jerusalem (first a Canaanite, then a Jebusite town) and made it his capital. After Solomon's reign the nation split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah (in the south). The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian ruler Shalmaneser V in the 8th century BC and deport to Khorason. The Kingdom of Judah was conquered by a Babylonian army in the early 6th century BC. The Judean elite was exiled to Babylonia, but later at least a part of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylonia by the Persians. This period of exile is known as the "Babylonian Captivity."
Persian, Greek, and Roman rule
The Seleucid Kingdom, which arose after the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great, sought to introduce Greek culture into the Persian world. When the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, supported by Hellenized Jews (those who had adopted Greek culture), attempted to convert the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem to a temple of Zeus, the non-Hellenized Jews revolted under the leadership of the Maccabees and rededicated the Temple to the Jewish God (hence the origins of Hanukah) and created an independent Jewish kingdom known as the Hasmonaean Kingdom which lasted from 165 BCE to 63 BCE. This was followed by a period of Roman rule.
The generally religiously tolerant Empire could not readily accommodate the exclusive monotheism of Judaism, and the religious Jews could not accept Roman polytheism. In 66 CE, the Judeans began to revolt against the Roman rulers. The revolt was smashed by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus Flavius. In Rome the Arch of Titus still stands, depicting the enslaved Judeans and the menorah with trumpets being brought to Rome:
The Romans all but destroyed Jerusalem; only a single "Western Wall" of the Second Temple remained. The Roman legions pillaged and burned the city and stole the holy menorah and much more. The Judeans continued to live in their land in significant numbers, and were allowed to practice their religion, until the 2nd century when Hadrian ravaged Judea while putting down the bar Kokhba revolt. After 135, Jews were not allowed to enter the city of Jerusalem. The Byzantine Empire, which came to control the region after the split of the Roman Empire, cherished the city for its Christian history. However, in accordance with traditions of religious tolerance often found in the ancient East, Jews were allowed into it in the 5th century.
Roman exile
Many of the ancient Jews were sold into slavery, while others became citizens of other parts of the Roman Empire. This is the traditional explanation to the diaspora, almost universally accepted by past and present rabbinical or Talmudical scholars, who believe that Jews are almost exclusively biological descendants of the Judean exiles, a belief backed up at least partially by DNA evidence. Some secular historians speculate that a majority of the Jews in Antiquity were most likely descendants of converts in the cities of the Graeco-Roman world, especially in Alexandria and Asia Minor, and were only affected by the diaspora in its spiritual sense, as the sense of loss and homelessness which became a cornerstone of the Jewish creed, much supported by persecutions in various parts of the world. Any such policy of conversion, which spread the Jewish religion throughout the Hellenistic civilization, seems to have ended with the wars against the Romans and the following reconstruction of Jewish values for the post-Temple era.
International scope
Before the rise of Islam, Jews were to be found throughout the entire Roman empire; with the Arab expansion, some of them would move as far as India and China. Some Jewish people are also descended from converts to Judaism outside the Mediterranean world. While the Avars' Hebrew origins/conversion debate continues, it is known that some Khazars, Edomites, and Ethiopians, as well as many Arabs, particularly in Yemen earlier, converted to Judaism in the past; even today Gentiles in the United States and Israel convert to Judaism. In fact, there is a greater tradition of conversion to Judaism than many people realize. The word proselyte originally meant a Greek person who had converted to Judaism. As late as the 6th century the rump Roman empire (i.e. Byzantium) was issuing decrees against conversion to Judaism, implying that conversion to Judaism was still occurring.
Ancient schisms among the Jews
Related article: History of ancient Israel and Judah
First Temple era
Based on the historical narrative in the Bible and archeology, Levantine civilization at the time of Solomon's Temple was prone to idol worship, astrology, worship of reigning kings, and paganism. (Some of the divinities or idols worshipped included Ba'al and possibly Asherah.) This was in direct contrast to the teachings in the Torah, and was condemned by the ancient Biblical prophets who attacked those Israelites and Judeans who became idol worshipers. The split by the Kingdom of Israel from the Kingdom of Judah was completed by Jeraboam who crowned himself king, and built a northern temple with calf-like idol images that were condemned by the Judeans of Judah. After the destruction and exile of the northern Kingdom of Israel by Assyria, the temptations to follow non-Judaic practices continued, so that according to the narratives of Jeremiah and others, it brought about the failure, destruction, and exile of the southern Kingdom of Judah by Babylonia. Nebuchadrezzar, however, may have had his own reasons for taking over Judah and turning its inhabitants into exiles, including the nearness of rival country Egypt.
Second Temple era
This was a time when the Jews lived under Persian, Greek, and Roman power and influence. The main internal struggles during this era were between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, as well as the Essenes and Zealots. The Pharisees wanted to maintain the authority and traditions of classical Torah teachings and began the early teachings of the Mishna, maintaining the authority of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court. The Sadducees sought to adapt to more Hellenistic ideas, as espoused by Philo of Egypt. The Essenes preached a reclusive way of life. The Zealots advocated armed rebellion against any foreign power such as Rome. All were at violent logger-heads with each other, leading to the confusion and disunity that ended with the destruction of the Second Temple and the sacking of Jerusalem by Rome.
Break-offs: Samaritans and Christians
One small sect of Samaritans is still extant; however, their religion is not the same as rabbinic Judaism. The Samaritan faith and that of other Jews diverged over a millennium ago; they commonly refer to themselves as Samaritan Israelites as opposed to Jewish Israelites. This is because they believe they are of the northern Israelite tribes.
Of course, the most famous schism in Jewish history was the split between the followers of Jesus (who were known as Notzrim or Nazarenes) with the claim by his disciples that he was the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, and the majority Pharisees (the rabbinically led Jews) who rejected him 2,000 years ago and still do so.
The abandonment of Jewish law and the subsequent deification of Jesus by early leaders of what would become the Christian church, by, for example, Paul of Tarsus, and the publication of the New Testament, ensured that Christianity and Judaism would become completely different and often conflicting religions. The New Testament depicts the Pharisees as Jesus' opponents, whereas the Jewish perspective has the Pharisees as the justified followers of the rabbis who upheld the Torah, or what Christians refer to as the "Old Testament" as a mark of their having supplanted the Jews' position. This is known as Supersessionism, and is strongly rejected by Jews and Judaism.
Karaite Judaism
Main article: Karaite Judaism
Karaite Judaism is a Jewish denomination characterized by reliance on the Tanakh as the sole scripture and rejection of the Oral Law (the Mishnah and Talmud). Karaites had a wide following between the 9th and 12th centuries, (they claim that at one time they numbered perhaps 40 percent of Jewry), but over the centuries their numbers have dwindled drastically. Today they are a small group, living mostly in Israel; estimates of the number of Israeli Karaites range from as low as 10,000 to as high as 40,000 [1] [2] [3] [4].
There is a divergence of views about the historical origins of Karaite Judaism. Most scholars and some Karaites maintain that it was founded at least in part by Anan ben David, whereas other Karaites believe that they are not the historical disciples of Anan ben David at all, and point out that many of their later sages (such as Ya'acov Al-Kirkisani) argued that most of Anan's teachings were "derived from Rabbanite Lore".
The state of Israel, along with its Chief Rabbinate, ruled that Karaites are Jews, and while critical differences between Orthodox Judaism and Karaite Judaism exist, American Orthodox rabbis ruled that Karaism is much closer to Orthodoxy than the Conservative and Reform movements, which may ease issues of formal conversion.
Some Karaites (particularly those living in Russia) have insisted for at least two centuries that they are not Jewish, some referring to themselves as a "Turkic People". These same Karaites also denied they were Jews in the Holocaust.
Sabbatians and Frankists
In 1648 Shabtai Tzvi declared himself to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah whilst living in the Ottoman Empire. Vast numbers of Jews believed him; but when under pain of a death sentence in front of the Turkish sultan Mehmed IV he became an apostate to Judaism by becoming a Moslem, his movement crumbled. Nevertheless, for centuries, small groups of Jews believed in him, and the rabbis were always on guard against any manifestations of this schism, always suspicious of hidden "Shebselach" (Yiddish for "little Sabbatians," a play on the word for "young dumb sheep"). Indeed, when the movement of Hasidism began attracting many followers, the rabbis were once again suspicious that this was Sabbatianism in different garb. It would take many centuries to sort out these complex divisions and schisms and see where they were headed.
After his mysterious death somewhere in the area of Turkish Albania, groups of Jews continued to be clandestine followers of Shabtai Tzvi even though they had outwardly converted to Islam, these Jews being known as the Donmeh. Jewish converts to Islam were, at times, therefore regarded with great suspicion by their fellow Moslems.
A few decades after Shabtai's death, a man by the name of Jacob Frank claiming mystical powers preached that he was Shabtai Tzvi's successor. He attracted a following, preached against the Talmud, advocated a form of licentious worship, and was condemned by the rabbis at the time. When confronted by the Polish authorities, he converted to Catholicism in 1759 in the presence of King Augustus III of Poland, together with groups of his Jewish followers, known as "Frankists". To the alarm of his opponents, he was received by reigning European monarchs who were anxious to see their Jewish subjects abandon Judaism and apostacise. The Frankists eventually joined the Polish nobility and gentry.
Orthodox versus Reform, East versus West
From the time of the French Revolution of 1789, and the growth of Liberalism, added to the political and personal freedoms granted by Napoleon to the Jews of Europe, many Jews chose to abandon the forboding and isolating ghettos and enter into general society. This influenced the internal conflicts about religion, culture, and politics of the Jews to this day.
Some Jews in Western Europe, and many Jews in America, joined the religiously liberal new Reform Judaism movement, which drew inspiration from the writings of modernist thinkers like Moses Mendelson. They coined the name "Orthodox" to describe those who opposed the "Reform". They were criticized by the Orthodox Judaism rabbis such as Samson Raphael Hirsch in Germany, and condemned, particularly by those known today as followers of Ultra Orthodox Judaism, (or Haredim in Israel), and the leaders of Hasidic Judaism, the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, based mainly in Eastern Europe.
There was thus also created a cultural schism between the more westernised English, German and French-speaking Western European Jews and their more religiously observant Yiddish speaking Eastern European brethren whom they denigratingly labelled Ost Yidden ("Eastern Jews"). These schisms and the debates surrounding them, continue with much ferocity in all Jewish communities today as the Reform and Orthodox movements continue to confront each other over a wide range of religious, social, political and ethnic issues.
Persecution
Related articles: Anti-Semitism; History of anti-Semitism; Modern anti-Semitism
Nazism
Main article: Holocaust
Modern persecution of the Jews reached its peak under the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. The Nazis, who thought of themselves as a "Master Race", considered the Jews inferior and subhuman. These racist beliefs and acts were embodied in the Nuremberg Laws specifically designed to discriminate against Jews.
After emerging from Germany and capturing most of the European mainland, and in accordance with its Wannsee Conference, Nazi Germany first built concentration camps to incarcerate (and later often to kill) its opponents and those seen as undesirable, and then extermination camps intended solely for the genocide of all Jews, including those who had long assimilated and had been baptized into Christianity. Approximately six million Jews perished under these policies.
With the defeat of the Axis Powers by the Allied Nations, many high German officials were punished by the Nuremberg Trials and Germany paid reparations to Holocaust survivor s and to the State of Israel.
Soviet Union
Main article: History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
Even though many of the Old Bolsheviks were ethnically Jewish, they sought to uproot Judaism and Zionism and established the Yevsektsiya to achieve this goal. By the end of the 1940s the Communist leadership of the former USSR had liquidated almost all Jewish organizations, with the exception of a few token synagogues. These synagogues were then placed under police surveillance, both openly and through the use of informants.
The anti-Semitic campaign of 1948-1953 against so-called "rootless cosmopolitans," the fabrication of the "Doctors' plot," the rise of "Zionology" and subsequent activities of official organizations such as the Anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public were officially carried out under the banner of "anti-Zionism," but the use of this term could not obscure the anti-Semitic content of these campaigns, and by the mid-1950s the state persecution of Soviet Jews emerged as a major human rights issue in the West and domestically. See also: Jackson-Vanik amendment, Refusenik.
Christian
Main article: Christianity and anti-Semitism
Christianity, which owes its origins and theology to Jewish teachings about the Messiah, has long had an ambiguous relationship with Judaism, giving rise to Christianity and anti-Semitism. Christians had difficulty with the Jews' claim to being God's Chosen people, and they were seen as having contributed to the demise of Jesus, the Christians' adopted Messiah and "son of God", which Judaism considers to be a serious heresy that negates the absolute unity, definite non-corporality, and complete invisibility of the Jewish God as mandated by the Jewish Torah.
In medieval Europe, many notorious persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the Crusades—when Jews all over Germany were massacred—and in the Spanish Inquisition, when the entire Jewish population that had refused to be baptized into Christianity was expelled. They found refuge mainly in the Ottoman Empire and the Low Countries. From Alexander III's reign until the end of Tsarist times in Russia, Jews were restricted to the Jewish Pale of Settlement and subjected to frequent pogroms. On the other hand, in the 16th century, article four of the Council of Trent declared that the Jews were no more responsible for death of Christ than Christians, and this was later reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council.
Arab and Islamic
Main articles: Islam and Judaism, Islam and anti-Semitism
Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Jews have generally enjoyed the benefits of "protected" Dhimmi status under Islam; yet the political conflict between Muhammad and the Jews of Madina in the 7th century left ample ideological fuel for Islam and anti-Semitism through the centuries.
During the Middle Ages, Jews had a better status in the Muslim world than in Christendom, though still short of full equality with Muslims. During the Holocaust the Middle East was in turmoil: In Egypt, with a Jewish population of 75,000, Anwar Sadat was imprisoned for conspiring with the Nazis to bring independence from the British Empire; the British-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem was in Berlin supporting Hitler; a coup briefly brought a pro-Axis government to power in Iraq, terrifying that country's Jews; and the Jewish Stern Gang assassinated Lord Moyne for closing Palestine to Jewish immigration.
The tensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict was also a factor in the rise of animosity to Jews all over the Middle East, as hundreds of thousands of Jews fled as refugees, the main waves being soon after the 1948 and 1956 wars. The vast majority of the Jews living in Iraq fled in 1952 although there is still a tiny population living in Baghdad.
Leadership
Orthodox
Traditionally only the greatest scholars of the Torah and Talmud rise to become the spiritual and even temporal leaders of the Jewish people. This requires deep study of the Talmud and the Shulkhan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law) as well as many other classical texts of Jewish scholarship. Normally, one must study many years in a yeshiva to become a rabbi. Synagogues are led by rabbis (meaning "great ones or teachers"). In many synagogues there is a hazzan (cantor) that leads many parts of the prayer service. Many Sephardic rabbinic Jewish communities refer to their leaders as hakham. Among Yemenite Jews, known as Teimanin, the term mori (teacher) is used.
Secular
Following the Renaissance and the Enlightenment in Europe (with its Jewish "extension" the Haskalah movement, which led to much modern-day assimilation into the cultures of their native countries), most Jews dropped much of Judaism. Many even became Christians, and adopted secular values and life-styles. Thus most modern local Jewish communities, or international ones such as the World Jewish Congress, are guided by secular leaders who may not be religiously knowledgeable or observant at all; they are most often very Zionistic.
North American communities
In the United States and Canada today, the mainly secular United Jewish Communities (UJC), formerly known as the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), represents over 150 Jewish Federations and 400 independent communities across North America. Every major American city has its local "Jewish Federation", and many have sophisticated community centers and provide services, mainly health care-related. They raise record sums of money for philanthropic and humanitarian causes in North America and Israel. Other organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Congress , American Jewish Committee, and the B'nai B'rith represent different segments of the American Jewish community on a variety of issues.
Karaite
A Karaite synagogue is run by a board of directors, and its spiritual leader is often called a Hakham, the equivalent of a "rabbi", and matches one in function. The Gabbai is the treasurer, the Shammash is the custodian, the Hazzan leads prayers, and in some the Ba'al Qeri'ah leads in the reading of the Torah.
World population
Prior to World War II the world population of Jews was around 18 million. The Holocaust reduced this number to around 12 million. Today, there are an estimated 13 million Jews worldwide in over 134 countries. Of these, around six million live in the United States and Canada, over five million live in Israel, under two million live in Europe, about 100,000 in Australia and New Zealand, and some 90,000 in South Africa. At the moment, an increasing number of Russian Jews are emigrating to Germany, Israel, and the United States.
Approximately 500,000 Jews live in Latin America. Over half of them live in Argentina, while large communities also exist in Brazil (about 120,000) and Mexico (about 40,000).
Israel
Israel is the only country in which Jews form a majority of the population, although the United States has a larger number of Jews. It was re-established as an independent democratic state on May 14, 1948. Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset, about ten members are Israeli Arabs who are not Jews. At the time of its independence, approximately 600,000 Jews lived there. Since then, its Jewish population has increased by about one million over each decade as more immigrants arrive, and more Israelis are born, in one of the most significant global Jewish population shifts in over 2,000 years.
All the Arab Israeli Wars have not slowed Israel's growth. Israel opened its doors to the Holocaust survivors. It has absorbed almost all the Sephardic Jews from the Islamic countries. And it has taken in hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former USSR. Jews from all over the world continue to move to Israel as they view it as their only true home in a world rife with Anti-Semitism rooted in a long history of anti-Semitism and hostile to the Jewish people.
Europe
Western Europe's largest Jewish community can be found in France, home to 600,000 Jews, most of whom are immigrants or refugees from North African Arab countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. There are over 265,000 Jews in Great Britain. In Eastern Europe, there are anywhere from 500,000 to over one million Jews living in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Belorussia and the other areas once dominated by the Soviet Union. Exact figures are difficult to establish.
The fastest-growing Jewish community in the world, outside of Israel, is the one in Germany, especially in Berlin, its capital. Tens of thousands of Jews from the former Eastern Bloc have settled in Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Some factors that make Germany amenable: A cosmopolitan atmosphere; a welcoming, liberal, post-war education; and the political freedoms garnered since the 1960s have created an atmosphere of tolerance in Germany which is still missing in some post-Communist states. Familiarity with Yiddish for older Russian Jews, may make it easier to adapt to German.
German Jews belong to either the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland with about 100,000 members or the liberal Union progressiver Juden in Deutschland. However, there are many secular Jews who do not belong to any organisation or synagogue.
Decrease and growth
Both persecution and assimilation have resulted in small Jewish numbers vis-a-vis the world's population.
Wars against the Jews
Many empires and rulers have sought to "liquidate" the Jews through wars of destruction, extinction, genocide, expulsions, exiles, and torture. Some examples in the history of anti-Semitism are: the Great Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire as described by Josephus; the Spanish Inquisition led by Torquamada and the Auto de fe against the Marrano Jews; the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres in the Ukraine; the Pogroms by the Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II and the Cossacks; Blood libels; Adolf Hitler's Final Solution which lead to the Holocaust and the World War II atrocities in Poland and elsewhere; and modern wars and Jihad via "suicide bombing" and violence against Israel's Jews. In addition, some Jewish populations, such as Marrano Jews, were the subject of forced assimilation.
In addition to the above examples, one must review the historical record of the destruction and persecution of the Jewish communities throughout the Islamic world. As the empire expanded during the centuries, the status of the non-Muslim communities remained precarious and subject to dhimmi laws. The Jewish communities were not second class citizens, they were not considered to be citizens of the larger community at all. Repressive measures against their persons occurred with regularity as the Muslim majority massacred them with impunity. There was no protection under the laws and the word of a Muslim was sufficient to subject any Jew to harsh punishment.
Assimilation
Secular Jews tend to marry late and have smaller families with wide acceptance of birth control [5]. When granted political, economic and religious freedom, many Jews, probably the majority, choose to adopt the ways and religions of their host nations, abandoning many vestiges of their own ethnicity and religion, and then frequently choose to marry non-Jews. In the United States, the 2000 National Jewish Population Survey [6] has shown that close to 50 percent [7] (and possibly up to 75 percent according to some calculations) of America's Jews presently marry non-Jewish partners. These figures are probably also true for the Jews of Europe today. Most non-Jewish spouses do not convert to Judaism, surveys show. This phenomenon is known as intermarriage [8], and is the leading cause for the shrinkage of almost all Jewish populations in Western countries since World War II. Some Orthodox Rabbis have used the controversial term Silent Holocaust to describe the loss of Jews to assimilation, intermarriage, conversion to other faiths and abortion. Ironically, many anti-Semites present as a key evidence for their claims the "lack" of Jewish assimilation.
Growth
Only in the State of Israel have secular Jews increased due to natural growth and immigration, and both Orthodox Jews and Haredi Jews, who often shun birth control for religious reasons, have increased due to their large families.
Reform Judaism has an outreach effort to bring in not only the non-Jewish spouses of inter-married Jews, but to actively seek new members for the faith.
Conservative Judaism has an outreach effort to bring in the non-Jewish spouses of inter-married Jews. The Rabbinical Assembly, the international body of Conservative rabbis, issued a rabbinic letter on human sexuality which discussed the issue of the decrease in Jewish population low reproductive rates.
There is also a growing movement of Jews by Choice by gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews. There is a "return to Judaism" movement known as the Baal Teshuva movement that has brought many secular Jews to become more religiously observant. There are a number of efforts undertaken by all the denominations to re-introduce alienated Jews to Jewish religion and customs through educational and beginners programs.
Related topics
Jewish history
- Jewish history timeline
- History of the Jews in Poland
- History of Jews in the United States
- History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
- Kohen
- Cohen Modal Haplotype
- Haskala
External links
Photos
General
- Jewish Nobel Prize Laureates
- Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (Russia)
- Communaute Online: France
- Jewish Argentina
- Chinese Jews
- Jay Sand's site about African Jews also contains information about various small Jewish diasporas elsewhere
- Prominent Jewish Scientific and Cultural Figures
- Jews under Christian and Muslim Rule in the Middle Ages. This is a class curriculum that links to numerous online documents.
Major secular organizations
- Anti-Defamation League
- Board of Deputies of British Jews
- American Jewish Committee
- United Jewish Communities: The Federations of North America
- American Jewish Congress
- Jewish Student Organizations
Zionist and Israeli institutions
- World Zionist Organization
- Yad VaShem - Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
Orthodox
Reform
Conservative
- United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
- Jewish Theological Seminary of America
- Solomon Schechter Day School Association
Reconstructionist
Traditional
Karaite
- Ancient Paths - Karaite Judaism
- The Karaite Korner
- Congregation Orah Saddiqim
Footnotes
- 1 1993 Russian census. Some experts (e.g. ISBN 580620068X) estimate the real number to be more than 1 million.
- 2 Jewish Virtual Library, JewFAQ
- 3 Data based on a study by Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI). See Jewish people near zero growth by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2004.
- 4 Data based on a study by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. See Israel’s population is 6.8 million by Zeev Klein, Globes online September 13, 2004.