Although in modern usage the words Hebrew, Israelite, and Jew are employed synonymously, both historically and ethnically the words have different meanings. As a general historical term, the word Hebrew has no ethnic connotation, being applied to any of numerous Semitic, nomadic tribes dwelling in the eastern Mediterranean area before 1300 BC. In Jewish history, the term is applied specifically to those tribes that accepted Yahweh as their deity, from the time of their prehistoric origins to the time they conquered ancient Palestine, called Canaan, and, about 1020 BC, became a united nation ruled by a king. The term Israelite connotes a particular ethnic and national group, descended from the Hebrews and united culturally by their religion; the term is historically descriptive of this group from the conquest of Canaan to the destruction of the kingdom of Israel in 721 bc by the Assyrian king Sargon II (r. 722–705 bc). The term Jew refers to a third group, the cultural descendants of the first two, from the time of their return from the so-called Babylonian captivity to the present. The word itself stems from the Hebrew yehudhi, originally meaning a member of the Hebrew tribe of Judah, and later, as Judea, applied to the Jewish state; the English word Jew is derived directly from the Latin Judaeus, meaning an inhabitant of Judea.
Modern Jews are members of a separate ethnic community or fellowship rather than of a race, a community that, in the face of incessant and terrible persecution, has maintained its identity for almost 19 centuries, from the final dissolution of the Roman province of Judea in ad 135 to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. In 1970 the Israeli Knesset adopted legislation defining a Jew as one born of a Jewish mother or a convert. The remarkable preservation of Jewish group identity resulted, primarily, from strict adherence to Judaism, with which Jewish history is inextricably bound. This religion governs Jewish life in its every aspect, requires the education of the young, and includes, in its traditional doctrines, hope for and faith in the establishment of a messianic kingdom. Although various reform movements began to affect Judaism in the 19th century, the survival of all Jewish communities was the result of the piety with which preceding generations had adhered to the Jewish Law. A distinguishing characteristic of the Jewish people has been their respect for and devotion to education and learning, which are considered acts of worship.
The Hebrews in Canaan.
The biblical accounts of Hebrew genealogy and history are credible in most instances, as far as can be ascertained from archaeological and historical research. They were not written in their present form, however, until centuries after the described occurrences; therefore they require careful interpretation. Thus, Moses said to the assembled Hebrews, “A wandering Aramaean was my father” (Deut. 26:5). Characterizing the ancestors of the Hebrews as Aramaean nomads (“wandering” signifying the nomadic state of constant economic hardship) is more or less exact. In addition to Aramaean blood, the physical ancestry of the later Israelites included a mixture of other strains, such as Amorite and Hittite. The physiognomy that was characteristic of the ancient Hebrews, as depicted in Babylonian friezes, was similar to the physiognomy of the Hittites. The Hebrew language belongs to the northwestern Semitic language group.
The 12 tribes.
The history of the tribes, as descendants of the patriarch Jacob, told in the Old Testament must be viewed in light of the national consciousness developed by the Jewish scribes who compiled and edited the historical books in the 6th and 5th centuries bc. In their efforts to tell a continuous and detailed story establishing a common ancestry, these scribes undoubtedly recorded legends as history; nevertheless, the biblical narrative is in accord with historical theory. Thus, the Scriptures tell of 12 Hebrew tribes, descended from 12 sons of the patriarch Jacob: Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Gad, Issachar, Joseph, Judah, Levi, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun. Biblical scholars view the Jacob story as symbolic, with actual tribal history cloaked in the guise of personal experiences. Thus, the tribes were interrelated by blood, and some, such as Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah (sons of one mother), maintained an even closer alliance. The tribes of Asher and Gad (named as descendants of servants) were subordinate tribes. Another instance of tribal history written as personal experience is the covenant between Jacob and Laban (see Gen. 31:44–54), which is interpreted, in biblical criticism, as an early treaty between Hebrew and Syrian tribes, delimiting the borders of their grazing lands to the north of Gilead.
Tradition and historical theory trace the Aramaean ancestors of Israel (used collectively) to the district of Ur in Sumer, on the lower Euphrates River. About the beginning of the 2d millennium bc a group of Aramaean tribes migrated to the region around Carrhae (now Harran, Turkey), an ancient Babylonian colony. Several centuries later several family units of these tribes migrated to the west and south, settling in scattered groups around the Jordan River. The Jordan settlers became the Hebrew tribes, including the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and the Yahweh-worshiping Hebrews. In the Bible this period of tribal migration is known as the age of the patriarchs.
The exodus.
Some of the tribes, traditionally belonging to the Joseph group, wandered toward Egypt, probably during the period of the Hyksos kings, the predominantly Semitic conquerors of Egypt, between 1694 and 1600 bc. There they prospered until the Hyksos were deposed (c. 1570 bc), and as a result the Hebrews were persecuted as aliens and forced into slavery. The exodus is viewed by many historians as the successful effort of the Hebrews in Egyptian bondage to be reunited with other Hebrew tribes with which they retained a sense of kinship. No archaeological records of the exodus exist, even on Egyptian monuments, probably because the Egyptian Hebrews numbered at most a few thousand and probably less than that. Their flight caused, evidently, no great concern in Egypt.
In Jewish history, however, the exodus assumed major proportions. It was led by Moses (the first great prophet) who, on Sinai, the sacred mountain, received the covenant with Yahweh. This early religion incorporated in itself and bequeathed to later Judaism nomad concepts of the position of property, individual rights, sexual morality, and the essential equality of all members of the community. Personal liberty and the love of freedom, characteristics of the wandering Semites, in addition to the concept of a God who is creator, lawgiver, and king, became part of the religion of Israel and later became part of its political theory.
The conquest of Canaan in the 2d millennium bc was accomplished as much by intermarriage and alliance with the Canaanites as it was by military conquest. Moreover, the invaders had an undisturbed and unique opportunity to acquire dominance: The Egyptian, Hittite, and Sumerian empires were no longer powerful, and Assyria, the potential great power, had not yet organized its forces. Under Joshua, the successor to Moses, the Yahweh tribes crossed the Jordan River, conquered the town of Jericho and the surrounding plain, and established themselves in western Palestine. Although numerically they were not superior to the Canaanites already resident, the Yahweh tribes were united by their religious covenant, their tradition of common descent, and their democratic ideal. During the period of the judges (the great military and civil leaders), the Hebrews, now known as the Israelites, secured their land. They fought off invasions by the Moabites, the Midianites, and, most of all, the Philistines who migrated from the territory around the Aegean Sea.
The Kingdom.
With the accession of Saul, the first Israelite king, about 1020 bc, the Israelites became truly united as a political entity. With David, Saul's successor, the kingdom acquired greatness.
The kingdom under David.
In both Jewish history and religion, David is considered second only to Moses. He is regarded as the true founder of Israel, the instrument of the religious and political system foreshadowed on Mount Sinai. He captured Jerusalem, the strongest fortress in Palestine, and made it his capital. Under his direction, the Israelite army broke the power of the Philistines and conquered Edom, Ammon, and Moab. David organized religious services and arranged the duties of the priesthood, establishing the religion of Israel as supreme in Palestine. At his death all the countries surrounding the Israelite Kingdom were either subjugated or bound by treaties of friendship.
The kingdom under Solomon.
David's son and successor, Solomon, is known as the builder of the Temple at Jerusalem, which became a symbol of Israelite glory and splendor. Solomon was a powerful ruler who brought prosperity to his people by carefully using the treasures inherited from his father, by unifying the internal administration of his kingdom, and by promoting commerce and industry through the opening of trade routes linking Africa, Asia, Arabia, and Asia Minor. Solomon also tried to strengthen the political position of his kingdom by marrying influential women of many of the neighboring principalities. His royal behavior, however, as well as his elaborate building program—typified by various remains at Megiddo, Israel, excavated in 1925–39 and after World War II—proved costly in human and economic terms. Forced labor and high taxes provoked dissatisfaction and resentment among the population and caused political instability. Edom, in the southeast, successfully revolted, and the district of Damascus, in the northwest, made itself independent of Israelite influence. The oppression of Solomon's rule and his sybaritic way of life, which was directly opposed to the stern nomadic traditions of the Israelite religion with its democratic ideal, resulted in the division of the kingdom after Solomon's death, about 922 bc.
The divided kingdom.
Upon Solomon's death Jeroboam, a former servant of Solomon, returned from Egypt where he had lived in exile following a failed plot against the life of Solomon. When a delegation under him requested guarantees of reform from Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam, they were refused. In the dissension that followed, Jeroboam was supported by Sheshonk I, king of Egypt, called Shishak in the Bible (r. about 946–913 bc), who invaded and plundered the kingdom of Rehoboam and despoiled the Temple. The kingdom was then divided. The rebel leader became king, as Jeroboam I, over the northern parts of the old kingdom known afterward as the Kingdom of Israel; according to biblical tradition, its inhabitants included 10 of the 12 tribes, all except Judah and Benjamin. Rehoboam remained king over the southern parts of the kingdom, known afterward as the Kingdom of Judah; about 775 sq km (about 300 sq mi) in area, it was reduced to a secondary power. Separate religious shrines and sanctuaries were established at Dan and Bethel in Israel, and although the two states retained their feeling of blood kinship, they were divided politically.
Jewish history for the next two centuries became a series of struggles among petty states, as Israel, Judah, Moab, Edom, and Damascus warred against one another. For a time, in the early 9th century bc, Israel became a major power under the great king Omri (r. 876–869 bc). Omri founded Samaria in about 870 bc as the capital of Israel, and under his direction a period of peace was instituted. Under Ahab, his son and successor, however, Israel was shaken by internal strife concerning the most vital topic: religion. Ahab's wife, Jezebel, a princess of Tyre, attempted to incorporate her pagan deity, the Phoenician god Melkarth, into the religion of Israel. Idolatrous influences had long been filtering into both Israelite kingdoms, but Jezebel's boldness resulted in great popular protest. Such protest was political as well as religious, for the ethical system of the Mosaic Law concerned government as much as it did worship, and autocracy could be construed as sin. A series of prophets waked the conscience of the Israelites. In the northern kingdom, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea called for a return to the rugged, democratic desert principles. In Judah, Isaiah and Micah inveighed against idolatry and luxury. Thus, religious struggle was added to military conflict. In the 8th century bc the power of Assyria, grown to a position of dominance in the Middle East, advanced to the frontiers of the disorganized states, and disaster was inevitable.
Assyria had, for more than a century, attempted to conquer ancient Palestine. In 853 bc the first major Assyrian invasion, led by Shalmaneser III (r. 859–824 bc), had been turned back at the Battle of Karkar by a coalition of the little states, including Israel, under Ben-hadad I, king of Damascus (d. about 841 bc). Assyria withdrew, but its forces continued to harry the Palestinian borders. In 734 bc, when incessant quarreling among the weakened Palestinian states precluded another coalition, an Assyrian army under Tiglath-pileser III (r. 745–727 bc) invaded and conquered Israel. Only the fortress of Samaria held out until 722–721 bc, when the Assyrians successfully assaulted and took the city. The kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and many of its inhabitants were deported. Thenceforth they were known as the “Lost Tribes.” Samaria was repopulated with emigrants from Mesopotamia, who adopted the Israelite religion and became a sect known as Samaritans. Although the kingdom of Judah became a tributary of Assyria, it retained its nominal independence for another 135 years.
The fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar.
During the next century Judah maintained its identity, while the balance of Middle Eastern power shifted from Assyria to Egypt and, finally, to the renascent Babylonian Empire of the Chaldeans. The Judean Kingdom, however, refused to submit to Chaldea as it had to Assyria. In 598 bc Nebuchadnezzar II, ruler of Chaldea, faced with defiance in Judah, conquered and sacked Jerusalem. Most of the Judean nobles, warriors, and artisans were taken to Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar made the Davidic prince Zedekiah king of Judah. In 588 bc Zedekiah led a revolt against Chaldea, and two years later Nebuchadnezzar's army destroyed Judah and razed Jerusalem. All Judeans who were potential leaders of revolt were taken to Babylon. Another group fled to Egypt, taking with them, despite his protests, the prophet Jeremiah. Only the poorest Judean peasants remained. The Babylonian captivity marked the end of the political independence of ancient Israel, except for a brief revival more than four centuries later.
Subject Judea.
At the time of the dissolution of Judah, Judeans were living in Egypt, in Babylon, and among the peasants in Palestine.
Life in Babylon.
The most important of these communities was in Babylon. There the exiles found a thriving colony of their coreligionists composed of the Judeans deported in 597 bc and others who had settled there during the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel in 721 bc. Under the direction of the priest and reformer Ezekiel, the Babylonian community retained its separate identity by replacing political Israel with spiritual Israel. The religion was ritualized and made liturgical to govern the life of the exiles. Scribes began to compile the traditions of the Israelites in the books destined to become the Bible. Prayer meetings took the place of worship in the Temple. An anonymous prophet, called Deutero-Isaiah, whose speeches form the second part of the biblical book of Isaiah, prepared the faithful exiles for a new life in a rebuilt Jerusalem.
Return to Jerusalem.
In 539 bc Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, conquered Babylon. The next year he issued an edict emancipating the Jews. About 42,000 members of the Babylonian community prepared to return to Palestine, taking all their wealth, contributions from those remaining in Babylon, and, according to tradition, contributions from Cyrus himself. Led by Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David, the expedition journeyed to Jerusalem. The country was still lying waste from the havoc of the Chaldean wars, and the emigrants despaired at the enormous task confronting them. The resulting apathy of the returned Jews was alleviated by the work of two religious leaders, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, who held out, as Ezekiel had done before them, the rewards of spiritual life as the ultimate goal. The Jews turned their attention to rebuilding, and in 516 bc the Second Temple was completed. The latter date is regarded, in the Jewish tradition, as the true end of the exile in Babylon, which thus endured 70 years (586–516 bc).
The Jewish high priest was elected ruler of the province of Judah, or Judea, which thereupon became a theocracy. The task of rebuilding proceeded slowly, and about 445 bc Nehemiah, a Jewish favorite of Artaxerxes I, king of Persia (r. 465–425 bc), was given permission to direct the reconstruction. Under his management Jerusalem again became a great city. During the same period, the Babylonian community, hearing reports of religious laxity, may have sent Ezra, a famous teacher and scribe, to institute religious reforms; the possibility of confusion of the identity of Artaxerxes, as mentioned in the Book of Ezra, however, makes a date of 398 or 397 bc for Ezra's return also plausible. By the middle of the 4th century, Judea had become a country organized in accordance with formalized doctrines of belief and dominated by a powerful priesthood. The Torah, the books of the Law, governed every aspect of Jewish life, and the scribes and teachers of the Law gave the Scriptures final form. Judea prospered. Thus, adjusting to adverse circumstances, the Jews had, in about 150 years, transformed themselves from a political entity to a people almost entirely motivated by religion.
The Diaspora.
In the late 4th century bc, the dominant power in the ancient world became Macedonia, under Alexander the Great. After the Macedonian subjugation of Persia in 331 bc, Judea became a province of Alexander's empire. According to tradition, Alexander showed a special consideration to the Jews—thousands of Jews migrated to Egypt after the founding of Alexandria. With the growth of commercial opportunities under the united empire, Jews migrated to colonies throughout the known world: to the shores of the Black Sea, to the Greek Islands, and to the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. These migrations assumed such large proportions that they became known collectively as the Diaspora (Gr., “dispersion”). Far removed from the center of Jewish life in Judea, the emigrants had to learn and use the Greek language, rather than Hebrew, and adopt Greek customs and ideas. The Pentateuch was translated into Greek during the 3d century bc, and the Greek version, the Septuagint, which later included the other parts of the Hebrew Bible, became standard among the Jews of the Diaspora. The Greek way of life and Greek culture, known as Hellenism, became influential among Jews of the Diaspora.
After the death of Alexander in 323 bc, the Greeks became a political as well as a cultural danger to the Jews. Alexander's empire was divided among his generals, and Judea was first invaded by Ptolemy I, king of Egypt. Jewish territory, as the trade route to Arabia, was strategically important, and it became the subject of intense conflict between Egypt and the Seleucidae of Syria. In 198 bc, in the Battle of Panion, King Antiochus III of Syria overwhelmed Egypt and added Judea to his domains. The Seleucid rulers began a campaign to replace Judaism with Hellenism. The campaign reached its height under King Antiochus IV, who in 168 bc proclaimed the Jewish religion illegal and replaced the altar to Yahweh in the Temple with an altar to Zeus.
The Hasmonaean period.
An inevitable Jewish rebellion began the same year under the Jewish priest Mattathias and his sons, called the http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gifMACCABEES, (q.v.). After a bitter military struggle, the Jewish forces defeated Syria. The Hasmonaean dynasty, or Maccabees, became the leaders and, finally, the kings of an independent Jewish state.
Under the Hasmonaeans, the Jews concentrated their efforts to keep their religion pure and free of foreign influence. The two major political parties that came into being, the Sadducees and Pharisees, differed as much in religious doctrine as they did in political theory. Other religious factions of the period included the Essenes, Jewish religious brotherhoods that maintained a monastic way of life in communal settlements. The Hasmonaeans established the Sanhedrin, a council of state composed of 71 Jewish leaders and sages that was the supreme authority for civil and religious legal decisions. The kingdom was expanded and, under John Hyrcanus, came to include Samaria and Edom, known as Idumaea, where the inhabitants were compelled to accept Judaism.
Like its predecessors, the Hasmonaean Jewish kingdom faced widespread factional conflict. During a civil conflict between the brothers Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, Antipater, an Idumaean and nominally a supporter of Hyrcanus, intrigued with the Roman general Pompey the Great. Rome entered Judea, and in 47 bc the kingdom became directly subject to Rome, with Antipater as procurator. His son Herod the Great became king in 37 bc.
Christianity appears.
The last century of the ancient Jewish state was marked by religious and political upheaval. At the beginning of the Christian era the Jewish population in the ancient world numbered some 8 million, living, outside Judea, mainly in Alexandria, Cyrenaica (northern Africa), Babylon, Antioch, Ephesus, and Rome. This dispersion created, in addition to the force of Hellenism, several movements that struck at Judaism. One was directed against all Jews and took the form of anti-Jewishness based on business competition, religious difference, and the political privileges granted to many Jews who rose to high office. A second movement came from within Judaism itself, as Christianity. The Greek Jews who came to believe in Jesus (Heb. Yeshua, or Joshua) as the promised Messiah far outnumbered the Judeans who accepted Jesus. Moreover, as the disciples of Jesus traveled through the ancient world, many pagans were converted to the new belief. Christianity was originally regarded as a Jewish sect, but as more and more pagans were accepted into Christianity, their faith revolved almost entirely about the person and preaching of Jesus. The Judeo-Christians, on the other hand, remained, essentially, Jews. The Jewish answer to these new movements was to permit no laxity in observance of the forms of traditional religion.
The great revolt.
During the 1st century ad religious conflict caused bloody battles. The Roman governors of Judea were despotic and gave little respect to the Jewish religion. In ad 66 a violent insurrection, led by the Zealots, a fanatic Jewish sect, began against Rome. Nero, then emperor, sent the Roman general Vespasian (later emperor) to put an end to the conflict. By 70 the revolt was crushed, the Temple was destroyed, and Jerusalem was razed; Masada, the last fortress, fell in 73.
Nominally, Judea continued to exist. The center of Jewish learning was transferred to Jabneh (Jamnia, now Yavne, Israel) under the direction of the great sage Johanan ben Zakkai. For the next generation Judea was more or less peaceful, under strict Roman control. Then the Roman emperor Hadrian ordered Jerusalem rebuilt as a pagan city, to be called Aelia Capitolina, in honor of Jupiter; at the same time he issued an edict banning circumcision. This double insult caused consternation among the Jews of the Diaspora as well as those of Judea.
Bar Kokhba.
A violent revolt occurred in Judea, under Simon Bar Kokhba. From 132 to 135 the Jews made a desperate stand against the Roman legions and were, for a time, successful. When the rebellion was finally put down by Rome, Judea was prostrate. By order of the emperor the very name of the province was discarded and changed to Syria Palaestina. Jerusalem was made a pagan city, and the death penalty was decreed for any Jew who entered its gates. Persecution of Jews became common throughout the empire.
Moreover, the fall of Judea created a greater rift between Jews and Christians. The Jews considered the loss a calamity, but the Christians saw it as a manifestation that God had abandoned the Jews and viewed themselves as the true bearers of divine grace. During the first three centuries of the Christian era, Christianity became increasingly powerful. After 313, when Constantine I, emperor of Rome, accepted the new religion for himself and his empire, Christian antagonism against and, later, persecution of Jews became widespread.
Postexilic Jews.
The destruction of the second Jewish state and the surge of anti-Jewishness did not disorganize the Jews.
Religious development in exile.
Their answer was the development of the postexilic religion known as Judaism. Their continued unity was based on a common language, a literary heritage that all Jews were required to know and study, a well-knit community life and organization, and their abiding messianic hope.
During the first six centuries of the exile, the teachers and rabbis set down the great body of oral law and religious interpretation in the Mishnah and Gemara, known collectively as the Talmud. The principal centers of Jewish learning became academies in Palestine, notably in Galilee and in Babylonia, first under the rule of the Parthians, then from ad 227 of the Sassanians, or Neo-Persians. An important Jewish community had lived in Babylonia since the 6th century bc, and it became the greatest influence on the exiled Jews. The Jewish colony was headed by an administrator known as an exilarch. The two Babylonian academies at Sura and Pumbeditha became renowned throughout all Jewish communities. The scholars who worked in the 1st and 2d centuries ad on the codification and amplification of the oral law were the Tannaim (from Aram., “to teach”). They were succeeded in the 3d century by the Amoraim (Aram., “speakers”) and in the 5th century by editors called Saboraim (from Aram., “reflect”). With completion of the Gemara, the commentary on the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud was finished by the beginning of the 6th century. The less complete Palestinian Talmud (or Talmud of Jerusalem) had received its present form about a century earlier. The later heads of the Babylonian academies were called geonim (plural form of Heb. gaon, “excellence”); they received queries on religion from every part of the medieval world, and their answers, or responsa, came to be incorporated into standard religious practice.
Islamic tolerance.
The rise of Islam created no great disturbance in the Jewish communities of Babylonia. Muslim armies conquered Mesopotamia in 637, and the religion of Islam became the state religion. A series of nominal restrictions against Jews was decreed by the Code of Omar, promulgated by Caliph Omar I. Jews were permitted to hold no political office and could have no Muslim servants. They could not bear arms, build or repair synagogues, or worship in loud voices. Moreover, they were required to wear yellow patches on their sleeves as a distinguishing mark. The caliphs of Baghdad did not consider themselves bound by the code and permitted the Jews to retain virtual autonomy. The historical importance of these restrictions resulted from their later importation into Europe by Christians, who imposed them on European Jews for centuries.
The period of Islamic tolerance was marked by cooperation between Muslims and Jews that resulted in a development of culture based on a combination of Greek, Muslim, and Jewish learning at a time when Europe was still in the so-called Dark Ages.
Jews in medieval Europe.
In the middle of the 10th century the center of learning, both secular and religious, shifted from Mesopotamia to Spain, then a Muslim country. Colonies of Jews had existed in Spain since before the ascendancy of the Roman Empire and had long suffered persecution, particularly after the Visigothic rulers accepted Catholicism in the 6th century. The Muslim conquest brought peace to the Spanish Jews, who came to occupy prominent positions as statesmen, physicians, financiers, and scholars. Jewish scholars contributed to the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe by their translations of Greek classics, brought for the first time to western Europe.
The peaceful Spanish era ended in the middle of the 13th century, with the waning of Muslim domination in the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Catholic monarchs, Spanish Jews were forced into the lowly position of other European Jews. During the Middle Ages persecution of Jews in Christian countries was the rule. Much of this persecution was unleashed by mobs who condemned every Jew as one who had taken part in the martyrdom of Jesus. During the Crusades, thousands of Jews were massacred in the religious fervor of the period. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council of the Roman Catholic church, called by Pope Innocent III, proclaimed an official policy of restrictions, similar to the Code of Omar, and ordered all Jews to wear distinctive badges. Throughout Europe Jews were despised. In cities they were forced to live in special areas, called ghettos, and not permitted freedom of movement. During the 13th and 14th centuries several European monarchs filled their treasuries by confiscating Jewish property and expelling the owners. In 1290 King Edward I of England beggared and expelled the English Jews. King Charles VI of France followed the English example in 1394, virtually ending Jewish history in France until modern times. During the period of the so-called Black Death (14th cent.), massacres of Jews were common throughout Europe, on the charge that Jews had caused the plague by poisoning Christian wells. In Spain systematic persecution by the church resulted in mass conversions by Jews attempting to save their lives. In many cases, such conversions were merely outward; a class of converts called Marranos (Span., “swine”) arose, professing Roman Catholicism but adhering to Judaism in secret. The Spanish Inquisition, instituted in 1478, persecuted the Marranos, and in 1492 Spain expelled the Jews. Their expulsion from Portugal followed in 1497.
The exiles from western Europe found refuge in the eastern part of the continent. Thousands of Spanish Jews migrated to European Turkey, which preserved the Islamic policy of toleration, and Constantinople became the site of the largest Jewish community in Europe during the 16th century. Most of the Jews expelled from England, France, Germany, and Switzerland settled in Poland and Russia; by 1648 the Polish community included more than 500,000 Jews. The Polish Jews came to possess their own autonomous organization within the Polish Kingdom and became the center of Jewish activity. Then came the persecutions of 1648–58, carried out by followers of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1595?–1657), leader of the cossacks in the Ukraine, in which countless Jewish communities of Poland were destroyed, and a decline of eastern European Jewry was initiated. Jews—then being barred from the professions, craft guilds, farming, and large commercial enterprises—were forced to live by petty commerce.
Jews in Modern Life.
By the end of the 16th century only remnants of the old Jewish communities remained in western Europe.
The Reformation and the French Revolution.
With the gradual increase in political and social freedom following the Protestant Reformation, however, tolerance for Jews was reestablished in the West. The new freedom came first to England, where the migration of Jews was encouraged, after 1650, by the Commonwealth under the military and political leader Oliver Cromwell. Jews were also encouraged to settle in the English colonies in America by such influential men as the philosopher John Locke and the colonial preacher Roger Williams. In France the Jews were enfranchised by the National Assembly in 1791, as part of the democratic concepts of the French Revolution, and Napoleon, during his military campaigns, opened ghettos and emancipated the Jews as he marched across Europe. A revival of repression occurred after 1815, when the states once subject to Napoleon refused to adopt his policies, including that of Jewish emancipation, which they regarded as a tendency to liberalism. This temporary reaction, however, lasted only for a few decades, and in the 1860s Jewish emancipation in western Europe was nominally secure.
Eastern European persecution.
In eastern Europe, on the other hand, the previous policy of Jewish tolerance was reversed, and Poland and Russia instituted official policies of Jewish persecution to offset any possible liberal tendencies. Such persecution equaled that inflicted on medieval Jews, particularly after the partition of Poland and the incorporation of eastern Poland into the Russian Empire between 1772 and 1796. The new Russian territory contained most of the Polish Jews, for whom severe restrictions were laid down. Jews were forbidden to live outside specific areas, and their educational and occupational opportunities were rigidly circumscribed. In addition, the imperial government encouraged and even financed periodic massacres of Jews, called pogroms, in order to divert the attention of the Russian populace from their discontent with the feudalistic system still prevailing in the late 19th century. The government instituted even sterner anti-Jewish measures as it tried to isolate and render ineffective any possible political influence by Russian Jews, who were importing western European ideas and knowledge into Russia. This intense persecution endured until the Russian Revolution, which overthrew the czarist regime in 1917. As a result of the pogroms, about 2 million Jews immigrated to the U.S., between 1890 and the end of World War I, from areas under Russian control. Other colonies of eastern European Jews were founded in Canada, South America (notably in Argentina), the Union of South Africa, and Palestine.
Jews in the western hemisphere.
Jewish immigration to the western hemisphere began almost immediately after the founding of the first American colonies. Numerous Sephardic Jews (of Spanish or Portuguese descent) first settled in Brazil; only Marranos were permitted, however, and persecution by the Inquisition resulted in their subsequent flight from Brazil. The first North American community of Jews was established in 1654 by some of these Brazilian Marranos, thenceforth openly professing Judaism, in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City). Other groups of Jews settled in such cities as Philadelphia; Newport and Providence, R.I.; and Savannah, Ga. At the time of the American Revolution, about 1780, the Jewish population of the colonies numbered an estimated 2000. Several of these colonial Jews became prominent during the period, notably Aaron Lopez (1731–82) of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, one of the leading merchants in the colonies, and Haym Salomon, a famous financier and one of the principal contributors to the financing of the revolutionary army. During the greater part of the 19th century, most Jewish immigrants to the U.S. came from Germany, after 1815 as a result of anti-Jewish feeling following the downfall of Napoleon, and after 1848 following an unsuccessful German revolution. Among these German-Jewish families were those of U.S. Senator Judah P. Benjamin, who became a leading figure in the Confederate cabinet, and Isaac Mayer Wise, the organizer of American Reform Judaism. By 1880 about 250,000 Jews lived in the U.S. These early immigrants had come either as separate individuals or in family groups. During the next 40 years almost 3 million Jews came to the U.S., mainly from eastern Europe. This flood of immigrants, however, constituted the population of entire communities and even provinces, which preserved their communal identity on settling in the large cities along the Atlantic coast. Large-scale immigration ceased in 1924, when quota restrictions were enacted.
Life in western Europe.
The emancipation of the Jews had far-reaching religious, cultural, and political effects. Slowly, as Jews took their place in the modern world, the wall erected around the Jewish community by strict, traditional Judaism began to crumble. Moses Mendelssohn exerted one of the greatest influences in bringing about the adjustment of Judaism, both as a religion and as a way of life, to the outside world. By translating the Pentateuch into German and teaching the value of cultural affiliations between Jews and their non-Jewish environment, Mendelssohn opened the route for the cultural contributions made by later Jews, both to the Jewish community and to the world. One of the results of his work was the Reform Judaism initiated by German Jews. Many Jewish families discarded Judaism entirely, becoming Christian to increase their cultural and civic opportunities, and this action did not occasion the stern condemnation that it would have if taken only a century before. Among such families was that of Mendelssohn's own grandson, Felix Mendelssohn, the famous German composer. One of the greatest German poets, Heinrich Heine, was born Jewish and, although he was converted to Christianity, retained his love for Judaism. Benjamin Disraeli, one of the most notable British statesmen, was the son of a converted Jew.
In every country of western Europe, as well as in the U.S., Jews made monumental contributions, not as members of a Jewish community but as citizens and members of national cultures. Karl Marx originated the modern socialist and Communist movements. In France, Henri Bergson and in Germany Hermann Cohen and Martin Buber profoundly influenced modern philosophy. Sigmund Freud originated psychoanalysis. In the graphic arts, such Jews as the painters Amedeo Modigliani (born in Italy), Camille Pissarro (of Portuguese and French parentage), and Marc Chagall (born in Russia), and the sculptors Jacob Epstein (born in the U.S.) and Jacques Lipchitz (born in Lithuania), became famous in international art circles. Albert Einstein (born in Germany) revolutionized theories of physics and mathematics with his concept of relativity. In many fields of human knowledge and endeavor, Jews distinguished themselves as separate and equal members of all societies. The Jewish community itself underwent a cultural renaissance in the 19th century. Known as the Haskalah (Heb., “enlightenment”), this renaissance was begun in eastern Europe. Jews once again began to write in Hebrew, to study the new science of Darwin and Thomas Huxley, and even to study the Bible so as to provide scholarly and scientific interpretations of the once sacrosanct Scriptures. Hebrew poetry, novels, and history were published, and Hebrew again became a living language. The Yiddish language of the eastern European Jews was dignified by its use as a literary language in the works of such great Jewish writers as Mendele Mocher Setorim (c. 1826–1917), Shalom Aleichem, Judah Leb Peretz (1852–1915), and Sholem Asch. The cultural revival of the Haskalah, which was specifically Jewish, was important in the revival of Jewish hope for a homeland in Palestine by its study of Jewish heritage.
Anti-Semitism.
World events in the late 19th century indirectly aided the political hopes engendered by the Haskalah. In Germany and France, particularly, a movement opposing the Jews came into being. It was called anti-Semitism, because its followers based their opposition not on the Jewish religion but on what they considered the Jewish race: the Semites. Political parties were formed in such countries as Germany, France, Austria, and Hungary to keep Jews from occupying positions of eminence. In France, anti-Semitism became a predominant political issue with the so-called http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gifDREYFUS AFFAIR, (q.v.), which began with the trial, on false evidence, of a Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1935). One of the spectators at the Dreyfus trial, an Austrian writer named Theodor Herzl, became convinced that the only solution to the problem of anti-Semitism was a Jewish national state. In 1896 Herzl became the founder of political Zionism. For the next 50 years the Zionist organization fought and planned to achieve its ambition, finally realized in the state of Israel.
During the first half of the 20th century, and particularly in the period between the two world wars, anti-Semitism became a dominant force in European politics, notably in Germany. In the 1930s the growth of National Socialism, incorporating anti-Semitic doctrines, threatened all Jews, many of whom considered themselves not Jews but assimilated members of various national groups. During the supremacy of the National Socialists in western Europe, an estimated 6 million European Jews were slaughtered, both in Germany and in German-controlled states. This period of persecution and extermination of European Jews is called the http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gifHOLOCAUST (q.v.). http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gifN.N.G., NAHUM NORBERT GLATZER, Ph.D.
For information on the religious beliefs and practices of the Jewish people, see http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gifJUDAISM,.
For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, sections http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif54. Bible atlases–http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif55. The Old Testament, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif129. Judaism, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif163. Anti-Semitism, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif165. Internal migration, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif678. Church, temple, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif728. Jewish music, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif858. Hebrew literature, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif874. Jewish history, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif878. Ancient Middle East, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif915. Concentration camp–http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif916. Holocaust, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif958. Dreyfus affair, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif1053. Modern Turkey, http://www.history.com/encyclopedia/icons/info.gif1060. Palestine.
An article from Funk & Wagnalls® New Encyclopedia. © 2006 World Almanac Education Group. A WRC Media Company. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, uses of the work inconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and related laws are prohibited.
Thanks Aggie
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