Judaism In the World

The Patriarchal Period

1500 BCE

This is where Judaism begins when a Mesopotamian named Abraham was commanded by god to leave Mesopotamia and head off to the land of Canaan. Abraham, Issac (his son), and Jacob (his grandson) became known as the Patriarchs and their wives Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel became known as the Matriarchs. The formative period ended when Jacob (renamed Israel), followed his son Joseph to Egypt during the period of famine.

Samuel Anoints Saul King of Israel

1049 BCE

When the Israelite monarchy began, the period of the Judges had ended. David (Saul's successor) had established a united kingdom which was centered in the capital city of Jeruselum. Solomon (David's son) had built a Holy Temple in the center of Jeruselum which had then unified the Israelites religious life there as well. After Solomons death, his sons divided the kingdom in half. The North being Israel and the South being Judah.

Ezra Reads the Torah

444 BCE

After the return to Israel in 538 and the rebuilding of the Temple in 515, the scribe, Ezra, returned in 458 and had commenced work on the final composition of the The Book of Law or the Torah. On Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Years) Ezra read the Torah in public for the first time in the year 444 which became the emergence of Judaism as a formal religion.

Hillel and Jesus in Judea

1 CE

During a period of political and religous termoil under the Roman rule, there had been many different interpritations of Judaism the competed for primacy. Sadducees which aligned themselves with the ruling power. Pharisees which was represented by sages such as Hillel and Shammai which later emerged as Rabbanic Judaism which all major, contemporary forms of Judaism derive. Essense formed the background for the newly emerging Christianity. Tradition says rabbi Hillel died and Jesus was born.

Philo of Alexandria

40

The burgeoning Jewish community had been highly assimilated into Greek culture in the Hellenistic city that is Alexandria, Egypt. The best known examples of Hellenism and Judaism in Alexandria are the Septuagit (second century BCE Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) and Philo (a philospher) which are a pattern of cultural synthesis which continue to this day. In 40 CE Philo traveled to Rome as a part of a Jewish delegation pleading for sanctity of the Temple.

Destruction of the Second Temple

70

After the outbreak which was the Jewish war in 66 CE, the Romans had began the reconquest of Judea. In 70 CE, Roman General Titus had entered Jeruselum and destroyed the Temple. Three years after the destruction of the Temple, the Zealots, Jewish rebels, had made a stand at the fortess of Masada. With the destruction of the Temple and mass suicide, the Jewish population was at risk especially since the rebels anticipated their capture. The Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakai moved the council to Yavne.

Saadiah Gaon in Babylonia

942

As the amount of Jewish life in Judea declining, Babylonia had become the major Jewish community of the world. It had reached a peak under Rav Saadiah Gaon's leadership and was also the head of the yeshiva of Sura. He was raised and educated in Egypt and had moved through the yeshivot of Palestine, Syria, and Iraq before he had been called to Babylonia. He wrote an early prayer book in Arabic along with the first medival Jewish theological treatise. He is consdered a pioneer in Judeo-Arabic lit.

Jews Expelled from England

1290

After the First Crusade in 1096, and the Crusades which happened in the 12th century, Jewish status in Christian Europe had declined rapidly. Lots of Anti-Jewish stereotypes and false accusations had been spread throughout Europe. The situation had lead to the mass expulsion of the Jews in England.

The Ghetto of Venice

1516

There had been a growing number of Jewish refugees in Venice, Italy. The Venice authorities had made special quarters for the refugees in the ghetto area of the city. It had become a prototype of the series of Jewish quarters that were established throughout central Europe which had served as segregation from the majority population and culture.

Massacres in Poland

1648

Under Bogdan Chmielnitski, the Cossack uprising which had accompanied a widespread of massacres which had ended a period of prosperity and security for the Jews inhabiting Poland. "The Council of the Four Lands", the Polish Jewry's greatest rabbanic figure was Rabbi Moses Isserles of Cracow, had adapted the Caro's Shulachan Aruch for Ashkenazi Jews.

The Birth of Modern Jewish Scholarship

1819

After the anti-Jewish riots in Germany, there was a group of Jewish university students had formed a society called the Verein fur Kultur und Wissenschaft des Judentums which helped to defend Judaism with intellectual means. The group had become the first movement for the scientific study of Jewish sources. A few of the members were, Immanuel Wolf, Leopold Zunz, and Heinrich Heine.

The Holocaust

1945

When the Nazi rose in Germany, it was the final blow to the Emancipation. After the Nazi's had revoked any Jewish citizenship in Germany, they and turned to try and get rid of the Jews in Germany. In World War II, the Nazi's had killed nearly 6 million Jewish men, women and children from all over Europe which had gotten rid of 1/3 of the worlds Jewish population. The Holocaust has become a central event in modern Jewish conciousness although it was such a tragedy.