Everything about Jews totally explained
Zionism is an international
political movement that supports a
homeland for the Jewish People in the
Land of Israel. Although its origins are earlier, the movement was formally established by the Austrian journalist
Theodor Herzl in the late nineteenth century. The international movement was eventually successful in establishing the
State of Israel in 1948, as the world's first and only modern
Jewish State. It continues primarily as support for the state and government of Israel and its continuing status as a homeland for the Jewish people. Described as a "
diaspora nationalism," its proponents regard it as a
national liberation movement whose aim is the
self-determination of the Jewish people.
While Zionism is based in part upon
religious tradition linking the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, where the concept of Jewish
nationhood is thought to have first evolved somewhere between 1200 BCE and the late
Second Temple era (for example up to 70 AD), the modern movement was mainly
secular, beginning largely as a response by
European Jewry to rampant
antisemitism across Europe.
In addition to responding politically, during the late 19th century, Jews began to flee the persecutions of Eastern Europe in large numbers, mostly by heading to the United States, but also to Canada and Western Europe. By 1924, almost two million Jews had emigrated to the US alone, creating a large community in a nation relatively free of the persecutions of rising European
antisemitism (see
History of the Jews in the United States).
The Holocaust
This antisemitism reached its most destructive form in the policies of
Nazi Germany, which made the destruction of the Jews a priority, culminating in the killing of approximately six million Jews during
the Holocaust from 1941 to 1945. Originally, the Nazis used death squads, the
Einsatzgruppen, to conduct massive open-air killings of Jews in territory they conquered. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the
Final Solution, the
genocide of the Jews of Europe, and to increase the pace of the Holocaust by establishing
extermination camps specifically to kill Jews. This was an industrial method of genocide. Millions of Jews who had been confined to diseased and massively overcrowded
Ghettos were transported (often by train) to
"Death-camps" where some were herded into a specific location (often a
gas chamber), then either gassed or shot. Afterwards, their remains were buried or burned. Others were interned in the camps where they were given little food and disease was common.
Israel
In 1948, the Jewish state of
Israel was founded, creating the first Jewish nation since the Roman destruction of
Jerusalem. After the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, the majority of the 850,000 Jews previously living in North Africa and the Middle East fled to Israel, joining an increasing number of immigrants from post-War Europe (see
Jewish exodus from Arab lands). By the end of the 20th century, Jewish population centers had shifted dramatically, with the United States and Israel being the centers of Jewish secular and religious life.
Persecution
» Related articles: Antisemitism, History of antisemitism, New antisemitism
The Jewish people and
Judaism have experienced various
persecutions throughout
Jewish history. During late
Antiquity and the early
Middle Ages the
Roman Empire (in its later phases known as the
Byzantine Empire) repeatedly repressed the Jewish population, first by ejecting them from their homelands during the pagan Roman era and later by officially establishing them as
second-class citizens during the Christian Roman era. Later in
medieval Western Europe, further persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the
Crusades—when Jews all over Germany were massacred—and a series of expulsions from England, Germany, France, and, in the largest expulsion of all,
Spain and
Portugal after the
Reconquista of the
Iberian Peninsula from
Muslim Moors. In the
Papal States, which existed until 1870, Jews were required to live only in specified neighborhoods called
ghettos. In the 19th and (before the end of the second World War) 20th centuries, the Roman Catholic church adhered to a distinction between "good antisemitism" and "bad antisemitism". The "bad" kind promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent. This was considered un-Christian because the Christian message was intended for all of humanity regardless of ethnicity; anyone could become a Christian. The "good" kind criticized alleged Jewish conspiracies to control newspapers, banks, and other institutions, to care only about accumulation of wealth, etc.
Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Traditionally Jews living in Muslim lands, known as
dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religion and to administer their internal affairs, but subject to certain conditions. They had to pay the
jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to Muslims. Many of the disabilities were highly symbolic. The most degrading one was the requirement of
distinctive clothing, not found in the Qur'an or hadith but invented in
early medieval Baghdad; its enforcement was highly erratic. Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession. The notable examples of massacre of Jews include the killing or forcibly conversion of them by the rulers of the
Almohad dynasty in
Al-Andalus in the 12th century. Notable examples of the cases where the choice of residence was taken away from them includes confining Jews to walled quarters (
mellahs) in Morocco beginning from the 15th century and especially since the early 19th century. There were some forced conversions in the 12th century under the
Almohad dynasty of North Africa and
al-Andalus as well as in Persia. Standard antisemitic themes have become commonplace in the propaganda of Arab Islamic movements such as
Hezbollah and
Hamas, in the pronouncements of various agencies of the
Islamic Republic of Iran, and even in the newspapers and other publications of
Refah Partisi."
The most notable modern day persecution of Jews remains the
Holocaust — the state-led systematic
persecution and
genocide of the Jews (and other
minority groups) of Europe and
European Colonial North Africa during
World War II by
Nazi Germany and its
collaborators The persecution and
genocide were accomplished in stages.
Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II.
Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the
Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called
Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings.
Jewish leadership
There is no single governing body for the Jewish community, nor a single authority with responsibility for religious doctrine. Instead, a variety of secular and religious institutions at the local, national, and international levels lead various parts of the Jewish community on a variety of issues.
Famous Jews
Jews have made contributions in a broad range of human endeavors, including the sciences, arts, politics, business, etc. The number of Jewish
Nobel prize winners (approximately 160 in all), is far out of proportion to the percentage of Jews in the world's population.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Jews'.
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