History of Judaism

Tradespeople, farming, crafts-workers and laborers, fishing, shepherds, functionaries (such as judges and royal servants), etc. There was also a significantly large learned class of scholars and rabbis.

From the end of World War 1 (1918) till Hitler came to power (1933) they lived normal lives and, on the whole, were integrated into German society. There were various anti-Jewish conspiracy theories circulating, but very few Jews felt threatened before 1933.

The most serious persecutions in England took place in the Middle Ages between about 1100 and the complete explusion of the Jews from England by King Edward I in 1290. (No reason is recorded for the explusion). Jews were not readmitted to England till 1657 by Oliver Cromwell.

The coronation of Richard I in 1189 as a 'Crusader King' was marked by serious pogroms in London, Bury St. Edmunds and, worst of all, in York, where about 120-130 Jews were killed or committed suicide.

The reasons were the same as elsewhere in Europe. Moreover, the Crusades were accompanied by excessive and violent religious zeal ...

The first Jews in Australia were convicts. There were between 8 and 14 Jews on the First Fleet. Free Jewish settlers began arriving from 1816 onwards because Australia offered religious freedom not available to them in their homelands.

Abraham is considered as the father of the Jewish nation; and tradition states that Abraham founded Judaism.
The Kuzari (Rabbi Judah HaLevi, 1075-1141) states that Abraham (18th century BCE) was gifted with high intelligence; and, as Maimonides (1135-1204) describes, Abraham didn't blindly accept the ubiquitous idolatry. The whole populace had been duped, but the young Abraham contemplated the matter relentlessly, finally arriving at the conclusion that there is One God and that this should be taught to others as well. This is what is meant by his "calling out in the name of the Lord" (Genesis ch.12). As a young man, he remonstrated with passersby in public, demonstrating to them the falsehood of their idols; and our tradition tells how he was threatened and endangered by Nimrod.
Subsequently, Terah relocated to Harran; and it is here that Abraham began to develop a circle of disciples (Rashi commentary, on Genesis 12:5). Later, God told Abraham in prophecy to move to the Holy Land, which is where he raised his family. He continued his contemplations, eventually arriving at the attitudes and forms of behavior which God later incorporated into the Torah given to Moses.
Abraham became the greatest thinker of all time. His originality, perseverance, strength of conviction, and influence, cannot be overestimated.
He founded the Jewish people and lived to see his work live on in the persons of Isaac and Jacob; and he taught many other disciples as well (Talmud, Yoma 28b).
Abraham entered into a covenant with God (Genesis ch.15 and 17), welcomed guests into his home (Genesis ch.18) unlike the inhospitable Sodomites (Genesis ch.19), prayed for people (Genesis ch.18), eulogized and buried the deceased (Genesis ch.23), and fulfilled God's will unquestioningly (Genesis ch.22). He became renowned as a prince of God (Genesis 23:6).
All of the above practices of Abraham were based upon the ways of God. These, and similar traits, were the teachings of Abraham and his descendants (unlike idolatry, which had no moral character; with worship of the gods accompanied by things such as human sacrifice, "sacred" prostitution, and animal worship). It is therefore clear why God expresses His love for Abraham (Isaiah 41:8) and calls Himself the God of Abraham (Genesis 26:24), and says that Abraham obeyed Him fully (Genesis 26:5).
The gravesite of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives (Genesis 49:29-32) is located in Hebron and has been known and attested to for many centuries.

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The Hebrew's belief in one God was in marked contrast to the many gods of the nations round about them at that time. Archaeologists who have deciphered ancient writing in Egypt, for example, have discovered that as they looked at the earliest dated records the beliefs tended closer towards monotheism, as evidence that something akin to this was the original religious expression of mankind. By the time the Israelites existed as a nation, this primitive monotheism which the Israelites themselves maintained continuously as their official religious expression had deteriorated into polytheism, often of the grossest kind, in other nations.

Yes.

One of the central beliefs of Judaism, as codified by Rambam (Maimonides, 1135-1204), is that the soul continues to exist and is treated in accordance with the person's actions while he/she was alive.

Judaism was the religion of the Hebrews from Abraham onwards.

Our ancient sages emphasized the importance of being aware of this: "This world is a mere entranceway before the afterlife" (Mishna, Avot ch.4).

All outstanding accounts are settled after this life. Some cases illustrate this point, since this entire world wouldn't be enough to reward a Moses or punish a Hitler.

The afterlife is detailed at length in the Talmud. A full 20 pages of Talmud (Sanhedrin 90-110) are given to this subject. The afterlife is also referred to briefly in Torah (Bible) verses such as Genesis 15:15, which states that "You (Abraham) will come to your fathers in peace and will be buried in good (ripe; full) old age." This does not mean merely to be buried with one's forefathers, since Abraham was not buried with them. Such verses are stated many times.

The prophets are more explicit with such references (see Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:13).

The Tanakh does not delve into detail of the rewards of the righteous, because other religions could compete with even more poetic promises. Also because belief in the afterlife was shared by all ancient societies and needed little reiteration. See the Kli Yakar commentary to Leviticus ch. 26 for a fuller discussion.

It was called the yom kippur war because the Arabs attacked on the Jewish Holiday called yom kippur

It began with the idea that the Jews killed Jesus (the charge of Deicide). The fact that they were subjects of the Romans, and couldn't order a tea without Roman permission, let alone a crucifixion, was ignored as inconvenient. After all, the Pope was Roman. As revenge for the deicide Jews were killed all across Europe. People soon realised that it was a reasonably flimsy pretext to kill innocent people, and began to feel guilty for having killed so many. Rather than face the guilt, though, they decided to find new reasons to justify the killings, and further ones. After all, the alternative was to criticise their ancestors, monarchs, and the church.

This is when the "Blood Libel" was born. The Blood Libel is the idea that Jews sacrifice non-Jewish children in religious ceremonies. The fact that human sacrifice appears nowhere in the Torah was not allowed to get in the way of a good story. More Jews were killed, and there were no two reasons to hate Jews. You may laugh at this one, but Iranian TV, for example, regularly broadcasts claims of Jewish human sacrfice in the modern era.

Nevertheless, this too soon became apparent as a fallacy, and new justification was required, for the same reason as before. Someone dredged up a pamphlet, written in the 19th Century by Maurice Joly, attacking Napoleon III. They plagiarised large parts of it, creating a document called, "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion". This document purported to outline a Jewish plan to take over the world. As demonstrated by the enormous number of Jews today (14 million out of 6.7 billion people in the world) the plan is going very well. Those with a desire to hate Jews latched onto the Protocols as justification for their anti-semitism, and the Protocols also provided much of the foundation for Nazi propoganda.

Essentially, though, anti-semitism is something that is handed down from generation to generation without any real need for justification. I am Jewish, but have a few anti-semitic friends (they're decent people apart from it), who have absolutely no justification for their anti-semitism when confronted, but it becomes clear on further questioning that "my dad said" this, or "my grandad" said that. Find an anti-semite, ask them what a Jew did to them to make them dislike all Jews, and see what they say. Chances are it won't be convincing.

Anti-Semitism is a hatred, revulsion, or denigration of Jewish people and a belief that those people are somehow (by dint of their genetics) more violent, conniving, mischievous, and dastardly than other people. In some cases, like the Nazis or Extremist Muslims, they are considered a "sub-human" race, on par with monkeys. Almost all Anti-Semites are not Jews for the simple reason that no person would willingly consider himself a putrid thing.

Anti-Zionism is a rejection of Zionism. Zionism is merely Jewish Nationalism, the belief that Jews have a right to have their own country where they can determine their own future. Zionists can be both Jews and non-Jews and Anti-Zionists can be both Jews and non-Jews, because the question of whether the Jews have a right to a state is a political question. Since the Jews were able to create such a country, Israel, Anti-Zionism is usually seen as Anti-Israel sentiment.

It is important to note that there are those who wish to argue that Anti-Semitism does not apply exclusively to Jews (since there are non-Jewish Semites), but the term Anti-Semite has never been used to describe anything but Jew-hatred. Additionally, people like to claim that Zionism is a code word for an international cabal of evil Jews trying to control the world. Aside from the fact that such a cabal does not exist, such a thing would fall under Anti-Semitism, not Zionism or Anti-Zionism since this cabal would not be concerned with Jewish Nationalism.

The Syrian-Greeks (Seleucids), at the instigation of their Hellenizing (assimilated) Jewish lackeys, attempted to forcibly assimilate all of the Jews into Greek culture and separate them from their Torah-practices.

The Warsaw Ghetto was established between October to November 1940. This ghetto would be the first uprising during World War Two with the 1943 Warsaw Uprising.

This depends on the society that the Jews lived in. In Nazi Germany and most occupied countries, the Jews were required to wear a Yellow Star of David with the word "Jew" in the local language affixed to the breast of their jackets and shirts. In the Ottoman Empire, Jewish males were required to wear yellow turbans.

Definition
First, we should have an accurate understanding of what Zionism is. Zionism is the belief that Jews should have political self-sovereignty and is the patriotic sentiment behind the Establishment of the State of Israel. It is worth noting that many Anti-Semites claim that Zionism is a code word for some unclear international cabal of evil Jews trying to control the world (or actively doing so). Such a cabal does not exist and insinuations without evidence or with evidence that has proven to be a hoax that it does exist are Anti-Semitic. Aside from this, since such a cabal would not be concerned with Jewish Nationalism, it, therefore, could not be Zionism.

Others argue that Zionism exclusively refers to the current Israeli Right-Wing or Ultra-Nationalists who argue for Israeli annexation of the West Bank and possible expansion outside of territories currently controlled by Israel. Such people are more properly termed Greater Israel Zionism or Right-Wing Zionism. This is contrasted with Left-Wing Zionism, of which Yitzhak Rabin was a major leader and advocate.

Discussion
Equipped with a definition that is actually useful for what Zionism is, we can have a discussion.

Zionism is a nationalist movement, so if wanting a homeland to be free to self-govern is an evil thing, as several post-nationalists believe, then so is Zionism. However, such a person who holds this view should also condemn the modern states of Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany, Pakistan, Algeria, Armenia, and numerous other nation-states that were built on such ideals. A unique condemnation of Zionism on the question of nationalism is a mask for modern Anti-Semitism. However, in each of these cases, the creation of a national homeland provided a place where the people could determine their own national cultures, identities, languages, foods, and ideals free from the influence of neighboring countries which had conquered or colonized them or expressed strong intentions of doing the same. It allowed them to be free from persecution. A person who believes that every group of people, especially ones as maligned through history as the Jews, deserve the right to govern their own affairs and be responsible for their own defense, must hold that Zionism is part of genuinely good historic of nation-building and global development.

Some people see Zionism as wicked because the Jews took a land where they did not have a significant presence for many years. However, Jews lived in the Land of Israel from at least 1100 B.C.E. until the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. Almost all Jews were exiled to other countries, known to Jews as the Diaspora. For centuries, Jews prayed for a return to Zion. In the nineteenth century, the Zionist movement, led by Theodor Herzl and Chaim Weizmann, encouraged Jews to turn the dream into reality, and lobbied the international community to understand that a "Jewish national home" was the only solution to Anti-Semitism and the "Jewish problem." The Return of the Jews to Israel would be no different than if the Native American Tribes or the Aboriginal Australians demanded some of the land stolen from them by White Settlers. They were evicted from their home and are demanding a correction to this historical injustice.

Some believe Zionism is evil because of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. What these people neglect to see is that the conflict has nothing to do with Zionism per se and has much more to do with Arab Muslim beliefs about their own right to discriminate from a position of apartheid. Most early Zionists, even Right-Wing Zionists like Jabotinsky actively wanted to integrate Arabs into a Binational Jewish and Arab State. However, it was the Palestinian Arabs (using the term retroactively) who were led by Nazi-Sympathizer and collaborator on the Armenian Genocide Haj Amin al-Husseini who decided that a Judenrein Arab World was desirable. He was responsible for instigating the Nebi Musa Riots of 1920, the Hebron Massacre of 1929, and the Palestinian Civil War of 1937-1939. It was him and his supporters who made it clear that freedom and equality for Jews could only occur in a Jewish State where Arabs would not be able to violently threaten Jewish lives. The Jews were successful in protecting themselves and their children from the violence of the Palestinians and have prevented large-scale persecution (compare this to the promises of the Arabs in 1947 and 1948 that Palestine would be ethnically cleansed of all Jews). This is another benefit which Zionism has conferred.

Zionism has also resulted in a democratic, Western-aligned country in the Middle East. No other movement for self-determination in the Middle East, other than maybe Turkey or Cyprus can boast the same. The provision of human rights in Israel far outstrips any other Middle Eastern country on almost every metric.

However, it is very questionable whether Right-Wing Zionism, which has a more expansionist view, is good since it agitates and provokes more conflict with the Palestinians than may be necessary.

Edith Schwalb was the name of a Jewish woman whose family went into hiding in France from the Nazi's. She was 6 years old at the time. She was born on April 4, 1919 and died in 1977.

Most Jews are Ashkenazim, Jews historically from Europe. (Israel is split roughly 50/50 between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, but the remaining global community is predominantly Ashkenazi.) However, most Jews are Semites, not Caucasoids as Europeans are.

Depends where. In Spain, the Jews had just been expelled; and many of those who remained were being tortured under the Inquisition. In England, Jews were forbidden to live during the 1500s (they'd been expelled before that). In Germany, the Jews were subject to the caprices and decrees of local princes, since the central monarchy was weak in the 1500s. Martin Luther was at first cordial to the Jews, but later ranted and calumniated against them. In Central Europe, there were blood-libels and pogroms in the 1500s. In Italy and France, the Jews were subject to the harsh decrees and taxation of the Church.

In Turkey (on the other hand), things were relatively good. Turkey was one of the very few countries which welcomed Jews at that time. In North Africa, things were pretty stable.