History of Judaism

The false prophets, at long last, were silenced forever. They had predicted that Judah would remain independent of Babylonia (Jeremiah ch.27) and no Destruction would take place.
Also, the lure of idolatry finally weakened, since the Destruction and Exile happened exactly as predicted by the true Prophets, who were the same ones who had spoken ceaselessly against dabbling in idolatry.See also the Related Link.

Link: Did Judaism change?

Judaism, the same as today, except that sacrifices have been replaced by prayer and study.

The ancient Hebrews worshipped many gods but by the end of the Babylonian Exile, at the latest, the national God Yahweh was to become the one God of Judaism, the new religion of Judah.

Nothing forced the Nazis to hate the Jews; they chose to do so. The Nazis willingly and ably served in committing one of the worst massacres of human life in all of history. Additionally, the phrasing of this question would offend numerous people because it assumes that the Jews were guilty of committing some sort of offense and were therefore rightfully castigated. While it is not true to say that Jews were innocent lambs, the Jews did not do half of the negative nonsense that is attributed to them in order to "justify" Anti-Semitism and violence against them. Jews have been punished for being different, unique, and misunderstood and never did anything worth punishing them for in the same way that Africans never did anything to merit enslavement. These actions were taken on account of bigotry and self-supremacy, not based on any system of equitable justice.

In terms of the reasons why the Nazis hated the Jews, those are as simply as possible:

• The Nazis thought that the German Jews were 'alien', 'un-German' and a 'corrupting influence' on Germany and that they were encouraging immorality.
• The Nazis believed that the Jews were Communists (and that Communism was a specifically Jewish ideology).
• There were strange conspiracy theories that claimed that the Jews were trying to achieve 'world domination'.
• The Nazis said that the Jews were enemies of Germany, and that Jews and Germans were locked in a struggle to the death. (This was another of those conspiracy theories that many Nazis took seriously).
• The Nazis believed that the Jews had made Germany lose World War 1.
• The Nazis subscribed to racialist theories that claimed that the Jews were inferior to others.
• However, Nazi propaganda also portrayed them as very clever indeed, very dangerous and close to achieving world domination: the two don't even begin to fit.
• With the start of World War 2 in September 1939 Hitler became obsessed with the idea that 'the Jews' had started the war.
• Earlier, 'religious' hostility to Judaism had often demonized the Jews and painted them as sinister and evil.

The way the question is written is to assume that it is not theirs, which is not the case in the slightest. Nobody asks what "entitled" Poles to create a nation-state in Prussian, Russian, and Austrian land or what "entitled" British colonists to create a European-Style country in North America. The people who live in a certain area and have a connection to that area have an intrinsic right to that land. The Jews are no different as concerns Palestine.

According to historical, religious, legal, and political grounds, the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine at least partially, if not entirely, belongs to the Jewish people.

1) Historically: The Jews have an undeniable presence in the land from at least 700 BCE until 70 CE and this is proven not only by the Biblical account, but from Assyrian Ruins, Babylonian documents, Hellenistic inscriptions, and Roman volumes. Jews had a continuous presence in the land from 70 CE until the present day (even though they were nowhere near the majority) even though they were forcibly deported from the territory. The fact that they survived, as opposed to the Arameans or Hittites who were similarly exiled does not illegitimate their claims.

In addition to the population-part of the historical claim, Jews have physical ruins and cities that are very sacred to them in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. The city of Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible. The city of Nablus used to be the Northern Metropolis of Shechem. Hebron was the first capital of Ancient Israel whence Saul ruled and David ruled until he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Even more recent sites like Masada document the Jewish presence and struggle to persevere.

2) Religiously: The Jewish claim to have a connection to the land of the British Mandate of Palestine is firmly grounded in their religion. Jews as early as the Babylonian exiles wrote about returning to the land because God had promised it to them. According to the Pentateuch, God promised Abraham that piece of land. (This promise is even acknowledged in the Qur'an 5:20-21, 17:104, and 26:59.) Many Jewish Holy Sites are in Israel such as the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).

3) Legally: By international law, the Ottoman Empire took the territory from the Seljuks and Abbassids by internationally recognized conquest. The territory was ceded to the British as a Mandate by the Ottomans as a term of surrender in World War I. (Even though the British had promised the territory to both the Arabs and Jews during the War, neither promise is legally binding.) According to the terms of the Mandate, even though the British were in control, the League of Nations had official jurisdiction. In 1947, the British gave direct authority to the League of Nations' successor, the United Nations, in accordance with the terms of their Mandate. The UN passed the 1947 Partition Plan that gave both a Jewish State and an Arab State the Right to Declare Statehood. The fact that the Arabs decided not to immediately declare such a state does not make the Israeli declaration any less valid. (It is important to note that Palestine did declare statehood on these grounds in 1988, which further cements the legality of this view.)

4) Politically: Jews invested a lot in building the political and physical infrastructure of the land even before they had control. Jews built farms, trained military brigades, created political parties, studied government, and defended themselves. This created a system that was able to repel the Arab Attacks in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, secure expanded borders in the Six Day War of 1967, and hold those borders in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Israelis were actually able to exert control over this territory.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but should capture the sentiment of the question.

Answer 1

In Medieval Europe and some parts of the Arab World, the Jews were required to live only within certain areas of cities. In Venice, in the district of Canareggio, there was a neighborhood called "Ghetto" which happened to be the one assigned to the Venetian Jews. Eventually, the name of this particular area took on the meaning of any such area in any city. Jews remained in the ghettos well into the modern period and were first released from the ghettos by Napoleon who decreed that Jews were French citizens and need not live in separate areas. However, many Jews remained in the ghettos as they had a certain Jewish character to them by that point.

During the Holocaust, the term ghetto takes on a slightly different meaning. They were basically (to the Nazis) community homes to store as many possible Jews in for each city. Although there were more than just one ghetto in each city, more Jews than the ghettos could hold were always put into these ghettos to await "Relocation." This "Relocation" was actually deportation to a death camp. But, ghettos were just somewhat large Jew and other inferior containment buildings.

Answer 2

A ghetto was an area in a town or city where Jews lived, in most cases because they were not allowed to live elsewhere. As they tended to be overcrowded and, in many areas, the Jewish inhabitants were restricted in the work they were permitted to do (leaving many very poor) ghettos tended to be squalid, disease-ridden places with very poor living conditions. They existed in various European cities between the Middle Ages right up until WW2, which saw the famous uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto - when the Nazis tried to clear the ghetto, the Jews inside put up an armed resistance and were successful in holding off the Nazis for a number of weeks. However, the Nazis finally took the ghetto due to their superior numbers and firepower and set about burning or bombing the buildings, rounding up anyone they could and shooting anyone who tried to flee. Most of those captured were then sent to Treblinka where the majority died.

Comment on Answer 2

The above is confusing and inaccurate because it conflates medieval, early modern and Nazi ghettos. By 1870 ghettos (as places where Jews had to live bylaw) had been abolished in Europe, but were reintroduced by the Nazis in 1939-41, then liquidated.

Some scholars maintain that the definition of the word Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including ethnic Poles, the Roma, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious adherents. By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would be between 11 million and 17 million people.

Answer: Those who were not classified as Jews but who had some Jewish blood were categorized as Mischlinge(hybrids)and were divided into two groups:

Mischlinge of the first degree--those with two Jewish grandparents;

Mischlinge of the second degree--those with one Jewish grandparent. The Mischlinge were officially excluded from membership in the Nazi Party and all Party organizations (e.g. SA, SS, etc.). Although they were drafted into the Germany Army, they could not attain the rank of officers. They were also barred from the civil service and from certain professions. (Individual Mischlinge were, however, granted exemptions under certain circumstances.) Nazi officials considered plans to sterilize Mischlinge, but this was never done. During World War II, first-degree Mischlinge, incarcerated in concentration camps, were deported to death camps.

synagogue (sĭn'əgŏg) [Gr.,=assembly], in Judaism, a place of assembly for worship, education, and communal affairs. The origins of the institution are unclear. One tradition dates it to the Babylonian exile of the 6th cent. B.C. The returnees may have brought back with them the basic structure that was to be developed by the 1st cent. A.D. into a well-defined institution around which Jewish religious, intellectual, and communal life was to be centered from this earliest period into the present. Other scholars believe the synagogue arose after the Hasmonean revolt (167-164 B.C.) as a Pharisaic alternative to the Temple cult. The destruction of the Temple (A.D. 70) and the Diaspora over the following centuries increased the synagogue's importance. Services in the synagogue were conducted in a simpler manner than in the Temple. There was no officially appointed priest, the services being conducted by a chazan (reader). The role the synagogue played in preserving Judaism intact through the centuries cannot be overestimated, nor can its influence as an intellectual and cultural force. In the modern period, the reform movement restricted its scope to almost purely religious purposes, although among the Orthodox Jews its purview did not diminish. In more recent times the synagogue has again taken on its former functions as a social and communal center. The architectural appearance of the synagogue has usually not differed from that of local non-Jewish forms. The interior includes an ark in which the Torah scrolls are held and a platform from which they are read. In modern times, a pulpit from which to preach has also become common, and in many synagogues the three are combined on one platform. In the United States, the national synagogue associations, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, the United Synagogue of America (Conservative), and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform) are organized in the Synagogue Council of America.

Above retrieved from Answers.com

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