History of Judaism

It depends on the Jews in question.

If you are referring to the Jews that were already in post-Mandatory Palestine, they were able to secure a state against the force of seven Arab armies. With strong will and persistence, they were able to compel each of the Arab leaders to sign an armistice with Israel. During the war, Israeli politicians got to putting the Basic Laws and the Right of Return into effect, establishing a state that reflected their values and had a specific role for both secular and religious authority.

If you are referring to the Jews of Europe, the overwhelming majority of the survivors of the Holocaust soon discovered that no country, even the ones in which they had formerly lived, wanted to take the Jews in. From 1945-1949, many Jews were stranded in Internment Camps across Europe, some only a few minutes away from the Concentration Camps (like Bergen-Belsen). These Jews petitioned for the right to migrate to Mandatory Palestine. Upon Israel's Declaration of Independence, they began to immigrate and many of them joined with the Jewish Militias in the war against the Arabs.

If you are referring to the Jews of the Arab World, the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 was a watershed moment which made life in the Arab World change from mildly intolerant to completely unsafe. Jews were accused by nearly every Arab government of conspiring with Israel (even though the majority of Jews from Arab Countries were Anti-Zionist or Non-Zionist prior to this point). In Iraq, there were show-trials and executions. In Jordan, all Jews were expelled from the country. From 1950-1952, Israel was required to absorb 500,000 Jews from Arab Countries (of the total 800-850,000 who fled). The Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9 completely uprooted their lives, although given the rough decade that the 1940s had been in the Arab World for Jews, it was not entirely unexpected.

If you are referring to the Jews of America, the realization that the American Jewish community was the dominant Diaspora Jewish Community in the wake of the Holocaust finally came to a head in this conflict. American Jews began to embrace and support the State of Israel, but also see themselves as the preservers of Jewish interests and Jewish sects which were exterminated to near or complete extinction in Europe. This was a fundamental shift for American Jewry as the community prior to the Holocaust had been seen as "the Jewish Frontier". The real Jews and traditional Jews were considered to be those of Europe, prior to their annihilation. Being the new center of the Diaspora changed American Jewish discourse and the way that American Jews embraced their religion, leading to an uptick in religiosity among American Jewry.

The Star of David (or Magen David) is a hexagram and was not unique to Judaism. In the Hellenistic world, hexagrams were used by all religions. In the Middle Ages, Jews, Christians and Muslims used them to ward off demons and fires.

In the fourteenth century, Jewish mystical texts began to use the hexagram image to represent the shield of God used to protect King David. The Star of David first appeared on a Jewish flag in Prague in 1527 when Enlightenment Jews needed a symbol, equivalent to the Christian cross, to represent Judaism.

one of her friends in the underground

The ruling classes of Spain were descended from the Visigoths, who had adopted the Arian sect of Christianity. When the King of Spain converted to Catholicism, he intended to require the same of all his nobles. The nobles knew that under Islamic rule, they would have religious freedom, so welcomed the Muslims to Spain.

Zionism is the call for Jews to freely live in their ancient homeland.

The Red Sea. In the Biblical story of Moses (Exodus chapter 14), he parts the sea to save the Hebrews from the Egyptians.

Canaan now is Israel, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, southern Lebanon and Syria

Jewish people were killed during World War 2 because Hitler thought that they were beneath the German race. There were millions of Jewish people that were killed during this time.

It depends what is meant by the word "killed". If "killed" means "responsible for ordering or taking the life of", then the answer is certainly Adolf Hitler, who masterminded the Einsantzgruppen and the Final Solution as ideas and approved them, resulting in the death of 6 million Jews. Hitler, however, did not actually go out and physically murder Jews in large numbers, leaving that to his subordinates. The person who probably took the most Jewish lives by his own hand is the man who dumped the Zyklon B cartridges into the largest gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau, who was a very "average" low-level worker in the camp.

The most important were the so-called Nuremberg Laws of 1935. There were two of them, "The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour", and "The Reich Citizenship Law". The first defined when you were considered a Jew and forbade marriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jewish people. The second law took away all civic rights from Jews and prohibited them to hold any public office or Government employment and later, a number of other professions.

A third law was the "Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People", aimed at further preventing any effort at a "mixed" marriage. A fourth was the "Namensänderungsverordnung" (Name Change Law) that forced Jews with only German first names to add another, typically Jewish first name that made them easily identifiable as Jews.

Moses parted the waters of the Red Sea so the Jews could cross.

Well, it certainly wasn't the only cause, but here's what happened.

After World War I, France (and other nations, but mainly France) got greedy. The French basically wanted to use the war as an excuse to destroy Germany (and therefore enhance France's power in Europe) by crippling it economically. Portions of German territory were seized by other nations, and Germany was saddled with a staggering debt for "war reparations".

The United States refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles (which contained these provisions) and had instead concluded a separate treaty with the Central Powers. The US was not interested in crippling Germany and in fact wanted Germany as a trading partner. In order to help Germany make the reparations payments with its weak economy after the war, the US loaned money to Germany.

Then came 1929 and the stock market crash. That ended the loans, and also dried up US markets for German goods, which was significant as the US was an important trading partner for Germany. US unemployment during the Great Depression was about 25%; German unemployment in the same period was around 33%.

Unemployed Germans, bitter about the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (which Germany had not even been allowed to participate in the negotiation of), were eager to follow anyone who promised a return to prosperity. The National Socialist Workers' Party did just that.

The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) has had a vast influence on the Western world, in areas of belief, law, morals, and practices. For the most part, non-Jews didn't read Hebrew. It was through translations that the Tanakh found its way into the wider world. Its Greek translation was the first non-Hebrew text of the Tanakh (c.270 BCE). Since Greek was an international language for centuries, people had ready access to the Tanakh once it was available in Greek.

In the Time of Jesus, ALL Jews did not work on the Sabbath because it was (and still is) the Jewish day of rest. Today ALL Orthodox and many non-Orthodox Jews will not work on the Sabbath. The Fourth Commandment is to keep the Sabbath Holy by not performing labors.

First, it is worth noting that there is no conflict, since a conflict requires two parties who are both trying to achieve contrary objectives and resorting to fighting in kind (oral vs. oral, militant vs. militant, etc.). As the Jews were not able to bring any such force to bear against the Gentiles, there can be no conflict, only subjugation or emancipation. The negative interactions between Jews and Gentiles are numerous throughout history. Most arise from cultural differences, real or perceived. The Gentiles have sought to extinguish the Jews many times.

The Dreyfus affair revealed anti-Semitism, prejudice against Jews which, in Eastern Europe was bad; thus the Russian government approved of and allowed organized attacks on Jewish villages. This gave reason for Jews to flee to the U.S.

In Biblical as well as Talmudic times (and for certain halakhah-purposes today too), the hours were calculated from sunrise to sunset (one-twelfth of that period was one daylight hour) and from sunset to sunrise (one-twelfth of that period was one hour of the night). The position of shadows was an approximate indicator whenever the sun was shining (which in Israel is a lot, even in winter).

There were many differences between the religions. The single most important difference was that Judaism was monotheistic (Believing in One God - 'Yahweh/Jehovah') while ancient Greek and Roman Religions were Polytheistic (Believing in many different Gods for different purposes)

Social: Judaism expects its adherents not to learn from the negative aspects of the society around it (Leviticus 18:3, Ezekiel 11:12). It provides community in the form of the synagogue congregations. It provides observances such as the head-covering and modest dress, whereby Jews might recognize each other and also avoid assimilation.

Political: Judaism expects its adherents to be a moral bulwark in the wider society (see Isaiah 42:6), influencing government through the available channels such as elections and letters to the various representatives.

Economic: Judaism is relete with laws of charity, honesty, restitution for damages, and integrity. Also, every Jewish community has individuals and groups who give free help in loans of money or useful items, visiting the sick, preparing the dead for burial, assisting young mothers, etc. This is done voluntarily and is not for profit.

The Jews have been persecuted for about 4,000 years, although it is important to note that the persecutors have not been consistent either ethnically or as concerns their rationales for persecution throughout those years.

The Maccabean War of 165 BCE.

The Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks) under Antiochus Epiphanes (2nd century BCE), at the instigation of the Hellenizers, had forbidden various Torah-practices such as Sabbath-observance and circumcision, rededicated the Temple to a Greek idol, and pressed the Jews to offer up sacrifices to the idol. One of the leading elder Jewish sages called upon the people to keep observing the Torah anyway; and if necessary, to use force in resisting the decrees. When a Hellenized Jew offered a sacrifice to the Greek idols in a nearby village, the sage killed him as well as the Greek overseer. This brought a violent reaction from the Greeks; and the loyal Jews, led by the Hasmonean family, were forced to retreat from their towns and strike out at the Greeks in an attempt to oust them from the Holy Land and to enable the people to once again observe the Torah. The Torah-Jews were heavily outnumbered by the attacking Greek armies, but God gave them miraculous victories again and again. After three years of struggle, the Greek armies retreated from Jerusalem, and the Hasmoneans (also called Maccabees) entered the Holy Temple which the Greeks had defiled, reconsecrated it to God, and began the Temple service once more. Among other things, they wanted to relight the olive oil candelabrum (Exodus ch. 25), but could only find one day's supply of undefiled oil - and it would take eight days to make and bring some more.

Miraculously, the menorah stayed lit for eight days (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), allowing enough time for new oil to be prepared and brought. The significance of the miracle is that it demonstrated that God's presence was still there. The Torah-community was overjoyed, because God's presence meant everything to them.

This is what Hanukkah represents: the closeness to God; and the avoidance of Hellenization (assimilation).

The Torah Sages instituted the festival of Hanukkah at that time (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), to publicize the miracle (Rashi commentary, ibid). This is why we light our Hanukkah-menorahs.

(The Hanukkah-menorah, or hanukkiyah, is a special form of the original seven-branched menorah. Our Hanukkah-menorahs have eight spaces for oil, or candles, to mark each of the eight days for which the oil lasted and a ninth to hold the shamash, a candle used to light the others.)

The Al-Hanisim prayer which we recite during Hanukkah centers around the Hasmoneans' victory and rededication of the Temple, while the candle-lighting commemorates the miracle of the oil.

Though the military victory is prominently mentioned in the prayers, it wouldn't have been celebrated if not for the miracle of the oil. It should also be noted that the main goal for which the Maccabees fought was not political independence. They fought to enable the people to observe the Torah's commandments; as we say in the Al Hanisim prayer: "the Greeks sought to cause us to forget Your Torah and leave Your statutes."

The Romans were tolerant of all religions as long as they did not pose a revolutionary threat. They recognised that the gods were the same, just with different names. When Pompey captured Jerusalem, he immediately went up to the temple and sacrificed to the god, recognising that Jupiter=Zeus=Jehovah. It was only when religions became a threat to stability that they intervened - savagely - to eliminate the threat. They did it with the Bacchanalians, they did it with Christianity with its private meetings with eating human flesh and drinking human blood, and Jews staging a series of serious revolts.