1. Development of Jewish History

2. 3 Sects
Under the Hasmonean kings, three sects of Jews formed in Judaea:
Sadducees: priests and wealthy businesspeople, conservatives intent on preserving the letter of the law
Pharisees: more liberal citizens from all classes who sought to study the applications of the Torah to everyday life
Essenes: an movement uncompromising in its piety and its disgust with what it considered a corrupted priesthood

3. Revolts
Spurred by anti-Roman militias called Zealots, some Jews rose up in armed rebellion against Rome in 66 CE
The rebellion was suppressed, and the Jewish defenders were slaughtered in the holy walled city of Jerusalem In 70 CE

4. A second ultimately disastrous revolt followed in 132 CE
Judaea was renamed Palestine after the ancient Philistines. Judaism no longer had a physical heart or a geographic center

5. Inheritors of the Pharisee tradition
Rabbinic Judaism
Rabbis:
Inheritors of the Pharisee tradition
Founders of rabbinic Judaism, which has defined the major forms of Jewish practice over the last 2,000 years
Teachers, religious decision-makers, and creators of liturgical prayer

6. The messianic movement:
Formed around Jesus of Nazareth, later known as Christianity

7. Judaism in the Middle Ages
In the early centuries of the Common Era, the Jewish population of the land of Israel declined
Life under Islamic rule was intellectually exciting for the Jewish community

8. From time to time Jews were threatened by intolerant Muslim rulers and were forced to flee to other territories
Jews who lived in Christian countries became expendable, and throughout the later Middle Ages there was a steady pattern of expulsions of Jews from countries in which they had long lived

9. Beginning in 1095, Jews became victims of mobs of Christian crusaders
There was deterioration of Jewish life in western Europe in the twelfth through seventeenth centuries

10. Orthodox Judaism
Mainstream Judaism
Belief in the direct revelation of divine law which was recorded in the Torah
It is eternal, unchanging, and the sole guide for life
Carefully and strictly observe the commandments as the direct will of God
Ultra-Orthodox assert that complete separation from secular society

11. Assert authorship of Torah to Divinely inspired human beings
Reform Judaism
Early 19th C. Germany
Assert authorship of Torah to Divinely inspired human beings
Modern worship mostly in vernacular

12. Response to Reform mid to late 19th C. Europe
Conservative Judaism
Response to Reform mid to late 19th C. Europe
Agree that change was necessary but felt Reform had eliminated too many basic Jewish practices
Motto is “tradition and change”
Fiddler on the Roof

13. Reconstructionist Judaism
Early 1920s in US by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan
Judaism is not merely a religion, but an evolving religious civilization, a peoplehood, a culture, as well as a faith community

14. To accept Torah and fulfill its mitzvot
All of Judaism
To accept Torah and fulfill its mitzvot
To embrace the ethical mandate of Judaism
To regulate existence to Judaism’s rituals & observances
To support Jewish causes

15. To be a devoted member of the Jewish community
To maintain a bond and a sense of mutual interdependence with the Jewish Land
To feel a connection to Jewish history
To be committed to the creative survival of the Jewish future

16. After World War I
In the aftermath of Germany’s defeat in World War I and the desperate economic conditions that followed, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party bolstered its popular support by blaming the Jews for all of Germany’s problems

17. With Hitler’s rise to power, acts of violence against Jews in Germany were instigated
Laws were passed that separated Jews from the rest of the population and deprived them of their legal and economic rights
By 1942, large-scale death camps had been set up by the Nazis to facilitate the “final solution”

18. The Holocaust
For many Jews the defining event of the twentieth century was the Holocaust, the murder of almost six million European Jews by the Nazi leadership of Germany during World War II
These Jews constituted over 1/3 of the Jewish people in the world and half of all Jews in Europe

24. Zionism & Contemporary Israel
Zionism is the Jewish movement dedicated to the establishment of a politically viable, internationally recognized Jewish state in the biblical land of Israel

25. The Arabs did not accept the partition
In 1947 the United Nations decided to partition Palestine into two areas, one to be governed by Jews and the other by Arabs with Jerusalem an international zone
The Arabs did not accept the partition
In 1948 Israel was declared an independent Jewish state with full rights for minorities 25

26. As soon as British troops moved out, Israel was attacked by its Arab neighbors—Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt
From time to time, a negotiated peace has seemed almost possible, but it has not yet happened

27. Holy Days
Judaism follows an ancient lunar calendar of annual holidays and memorials linked to special events in history:
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Sukkot
Hanukkah
Purim
Passover
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Shavuot

28. Some feminists are coming back to religious observance
Jewish Feminism
Some feminists are coming back to religious observance
Since the mid-twentieth century, women have taken an active role in claiming their rights to full religious participation
They are redefining Judaism from a feminist perspective

29. Conversions to Judaism seem to be increasing
Jewish Renewal
Both men and women from varied backgrounds are being attracted to newly revitalized expressions of Jewish spirituality
Conversions to Judaism seem to be increasing