The Jewish people have endured much and thrived through it all. They are an ancient people with an ancient religion. The History of the Jewish people is also a history of the beginnings of civilization. Their beginnings are traced from Abraham, his son, Isaac, his grandson, Jacob, and the 12 tribes which came from Jacob’s offspring. They have been victimized repeatedly during the course of history, the most well-known of which were the Egyptian captivity, the Babylonian exile, and the Holocaust. Their victimization led to the Jewish people being spread throughout the world. This led to various and sundry problems with assimilation in other countries (Wein), but also presented vast opportunities for political and economic leadership, of which they took advantage and became successful.
Their core beliefs include the belief in one God who has expectations as to the behavior of his people, holding then to a set of commandments which have become the basic rules for most civilized societies. They emphasize the first five books of the Bible. They believe that Moses was the supreme prophet. The culture of Judaism existed before the religion (Lance). There are three main denominations of Judaism in the United States today. There are Reform Jews, who treat Judaism as an organized religion and tend to ignore the ethnic part of the equation. The Conservative Jews blend the ethnicity with organized religion and the Orthodox Jews, who tried to preserve the European tradition of Judaism (Albanese).
As a result of their rich and varied experiences and of their faith in God, the Jewish people observe many Holy Days. There are four major observances, which were originally tie...
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...e Jewish culture as it had developed in Europe was surprising. I would have thought it was WWII that would have caused that. It also was intriguing that the Reform Judaism worked as a conduit for Jews to convert to Christianity (Wein).
After reviewing the materials given, my opinion of the Jews has not changed. I have always sympathized with the Jews for being an often persecuted population. I also have been to the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and the images and information in that museum are haunting. After seeing that, I had a great respect for the dedication and tenacity of the Jewish people.
Albanese, Catherine. America: Religion and Religions. Santa Barbera : Clark Baxter, 2013. ebook.
"Gun cotrol- we are better than that." 2012.
JewishHistoryDotOrg. Perf. Rabbi Berel Wein. n.d.
Reform Judaism. Perf. Senior Rabbi Lance. 2010.
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