"Jew" in Israel and Israeli law
The
State of Israel allows any Jew to
acquire citizenship; this is known as the
Law of Return for
population groups in Israel. For the
purposes of the Law of Return, anyone
with a Jewish grandparent or who
converted to Judaism is considered
Jewish, and Israeli law also allows the
immediate non-Jewish family of immigrants
to immigrate under the law. This
definition is not the same as that in
traditional Jewish law; it is a
deliberately wider, so as to include
those non-Jewish relatives of Jews who
were perceived to be Jewish, and thus
faced
anti-Semitism.
Many secular Israelis consider
themselves to be "Israeli" enjoying a new
Israeli culture and reject the title
"Jew" as derived from Jewish religious
law (Halacha).
They assert that one who is devoted to
Zionism, believes and lives in the
modern
State of Israel, serves in the
Israel Defense Force, and works for
the
Ingathering of the Exiles from the
diaspora, is "the real Jew".
According to this re-definition, even a
gentile who meets these criteria can be
an "Israeli". They scorn the older
generation of European Jews who they
believe went "like sheep to the
slaughter" during the
Holocaust and berate them for having
a "galut (Exile)
mentality". They have a particular
dislike for
Haredi Jews whom they regard as "old
fashioned" and a relic of the
Middle Ages, and whom they accuse of
"religious coercion". This is part of an
ongoing
kulturkampf (cultural divide) in
Israeli politics.
Ancient Israelites and Judeans
Historical geography
Looking at the
timeline of Jewish history, the first
two periods of the history of the Jews is
mainly that of
Palestine or
Judea. It begins among those peoples
of Syria which occupied the area lying
between the
Nile
river on the one side and the
Tigris and the
Euphrates rivers on the other.
Surrounded by ancient seats of culture in
Egypt and
Babylonia, by the mysterious
deserts of
Arabia, and by the highlands of
Asia Minor, the land of
Canaan, later
Judea, then
Palestine, then
Israel, was a meeting place of
civilizations. The land was traversed
by old-established
trade routes and possessed important
harbors on the
Gulf of Akaba and on the
Mediterranean coast, the latter
exposing it to the influence of the
Levantine culture.
Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
Jews descend mostly from the ancient
Israelites (also known as Hebrews),
who settled in the
Land of Israel. The Israelites traced
their common lineage to the
biblical patriarch
Abraham through
Isaac and
Jacob. A
kingdom was established under
Saul and continued under
King David and
Solomon. King David conquered
Jerusalem (first a
Canaanite, then a
Jebusite town) and made it his
capital. After Solomon's reign the nation
split into two kingdoms, the
Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and
the
Kingdom of Judah (in the south). The
Kingdom of Israel was conquered by
the
Assyrian ruler
Shalmaneser V in the
8th century BC. The
Kingdom of Judah was conquered by a
Babylonian army in the early
6th century BC. The Judahite elite
was exiled to Babylonia, but later at
least a part of them returned to their
homeland after the subsequent conquest of
Babylonia by the Persians. This period of
exile is known as the "Babylonian
Captivity."
Persian, Greek, and Roman rule
The
Seleucid Kingdom, which arose after
the Persians were defeated by
Alexander the Great, sought to
introduce Greek culture into the Persian
world. When the Seleucid king
Antiochus IV Epiphanes, supported by
Hellenized Jews (those who had
adopted Greek culture), attempted to
convert the Jewish
Temple in Jerusalem to a temple of
Zeus, the non-Hellenized Jews
revolted under the leadership of the
Maccabees and rededicated the Temple
to the Jewish God (hence the origins of
Hanukah) and created an
independent Jewish kingdom known as the
Hasmonaean Dynasty which lasted from
165 BCE to
63 BCE. This was followed by a period
of
Roman rule.
The generally religiously tolerant
Empire could not readily accommodate the
exclusive monotheism of Judaism, and the
religious Jews could not accept Roman
polytheism. In
66 CE, the Judeans began to revolt
against the Roman rulers. The revolt was
smashed by the
Roman emperors
Vespasian and
Titus Flavius. In Rome the
Arch of Titus still stands, depicting
the enslaved Judeans and the
menorah with trumpets being
brought to Rome:
The Romans all but destroyed
Jerusalem; only a single "Western
Wall" of the
Temple remained. The
Roman legions pillaged and burned the
city and stole the holy
menorah and much more. The
Judeans continued to live in their land
in significant numbers, and were allowed
to practice their religion, until the
2nd century when
Hadrian ravaged Judea while putting
down the
bar Kokhba revolt. After
135, Jews were not allowed to enter
the city of Jerusalem, although this ban
must have been at least partially lifted,
since at the destruction of the rebuilt
city by the Persians in the
7th century, Jews are said to have
lived there.
Roman exile
Many of the ancient Jews were sold
into
slavery, while others became citizens
of other parts of the
Roman Empire. This is the traditional
explanation to the
diaspora, almost universally accepted
by past and present rabbinical or
Talmudical scholars, who believe that
Jews are almost exclusively biological
descendants of the Judean exiles, a
belief backed up at least partially by
DNA evidence. Some secular historians
speculate that a majority of the Jews in
Antiquity were most likely descendants of
converts in the cities of the
Graeco-Roman world, especially in
Alexandria and
Asia Minor, and were only affected by
the diaspora in its spiritual sense, as
the sense of loss and homelessness which
became a cornerstone of the Jewish creed,
much supported by persecutions in various
parts of the world. Any such policy of
conversion, which spread the Jewish
religion throughout the
Hellenistic civilization, seems to
have ended with the wars against the
Romans and the following reconstruction
of Jewish values for the post-Temple era.
International scope
Before the rise of
Islam, Jews were to be found
throughout the entire
Roman empire; with the
Arab expansion, some of them would
move as far as
India and
China. Some Jewish people are also
descended from converts to Judaism
outside the
Mediterranean world. While the
Avars' Hebrew origins/conversion
debate continues, it is known that some
Khazars,
Edomites, and
Ethiopians, as well as many
Arabs, particularly in
Yemen earlier, converted to Judaism
in the past; today in the
United States and Israel
gentiles still convert to Judaism. In
fact, there is a greater tradition of
conversion to Judaism than many people
realize. The word "proselyte"
originally meant a
Greek who had converted to Judaism.
As late as the 6th century the rump Roman
empire (i.e.
Byzantium) was issuing decrees
against conversion to Judaism, implying
that conversion to Judaism was still
occurring.
Ancient schisms among the Jews
First Temple era
Based on the historical narrative in
the
Bible and
archeology, civilization at the time
was prone to
idol worship,
astrology, worship of reigning kings,
and
paganism. This was in direct contrast
to the teachings in the
Torah, and was condemned by the
ancient Biblical
prophets who attacked those
Israelites and Judeans who became idol
worshipers. The split by the
Kingdom of Israel from the
Kingdom of Judah was completed by
Jeraboam who crowned himself king,
and built a northern temple with
calf-like idol images that were condemned
by the Judeans of
Judah. After the destruction and
exile of the northern
Kingdom of Israel by
Assyria, the temptations to follow
non-Judaic practices continued, so that
according to the narratives of
Jeremiah and others, it brought about
the failure, destruction, and exile of
the southern
Kingdom of Judah by
Babylonia.
Second Temple era
This was a time when the Jews lived
under
Persian,
Greek, and
Roman power and influence. The main
struggles during this era were between
the
Pharisees and the
Sadducees, as well as the
Essenes and
Zealots. The
Pharisees wanted to maintain the
authority and traditions of classical
Torah teachings and began the early
teachings of the
Mishna, maintaining the authority of
the
Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court.
The
Sadducees sought to adapt to more
Hellenistic ideas, as espoused by
Philo of Egypt. The
Essenes preached a reclusive way of
life. The
Zealots advocated armed rebellion
against any foreign power such as
Rome. All were at violent
logger-heads with each other, leading to
the confusion and disunity that ended
with the destruction of the
Jewish Temple and the sacking of
Jerusalem by
Rome.
Break-offs: Samaritans and Christians
One small sect of
Samaritans is still extant; however,
their religion is not the same as
rabbinic
Judaism. The Samaritan faith and that
of other Jews diverged over a millennium
ago; they commonly refer to themselves as
'Samaritan Israelites' as oppossed to
'Jewish Israelites'. This is because they
believe they are of the northern
Israelite tribes.
Of course, the most famous schism in
Jewish history was the split between the
followers of
Jesus (who were known as Notzrim
or Nazarenes) with the claim by his
disciples that he was the long-awaited
Jewish
Messiah, and the majority
Pharisees (the rabbinically led Jews)
who rejected him 2,000 years ago and
still do so until the present time. The
abandonment of Jewish Law and the
subsequent
deification of Jesus by early
Church leaders, by for example
Paul of Tarsus and the publication of
the
New Testament, ensured that
Christianity and
Judaism would become completely
different and often conflicting
religions. The New Testament depicts the
Pharisees as Jesus' opponents,
whereas the Jewish perspective has the
Pharisees as the justified followers of
the rabbis who upheld the
Torah.
Karaite Judaism
Karaite
Judaism is a
Jewish denomination characterized by:
Karaites had a wide following in the
9th century (Karaites claim that at one
time they comprised 40% of Jews), but
over the centuries their numbers have
dwindled drastically. Presently a small
group, most Karaites live in
Israel.
There is a divergence of views about
the historical origins of
Karaite Judaism. Some scholars
maintain that it was founded by
Anan ben David, whereas Karaites
believe that they are not the historical
disciples of
Anan ben David at all, and point out
that many of their later sages such as
Ya'acov Al-Kirkisani spoke critically
about him.
The state of Israel, along with its
Chief Rabbinate, ruled that Karaites are
Jews, and while critical differences
between
Orthodox Judaism and
Karaite Judaism exist, American
Orthodox rabbis ruled that Karaism is
much closer to Orthodoxy than the
Conservative and Reform movements, which
may ease issues of formal conversion.
Some Karaites are known to refer to
themselves as not Jewish, some referring
to themselves as a "Turkic People". These
may be Christian descendants of Karaites,
or an different group believing in a
completely different Karaism which is a
Turkish tribal religion. These same
"Karaites" also denied they were Jews in
the Holocaust.
For more information, please see
the Karaite Judaism page
Sabbatians and Frankists
In
1648
Shabtai Tzvi declared himself to be
the long-awaited Jewish
Messiah whilst living in the
Ottoman Empire. Vast numbers of Jews
believed him; but when under pain of a
death sentence in front of the Turkish
sultan
Mehmed IV he became an
apostate to Judaism by becoming a
Moslem, his movement crumbled.
Nevertheless, for centuries, small groups
of Jews believed in him, and the
rabbis were always on guard against
any manifestations of this schism, always
suspicious of hidden "Shebselach"
(Yiddish for "little Sabbatians", a play
on the word for "young dumb sheep").
Indeed, when the movement of
Hasidism began attracting many
followers, the rabbis were once again
suspicious that this was Sabbatianism in
different garb. It would take many
centuries to sort out these complex
divisions and schisms and see where they
were headed.
After his mysterious death somewhere
in the area of Turkish
Albania, groups of Jews continued to
be clandestine followers of Shabtai Tzvi
even though they had outwardly converted
to
Islam, these Jews being known as the
Donmeh. Jewish converts to Islam
were, at times, therefore regarded with
great suspicion by their fellow Moslems.
A few decades after Shabtai's death, a
man by the name of
Jacob Frank claiming mystical powers
preached that he was Shabtai Tzvi's
successor. He attracted a following,
preached against the
Talmud, advocated a form of
licentious worship, and was condemned by
the rabbis at the time. When confronted
by the
Polish authorities, he converted to
Catholicism in
1759 in the presence of
King Augustus III of Poland, together
with groups of his Jewish followers,
known as "Frankists". To the alarm of his
opponents, he was received by reigning
European monarchs who were anxious to see
their Jewish subjects abandon Judaism and
apostacise. The Frankists eventually
joined the Polish nobility and gentry.
