Reform vs. Orthodox: West vs. East

From the time of the French Revolution of 1789, and the growth of Liberalism, added to the political and personal freedoms granted by Napoleon to the Jews of Europe, many Jews chose to abandon the forboding and isolating ghettos and enter into general society. This influenced the internal conflicts about religion, culture, and politics of the Jews to this day.

Many Jews in Western Europe joined the religiously liberal new Reform Judaism movement, which drew inspiration from the writings of modernist thinkers like Moses Mendelson. They coined the name "Orthodox" to describe those who opposed the "Reform". They were criticized by the Orthodox Judaism rabbis such as Samson Raphael Hirsch in Germany, and condemned, particularly by those known today as followers of Ultra Orthodox Judaism, (or Haredim in Israel), and the leaders of Hasidic Judaism, the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, based mainly in Eastern Europe.

There was thus also created a cultural schism between the more westernised English, German and French speaking Western European Jews and their more religiously observant Yiddish speaking Eastern European brethren whom they denigratingly labelled Ost Yidden ("Eastern Jews"). These schisms and the debates surrounding them, continue with much ferocity in all Jewish communities today as the Reform and Orthodox movements continue to confront each other over a wide range of religious, social, political, and ethnic issues.

Persecution

Nazism

Modern persecution of the Jews reached its peak under the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. The Nazis, who thought of themselves as a "Master Race", considered the Jews inferior and subhuman. Upon capturing most of the European mainland, and in accordance with its Wannsee Conference, Nazi Germany built concentration camps designed to kill Jews for the mere "sin" of being born ethnically Jewish. Over 6,000,000 Jews perished. Even Jews who had long assimilated and had been baptized into Christianity were not spared. These racist laws were embodied in the Nuremberg Laws specifically designed to discriminate against Jews. With the defeat of the Axis Powers by the Allied Nations, many high German officials were punished by the Nuremberg Trials and Germany paid reparations to Holocaust survivors and to the State of Israel.

Soviet Union

Even though many of the Old Bolsheviks were ethnically Jewish, they sought to uproot Judaism and Zionism and established the Yevsektsiya to achieve this goal. By the end of 1940s the Communist leadership of the former USSR liquidated almost all Jewish organizations, with the exception of a few token synagogues. These synagogues were then placed under police surveillance, both openly and through the use of informers. The anti-Semitic campaign of 1948-1953 against so-called "rootless cosmopolitans," the fabrication of the "Doctors' plot," the rise of "Zionology" and subsequent activities of official organizations such as the Anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public were officially carried out under the banner of "anti-Zionism," but the use of this term could not obscure the anti-Semitic content of these campaigns, and by the mid-1950s the state persecution of Soviet Jews emerged as a major human rights issue in the West and domestically. See Jackson-Vanik amendment, refusenik

 

Christian

Christianity, which owes its origins and theology to Jewish teachings about the Messiah, has long had an ambiguous relationship with Judaism, giving rise to Christianity and anti-Semitism. Christians had difficulty with the Jews' claim as the "chosen people" of God, and they were seen as having contributed to Jesus' demise. In medieval Europe, many notorious persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the Crusades - when Jews all over Germany were massacred - and in the Spanish Inquisition, when the entire Jewish population that refused to baptise was expelled and found refuge mainly in the Ottoman Empire and the Low Countries. From Alexander III's reign until the end of Tsarist times in Russia, Jews were restricted to the Jewish Pale of Settlement and subjected to frequent pogroms. On the other hand, in the 16th century, the Council of Trent (article 4) declared that the Jews were no more responsible for death of Christ than Christians, and this was later reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council.

Arab and Islamic

Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Jews have generally enjoyed the benefits of "protected" Dhimmi status under Islam; yet the political conflict between Muhammad and the Jews of Madina in the seventh century left ample ideological fuel for Islam and anti-Semitism through the centuries. During the Middle Ages, Jews had a better status in the Muslim world than in Christendom, though still short of full equality with Muslims. During the Holocaust the Middle East was in turmoil: in Egypt, with a Jewish population of 75,000, Anwar Sadat was imprisoned for conspiring with the Nazis to bring independence from the British Empire; the British-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem was in Berlin supporting Hitler; a coup briefly brought a pro-Axis government to power in Iraq terrifying Iraq's Jews; and the Jewish Stern Gang assassinated Lord Moyne for closing Palestine to Jewish immigration. The tensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict was also a factor in the rise of animosity to Jews all over the Middle East, as hundreds of thousands of Jews fled as refugees, the main waves being soon after the 1948 and 1956 wars. The vast majority of the Jews of Iraq fled in 1952.

Leadership

Orthodox

Traditionally only the greatest scholars of the Torah and Talmud rise to become the spiritual and even temporal leaders of the Jewish people. This requires deep study of the Talmud and the Shulkhan Arukh Code of Jewish Law as well as many other classical texts of Jewish scholarship. Normally, one must study many years in a Yeshiva to become a rabbi. Synagogues are led by rabbis meaning "great ones or teachers". In many synagogues there is a hazzan (cantor) that leads many parts of the prayer service. Many Sephardic rabbinic Jewish communities refer to their leaders as hakham. Among Yemenite Jews, known as Teimanin, the term mori (teacher) is used.

Secular

Following the Renaissance and the Enlightenment in Europe (with its Jewish "extension" the Haskalah movement, which led to much modern-day assimilation into the cultures of their native countries), most Jews dropped much of Judaism. Many even became Christians, and adopted secular values and life-styles. Thus most modern local Jewish communities, or international ones such as the World Jewish Congress, are guided by secular leaders who may not be religiously knowledgeable or observant at all and they are most often very Zionistic.

USA communities

In the USA today, the mainly secular United Jewish Communities (UJC), formerly known as the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), represents over 150 Jewish Federations and 400 independent communities across North America. Every American city has its local "Jewish Federation", and many have sophisticated community centers and provide services, mainly health care related. They raise record sums of money for philanthropic and humanitarian causes in the USA and Israel. Other organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, and the Bnai Brith represent different segments of the American Jewish community on a variety of issues.

Karaite

A Karaite synagogue is run by a board of directors, and its spiritual leader is often called a Hakham, the equivalent of a "rabbi", but is not required for it to function. The Gabbai is the treasurer, the Shammash is the custodian, the Hazzan leads prayers, and in some the Ba'al Qeri'ah leads in the reading of the Torah.

 

World population

Pre- and post-Holocaust

Prior to World War II the world population of Jews was around 18 million. The Holocaust reduced this number to around 12 million. Today, there are an estimated 14 million Jews worldwide in over 134 countries. Of these, around 6 million live in the United States and Canada, about 2 million in Europe, about 100,000 in Australia and 100,000 in South Africa. Over 5 million live in Israel. At the moment, an increasing number of Russian Jews are emigrating to Germany.

Latin America

Approximately 500,000 Jews live in Latin America. Over half of them live in Argentina, while large communities also exist in Brazil (about 120,000) and Mexico (about 50,000

David Ben Gurion (First Prime Minister of Israel) publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948 (He is between the two banners)

Israel

Israel is the only country in which Jews form a majority of the population. It was re-established as an independent democratic state on May 14, 1948. Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset, about ten members are Israeli Arabs. At the time of its independence, approximately 600,000 Jews lived there. Since then, its Jewish population has increased by about one million over each decade as more immigrants arrive, and more Israelis are born, in one of the most significant global Jewish population shifts in over 2,000 years.

All the Arab Israeli Wars have not slowed Israel's growth. Israel opened its doors to the Holocaust survivors. It has absorbed almost all the Sephardic Jews from the Islamic countries. And it has taken in hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former USSR. Jews from all over the world continue to move to Israel as they view it as their only true home in a world rife with Anti-Semitism rooted in a long history of anti-Semitism and hostile to the Jewish people.

The symbol on the Israeli flag is known as the Star of David (Magen David in Hebrew).

Europe

Western Europe's largest Jewish community can be found in France, home to 600,000 Jews, most immigrants or refugees from North African and Arab lands such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. There are over 300,000 Jews in Great Britain. In Eastern Europe, there are probably over one and a half million Jews living in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Belorussia, and the other areas dominated by the former USSR. Exact figures are difficult to establish.

The fastest-growing Jewish community in the world, outside of Israel, is in Germany, especially in its capital Berlin. Tens of thousands of Jews from the former Eastern Bloc have settled in Germany since the fall of the Berlin wall. Some factors that make Germany amenable: A cosmopolitan atmosphere; a welcoming, liberal, post-war education; and the political freedoms garnered since the 1960s have created an atmosphere of tolerance in Germany which is still missing in some post-communist states. Familiarity with Yiddish for older Russian Jews, may make it easier to adapt to German.

German Jews belong to either the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland with about 100,000 members or the liberal Union progressiver Juden in Deutschland. However, there are many secular Jews who do not belong to any organisation or synagogue.