Judaism is monotheistic (= one believes in onegod) and is considered one of the oldest religions in the world. Judaism is the basis for both Christianity and Islam . According to Judaism, the Israelites are God’s chosen people.

The Jews of the world

There are a total of almost 15 million Jews in the world [ Jewish population ]. In addition to Israel, there are also larger Jewish groups in the United States and in Russia. In the United States alone, there are almost as many Jews as in Israel (about 6 million). In the city of New York live about 2-3 million Jews.

Abraham – the ancestor of the Jews

The history of the Jews began over 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq ). The Bible tells of a man named Abraham . God appeared to Abraham and appointed him and his descendants to his chosen people.

God told Abraham that he and his family would go to the land of Canaan – the Promised Land (present-day  Israel and Palestine ). God made a covenant (agreement) with Abraham. The covenant meant that God would protect the Jews who had been chosen to spread the message of God throughout the world.

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The agreement also meant that the Jews would follow God’s law.

Abraham and his descendants then gave birth to the twelve tribes of Israel. Abraham is therefore considered the ancestor of the Jews.

Since Judaism also forms the basis of Christianity and Islam, the three religions together are usually called the Abrahamic religions.

Moses – the founder of Judaism

The real founder of Judaism was Moses. Sometimes the Jews mark it by calling themselves Mosaic believers instead of Jews.

Moses lived in the 14th and 13th centuries BC. As an adult, he was commissioned by God to lead his people out of  Egypt where they lived in slavery . The reason for slavery was that for several generations after Abraham, the Jews had stopped believing in God. God had therefore punished his people by enslaving them in Egypt.

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During the wilderness trek, after leaving Egypt, Moses met God on Mount Sinai. On the mountain, God made a new covenant with the Jews and Moses received a law from God. Its core was the Ten Commandments (or God’s commandments). Even today, most of the earth’s cultures are rooted in these commandments.

The new covenant meant that the Jews would forever follow all the rules that Moses received from God, and in return, God would protect them.

The Jewish faith

The Jews believe in one God. They perceive God as personal, but not in the sense that God would look like a human being. God is a spirit, the Jews believe.

God is good and requires people to be good too.

According to Judaism, man was created in the image of God and those who follow God’s commandments will be rewarded for this. Those who are evil will be punished.

The love of all fellow human beings is the most important thing in Judaism. Therefore, this religion is basically bright, happy and hopeful. The Jews believe that man was created for a life of joy.

In Judaism, there are different views on life after death. In the Torah (Deuteronomy) there is nothing written at all about life after death. Judaism focuses on life here and now. Since the world that God has created is good, people should not give up the good things in life.

Who is a Jew?

Who exactly are Jews? This issue has caused many debates. One definition says that a person who professes the Jewish religion is a Jew.

According to the Orthodox view, only those who have a Jewish mother should be counted as Jews, even if the person himself is not religious.

Judaism is a way of life and thinking

For many Jews, Judaism is not just a religion, but also a way of life and thinking. The Jews believe that God has a plan for what is happening in the world. That is why history plays   a major role in Judaism.

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God’s plan is that there will one day be peace and happiness on earth. When that happens, the “kingdom of the Messiah” is here. To achieve the goal, God has appointed the Jewish people to help him, therefore the Jews consider themselves the chosen people.

The Jewish people spread their knowledge of God to the whole world by bearing their suffering, following God’s commandments, and showing love.

The Holy Scriptures

The Jewish Bible is called the Tanak (Old Testament in the Christian Bible). In it, the Torah (Deuteronomy) is the most important part. Tora describes, among other things, Moses’ life and deeds.

It is in the Torah that the basis for Jewish everyday life is written down.

In the Torah there are 613 commandments and prohibitions. By following them, you become God’s helper in his quest to make the world good.

Another important scripture is the Talmud. It is a collection of books that interpret the rules of life in Tanak. It covers more than six thousand pages and there are hundreds of rules about how a Jewish life should be lived in large and small.

In the Talmud there are lots of rules that the pure-minded Jews (Orthodox) follow. It is e.g. forbidden to make a fire during the Sabbath (see below) or to cook food. You are also not allowed to toast bread, because then you break the fire ban. You are not allowed to write anything, not even a signature.

Jewish food rules

The Jews follow the regulations of the five books of Exodus concerning food. Torah allows all vegetarian foods for humans, but you are not allowed to eat any meat, only the meat from herbivores.

The rules are very clear on this point. The animals must be ruminants (paired ungulates) and have split hooves. Thus you get not eat pigs , because they are not ruminants.

Animals must be slaughtered in a certain way if orthodox Jews are to eat the meat. The animals must not be stunned when they are slaughtered.

At slaughter, a specially trained person must make a sharp incision over the animal’s throat. The blood is then allowed to drain from the animal that dies. This method, which is called shaking, is banned in Sweden. This means that an orthodox Jew in Sweden must buy shredded meat imported from other countries.

Before preparing the meat, it must be placed in salt water to be completely freed from blood. The blood is considered synonymous with the soul or life. Meat that still contains blood is not considered pure meat because the animal is then not counted as a dead animal.

Allowed food is called kosher and forbidden food is treiff.

Synagogue

The synagogue is a Jewish gathering place where services are held, students study and meet acquaintances.

The most important thing in the synagogue is the ark, which is the cupboard where the Torah scrolls are kept. It stands against the wall facing Jerusalem.

Before the men enter a synagogue, they must wear small hats called kippa.

During worship in the synagogue, men and women are kept separate.

Prayer and worship

A Jew should read his prayers three times a day. If it happens in the synagogue, at least ten men must be present in order to be able to read prayers together.

The Torah reading is structured so that it will last a whole year. On the day when the last part is read, you start again by reading from the first book. This is how it continues from year to year.

It is the rabbi who leads the service. He is the church leader and teacher.

Even if the sermon occurs during the service, the reading from the Torah scrolls is the most important element. The Jewish services have not changed much in the last two thousand years.

The Sabbath – a festive family holiday

Every seventh day the Jews celebrate the Sabbath. It begins on Friday night and lasts for 24 hours until dusk falls on Saturday night.

According to the Bible, God created the world in six days. On the seventh day he rested. According to Judaism, that day was a Saturday, and therefore people should also rest on Saturdays.

The Sabbath is a happy and festive family holiday. Then the women of the family have cleaned the home and cooked good food while the men and boys go to the synagogue. When they get home, the dining table is set with good food, candles and Sabbath bread.

The Sabbath candles should be lit about 20 minutes before the sun goes down, and it is usually the mother in the house who performs this task. The person who lit the candles should also read a blessing. Then those present are greeted with the words shabbat shalom, which means “Good Sabbath”. The father in the house also usually reads the prayer kidush, which means “sanctification”.

After this, the father in the family breaks a piece of the Sabbath bread, dips it in salt, reads a blessing over it and eats the piece of bread. Then each of the others around the table gets their piece of bread with salt. Thus the Sabbath is consecrated and sanctified.

Among Jews, the Sabbath is the week’s great day of joy when they are given extra time to spend with each other. Many believe that it was the Sabbath observance that kept the Jews together throughout history.

All unnecessary work is forbidden during the Sabbath, then you should spend time with family and friends in peace and quiet. In the Talmud there are many rules about what one may and may not do during the Sabbath.

Types in Judaism

The  Orthodox  (pure doctrines) adhere to Jewish traditions and do not want to know of any changes. They follow all rules in Jewish doctrine . The men are recognizable by their black hats, corkscrew caps, prayer mantles and prayer capsules. A prayer capsule is a small box with Bible quotes in it, which they attach to the arm and forehead with leather straps. The Orthodox follow all Sabbath rules and eat only kosher food.

Reformed , or Reform Jews, are the opposite of the Orthodox Jews and view change positively. Reform Jews do not follow the food laws or Sabbath rules so closely.

The  conservative  Jews go a middle way between Orthodox and Reform Jews. Their goal is to preserve the genuine and necessary in the Jewish faith.

Some Jewish holidays

The Jewish Passover, Pesach , is one of the main festivals of the year. The Jews celebrate Easter in memory of the liberation from slavery in Egypt more than three thousand years ago. The Easter feast begins with the so-called cedar meal which includes a variety of special dishes. On the table should be vegetables, bitter herbs (eg horseradish), ground apples, nuts, a fried marrow bone of sheep and a boiled egg that has been roasted on the shell. There should also be wine and unleavened bread.

All of these things are reminiscent of the time of the Jews in Egypt when they were slaves. The celebration includes songs, prayers and readings that follow a certain order. The word “customs” means order. After this introduction, a good meal is served.

Yom Kippur  is the “Day of Atonement” and it falls ten days after New Year’s Day. This is a very serious holiday. Then the believers will fast for a day, confess their sins and seek reconciliation with God again. At the same time, one should promise to try to live according to God’s will.

Sukkot  is the “ leaf feast”. It is a happy harvest festival that lasts for eight days. It is celebrated in memory of the Israelites’ forty-year wilderness trek (after fleeing Egypt), when they were allowed to live in simple huts.

Brief chronology of the history of Judaism

According to Jewish tradition, the present state of Israel is located in the land known in the Old Testament as Canaan. 

It was from captivity in Egypt that Moses (sometime in the 13th century BC) took his people out to migrate to Canaan, which was “the promised land” that God had promised to the Jews. The wilderness trek there must have taken a full 40 years, and Moses himself died before his people crossed the Jordan River, which formed the border with Canaan.

The conquest of Canaan took place under the leadership of the so-called “judges”, who were chiefs of the twelve Jewish tribes. Of the peoples already living in Canaan, the Philistines were the most difficult opponents.

The Jewish conquest succeeded, and the Jews had now united under a common king. The most famous kings who followed were David and Solomon.

David is the great hero. It was i.a. he who with his stone-throw killed the giant Goliath (a feared warrior among the Philistines).

Solomon ,who was the son of King David, is instead better known for his wisdom. It was Solomon who had the temple built in Jerusalem – later known as Solomon’s Temple.

The kingdom was divided in 936 BC, some time after Solomon’s death. The northern part was named Israel and lasted until 722 BC when half of the kingdom was conquered by Assyria .

The southern part was called Judah and lasted until 586 BC when it was conquered by the New Babylonian Empire . The leading layer among the Jews was then taken away in the so-called “Babylonian captivity” or “exile”. It was during this time that many of the texts in the Old Testament were written down and that Judaism was shaped as a religion. It was also then that the Jews began to meet in synagogues, which during the exile served as a replacement for the temple in Jerusalem, which had also been destroyed in connection with the Babylonian conquest of the city.

In 539 BC, Babylon fell to the Persian conqueror Cyrus. The Jews were now allowed to return home to Judah and rebuild their temple.

In the 300s BC, Judah was conquered by Alexander the Great . Judah then became part of the Seleucid Empire (the Seleucids were a Hellenistic dynasty founded by Seleucus, one of Alexander’s generals and successors).

In 165 BC, the Jews’ liberation struggle against the Seleucid empire began. After the so-called Maccabees uprising of 167 BC, Jewish autonomy was finally achieved.

Between 145-63 BC there was an independent Jewish state.

In 63 BC, it was conquered by the Romans led by the general Pompey (who later became Julius Caesar’s rival).

The birth of Christ – year “1” – took place during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus .

In 70 AD, a large-scale Jewish uprising against the Romans began. The uprising was eventually crushed after great war efforts by the Romans. The Romans punished the Jewish rebels by demolishing their holy temple, which was the only place where, according to Jewish tradition, they were allowed to sacrifice to God. The temple of the Jews has since never been rebuilt and the only thing that remains today is the Western Wall (which is now the holiest site of Judaism). As a further punishment, the Romans drove a large part of the Jewish elite into exile. In connection with this, the Jewish diaspora or emigration began when the Jews spread over large parts of the world.

135 AD A new violent uprising against Roman rule took place. This revolt was also brutally crushed by the Romans, led by Emperor Hadrian. The punishment became even harsher this time when the Romans had Jerusalem completely destroyed, after which they carried out a ban on Jews living in the new Roman city (Aelia Capitolina) built on the ruins of Jerusalem. Now liveall judar i diaspora.

In the 6th century, the area became Arab during the Muslim conquests .

During the 12th and 13th centuries, the area was conquered by the Crusaders .

In 1291, the Crusaders’ last stronghold – the important and well-fortified city of Acre for Christians – fell in the Holy Land .

In the 16th century, the area was conquered by the Ottoman Turks .

After the First World War , the area was managed by the British.

1933-1945 The Holocaust takes place, which is the Swedish name for the genocide that the Nazis carried out on just over six million Jews and about seven million other people. The Holocaust took place in the shadow of World War II and was hidden by the war.

In 1948, the state of Israel was proclaimed.

Persecution of Jews throughout history

The persecution of the Jews has been going on for several thousand years. Already in the time after the flight from Egypt, the Jews had to fight for the land that Abraham made theirs.

When Christianity became a world religion, the Jews were persecuted because they were considered guilty of Jesus’ crucifixion and death , even though it was a Roman governor who convicted him.

When the  Christian church  became strong, the Jews who lived in Europe after the diaspora were largely isolated (the Jewish diaspora began in connection with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD).

Around the year 600, Pope Gregory the Great wrote down rules for the Church’s attitude toward the Jews. According to the pope, Christians should try to convert Jews, but not by force. At the same time, the pope decided that it was the Jews who caused Jesus’ death, but since they were bearers of the Old Testament faith, they would have the freedom to worship their God. They would also be allowed to keep their synagogues. However, the Jews were not allowed to recruit people to their faith and they were also denied a number of important professions.

During the  Crusades  , the Crusaders started mass murder of the Jews. Wherever the crusades took place, the Jews were faced with the choice of being baptized or dying. Many Jews chose death. During the first crusade alone, 12,000 Jews were murdered along the way. When the Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem, the Jewish congregation that remained there was exterminated. The Jews were burned inside their synagogue.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, insane rumors spread that Jews murdered Christian boys to mix their blood in the Passover bread. Several Jewish congregations were massacred for these alleged crimes.

In 1215, a law was introduced by Pope Innocent III that forced Jews to wear the Jewish mark on their clothing. The Jews were forced to wear the cloth mark on their chests or on their backs. The Jewish badge was a round note symbolizing Judah’s silver coins. The punishment for a Jew who did not wear the Jewish sign was death.

In 1347, the Great Death came   to Europe. No one knew what the plague was due to and what caused the pandemic . The panic spread among people who at the same time sought an explanation for the disaster. The Jews were now accused of being the cause of mass death. During torture, many Jews were forced to confess that they had poisoned wells and springs and thus spread the plague . Thousands of Jews were burned at the stake around Europe.

On July 12, 1555, Pope Paul IV issued a bull (a papal letter with information to the people), stating that the Jews would live separated from Christian quarters and isolated from other parts of the city by a wall. The pope also decreed that the Jews should wear the Jewish badge. In addition, the men would wear a yellow hat and the women would wear a veil.

The word  ghetto  comes from Venice. There the Jews were placed on an island where there was an old foundry which in Italian is called ghetto.

In 1543,  Martin Luther  published the book The Jews and Their Lies . In the book, Luther accused the Jews of ritual murder, black art and espionage. He believed that the houses of the Jews should be burned and that all money should be taken from them. During this time the Jews were expelled from many lands. In the 17th century, for example, many Jews were forced to flee Sweden because they did not want to be (forcibly) baptized.

During the 1830s, Jews gained human and legal rights in most of the Western European countries. At the same time, an anti-Semitism emerged that reversed against the Jews as “race” compared to earlier when the Christians had persecuted the Jews for their deviant faith. The anti-Semitic ideas of the 19th century later became the basis for Nazism’s plans for the total extermination of the Jews.

The Holocaust

When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, he introduced a law that meant that all Jews in public service would be fired. At the same time, the Nazis tried to boycott Jewish businessmen, doctors and lawyers.

In November 1938, the authorities organized the worst persecution of Jews to date. It was the so-called crystal night , which got its name from all the windows that were smashed. As a result, hundreds of Jews were murdered, Jewish property was looted, and many synagogues were set on fire. At the same time, about 30,000 Jews were taken to concentration camps . In addition, the German state took over all Jewish companies, which meant that the Jews were completely excluded from economic life.

The most nasty thing was that the outside world did not protest more strongly against this persecution of Jews. The western world was in the middle of an economic crisis and therefore they did not want to receive Jews who came from Germany .

In 1942, the Nazis decided on “the final solution to the Jewish problem”. That meant exterminatingalljudar. The 30 largest concentration camps were supplemented by a series of extermination camps. In total, the Nazis murdered about six million Jews before and during  World War II . Most came from Poland , the Soviet Union ,  Czechoslovakia ,  Ukraine  and  Romania . The genocide of six million Jews – and seven million other people whom the Nazi regime considered deviant – is called the Holocaust .

In 1948, the state of Israel was formed, which could thus also offer state protection and prevent future persecution of Jews.