You should add that a group of Jews in or around the Year 30CE decided that a Jew from the Galilee was the Jewish messiah and founded a new religion based upon his teachings. The new (Jewish) religion spread among the Jewish diaspora in the empire, becoming universalized to include non-Jews, ultimately becoming the state religion of the empire three hundred years later. That Christianity was founded by Jews upon the teachings of an Orthodox Jew is not a small fact in the history of Judaism. A major part of the tragedy of Jewish history is that this religion ultimately became hostile to Jews and persecuted them for two millennia.
I knew most of this, but the part that jumps out at me is the troubles we brought and still bring upon ourselves by dissension within Jewry. It was ever thus.
And yet, the title to this essay is absolutely and positively wrong. It should be “A brief history of the JEWISH PEOPLE”. The term ‘Judaism’ was coined 150 years ago. We are not a bunch of “Judaism practitioners”. We’re the Jewish People. Am Yisrael.
This is great! Thank you. I recently gave a presentation to peers in the CCRC where I live about Hanukkah, and began not quite as "in the beginning" as you did with patriarchs etc., but more as tribes who coalesce and became a kingdom and went to the destruction of 70CE and the Romans renaming Judea. People were so appreciative; Jewish history is long and complex! Now I have the second half available to me from your writing! I also began with 4 points that any discussion of Jews should keep in mind: Judaism is a religion, Jews is a peoplehood; History-Jews live their history--historical events remembered and incorporated into who we are; Diversity--we have small numbers but much diversity in all arenas of our existence;-- so that all answers to questions begin with "it's complicated" or "it depends." I agree with you--knowing our history IS an existential issue for us in our time.
Hi! Thank you for such a competitive detailed history of our history. I am a Bukhran Jew. My Momo (mother) came to the U.S. in Jan 1979. She was 18. She escaped with my bibi and bobo (grandmother and grandfather). 2 aunts, 3 uncles and 2 cousins
I plan to write about our history. I have a great aunt and 2 great uncles and cousins that stayed in Iran and are still there today.
It hurts my soul when people assume we all came here through Europe. We're not all of the gefilte fish variety... we all don't have Yiddish heritage. Bubbe's or zayde's..
Yehudim (Jews) been thrown out of nearly every country at one point or another.. my family is Persian. Persian yehudim. Not Arabic. My bobo really gets upset with the reductive usage of Arab for the entire area. Being Persian - from Iran. Assumed Arabic and Muslim 😔
As a writer ( albeit unpaid ) you inspire me to write a column where I interview yehudim from various backgrounds . To inform, educate, & to give people a chance to tell their story
‘State-sponsored AntiSemitism.’ Today? Yes Indeed. Mediaeval but still true to this day. I can quote from our monitoring of a very high-ranking security officer in the Services, here in London: ‘The Security Services are what we have instead of Concentration Camps.’ Pretty incredible but there we are…. And they have admitted attacking continuously all through early childhood years too. So yes, we now know.
Overall a solid and basic history. A couple mistakes though. First, its not really correct to refer to Abraham as the first Jew. As you note, the term Jew did not emerge until the Persian period. He wasnt even the first Israelite. Both those terms are anachronistic. Abraham was the patriarchy, the man who entered the Covenant with God and the first Monothiest (at least according to the book of Genesis).
The second mistake is more serious. You stated that after the 67-70 revolt, the Romans expelled then Jews from Judea and renamed it Syria-Palestinia. This did not happen in 70 CE. It happened in 136 CE after the crushing of the Bar Kochba revolt which you failed to mention.
Otherwise I agree with you and so few diaspora Jews know any of this which is very alarming.
Great article. This type of historical context is much needed.
The suffering the Jews endured was decreed by G-d during the Covenant of the Parts: “And He said to Abram: Know for certain that your seed will be a sojourner in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them for four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge, and afterward they will go out with great wealth” (Genesis 15:13; Tauber).
In His compassion, G-d minimized the suffering of the Jewish people as follows: 190 of those years consisted of the wandering of Isaac and Jacob. The enslavement in Egypt, specifically, lasted only 210 years. Because of the suffering of Jacob and the brothers, the harshest conditions lasted only 86 years. As explained in Seder Olam: “The children of Israel were actually in Egypt for 210 years. The 400-year period refers to the time that ‘your seed will be a sojourner in a land that is not theirs,’ which is counted from the birth of Isaac. Specifically, there are three phases in this 400-year exile: 1) the time that Abraham’s descendants lived as sojourners in a land that is not theirs, beginning with the birth of Isaac 400 years before the Exodus; 2) their enslavement by the Egyptians, which began after the death of Joseph and his brothers, 116 years before the Exodus; 3) the harsh afflictions that began at the time of Miriam’s birth, 86 years before the Exodus” (Tauber, 153).
Our sages teach us that the Jews were redeemed on account of three things they did while in Egypt. Even amid their suffering, the Jews kept their names, language, and dress, preserving themselves as distinct from the Egyptians. Their language was Hebrew, Lashon HaKodesh (the Holy Tongue), which is the only language that can contain and transmit the fullness of God, and it preserved their understanding of God. Names suggest the essence of a thing, and thus the Jews remained essentially Jewish. By keeping separate clothing, the Jews were noticeably different, which also kept them from fully assimilating.
It was the pain of the exile in Egypt that refined the Jewish people, in the same way that a grape is pressed to make wine. As descendants of Jacob, they knew about their holy ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. During their time in Egypt, many maintained their belief in G-d, and after witnessing the miracles of the Exodus, they were ready to accept the yoke of the Torah and mitzvot.
Sadly, four out of five of the Jews in Egypt perished during the plague of darkness. They did not want to leave Egypt. The passage reads, “Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel, but they did not hearken to Moses because of [their] shortness of breath and because of [their] hard labor” (Exodus 6:9, Kehot Chumash). They despaired completely of ever being redeemed and were overwhelmed by their nonstop labor. Sound familiar?
Among the deeper lessons that the exile in Egypt teaches is that the powers in the world, Pharaoh, Egypt, and its people, are merely actors on a grand stage, used by G-d to bring His grand plan to fruition, making the Jewish people His nation and His emissaries in this world.
Of course, the Egyptians were still punished, because all humans have free choice.
An important detail in reward and punishment is that G-d uses only bad people to carry out evil, and good people are messengers for good.
Importantly, the root word of Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם, mitz-ra-yim), the biblical name for Egypt, is meitzar (מֵצַר, mé-tzar), meaning constriction or narrowness. Egypt was a large land, but one defined by a narrow consciousness and a limited understanding of truth. In contrast, Yisrael (יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yis-ra-Él) represents openness and alignment with God, often understood as yashar-El, “straight to God.”
The Egyptians believed in the power of nature and false deities. The plagues and miracles of the Exodus revealed that the Creator of nature stands above nature. By following the Torah and mitzvot, which connect a person to God, the Jewish people could rise above limitation and live with a broader awareness of truth. This was made visible when a small nation was brought forth from the most powerful empire on earth against all odds, just as the Maccabees would later overcome the Greeks, David overcame Goliath, and the Jews were saved from the hands of Haman, etc.
Today we also see G-d’s divine assistance as the tiny nation of Israel confronts and emerges victorious in multiple well-funded wars simultaneously: Gaza, against Hamas and allied militants; Lebanon, against Hezbollah; Yemen, against the Houthis; Syria, against Iran-linked militias; Iraq, against Iran-aligned militias; unrest in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria); and Iran itself, the organizing force and strategic backer behind these other fronts.
I am not a biblical or historical scholar but it bothers me when people telling the history and origin of the Jewish people in the Judaean hills start at Abraham as though Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were historical people. From my non-scholar perspective King Solomon and King David were real historical people but Abraham, et al are mythology. The history of the Jewish people began as a distinct group of Canaanites after the Bronze Age collapse who began to coalesce as a people in the Judaean hills and slowly over a couple hundred years grew into a great nation. I personally feel that acknowledging actual historical development helps locate ancient Israel in line with archaeology and modern genetics that are unequivocal proof of Jewish indigeneity in the land of Israel.
The Torah is the most accurate historical document there is. One who studies it is able to see that it contains divine wisdom, a history so precise that no human could ever describe history so thoroughly. Moreover, the torah describes the spiritual structure of reality, a deeper level of understanding than any human can describe. Human "archeological findings" are often subject to change and new facts. The torah is Emet and immutable truth. Modern morals are constantly changing because they are subject to the limited knowledge of man. As man's Creator, G-d's perspective is infinitely greater and provides the truth. Sadly, modern society privileges the universities above this knowledge. To understand the value of knowledge, one needs to understand the price one is willing to pay to preserve knowledge. Our ancestors risked their lives to preserve Torah knowledge and give us the privilege of learning it today. Happy to talk more. All the best, Avraham
You should add that a group of Jews in or around the Year 30CE decided that a Jew from the Galilee was the Jewish messiah and founded a new religion based upon his teachings. The new (Jewish) religion spread among the Jewish diaspora in the empire, becoming universalized to include non-Jews, ultimately becoming the state religion of the empire three hundred years later. That Christianity was founded by Jews upon the teachings of an Orthodox Jew is not a small fact in the history of Judaism. A major part of the tragedy of Jewish history is that this religion ultimately became hostile to Jews and persecuted them for two millennia.
That has literally nothing to do with the history of the Jews so why he mention it in a short compressed history?
I knew most of this, but the part that jumps out at me is the troubles we brought and still bring upon ourselves by dissension within Jewry. It was ever thus.
And yet, the title to this essay is absolutely and positively wrong. It should be “A brief history of the JEWISH PEOPLE”. The term ‘Judaism’ was coined 150 years ago. We are not a bunch of “Judaism practitioners”. We’re the Jewish People. Am Yisrael.
This is great! Thank you. I recently gave a presentation to peers in the CCRC where I live about Hanukkah, and began not quite as "in the beginning" as you did with patriarchs etc., but more as tribes who coalesce and became a kingdom and went to the destruction of 70CE and the Romans renaming Judea. People were so appreciative; Jewish history is long and complex! Now I have the second half available to me from your writing! I also began with 4 points that any discussion of Jews should keep in mind: Judaism is a religion, Jews is a peoplehood; History-Jews live their history--historical events remembered and incorporated into who we are; Diversity--we have small numbers but much diversity in all arenas of our existence;-- so that all answers to questions begin with "it's complicated" or "it depends." I agree with you--knowing our history IS an existential issue for us in our time.
Hi! Thank you for such a competitive detailed history of our history. I am a Bukhran Jew. My Momo (mother) came to the U.S. in Jan 1979. She was 18. She escaped with my bibi and bobo (grandmother and grandfather). 2 aunts, 3 uncles and 2 cousins
I plan to write about our history. I have a great aunt and 2 great uncles and cousins that stayed in Iran and are still there today.
It hurts my soul when people assume we all came here through Europe. We're not all of the gefilte fish variety... we all don't have Yiddish heritage. Bubbe's or zayde's..
Yehudim (Jews) been thrown out of nearly every country at one point or another.. my family is Persian. Persian yehudim. Not Arabic. My bobo really gets upset with the reductive usage of Arab for the entire area. Being Persian - from Iran. Assumed Arabic and Muslim 😔
As a writer ( albeit unpaid ) you inspire me to write a column where I interview yehudim from various backgrounds . To inform, educate, & to give people a chance to tell their story
‘State-sponsored AntiSemitism.’ Today? Yes Indeed. Mediaeval but still true to this day. I can quote from our monitoring of a very high-ranking security officer in the Services, here in London: ‘The Security Services are what we have instead of Concentration Camps.’ Pretty incredible but there we are…. And they have admitted attacking continuously all through early childhood years too. So yes, we now know.
Overall a solid and basic history. A couple mistakes though. First, its not really correct to refer to Abraham as the first Jew. As you note, the term Jew did not emerge until the Persian period. He wasnt even the first Israelite. Both those terms are anachronistic. Abraham was the patriarchy, the man who entered the Covenant with God and the first Monothiest (at least according to the book of Genesis).
The second mistake is more serious. You stated that after the 67-70 revolt, the Romans expelled then Jews from Judea and renamed it Syria-Palestinia. This did not happen in 70 CE. It happened in 136 CE after the crushing of the Bar Kochba revolt which you failed to mention.
Otherwise I agree with you and so few diaspora Jews know any of this which is very alarming.
Great article. This type of historical context is much needed.
The suffering the Jews endured was decreed by G-d during the Covenant of the Parts: “And He said to Abram: Know for certain that your seed will be a sojourner in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them for four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge, and afterward they will go out with great wealth” (Genesis 15:13; Tauber).
In His compassion, G-d minimized the suffering of the Jewish people as follows: 190 of those years consisted of the wandering of Isaac and Jacob. The enslavement in Egypt, specifically, lasted only 210 years. Because of the suffering of Jacob and the brothers, the harshest conditions lasted only 86 years. As explained in Seder Olam: “The children of Israel were actually in Egypt for 210 years. The 400-year period refers to the time that ‘your seed will be a sojourner in a land that is not theirs,’ which is counted from the birth of Isaac. Specifically, there are three phases in this 400-year exile: 1) the time that Abraham’s descendants lived as sojourners in a land that is not theirs, beginning with the birth of Isaac 400 years before the Exodus; 2) their enslavement by the Egyptians, which began after the death of Joseph and his brothers, 116 years before the Exodus; 3) the harsh afflictions that began at the time of Miriam’s birth, 86 years before the Exodus” (Tauber, 153).
Our sages teach us that the Jews were redeemed on account of three things they did while in Egypt. Even amid their suffering, the Jews kept their names, language, and dress, preserving themselves as distinct from the Egyptians. Their language was Hebrew, Lashon HaKodesh (the Holy Tongue), which is the only language that can contain and transmit the fullness of God, and it preserved their understanding of God. Names suggest the essence of a thing, and thus the Jews remained essentially Jewish. By keeping separate clothing, the Jews were noticeably different, which also kept them from fully assimilating.
It was the pain of the exile in Egypt that refined the Jewish people, in the same way that a grape is pressed to make wine. As descendants of Jacob, they knew about their holy ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. During their time in Egypt, many maintained their belief in G-d, and after witnessing the miracles of the Exodus, they were ready to accept the yoke of the Torah and mitzvot.
Sadly, four out of five of the Jews in Egypt perished during the plague of darkness. They did not want to leave Egypt. The passage reads, “Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel, but they did not hearken to Moses because of [their] shortness of breath and because of [their] hard labor” (Exodus 6:9, Kehot Chumash). They despaired completely of ever being redeemed and were overwhelmed by their nonstop labor. Sound familiar?
Among the deeper lessons that the exile in Egypt teaches is that the powers in the world, Pharaoh, Egypt, and its people, are merely actors on a grand stage, used by G-d to bring His grand plan to fruition, making the Jewish people His nation and His emissaries in this world.
Of course, the Egyptians were still punished, because all humans have free choice.
An important detail in reward and punishment is that G-d uses only bad people to carry out evil, and good people are messengers for good.
Importantly, the root word of Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם, mitz-ra-yim), the biblical name for Egypt, is meitzar (מֵצַר, mé-tzar), meaning constriction or narrowness. Egypt was a large land, but one defined by a narrow consciousness and a limited understanding of truth. In contrast, Yisrael (יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yis-ra-Él) represents openness and alignment with God, often understood as yashar-El, “straight to God.”
The Egyptians believed in the power of nature and false deities. The plagues and miracles of the Exodus revealed that the Creator of nature stands above nature. By following the Torah and mitzvot, which connect a person to God, the Jewish people could rise above limitation and live with a broader awareness of truth. This was made visible when a small nation was brought forth from the most powerful empire on earth against all odds, just as the Maccabees would later overcome the Greeks, David overcame Goliath, and the Jews were saved from the hands of Haman, etc.
Today we also see G-d’s divine assistance as the tiny nation of Israel confronts and emerges victorious in multiple well-funded wars simultaneously: Gaza, against Hamas and allied militants; Lebanon, against Hezbollah; Yemen, against the Houthis; Syria, against Iran-linked militias; Iraq, against Iran-aligned militias; unrest in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria); and Iran itself, the organizing force and strategic backer behind these other fronts.
I am not a biblical or historical scholar but it bothers me when people telling the history and origin of the Jewish people in the Judaean hills start at Abraham as though Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were historical people. From my non-scholar perspective King Solomon and King David were real historical people but Abraham, et al are mythology. The history of the Jewish people began as a distinct group of Canaanites after the Bronze Age collapse who began to coalesce as a people in the Judaean hills and slowly over a couple hundred years grew into a great nation. I personally feel that acknowledging actual historical development helps locate ancient Israel in line with archaeology and modern genetics that are unequivocal proof of Jewish indigeneity in the land of Israel.
The Torah is the most accurate historical document there is. One who studies it is able to see that it contains divine wisdom, a history so precise that no human could ever describe history so thoroughly. Moreover, the torah describes the spiritual structure of reality, a deeper level of understanding than any human can describe. Human "archeological findings" are often subject to change and new facts. The torah is Emet and immutable truth. Modern morals are constantly changing because they are subject to the limited knowledge of man. As man's Creator, G-d's perspective is infinitely greater and provides the truth. Sadly, modern society privileges the universities above this knowledge. To understand the value of knowledge, one needs to understand the price one is willing to pay to preserve knowledge. Our ancestors risked their lives to preserve Torah knowledge and give us the privilege of learning it today. Happy to talk more. All the best, Avraham