![]() ![]() When they were told the story about liberation from enslavement, they felt personally invested, in the same way Americans might feel connected to the story of America’s independence from England and the events of 1776, even though they may not be directly descended from people who took part in that conflict. Regardless of whether the story of the exodus “really happened” or not, Israelites in 1000 BCE connected with it. ![]() Eventually, they returned to the “Promised Land,” the area of Canaan where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had resided centuries before. When they reached Mount Sinai, they were recipients of divine instruction. They were a minority, and they were eventually enslaved by the Egyptians, until God intervened in history through miraculous plagues to liberate them, with the help of the prophet Moses.Īfter being freed from slavery, the Israelites were led by God and Moses on a journey through the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. The quick version of the story is that ancient Canaan was in a period of drought, and the Israelites went down into Egypt in search of food. The myth that bound ancient Israelites together was the Exodus narrative, from the second book of the Hebrew Bible, a story about liberation from enslavement in ancient Egypt. Jacob himself is renamed “Israel” in the Bible, which suggests that Israelites had a shared memory of a name change as part of their history.Ĭard showing Moses and the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt published by Providence Lithograph Company, 1907. These people were united by a sense of shared ancestry, myth, ritual and history.Īncient Israelites believed that they were descendants of three people: Abraham, his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. ![]() Who were the ancient Israelites?Īncient Israelites originated roughly in the territory of modern Israel, also known as the ancient Levant or ancient Canaan, sometime before 1000 BCE. What are the origins of the Jewish people? Asking or answering this question is always tricky, and scholar Steven Weitzman does a great job of discussing this problem in his book “ The Origins of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age.”īut setting aside the political dimensions of the question, the origins of the Jewish people lie in the ancient Middle East, at the crossroads of ancient empires, particularly the ancient Egyptian Empire, the ancient Babylonian Empire, and the ancient Assyrian Empire. The term “Israelites” also appears, along with the term “Hebrews.” In the Hebrew Bible and the Torah, the text that is most sacred to Jews, the term used most often is “the sons or daughters of Israel,” b’nei Yisroel or b’not Yisroel. ![]() Jews didn’t start using the word “Jew” as a way to identify themselves until after 500 BCE. In the United States, there are 5.7 million Jews or so, or about one or two in 100 Americans, while 71% of Americans identify as Christian and 23% identify as unaffiliated. In 2015, there were 2300 million Christians worldwide, 1800 million Muslims, and 14 million Jews. Some basic facts about Jews, Jewish history and Judaism.Īccording to the Pew Research Center, about 30% of the world population identifies as Christian, 24% as Muslim and only a very tiny percentage as Jewish. In particular, learning about two lesser-known cases of anti-Jewish violence in ancient times - the genocide of Jews in Alexandria in 115-117 CE, and Christian violence towards Jews in the early Byzantine period (300-450 CE) - will help to illustrate the underlying forces behind violence against Jews. Who are Jews? What is their history? What motivates anti-Jewish prejudice and violence?īy looking at the origins of Jews, and their history as outsiders, starting in the ancient world, we can begin to understand antisemitism and anti-Judaism - two terms for anti-Jewish prejudice. ![]()
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