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Chapter 12 judaism history alive
Impact of the holocaust
Impact of the holocaust
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Paul Johnson's A History of the Jews is probably the finest popular history of the Jewish people written in the English language, since its content is so terrifically enriched. The book is maybe written 15 years ago, but the exploration of the Jewish made it an incredible document. That is also a reason why they do reprints (My edition is the first one with the white cover) Johnson's history begins with the Bible and ends with the establishment of the State of Israel. And for that matter, it has remained popular since its appearance to public in 1987, even though many books, school manuals and popular histories have come out since then. What Johnson did with his book is that he has written it with passion which helps readers a lot to understand the drama of Jewish history. The words that Paul uses in his context are easy to understand, that helped me a lot to imagine the scene in my head during my reading. For example, the details that he used to describe this World War 2 holocaust scene are so realistic that I find it disturbing: "About 250 Jews were massacred by the guards, but twenty-seven escaped. Four Jewish girls who got the explosives in were tortured for weeks, but gave no information. Roza Robota, who died under torture, gave as her last message: "Be strong and brave." Two of them survived the torture to be hanged in front of all women in Auschwitz, one of them with the cry `Revenge! As she died." (P510)
What I like a lot about the way he wrote the book is that he is a very neutral author, which means he didn't require stereotypes and sensationalism to complete his book. In order to help readers understand better the history of Jews, Paul Johnson managed to divide his masterpiece into 7 chapters. Each one represents a period in the history of the Jews.
Israelites
Judaism
Cathedocracy
Ghetto
Emancipation
Holocaust
Zion
Personally I think that the chapters are very long but it's understandable since Paul's goal was to put as most information as possible in one single book. I also want to mention that half the book is centered in the Modern era, especially to the last 2 centuries, the Zionism, the Enlightenment and the Holocaust. The historical and social references from the Bible, provides the Jewish people both ethics and history issues.
I enjoyed that the book challenged some of the biggest problems in our legal system, or even society as a whole. There is still a lot of racism going on, and this book was not afraid to exploit that. I enjoy those kinds of readings. They are the things that will eventually spark a change and shed some light on the problems that are happening right now.
I think that Masur gave very informative details on events that happened during the time period of 1831. I did not realize that one year can make a difference a big difference especially in our history. I wanted to know more about the Niagara Falls parable, how it got its name and what was the significance. The chapter about religion was hard for me to understand because my knowledge on that topic is not too strong. I think it would be helpful to have gone over the different religions before reading the book to get a more clear understanding of each religion’s viewpoints. Overall, this book was very informative and it helped expand my knowledge of our history because I did not know that all these event occurred and that they were very important.
I enjoyed the book and I tought it was easy to read and understand. The constant adversities Andreas faced keep me craving more, from the prison scene to him being kidnapped left me wondering what would happen for the next chapter. I also enjoyed learning about the Jewish culture and traditions that the book mentioned, and having a new take on arguments regarding the practice of the Sabbath or how Jesus’s teachings could have sounded to a Gentile back in the day. Overall a fun and interesting book to read and challenged by views on the humanity of Jesus.
forced to live in a part of Russia known as The Pale (which is now in
Jews in the 19th Century During the 19th the status and position of European Jews changed
According to the broadest definition, there are approximately 9 million Jewish adults in America. Of those, 5.3 million are Jewish because they practice the Jewish religion or who have a Jewish parent and consider themselves Jewish. Non-hispanic blacks make up 2% of that population. (A Portrait of Jewish Americans) Blacks constitute such a small percentage of the Jewish population that they are often considered to be obviously “not Jewish”. This was the experience of Rabbi Shlomo ben Levy.In an article entitled, “Who are we? Where did we come from? How many of us are there?”, Rabbi Levy describes his feelings of marginalization triggered by an advertisement for Levy’s Jewish Rye. The advertisement features a black boy eating a sandwich and the caption “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s”. The idea was to present a child who was clearly not Jewish enjoying Jewish bread but for Rabbi Levy who is both black and Jewish it was yet another message that denied his existence. (Who are we?)
If one were to ask a New York resident in the 1950’s how many people he or she would expect to be living in New York sixty years from now, he would most likely not say 20 million. Among those 20 million, it is even more unfathomable that an estimated 1.7 million Jews reside within New York City, making New York home to over a quarter of the Jews living in America today . Amongst those Jews however, how many of them consider themselves religious? Seeing that only an estimated 10 percent of Jews today classify themselves as observant, how and when did this substantial dispersion occur? The period post World War II in America presents the many different factors and pressures for Jews arriving in America during this time. Although many Jews believed America would be the best place to preserve and rebuild Jewish presence in the world, the democracy and economic opportunity resulted in adverse effects on many Jews. The rate of acculturation and assimilation for many of these Jews proved to be too strong, causing an emergence of two types of Jews during this time period. Pressures including the shift to suburbanization, secular education into professional careers, covert discrimination in the labor market and the compelling American culture, ultimately caused the emergence of the passive and often embarrassed ‘American Jew’; the active ‘Jewish American’ or distinctly ‘Jewish’ citizen, avertedly, makes Judaism an engaging active component of who and what they are amidst this new American culture.
Judaism is a religion with an excess of 13 million believers located mainly within the United States and Israel. Of all the religions practiced today, Judaism is one of the oldest. The roots of Judaism can be traced back over 3500 years to the Middle East with a lineage that descends from Abraham as a patriarch. With Abraham as a common ancestor, Judaism is considered one of the Abrahamic faiths alongside Christianity and Islam. The historical events within the Bible of Judaism’s past, all the way back to Abraham, have molded the beliefs and traditions practiced by Jewish adherents today.
Over the span of the Holocaust over 6 million Jewish people were senselessly tortured and killed. The man in charge of this horrible act is no stranger to history, Adolf Hitler. There is only one logical explanation in my opinion for the way Hitler acted. Paranoia. You can clearly see that as soon as he felt that he was being threatened by someone or some group, he just took them out, like the Jews, the Gypsies, the swing kids, and many more. Hitler was scared or paranoid of having his power taken from him so he did what he thought was the best decision that he could do to protect what little power he did have at the time, which was genocide.
Many Americans have watered down the Depiction of Jewish oppression during Nazi reign to swift easy round up into concentration camps. What Quentin Tarantino and the Jewish film community wanted to illustrate through this film is how this is an incorrect overgeneralization. Inglourious Basterds illustrates more realistic Jewish life during Nazi reign and the constant terror they faced. This oppression was far more personal, intimate, and cordial yet brutal altercations invoked through self-defense and hatred. This film illustrates this internal oppression and revolt through schemes, interrogations, threats, and abrupt violence.
Throughout Jewish History we have seen significant transitions from 2,000 B.C.E. to 1492 C.E. These transitions changed many different aspects of Jewish life. There are three specific events or turning points that caused tremendous change in Jewish life and had many ramifications. These three events were the Formation of the United Monarchy, the Rise of Hellenism and the Golden Age of Spain. Each of these transitions impacted Judaism in different ways that changed it forever. The different groups of people involved changed different parts of Jewish life including linguistics, politics, traditions, and literature.
Bard, Mitchell G., ed. "Introduction." Introduction. The Holocaust. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2001.
Although both authors drew on the New Testament, the Biblical canon is actually quiet about it, and these hierarchies are considered less meaningful than biblical material.
I found this book to be a rather interesting read. I enjoyed how Levathes researched this book and wrote it to try to explain about this specific period of time and how it is very non-fiction.
First, I learned how adamant the Jews were about their faith and keeping their laws. Before reading this book, I did not understand the seriousness that the Jews put in their faith. One