Jews (by -1208) are a people who in ancient times spoke Hebrew and practised Judaism. Many Jews alive today do neither. That is because you can be Jewish either by faith (believing in Judaism) or, some say, by race (your mother was Jewish). They first appear in Ancient Egyptian records in -1208, their god in -1363.
There are not many Jews and never have been. For much of their history they did not even have a country of their own, yet their effect on mankind has been profound. Much of mankind, in fact, gets its ideas about religion from the Jews, either through Christianity or Islam, which are both rooted in Judaism.
In the -1200s, Moses led the Jews out of Egypt where they had been slaves for hundreds of years. He was taking them back to Israel where they had lived before, the Promised Land, promised by God.
On the way Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai and talked to God. He received God’s laws and delivered it to the Jews. There were over 600 of them. The first ten are known as the Ten Commandments. All of the laws are written down in a book now known as the Bible, the holy book of the Jews (and later, with additions, of the Christians).
Moses never lived to see the Promised Land. When the Jews got there they found other people living in their old land. On orders from God the Jews killed them and took back their land. It took some 200 years but by -1000 David entered Jerusalem and was crowned king. His son Solomon built the Temple of God, full of gold.
The way the Bible tells it the Jews then turned their backs on God, so God let the Assyrians and then the Babylonians take their land and carry the Jews off to other lands. Those taken to Babylon called it the Babylonian Captivity.
Most never returned to Israel, but some did. But except for a short period under the Maccabees, they lived under foreign rulers: Persians, Greeks and at last Romans.
The Romans found the Jews to be troublesome. They had to keep too much of their army in Israel to keep the peace. The Jews rose up against them twice. After the second time, in +135, the Romans forced the Jews out of Israel. They did not come back again in large numbers till the 1800s.
They went to Asia, Africa and Europe. Some went to live in the trading towns along the Rhine. Over time they moved east and settled in Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Russia. By 1930 this is where most of the world’s Jews were living. During the Second World War Hitler killed 6 of the 9 million who lived there.
After the war, in 1948, the Jews were given Israel as their country again. Today eight Jews in ten live in either Israel or America. More live in America than in Israel, especially in and near the cities of New York, Miami and Los Angeles.
See also:
- Israel
- Judaism
- Bible
- The Ten Commandments
- Hitler
- Warsaw Ghetto
- The Holocaust
- languages
- Jews:
- goyish
hi
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“Moses never lived to see the Promised Land. When the Jews got there they found other people living in their old land. On orders from God the Jews killed them and took back their land.”
does that mean that the jews commited genocide on the people that lived in their “old” land??
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Big time.
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seems like many atrocities been made “On orders from God”..never heard of any atrocities made under the name of Buddhism tho.
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Even as a Bible-believing Christian, the “on orders from God…” part does disturb me.
Your statement “their effect on mankind has been profound. Much of mankind, in fact, gets its ideas about religion from the Jews” is true. You can also add extensive contributions to science and other areas of knowledge. Despite these invaluable contributions, the antisemitism in this world is over-the-top.
AntisSemitism is both evil and insane.
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Despite these invaluable contributions, the antisemitism in this world is over-the-top.
Despite? Make that “because of”. Antisemitism is a reaction of aggressive loserdom against conspicuous success.
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“Antisemitism is a reaction of aggressive loserdom against conspicuous success.”
Agreed.
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“does that mean that the jews commited genocide on the people that lived in their “old” land??”
Technically, it wasn’t genocide because they weren’t trying to rid the world of a particular race of people. It was mass murder. They basically picked a geographic area and wiped out the population there. They weren’t focusing on a particular race. Not that that makes it any better.
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“Even as a Bible-believing Christian, the “on orders from God…” part does disturb me.”
Same here. But as a Catholic I know that it’s not the literal word of God but rather the word of God as written by man. There is a distinct difference.
From: http://www.religioustolerance.org/inerran1.htm
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops(1999):
“For Roman Catholics, inerrancy is understood as a consequence of biblical inspiration; it has to do more with the truth of the Bible as a whole than with any theory of verbal inerrancy. Vatican II says that ‘the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly, faithfully, and without error that truth which God wanted put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation” (Dei Verbum 11). What is important is the qualification of ‘that truth’ with ‘for the sake of our salvation’.”
But I digress…
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The white race is the cancer of human history.”
as the Jewish feminist Susan Sontag once “declared”..
well that same i think of the jews then, since they have done practically the same atrocities as whites done thru history, white christians & jews..the cancer of human history” would be more corect i think.
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i think of the jews then, since they have done practically the same atrocities as whites
Ashkenazi Jews (which Susan Sontag was..) by almost any sane definition are white. Susan Sontag knew her comments would sell more books.
And for all the naysayers (or white supremacist chest pounders..) of white folks.. there has never been a European empire that achieved the military prowess or land mass of the Mongols.
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“And for all the naysayers (or white supremacist chest pounders..) of white folks.. there has never been a European empire that achieved the military prowess or land mass of the Mongols.”
im glad the Europeans did not “achieve” any “Empire” like the mongols..since they were massmurder “conquerers” of the 1200 and prolly could be measured with Hitlers strife for “Lebensraum” back then.
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ca.1200-1368**
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im glad the Europeans did not “achieve” any “Empire” like the mongols..since they were massmurder “conquerers” of the 1200 and prolly could be measured with Hitlers strife for “Lebensraum” back then.
Yep, that’s my point. The Mongols were seriously badass. They were rarely defeated militarily (never by Europeans..) and if you defied them they basically destroyed your culture and sold women and children (if they hadn’t killed them like they sometimes did..) into slavery.
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To Miker:
Re: ca. 1200 – 1368 – Mongol Empire
Actually elements of the Mongol empire lasted until the 19th century (basically in combination with Turkic culture..) in India and until the 16th century in Russia.
Timur was a pretty brutal Turko-Mongol conqueror:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur
Who ruled from 1370–1405.
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I did a post on Timur, also known as Tamerlane:
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The British Empire was larger than the Mongol Empire:
36.6 million square kilometres: British empire
33 million square kilometres: Mongol empire
This came up in the comments in my post on the British Empire:
I do not think that any one race is particularly crueler than any other. It comes down to power not to any supposed difference in human nature between the races:
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abagond, you wrote:
“Jews (1200 BC – ) are a people who in ancient times spoke Hebrew and practised Judaism. Many Jews alive today do neither. That is because you can be Jewish either by faith (believing in Judaism) or, some say, by race (your mother was Jewish).
There is Jewish blood, either Ashkenazic or Sephartic. While true that anyone can convert to Judaism, few do unless the conversion is tied to marriage to a Jew. In that case, the children will most likely be half Jewish, in the genetic sense.
Regarding Israel, plans for the creation of for the Jewish homeland were underway after World War I. A big step toward the creation of Israel occurred when England issued the Balfour Agreement in 1924, which basically ceded the land for the future Israel.
For whatever it’s worth, there was never a nation of Palestine. It is a region with no more sovereignty than the North Pole. Prior to becoming Israel, the patch of land had been part of the Ottoman Empire, which collapsed in WWI.
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This post says nothing about Palestine. I have separate posts on Palestine and on Israel:
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No Slappz:
Good point: Judaism is not, at least through most of history, a religion that is trying to convert the world, not like Christianity and Islam are.
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Regarding Israel, plans for the creation of for the Jewish homeland were underway after World War I.
The First Zionist Congress was convened in 1987.
A big step toward the creation of Israel occurred when England issued the Balfour Agreement in 1924, which basically ceded the land for the future Israel.
You must be thinking of the Balfour Declaration of 1926, which dealt with an entirely unrelated matter. The Balfour Declaration that was supposed to lead to the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people” in their historical homeland was adopted in 1917. It was supposed to grant the future Jewish state much more land than it ended up with after the War of Independence.
And: nobody “gave” the Jewish people their state. They built it.
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The First Zionist Congress was convened in 1897, of course.
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You said there were 600 Jews with Moses at Mt. Sinai whereas it’s been recorded (most likely in the Bible though I didn’t double-check before posting) that there were 2.5 million people (Jews and non-Jews/foreign prostelytes) who were apart of the Egyptian Exodus. I’m curious to where you got the 600 figure from.
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“on orders from God…”
The Jews drove out the people that were living in their old land because the sins of the latter had come to fulness at that time.
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Nice
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I just had a strange thought bit since Egyptians were black and had Jewish slaves how does the dynamic of race play in a prodomently white person who is one sixteenth Jewish
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The antisemitic things people gather from this makes little since the whole Jews are the real Nazi propaganda
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Ashkenazi Jews are by race DNA testing show they are are similar origin to middle eastern dissent and with heavy mix of European with some scientist who believe an Egyptian mix in there as well but it can be argued its left over from common human ancestors the cradle of life
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My own opinion is that Hitler was insane–probably paranoid schizophrenic;
The German people seem to have a follow the leader complex even if the
leader (Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm, Hitler) leads them down the primrose path.
Hitler was surrounded by people who either were just as loony as he was
(e.g. Himmler, Goebels), or were just plain opportunists (Goering, Heydrich).
Some of the Nazis, e.g. the so-called doctors who performed the so-called
medical experiments on concentration camp inmates (e.g. Josef Mengele
or Aribert Heim) were out and out sadists. They were and are a disgrace
to the German Medical profession.
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Interesting
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Communism is a Jewish movement. Adolph Hitler dedicated his life to defeating it.
In the future he will be praised as a great man.
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@ Jane the Jew
The Ashkenazi ‘s of today have little DNA links to the Hebrews of the Bible. The Khazars were converts around 800 AD. In fact the Palestinians of today have more of a genetic link than people who call themselves “Jewish ” today.
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In a news article that accompanied Elhaik’s journal paper, Shlomo Sand, history professor at Tel Aviv University and author of the controversial 2009 book “The Invention of the Jewish People,” said the study vindicated his long-held ideas.
”It’s so obvious for me,” Sand told the journal. “Some people, historians and even scientists, turn a blind eye to the truth. Once, to say Jews were a race was anti-Semitic, now to say they’re not a race is anti-Semitic. It’s crazy how history plays with us.”
The paper has received little coverage in mainstream American media, but it has attracted the attention of anti-Zionists and “anti-Semitic white supremacists,” Elhaik said.
Interestingly, while anti-Zionist bloggers have applauded Elhaik’s work, saying it proves that contemporary Jews have no legitimate claim to Israel, some white supremacists have attacked it.
David Duke, for example, is disturbed by the assertion that Jews are not a race. “The disruptive and conflict-ridden behavior which has marked out Jewish Supremacist activities through the millennia strongly suggests that Jews have remained more or less genetically uniform and have… developed a group evolutionary survival strategy based on a common biological unity — something which strongly militates against the Khazar theory,” wrote the former Ku Klux Klansman and former Louisiana state assemblyman on his blog in February.
“I’m not communicating with them,” Elhaik said of the white supremacists. He says it also bothers him, a veteran of seven years in the Israeli army, that anti-Zionists have capitalized on his research; not least because “they’re not going to be proven wrong anytime soon.”
But proponents of the Rhineland Hypothesis also have a political agenda, he said, claiming they “were motivated to justify the Zionist narrative.”
To illustrate his point, Elhaik swivels his chair around to face his computer and calls up a 2010 email exchange with Ostrer.
“It was a great pleasure reading your group’s recent paper, ‘Abraham’s Children in the Genome Era,’ that illuminate[s] the history of our people,” Elhaik wrote to Ostrer. “Is it possible to see the data used for the study?”
Ostrer replied that the data are not publicly available. “It is possible to collaborate with the team by writing a brief proposal that outlines what you plan to do,” he wrote. “Criteria for reviewing include novelty and strength of the proposal, non-overlap with current or planned activities, and non-defamatory nature toward the Jewish people.” That last requirement, Elhaik argues, reveals the bias of Ostrer and his collaborators.
Allowing scientists access to data only if their research will not defame Jews is “peculiar,” said Catherine DeAngelis, who edited the Journal of the American Medical Association for a decade. “What he does is set himself up for criticism: Wait a minute. What’s this guy trying to hide?”
Despite what his critics claim, Elhaik says, he was not out to prove that contemporary Jews have no connection to the Jewish people of the Bible. His primary research focus is the genetics of mental illness, which, he explains, led him to question the assumption that Ashkenazi Jews are a useful population to study because they’re so homogeneous.
Elhaik says he first read about the Khazarian Hypothesis a decade ago in a 1976 book by the late Hungarian-British author Arthur Koestler, “The Thirteenth Tribe,” written before scientists had the tools to compare genomes. Koestler, who was Jewish by birth, said his aim in writing the book was to eliminate the racist underpinnings of anti-Semitism in Europe. “Should this theory be confirmed, the term ‘anti-Semitism’ would become void of meaning,” the book jacket reads. Although Koestler’s book was generally well reviewed, some skeptics questioned the author’s grasp of the history of Khazaria.
Graur is not surprised that Elhaik has stood up against the “clique” of scientists who believe that Jews are genetically homogeneous. “He enjoys being combative,” Graur said. “That’s what science is.”
Contact Rita Rubin at feedback@forward.com
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/175912/jews-a-race-genetic-theory-comes-under-fierce-atta/?p=all#ixzz3MH6dovuz
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@Jacque
Just because David Duke supports the Khazar theory doesn’t make it true. Most genetic graphs seem to show Ashkenazi Jews clustering between European and Levantine populations. And for the record, there is no evidence that the Khazars converted en mass to Judaism. Only a segment of the ruling class did, and some sources say that they later on adopted Islam. The only people I’ve met who supported the Khazar theory were people who hated Ashkenazi Jews.
Genetic Graphs
@Jacque
Just because David Duke supports the Khazar theory doesn’t make it true. Most genetic graphs seem to show Ashkenazi Jews clustering between European and Levantine populations. And for the record, there is no evidence that the Khazars converted en mass to Judaism. Only a segment of the ruling class did, and some sources say that they later on adopted Islam. There are only three groups of people I’ve met who supported the Khazar theory:
– White Nationalists
– Black Nationalists
– Arab Nationalists
Because, surprise, they blame Ashkenazi Jews for ALL of their problems.
Genetic Graphs:
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V8Driver…what does your graph show? Are most white Jews Khazar converts?
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Carrying forward discussion from this thread:
@ Afrofem
“What likely made those affiliations noteworthy to the student council is that the UCLA had just completed a contentious battle over whether to support the non-violent BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) movement.”
I understand the point you’re making, but there are ways to approach such matters without singling out a specific person due to their identity and/or affiliations. If a student’s support of BDS was crucial to a successful candidacy, then the judicial board should have asked each and every candidate their opinion of UCLA’s stance on BDS, with the same phrasing of the query in every case.
I was going to say that the faculty advisor should have stressed this with the judicial board beforehand, but then I reflected on the possibility that the advisor did but some of the students didn’t quite get it. That happens.
Consistent phrasing and questioning of all interviewees not only reduces the probability of biased queries, but also increases the likelihood of discovering those views in a candidate whose identity and/or affiliations would not normally suggest such beliefs.
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@ Benjamin
@ Benjamin
I can’t speak for Berkeley, but on other campuses I’ve seen non-Jewish progressive students turn out in force to protest anti-Semitic vandalism or to help protect the Hillel building when neo-Nazis got a parade permit. They also have been involved in less visible work, such as fighting for university rules requiring professors to allow Jewish students to reschedule exams that fall on Holy Days.
I don’t know a reliable way to measure the passion being put behind those efforts. The imbalance you see in the media may or may not accurately reflect a real imbalance in dedication.
However, if you’re referring to pro-Israel, pro-settlement, pro-Zionist sentiments, then no, you’re correct, most far-left circles aren’t going to support that.
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@Solitaire
“…the judicial board should have asked each and every candidate their opinion of UCLA’s stance on BDS, with the same phrasing of the query in every case.”
Agreed. There was probably more clumsiness involved in this matter that malice. At least I hope that was the case.
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@Solitaire
@Afrofem
Thank you both for your responses. You both gave me a lot to potentially reply to.
@Solitaire
I don’t know a reliable way to measure the passion being put behind those efforts. The imbalance you see in the media may or may not accurately reflect a real imbalance in dedication.
Perhaps you’re right. In my personal opinion, I have felt that the far left’s reactions to anti-Semitism has been rather muted. Especially if the anti-Semitic perpetrator in question happened to be a person of color. But, nevertheless, you make a point. Just because coverage of protests against anti-Semitism isn’t as publicized by liberal circles, certainly doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
However, if you’re referring to pro-Israel, pro-settlement, pro-Zionist sentiments, then no, you’re correct, most far-left circles aren’t going to support that.
No, I know that. I don’t expect far left individuals to be supportive of Israel. But, as I believe Afrofem mentioned, both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian individuals sometimes blur the line between ‘Jewish’ and ‘Zionist’.
In any case I’m glad you seem to agree that what happened at UCLA wasn’t done right.
@Afrofem
I think equating BDS with anti-Semitism is a way to shut down discussion of the policies and practices that prompted the Palestinians to start the BDS movement years ago.
I agree. However, on the flip side, I believe some people who genuinely are anti-Semitic do attempt to hide behind anti-Zionism. Again, I’m not saying the majority of anti-Zionists are anti-Semitic. But certainly such individuals do exist, and have voiced their beliefs aloud before.
It is a familiar playbook. America, Canada, Australia, South Africa and many other colonialist, settler states have followed the playbook with great success. Yet, there are always consequences.
Ironically enough, some right wing Israelis seem themselves as indigenous to the land, and the Palestinians as the settlers who took up residence when the Jews were ousted long ago. Please note I absolutely do NOT support that viewpoint, just thought I would mention it.
I have no doubt that anti-Semitism exists. I think it never died out. I also think some attitudes and behaviors many Jewish students describe as anti-Semitism may be part of the negative blowback to Israeli policies and practices
I agree some anti-Semitism is a result of Israel’s policies, but that still doesn’t justify it. Being angry at Israel for using excessive force in the 2014 Gaze War is understandable. But it doesn’t justify, for example, burning a synagogue (something which happened in Germany for that reason).
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@Afrofem
I do have more to reply to you, as you gave me a lot of information. Especially regarding Jews of Color such as the Mizrahim. However, I can’t right now, I will tomorrow!
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@ Benjamin
“…some people who genuinely are anti-Semitic do attempt to hide behind anti-Zionism”
Agreed. I have seen people snipe at Jews and attempt to duck behind a faux anti-Zionist stance. They purposely muddy the waters to get their licks in and don’t care about principled arguments or working toward solutions. I would count the persons who burned the German synagogue you referenced upthread in that camp.
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@ Benjamin
“In any case I’m glad you seem to agree that what happened at UCLA wasn’t done right.”
Oh, I absolutely agree 100%. I’m not in a place right now to go scouring UCLA’s website, but I’d be willing to bet what happened in that meeting was in direct violation of UCLA’s own EEO/anti-discrimination policies.
Where I think you and I had a major disconnect earlier, is that compared to some other civil rights violations I’ve seen occur on campuses, this incident was resolved favorably in an incredibly short amount of time. I can understand your perception that there wasn’t enough of an outcry, but to me 40 minutes between rejection and acceptance, 2 days to a formal printed apology, 2 days or less before the chancellor condemns the incident? That’s like a lightning flash. There’s no major demand left to make, so why protest in the streets? Most of the huge campus protests, like what happened at Missouri, are the result of years of inaction, feet-dragging, and obstruction by the university. But it’s those huge protests that make it into the national mainstream media.
What I also don’t know is whether any steps were taken at UCLA in later weeks and months to address the issue of anti-Semitism on campus. That kind of follow-up on campus generally doesn’t get covered in the national news. I’d have to search the campus newspaper and poke around UCLA’s website, and I really don’t have the time right now. Based on what I’ve seen elsewhere, I would be willing to bet that at least a few programs (e.g., speakers, panels, roundtable discussions, documentaries) were presented by one or more university office, academic department, or student organization. If that didn’t happen, you are perfectly right to say that it should have.
Hopefully there was also a redoubled effort in diversity training for student organizations, with an emphasis on what does and does not constitute bias in interviews for membership and/or leadership positions.
“But, as I believe Afrofem mentioned, both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian individuals sometimes blur the line between ‘Jewish’ and ‘Zionist’.”
That is a very good point and something people on the left need to be careful about and watchful for.
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