Judaism

Eastern. Jewish communal settlement dates from 1654 with Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin, called Sephardim. However, their numbers before 1800 were very limited--the first major immigration came from Central Europe from 1830-1880 to escape special taxes and restrictions on Jews. Still, the population at around 1880 was only around 250,000. Starting in 1881, increasing persecution in Russia caused Jews to leave Eastern Europe for America. By 1900, there were another half million Jewish immigrants. Between 1900 and 1924, before the Immigration Acts effectively closed the doors to newcomers, 1.4 million Jews migrated from Eastern Europe.

A wave of about 1.4 million Jews came from _______ Europe to America during the early twentieth century.

Bar Mitzvah. In response to the Bar Mitzvah, some more modern Jewish groups--such as the Reform congregations--offer the Bat Mitzvah, a similar ceremony for girls.

According to Jewish tradition, a boy technically becomes a man on his thirteenth birthday. This occasion is recognized by a festive ceremony called ___________.

Judah. Unlike the northern nation of Israel, Judah was able to maintain their identity and their religious customs while in captivity under Babylon.

After Israel's split, the southern nation called _____ survived until 586 BC, when the Babylonians conquered them and destroyed Solomon's temple.

Rabbi. The diaspora refers to the dispersion of Jews outside of Israel from the sixth century B.C., when they were exiled to Babylonia. Rabbis were around for a long time, but it wasn't until the destruction of the Second Temple that they became the sole teachers of the Jewish people. The temple system was also replaced by the synagogue at this time.

After the diaspora created by the destruction of the Second Temple, the _____ replaced the priest.

Persecution. The First Crusade took place in the late 11th Century, about three centuries after Charlemagne was crowned the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The persecution against Jews during the Crusades became so severe that many Jews began to flee to Poland or Islamic countries, where there was more tolerance.

Although Christianity's main goal during the Crusades was to win back holy places in Palestine, it simultaneously set off widespread ___________ against Jews across Europe.

6. It is estimated that six million Jews died during the Holocaust and that the Jewish population was cut by as much as one-third.

Approximately _ million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

Anwar Sadat. In 1981, Sadat was assassinated by members of the Takfir wal Hijra, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Egyptian President ___________ visited Jerusalem in 1977 and in 1978 joined Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the historic Camp David agreements.

Israel. The United Nations decision to divide Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state was controversial. Immediately after proclaiming its statehood, Israel was attacked by five neighboring Arab states.

In 1948, the Zionists' dreams of a Jewish state were partially answered when ______ filed for statehood.

Israel. The northern nation kept the name of Israel. Following its defeat, its population was dispersed and enslaved. Because of the uncertain fate of the Israelites, they became known as the ten lost tribes of Israel.

In 922 BC, following the reign of Solomon, a rebellion split the nation in two. The larger, northern nation was known as ______. It would later be destroyed by Assyrians in 721 BC.

Vote. The Nuremberg Laws were a sign of things to come and many Jews tried to leave Germany at the time. Because of immigration restrictions in several countries, however, most could not leave.

In Germany, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 took away several rights from Jews including the right to ____, hold office, marry non-Jews, and to work in most professions.

Secular. Secular means "non religious". In the same year, 80 percent of American Jews identified themselves as Reform or Conservative.

In a 1996 report, two thirds of Israel's Jews described themselves as _______.

Pentateuch. The laws given to Moses and the further codification of the laws throughout the Pentateuch defined Judaism primarily as a religion concerned with obeying the laws of God.

In the Jewish tradition, the first five books of the Bible are collectively called the __________. It codifies the laws that regulate every area of Jewish life.

Legal. The Mishnah was collected under the leadership of Judah ha-Nasi and is a milestone in Jewish literary history.

In the second century, Judaism collected all the _____ commentary that had been collected since the days of Ezra. This collection was called the Mishnah.

Oneness. Overall, Judaism is difficult to define. Although this definition discusses the religious aspects of Judaism, it excludes those people who consider themselves Jewish yet are atheists.

It is difficult to define Judaism because of its various ethnic, cultural, and religious connotations. As a religion, its followers generally all believe in the _______ of a God who works through historical events and has chosen them as His agents.

Sephardic. Sephardim are, primarily, the descendants of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal). They may be divided into the families that left in the Expulsion of 1492 and those that remained as crypto-Jews and left in the following few centuries.

A _________ Jew follows the customs and traditions of Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the late fifteenth century.

Preserve. Hebrew is still the language used in Orthodox Judaism. It attempts to deviate as little as possible from biblical and talmudic Judaism.

Orthodox Judaism represents the largest group within Judaism today. It strives to ________ traditional Jewish culture and to resist the secularizing effects of modernity.

Reform. The liberalism of Reform Judaism led to the creation of Conservative Judaism, a branch which lies between the strictness of Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism's excess.

Popular in the United States and in Europe, ______ Judaism is the most modern and liberal branch of Judaism. It is not as strict as the more conservative traditions and it does not enforce all of the kosher food laws and talmudic restrictions.

Demons. In ancient Babylon demons were considered actual creatures with individual shapes and names. They were restrained by magic, exorcism, and daily recitations.

Priests in ancient Babylon had different responsibilities, some served the gods with hymns and liturgy; others practiced divination and astrology, and still others were concerned with protecting people from ______.

United States. Reform Judaism is distinguished by a liberal attitude toward Jewish law and rejects virtually all ceremonial and dietary restrictions.

Reform Judaism is the largest denomination of Jews in the _____________ today.

Rites of passage.

Rituals that mark the passage from one phase of life to another (birth, puberty, marriage, death, etc.) are called ________________.

Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is the holiest of all the Jewish holidays. Abstaining from work, food, and drink, Jewish people spend the day at the synagogue, offering prayers for forgiveness of sins and reconciliation.

Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year, begins a period of penitence that culminates with the next Jewish holiday-- __________, or the Day of Atonement.

Sinai. At the end of the forty years, Moses and most of that generation died. Joshua the son of Nun then lead them into the land of Canaan which they renamed "Israel."

The Children of Israel were in the _____ desert for forty years.

Israel bec Eliezer. Despite the disapproval of Orthodox rabbis, the Hasidic movement attracted a great following and was accepted widely in Eastern Europe.

The Hasidic movement was founded in Poland in the seventeenth-century by __________________. It taught that God could be found only through simple, straightforward faith--not scholarly learning.

Died. In his famous statement, Rubenstein said that God died in the Holocaust. Before the Nazi years, God had answered the cries of the Jewish people during persecution. In the Holocaust, these cries went unanswered.

The Holocaust has had a substantial effect on Jewish theology. In After Auschwitz, Richard Rubenstein made the statement that, to the Jewish people, God ____ in the Holocaust.

Social. The prophets of Israel were diverse. While some attached themselves to the royal household, others preached in more troubled times and criticized the wickedness of both the peasants and the royalty.

The Israelite Prophets were not always concerned with prediction of future events as the term usually implies. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, for example, are better known for their poetic denunciations of ______ conditions in eighth-century BC Israel.

Descended. Abraham, his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, and Jacob's twelve sons are considered the patriarchs of the Jewish people.

The Jewish people consider themselves as having _________ from the Patriarchs, a group of figures described in the Book of Genesis who formed a covenant with God.

Talmud. The Karaite movement has splintered into many sub sects because it has stressed the individual interpretation of scriptures.

The Karaites are a sect within Judaism which denies the authority of the ______ and desires to live exclusively by the five books of the Torah.

Ten. The minimum of ten is evidently a survival from the old institution in which ten heads of families made up the smallest political subdivision. The rule is laid down in the Mishnah, saying, "They do not...lift their hands,...read from the Law,...nor use God's name in preparing for grace after meals, with less than ten."

The Minyan, which in Hebrew means "number", is the ___ adult Jews that are required for certain prayers.

Mount Sinai. This second covenant was delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai, reinforcing the first covenant.

The covenant made with Abraham was the first covenant God made with the Jews. Later a second covenant was made at ___________ which reinforced the covenant made with Abraham.

Passover. Because the angel of death passed over all the Jewish households that had smeared lamb's blood on their doorposts, the holiday is known as Passover.

The final plague upon Egypt was the death of every firstborn Egyptian child. The Jewish people commemorate this event with the holiday known as ________.

David. When David became king of the Israelites, it marked the beginning of the period known historically as the Jewish Monarchy.

The first truly effective king of the Israelites was _____, whose abilities as a military leader and administrator built Israel into a somewhat influential and wealthy nation of the ancient Middle East.

Kosher. Literally meaning "fit" or "proper," kosher is a term usually applied to food or food preparation.

Much of Jewish law is dedicated to the discussion of what is ______, or ritually clean and acceptable.

Jehovah. Whenever YHVH occurs in scriptures it is pronounced by Jews as "Adonai" (Lord). Judaism teaches that any usage of God's name could violate the 3rd commandment, not to take the Lord's name in vain.

"_______" is one of the English renderings of the Hebrew YHVH.

Zionism. Although Zionism initially made only a general plea for land, it became clear in the early 1900s that Jewish people wanted to reclaim their holy land in Palestine. So many Jews relocated to Palestine that a 1939 law began limiting the annual number of Jewish immigrants.

At the end of the nineteenth century, unfair treatment of the Jewish people led to the creation of _______, a movement pleading for the creation of a Jewish state.

Solomon. The temple of Solomon made the worship of Yahweh much more formal, and Israelite religion at the time is sometimes referred to as the temple cult.

Because Yahweh forbid David from building a temple in his lifetime, his son and successor, _______, built it. The temple housed the Ark of the Covenant, and a formal class of priests was attached to it.

Synagogue. A synagogue can exist anywhere that there is a copy of the Scripture and ten adult males.

Being far from their homeland of Jerusalem, the Jews of the Diaspora created the institution of the _________, which literally means an assembly.

Haggadah. This is called the Seder Feast and it is observed on the eve of the first or second day of Passover.

During Jewish Passover, the whole family is assembled and passages from the ________ are read to retell the story of Exodus and the purpose of the Passover rite itself.

Covenant. In the Bible, the covenant is God's agreement with humankind. If Abraham remains faithful to God, then God will reward him and his descendants.

Following some disastrous dealings with humankind, God forms a ________ with Abraham and his descendants, through which Abraham is to become the father of a great nation blessed by God.

Kiddush. Kiddush includes recitation of Genesis 2:1-3, most likely said in Hebrew.

Following the Shabbat synagogue service, Jews enjoy a meal which begins with the _______ blessing over a glass of wine or grape juice.

Scripture. Most agreed that the Pentateuch and most of the books of the prophets belonged in the Torah. However, there was great debate around the books classified as "the writings," which included books like Psalms and Job.

Following the final destruction of the Jerusalem temple, one of the issues debated was what books belonged in the Jewish _________, known as the Torah.

Zionism. Reform Jews originally opposed the establishment of a Jewish state as reactionary and impractical, although they later supported the idea.

From its beginning, _______ was widely supported among Orthodox Jews.

Lights. Also known as the Feast of Lights, Hanukkah is a Jewish festival which commemorates the rededication of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus in 165 BC.

Hanukkah is known as the Festival of ______ and is celebrated for eight days in December.

Theodore Herzl. Theodor Herzl was an Austrian journalist who came to believe that Jewish people would never be treated fairly until they had a land of their own.

The Zionist movement obtained international notice when ______________ published the book The Jewish State in 1896.

Talmud. Adding diverse commentaries known as Gemara together with the Mishnah, the Talmud was created. There are two Talmudim - one created in Palestine and one in Babylonia.

The ______ is an encyclopedic collection of Jewish commentaries. It is considered the literary source of postbiblical Judaism.

Exodus. The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and their conquest of Canaan had to be performed before God's original promise to Abraham could be fulfilled.

The ______ is the most important event in Judaism, delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and bringing them into their homeland of Canaan.

Kabbalah. Many groups involved in the Kabbalah movement attempt to predict when the Messiah will come and rescue the Jewish people. For this reason, this movement is particularly popular to Jews during times of persecution.

The ________ movement deals with elements of the occult and other esoteric subjects not covered in the mainstream Jewish canon.

Sinai. On Mt. Sinai, God gave Moses the ten absolute laws that are the basis of Jewish life.

The communicating of God's laws to the Israelites through Moses occurred on Mt. _____.

Conservative. The term conservative was meant to signify that Jews should attempt to conserve Jewish traditions, rather than reform or abandon them. In 1845, Frankel had parted company with the German Reform Judaism movement, over its rejection of the primacy of the Hebrew language in Jewish prayer and the rejection of the laws of kashrut.

The major founder of ____________ Judaism was Rabbi Zecharias Frankel.

Kabbalah. In Judaism, the discussion of magic, charms, numerology, angels, demons, witches, ghouls and other mystical topics all come under the term Kaballah.

The most comprehensive collection of ________ writings is called the Zohar.

Spanish Inquisition. Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith, usually Catholicism.

The most widely known crypto-Jews publicly professed Roman Catholicism after the Alhambra decree of 1492 and during the ___________________.

Nehemiah. Under the leadership of Nehemiah the breaches in the walls and the burnt gates of the city were repaired after over 150 years of lying in ruins. Ezra was a priest who brought a copy of the scripture that he read to the citizens of the rebuilt Jerusalem and caused them to reform their lives.

Two figures, ________ and Ezra, were prominent in reviving and completing the restoration of Jerusalem and its spiritual life after the Babylonian captivity.

Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah changed the Israelites perspective. As Yahweh's chosen people, they were charged with the mission to spread his message to all the world's nations.

Two prophets, Ezekiel and ______, were influential during the Israelites' exile from Jerusalem. The latter, in particular, argued that Yahweh wasn't a local deity housed only in the temple, but was in fact a God of people all over the world.

Ram.

When God demanded a human sacrifice of his son Isaac, Abraham set out to obey but God substituted a ___.

Exile. The leader of the Exodus was Moses. After a series of miraculous plagues upon the Egyptians, he succeeded in having the Israelites freed.

While in _____, Moses encountered God in the desert and was charged with returning to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

David. The city of Jerusalem became the capital of Israel. Beginning with David, the city's location and its sacred connotations made it one of the most disputed cities in the world.

_____ captured the city of Jerusalem and made it his capital. Its location amongst the hills made it easy to defend and it may have already had a history of being a sacred site.

Reform. Reform Jews view the Talmud simply as a historical document.

______ Judaism does not accept the Talmud as authoritative.

Shabbat. Jews from different movements observe Shabbat in different ways. For example, one rule of Shabbat is that no work be done between Friday night and Saturday evening. Conservative and Orthodox Jews may include in the definition, turning on lights or driving a vehicle, as types of work. As well, cooking is work, so meals must be prepared in advance of Shabbat.

_______ is the Jewish Sabbath, celebrated every week from sundown on Friday to nightfall of Saturday.

Mordecai Kaplan. His first major book, Judaism as a Civilization (1934), contained a detailed critique of existing Jewish movements and a call for the "reconstruction" of Jewish life. Kaplan saw Judaism not as a religion, but as a civilization, characterized by beliefs and practices, as well as language, culture, literature, ethics, art, history, social organization, symbols, and customs.

_______________ was the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism.