JS 100 Final

Kabbalah

"Received tradition"; refers to the body of Jewish mystical teachings and writings, the most central of which is the Zohar. The ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible, first transmitted orally and using esoteric methods (including ciphers). It reached the height of its influence in the later Middle Ages and remains significant in Hasidism.

Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (aka Nahmanides)

(1194-1270) Ramban, was a medieval Spanish Jewish rabbi and thinker who wrote famous commentaries on the Torah and the Talmud. He was also a philosopher, poet and physician. In addition to his commentaries on Jewish sacred texts, he left behind several codes of Jewish law, sermons, piyyutim (religious poems) and other writings.

Rashi

(11th century) important figure of Jewish scholarship in Ashkenaz. Comprehensive commentaries on Torah, Talmud, and other biblical books. Grandchildren, Rashbam and Rabbenu Tam, expanded further on his Talmudic commentaries

Disputation at Barcelona

(1263) formal debate between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Nachmanides, a leading medieval Jewish scholar, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator, regarding whether or not Jesus was the messiah. Dominicans claimed victory and Nahmanides fled Aragon to Palestine.

Samuel ibn Nagrela

(993-1055) was a medieval Spanish Talmudic scholar, grammarian, philologist, soldier, merchant, politician, and an influential poet who lived in Iberia at the time of the Moorish rule. From Granada, involved in the localization of Jewish authority in Spanish

Kristallnacht

(Night of Broken Glass). On that night, Jewish businesses and synagogues throughout Germany were damaged or destroyed and Jewish individuals were brutalized in a nationwide pogrom. The government claimed that the event was a spontaneous popular reprisal for the murder of a German government official in Paris by a Jew, but actually, it had been carefully planned and coordinated by government agencies.

Bishop Rudiger of Speyer

1084 Charter, granted to a group of Jewish merchants and their families to settle in the Rhineland town of Speyer, shows the favorable conditions offered to Jews by authorities in the Franco-German region in this period (still not welcoming). Jews brought in for economic reasons, Jews are isolated from the masses, Jews must pay tax, but are free to conduct business, Jewish communal autonomy

First Crusade

1096; widespread massacres of Jews by mobs and soldiers, forced conversions, local nobles and bishops tried to fulfill their obligation to protect Jewish communities. Jewish reactions: fight back (with little success), submit to baptism (unwillingly), martyrdoms and mass-suicides, theological reflection, "Here we are going to make war against the infidels in the Holy Land, when we have infidels in our own midst."

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza

1632-77). After receiving a thorough rabbinic education, Spinoza had studied the great medieval Jewish philosophers such as Maimonides and went on to study such modern philosophers as Descartes. He became a member of a philosophical circle, many of whose members, like many thinkers of his time, rejected divine revelation altogether as a source of knowledge, insisting on the priority of reason. Since these principles implied the rejection of the divine authority of the entire Jewish tradition, Spinoza was excommunicated in 1656. Spinoza went on to write his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, which includes a fundamental critique of Judaism and, by implication, of Christianity. The work was very influential as a statement of philosophical deism, and Spinoza's works became a touchstone of heresy among both Jews and Christians.

Enlightenment

17th-18th century and intellectual movement. Often referred to as the "age of reason." Pivotal moment in history and Jewish history.

Nuremberg Laws

1935, which stripped Jews of German citizenship. It also prohibited intermarriage and imposed other restrictions and regulations

Wannsee Conference

1942 representatives of all the government and military agencies involved assembled at ________, a suburb of Berlin, to clarify the policy and to coordinate the execution of the decision. Considered simply as an operation, it was an immense project, for Europe still contained an estimated 11 million Jews who would have to be moved, housed, killed, and disposed of. The decision to tie down personnel, materials, and transport on such a tremendous scale in order to wage war against a helpless and scattered minority group while fighting a war on several fronts and controlling many hostile occupied territories is a measure of the madness of Germany's obsession with the Jews.

War of Independence

1948: Arab-Israeli War, around 10,000 Jews were forced to evacuate their homes in Palestine or Israel. The war indirectly created a second, major refugee problem, the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim lands. (by Jews) Attacks by arab nations (jordan, iraq, syria, lebanon) -- Jews able to gain territory beyond what the plan outlined. Impact: For the arabs, the Day of the disaster, Some of the arabs fled, some forced out. Right of return → want to be able to go back and return to their lands that they were forced/voluntary left. Increased tension between Israel and Arab neighbors. Jewish immigration to Israel, immigration from Arab lands. These Arab nations opposed the establishment of the new state so now the jews in there are faced with a new tension and are forced to flee.

Pact of Umar

637 CE Under these rules, the lives and property of dhimmis were guaranteed and the practice of their religion tolerated in exchange for payment of special taxes and on condition that they behaved in a manner considered appropriate to a subject population. It actually brought relief, because it meant that the Islamic religion and state recognized their status and guaranteed their right to live and to practice their religion-not grudgingly, as under the humiliating logic of Saint Augustine, but freely, as enjoined by the prophet Muhammad himsel£

significant dates entire timeline

711 : Muslim conquest of Spain 1096 : First Crusade; attacks on Jewish communities in France and Germany 1391 : Anti-Jewish riots in Spain, Start of the Inquistion 1492 : Expulsion of the Jews from Spain 1648 : Chmielnicki Massacres 1654 : First Jews arrive in America (23 Jews) 1790 & 1791 : Jews of France receive political emancipation by acts of the National Assembly following French Revolution of 1789 1933 : Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany 1948 : Establishment of the modern state of Israel

Mitnagdim

A kind of Jewish parliament that regulated Jewish life in eastern Europe. This institution, a lay body that included rabbinical representation, supervised thousands of individual communities through a network of regional organizations, effectively governing the Jews of eastern Europe from 1580 until the early eighteenth century. Its prestige lent its decisions influence even among communities of western Europe, where there was no organization of comparable scope.

Cordoba

A magnificent metropolis and for a time ranked as one of the great cities of the Islamic world, attracting wealth as well as artists and scholars. The economic success and the growing sense of a distinctive regional identity and pride benefited the Jews as well, some of whom became wealthy through the manufactu~e of textiles and through trade

Nicholas Donin (Trial of the Talmud)

A member of the Franciscan Order and a Jewish convert to Christianity, represented the Christian side. He had translated statements by Talmudic sages and had pressed 35 charges against the Talmud as a whole to Pope Gregory IX by quoting a series of allegedly blasphemous passages about Christianity.

Protocols of the Elders of Zion

A text that was forged by antisemites that purported that the Jews were trying to achieve global domination. But it was a hoax.

Ladino

A vernacular Jewish language based on pre-1492 Spanish, written in Hebrew characters. It was spoken and preserved by Sephardic Jews who were exiled from the Iberian Peninsula; also known as Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo.

1933

Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany (date)

Blood Libel & Host Desecration

An accusation and belief that Jewish people used the blood of Christians and children in sacrificial rituals, specifically during passover. Christian priests regularly taught them that the Jews, in their perverse wickedness, had spilled the blood of their savior. Against the background of these ideas, it was natural for the credulous masses to imagine that the Jews practiced diabolical counter-rituals involving blood.

Inquisition

An investigative body of the Church designed to detect and prosecute heresy; the Church had never outlawed Judaism per se. Therefore, Jews as such were not the object of the Inquisition's attention, but New Christians could be denounced to the Inquisition under suspicion of not being sincere Christians, of having reverted to Judaism, or of being otherwise deviant in their Christian beliefs or practices. The Decline of Spanish Jewry: 14th and 15th Centuries: Increased hostility toward jews, The steady decline in status and rights of the Jews, Increased persecution of the Jews. 1391: Widespread anti-Jewish riots, thousands killed, forcibly baptized. Enforcement of oppressive laws. A massive wave of conversions. 1413: Rigged disputation of Tortosa. More and more conversos, former Jews that are no Christians. 1480: Inquisition brought to Spain, an investigative body of the church designed to prosecute heresy. Thousands of people were put to death. Persecution of "New Christians." (​​ a socio-religious designation and legal distinction in the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire. The term was used from the 15th century onwards primarily to describe the descendants of the Sephardic Jews and Moors baptised into the Catholic Church)

1391

Anti-Jewish riots in Spain, Start of the Inquistion (date)

Dhimmi

Arabic title meaning "protected"; a designation for tolerated non-Muslims (especially Jews and Christians) living under Muslim authority. The life and property of _______ were protected in return for payment of an annual poll tax and their acceptance of certain disabilities indicating their inferiority to Muslims. (pl.). An honorific title, "Excellency," given to the heads of rabbinic academies in Babylonia (at Sura and Pumbedita) and in the Land of Israel in the centuries following the completion of the Talmuds.

Hasidim

Arose, a popular religious movement tinged by mysticism. Founded by Israel Baal Shem (c. 1700-60) A widespread Jewish mysticism movement that flourished in Eastern Europe and remains today. They were were excommunicated by their oopponents, or Mitnaggedim, as they wn ere known in Hebrew, and both sides sometimes denounced each other to government authorities. Though Hasidism began as a somewhat heterodox movement, it became a strong force for conservatism in the face of the modernizing tendencies of the nineteenth century and has emerged again quite recently as the most visible traditionalist force in Judaism.

What are the roots of Zionism and what factors prompt the emergence of this movement in the late 19th century? How is Zionism a reversal of the Enlightenment's ideal of Jewish participation in European society? (essay)

Around the time that Alexander II is assassinated and May Laws are present there was suddenly a lot of discrimination. But then emerged many people who influenced Zionism, which was the protection of Jews within their own homeland in Palestine. This movement sought to secure a homeland for the Jewish state Some went to Palestine, others went to America

Moses Hess

Assimilated German Jew who considered himself fully German. He started to realize that Jews may never assimilate and have equal rights. He isolates the element of race as what defines modern anti semitism. While Jews are in exile, they should preserve their nationality through religion and make efforts to restore the Jewish nation in Palestine

Shepard/Shepardim

Biblical place name (Obadiah 20) applied in early medieval times to Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and the culture they created. Following the expulsion of Spanish Jews in 1492 and the forced conversion of Portuguese Jews in 1497, Sephardim spread throughout the Mediterranean world, taking their distinctive culture with them.

Chmielnicki Uprising/Massacres

Bogdan Chmielnicki leads Cossacks in a revolt against the Polish nobles, 40,000 - 100,000 Jews were killed. Poland and Lithuania

Balfour Declaration

British support of establishing land for the Jews within Palestine as long as it did not negatively impact the Arabs living there. British government did not take a side, creating resentment on both sides since both groups had to fight for resources

1648

Chmielnicki Massacres (date)

Leon Pinsker

Educated Jew in Russian. Proponent of Haskalah and he encouraged that Jews are a part of society. He says assimilation is not going to help the Jews of Russia, so he published a book that calls for the establishment of a Jewish national center. The Jews need to have their own land for survival.

How did emancipation change the status and life of Jews in Europe? What are some of the issues/questions/ challenges prompted by emancipation? (essay)

Emancipation set the Jews free from legal, social, political restrictions. They begin to grant citizenship to people and give them equal rights. There's no separation by groups, work at an individual level. Benefits for the Jews include: the sudden granted citizenship and social and political changes that arise end up creating avenues for Jews to participate in western european society. Some challenges include: how the Jews can still maintain their unique identity, traditions and way of life, and figuring out where their traditions and religious practice in a modern secular society stand.

1948

Establishment of the modern state of Israel (date)

1492

Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (date)

Theodor Herzl

Father of modern political Zionism, he pushed for the establishment of a Jewish homeland as a prominent zionist leader. He was a writer and journalist in Vienna with little knowledge of Judaism and an admirer of France as a land of progress and enlightened ideas. As the Paris correspondent for a Viennese newspaper, he was so shocked by the French antiSemitism uncovered by the Dreyfus Affair that he devoted the rest of his life to seeking a global solution for the Jewish problem. In his book The Jewish State (1896), he argued forcefully for the establishment of a Jewish state, and in a novel, Old-New Land (1902), he spoke prophetically about the social and technological achievements of which such a state would be capable. Though he found little support among Western Jews, he was acclaimed by the Jews of eastern Europe.

1096

First Crusade; attacks on Jewish communities in France and Germany (date)

1654

First Jews arrive in America (23 Jews) (date)

Six-Day War

Following several military strikes, the Soviets thought Israel was planning an attack against Syria, which led to a _________ between Israel and the Egypt/ Syria/ Jordan alliance.

Cantonist system

Forced Jewish boys into military schools at the age of 12. The system was to convert Jewish boys to christianity.

Moses Mendelssohn

Fought for rights of German Jews and the modernization of Jewish-German culture He said it was ok to be a part of society but remain faithful Jews. He made the first Jewish magazine to introduce new ideas and introduce changes. STARTED HASKALAH

Wilhelm Marr

German publicist who popularized the term "antisemitism." in his publication "Der Judenspiegel"

Hasdai ibn Shaprut

He rose to prominence as a courtier in service of the caliph in Cordoba. He is the first example of a type of leader typical of Islamic Spain, the courtier-rabbi; such men held positions of power and influence in public life and also took responsibility for Jewish communal affairs.

Contrast the experience of the Jews in Spain under Muslim and Christian rule (essay)

ISLAMIC RULE: GOLDEN AGE OF TOLERANCE - Jews and Christians did retain some freedom under Muslim rule, providing they obeyed certain rules. Although these rules would now be considered completely unacceptable, they were not much of a burden by the standards of the time, and in many ways the non-Muslims of Islamic Spain (at least before 1050) were treated better than conquered peoples might have expected during that period of history. they were not forced to live in ghettoes or other special locations they were not slaves they were not prevented from following their faith they were not forced to convert or die under Muslim rule they were not banned from any particular ways of earning a living; they often took on jobs shunned by Muslims; these included unpleasant work such as tanning and butchery but also pleasant jobs such as banking and dealing in gold and silver they could work in the civil service of the Islamic rulers Jews and Christians were able to contribute to society and culture CHRISTIAN RULE: Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, most of the Peninsula fell to Christian rule. Iberian pluralism gave way to religious fanaticism as Spain increasingly embraced the antisemitism of medieval Europe, including its false accusations of host desecrations, blood libels, forced religious conversions, and pogroms. Despite the mounting attacks, Sephardic Jews continued to serve as cultural intermediaries, economic pioneers, and skilled artisans. They figured prominently in the famed translation circles at the court of King Alfonso X, known as Alphonso the Wise, where they formed an integral part of the interfaith teams that translated the classics of antiquity and the Muslim world into Latin and the vernacular and thereby transmitted their wisdom to the West. Jews also participated in Alphonso's crafting of the Castilian language. In 1478 a national Inquisition was established in Spain, designed, in part, to ferret out those forced converts who were secretly practicing Judaism, an act that was considered tantamount to heresy (converso). When Granada fell in January 1492, the dream of the Spanish monarchs to unite the peninsula in one Christian community was almost realized. In March 1492, inspired and guided by their Inquisitorial confessors, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decreed the expulsion of the Jews. On August 2, the Jews of Spain were either converted to Christianity or forced into exile.

May Laws

Instituted as temporary measures to restrict the Jews in 1882. It expelled the Jews from villages and confined them to towns and townlets within the Pale of Settlement They are prohibited from buying land, living in villages, and conducting business on Sunday.

(essay) What was the status of the Jews under Islamic law? To what extent was this enforced? Provide examples of when the restrictions on the dhimmi were enforced and when they were not. (essay)

JEWS: an intermediate category of non-Muslims who had entered into an agreement with the Islamic state, governed by a set of laws known as a pact, or dhimma in Arabic, and were called collectively ahl al-dhimma—literally "People of the Pact"—or just dhimmis. The term dhimmi is used interchangeably with the phrase "People of the Book," suggesting that only Jews and Christians, as custodians of a monotheistic scripture, occupied this intermediate place between believers and infidels. In exchange for the protection of the Islamic state, dhimmis were expected to pay a special tax, called the jizya. A document known as the Pact of 'Umar spelled out the details of the agreement between the Islamic state and the dhimmis in considerable detail. Though presented as a product of the mid-seventh century, the Pact of 'Umar cannot be dated earlier than the mid-ninth century, when it became part of the substance of Islamic law. Its stipulations take for granted the densely populated and diverse urban environment of that ninth-century Iraqi milieu. The Pact of 'Umar lays out a variety of sumptuary laws, meaning laws whose ostensible purpose was to distinguish non-Muslims from Muslims in social interactions, place limits on non-Muslim behavior, and emphasize the social superiority of Muslims. The laws were enforced generally? You don't get Golden Age in Spain if the restrictions are being enforced. They wanted the Jews because they were useful, but the Christian rulers were what restricted the Jews... In Islamic Spain, Jews and Christians were tolerated if they: acknowledged Islamic superiority accepted Islamic power paid a tax called Jizya to the Muslim rulers and sometimes paid higher rates of other taxes avoided blasphemy did not try to convert Muslims complied with the rules laid down by the authorities. These included: restrictions on clothing and the need to wear a special badge restrictions on building synagogues and churches not allowed to carry weapons could not receive an inheritance from a Muslim could not bequeath anything to a Muslim could not own a Muslim slave a dhimmi man could not marry a Muslim woman (but the reverse was acceptable) a dhimmi could not give evidence in an Islamic court dhimmis would get lower compensation than Muslims for the same injury

How might we understand the rise of Kabbalah and Messianism as a religious response to historical events? (essay)

Jewish Kabbalists originally developed their own transmission of sacred texts within the realm of Jewish tradition and often use classical Jewish scriptures to explain and demonstrate its mystical teachings. These teachings are held by followers in Judaism to define the inner meaning of both the Hebrew Bible and traditional rabbinic literature and their formerly concealed transmitted dimension, as well as to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances. Following the upheavals and dislocations in the Jewish world as a result of anti-Judaism during the Middle Ages, and the national trauma of the expulsion from Spain in 1492, closing the Spanish Jewish flowering, Jews began to search for signs of when the long-awaited Jewish Messiah would come to comfort them in their painful exiles. In the 16th century, the community of Safed in the Galilee became the centre of Jewish mystical, exegetical, legal and liturgical developments. The Safed mystics responded to the Spanish expulsion by turning Kabbalistic doctrine and practice towards a messianic focus. When the present is profoundly unsatisfactory, messianism emerges as one of the possible answers: the certainty of a satisfactory natural, social, and historical order (and this certainty was particularly strong in Israel, based as it was on God's promise enshrined in his eternal covenant) is projected on the horizon of an ideal future. As the biblical account amply shows, already in biblical times the present was generally perceived as far from satisfactory (wicked and sinful kings, enemy incursions, defeats), and hence ideas concerning an ideal order under an ideal Davidic king began to crystallize. PROS: BASICALLY: the messiah will usher in the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant. Promote the practice of Judaism → the messiah will only come if everyone observes religious practices. Mount a rebellion, etc → bc he comes during messes, political, military, religious action. → could go both way → Bar Kokhba rebellion. Hope for the future. Helps you understand covenant and place in judaism/world. Maintains truth and relevance of Torah CONS: Encourage passivity → discourage activity, wait it out. False messiahs. Fallout → crises of faith, potential actual harm to people as a consequence because they believed in a false messiah, distortions of traditions, division. Looks bad -- bad PR

Statue of Kalisz

Jews invited to live in the community. Royal protection in return for tax pay. Explicit protection against blood libel. The Statute provided for penalties for desecration of a Jewish cemetery or a synagogue. It also contained provisions concerning blood libel directed against Jews. Confirmed by subsequent rulers, the Statute of Kalisz became a symbol of Jews' safe living in Poland.

1790 & 1791

Jews of France receive political emancipation by acts of the National Assembly following French Revolution of 1789 (date)

Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman (aka Vilna Gaon)

Leader of Mitnagdim

711

Muslim conquest of Spain (date)

Al-Andalus

Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula Muslim kingdom that occupied much of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 ce until the collapse of the Spanish Umayyad dynasty in the early 11th century.

Maimonides

One of the Cordoban Jewish families that fled the Almohad persecution one of them a judge named Maiman, whose son, known today as Maimonides (1138-1204), would become the most famous Jew of the Islamic age. Maimonides was only about ten when the family left Spain, first for Morocco, then for Palestine. As an adult, he settled in Egypt, where he made his distinguished career (1138-1204) Moses ben Maimon, Physician, Composes commentaries, works of Jewish laws, (Mishneh Torah) philosophy (Guide of the perplexed). a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.

Isaac Mayer Wise

One of the first rabbis to arrive in America, he became a spokesman for reform Judaism and established the first Hebrew Union College.

Der Judenstaadt

Pamphlet written by Theodor Herzl which discusses anti-semitism

Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (aka Ba'al Shem Tov)

Poor man, orphan. Founder of Hasidism!!! Worked as an assistant in children's schools. Not a formal scholar, but he was informed on Kabbalah. Would retreat and meditate in the forest where he would encounter God. God could be encountered through the study of texts like the Talmud. Attracts following in the 1730's. He taught orally, and the students popularized his teaching upon his death. His teacher appears in writing 20 years later

Visigoths/Visigothic Spain

Pre-Islamic Spain (409-711 CE) (low point), ___________ invade, seize control of Spain, and establish their capital at Toledo. A lot of the Kings are killed or murdered, the politics were very unstable and chaotic. Increased hostility towards the Jews, formalized by the _______________ kings who would issue decrees on the status of Jews to limit their interactions with Christians. 7th-8th Century: Anti-Jewish laws, forced conversions.

Haym Salomon

Primary commander of the revolutionary war, expanded interest free loans, involved in the war's financing. _________ had been sentenced to death by the British for espionage and sabotage. In the course of the war, he advanced the Continental Congress the then-immense sum of $200,000 to provision the armies but was never able to recover the money and died bankrupt.

Martin Luther

Saw the church as corrupt, and challenged the authority of the popes and status of priests and church officials. He claims God is the only one that can grant forgiveness and grant salvation. He translates the Bible into German instead of Latin so that the people could access the Bible without the help of the priests and church.

Ottoman Empire

Sephardim dominate Jewish Life. Large numbers, strong identity. Scholarly activity: religious and secular. Wealth and influence

Court Jews

Singled-out because they were able to offer economic services to German princes because they had connections and abilities (diplomatic knowledge). They offered this to rulers in exchange for exemption from restrictions that other Jews were subject to. They were military contractors who provided armies with gun-powder, horses, etc. They were aware of European literature and ideas, and they adopted European dress and language and mannerisms.

Yiddish

Spoken throughout eastern Europe, but it was a butchered language and wasn't something to be proud of.

Shabbtai Tzvi

Study of the Dohar, mystical tradition, and Lurianic Kabbalah. Self-proclaimed Messiah.

Converso vs Marrano

The Converso arose alongside the Christian majority and the Jewish minority a third community consisting of new Christians. Many of this constantly growing group became sincere Christians, and after a generation or two, their descendants may have had only dim memories of their Jewish origins. Some, though completely Christianized, continued to maintain some relationship with their unconverted families or continued to practice some Jewish customs, whether merely out of habit, superstition, or vestigial loyalty to their past. Post Inquistion crypto-Jews arranos (said to derive from the Spanish word meaning "pig"). many of those New Christians whom it prosecuted actually were crypto-Jews, persons who had been baptized so as to be able to remain behind, but who kept up their old religious practices in secret. Post Inquistion crypto-Jews were called Marranos (said to derive from the Spanish word meaning "pig"). applied in Spain and Portugal to descendents of baptized Jews suspected of practicing Judaism. Marrano: fake converted, go to church in public, crypto-Jews who had been baptized so as to be able to remain behind, but keep up their Jewish religious practices in secret; from the Spanish word meaning "pig". Converso: "the converted", same definition, really did convert. Both groups targeted by inquisition, spurred by conversos due to lack of trust,

What prompts Jews to move to the Ottoman Empire? What was unique about the Jewish communities of the Ottoman Empire? (essay)

The Jews fleeing to the Ottoman Empire coincides with the decline of Jews in Europe and in Spain. Many of the jewish exiles found refuge in the Ottoman empire. Ottomans are muslims but not Arabs, they spoke Turkish, and were ruled by a military caste so there was a lot of safety for Jews. They were welcome because of their economic contributions because they were skilled merchants and traders... The Ottomans needed to develop commerce, trade, and an economy which the Jews were highly skilled within.

Final Solution

The Nazi plan to murder all Jews. The systematic extermination of the entire Jewish population of Europe.

Masoretic text (Masoretes)

The ______________ refers to the authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible used universally by Jews today. This version was codified around the 9th century by a group of Jewish scholars known as the ____________, whose name derives from the Hebrew word mesorah, meaning "tradition" (5th-10th centuries in Palestine, Iraq, Jerusalem). The text defines not only the Jewish biblical canon, but also specific vocalizations and anomalous textual elements in the written Torah scroll.

Emancipation

The fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions

Council of the Four Lands

The four main Jewish provinces in Poland. the central body of Jewish authority in Poland from the second half of the 16th century to 1764. The first known regulation for the Council is dated by 1580. Seventy delegates from local kehillot met to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community.

Zionism

The idea that Jews should have their own homeland. The idea aspires to the securing of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, guaranteed by public law

What was the role of the community in Medieval Ashkenaz and Eastern Europe? How did the communal structure of Ashkenaz differ from that of Eastern Europe and how did this difference impact the Jews? (essay)

The internal life of Jews in Ashkenaz existed wholly within the community. There was a large emphasis on family and communal life, which meant the internal security that they lacked outside of that community. Schools, cemeteries, butchers, community institutions like soup kitchens. The main difference is that in Ashkenaz, each community was independent. Whereas in Lithuania you have a national council and alliance... There's collaboration and the communities can work together to solace big problems.

What are the theological and economic dimensions of Medieval anti-Judaism? How does Christianity's theological stance toward the Jews affect their rights and status politically, socially and economically? (essay)

The jews are targeted because they are religiously different but also because of their economic prosperity and their involvement in finance and money lending. Jewish prosperity triggers increased anti-Judaism. Even though the church and the masses express their anti-Judaism in different ways, what they have in common is that they both perceive the jews as a threat (for different reasons, but still). Jews were not only permitted to do the work, but the church forbade Christians from being involved?? FRom a theological angle, the stubborn refusal of Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah was the reason they could convert out of that.

Safed

The most important of the revived Palestinian communities, in the Upper Galilee, a town that had never before been a major center of Jewish life, but that now became one of the most influential religious centers of the Jewish world. Many Jews of a pietist cast of mind were drawn to the academies of _______, where the central figure was Rabbi Isaac Luria (known as the Ari).

Dona Gracia Nasi

The most powerful Sephardic grandees of the era were (c. 1510-69) and her nephew, (1524-79). She had been born in Portugal to Spanish Jews who had probably fled there in 1492, had been forcibly converted with the other refugees, and had become Marranos.With her upon leaving Portugal was her Marrano nephew, Joao, the son of a royal physician. In Istanbul, She continued helping Marranos and attempting to subvert the Inquisition, patronizing Jewish scholars and founding Jewish religious institutions. One of her most ambitious activities on behalf of the Jewish people was her attempt, in 1556, to organize a boycott by all the Jews of the Ottoman Empire against the city of Ancona to punish it for treacherously burning twenty-four Marranos after having granted them permission to revert to Judaism. Had the boycott succeeded, it would have had a devastating effect on the city, but the conflicting Jewish interests could not be rallied behind it, and it failed.

Black Death

The plague wiped out a third of the population of Europe, not discriminating between Jews and Christians. The panicky populace expressed and sought to allay its fear by means of extreme religious fervor. In the climate of hysteria, the rumor circulated that the Jews had caused the plague by poisoning drinking wells. One by one, the Jewish communities, especially in central Europe, were rounded up and destroyed or expelled

Holocaust/Shoah

The systematic murder of Jews and others by the Nazi regime with the intention to annihilate them

Gaon

The title for the head of the academies at Sura and Pumbedita, Beginning in the 7th century, leadership of much of the Jewish world was in the hands of three men: The ______ of Sura, The ______ of Pumbedita, and The Exilarch (a descendant of David), Oligarchic (as opposed to dynastic), Focus of the academies: Jewish Law, Jewish governance, Jewish organization, Oversaw Jewish life throughout the Muslim world (90% of world Jewry), Responsa literature, Other cultural achievements: Masoretic text and Siddurim

Einsatzgruppen

They established special mobile killing squads (action group) the purpose of which was to murder Soviet commissars, communists, partisans, Jews, and gypsies in the vast new territories that now came under German control. These squads had complete independence to carry out executions among the civilian population, and they worked in concert with the armed forces.

What are the differences between the different waves/populations of Jews who migrate to America? What are the specific challenges that each group faced, how did they meet these challenges? (essay)

They had more success there than in other places. They were immigrants just like everyone else. The ones from eastern europe came in huge waves and were very set in their traditions so it was kind of difficult for them to integrate into society because they stuck out so much. There was a conflict between those two groups of jews bc the older ones felt like the newer ones were threatening all their hard work. The tradional people prevented their full asimilation while the newer waves adapted to the lifestyle of Amercia

What makes the Jews distinct, isolated and vulnerable in Medieval Europe? How does this contribute to their expulsion from Western European lands? (essay)

They're restricted only to finance work, nobody likes tax collectors. For the rulers, they're useful for them but they're also vulnerable because they're wholly dependent on them. Jews subject to exploitation, can take advantage of vulnerability, steal tax money from jews in exchange for protection, seize them from their town to seize their lands. In regard to the people, Even when the jews could secure protection from the rulers, and they secure a good relationship, sometimes the rulers couldn't effectively control the masses and the jews were subject to mobs. Jews become a pawn in the power dynamic between the secular rulers and the church. The popes expect the secular rulers to cede to the church. Thus, when the rulers continue to let the jews have economic freedom (social mobility), that's going against the church's wishes and they get pissed off at that. Theological and economic dimensions of Medieval anti-Judaism - The jews are targeted bc they are religiously different but also bc of their economic prosperity and their involvement in finance and money lending. Jewish prosperity triggers increased anti-Judaism. Even though the church and the masses express their anti-Judaism in different ways, what they have in common is that they both perceive the jews as a threat (for different reasons, but still). Popular anti-judaism - Negative attitudes by the masses, Religious other, differing socioeconomic status → target of popular hatred Just bc they're different. Also because the jews are so differentiated socioeconomically, isolated, the jews as a "them" and not an "us" they become an easy scapegoat for discontent by the people. The jews' financial fortune → difference perceived bc while everyone else is suffering financially, the jews are prospering and they're benefiting from their suffering. Jews are thus considered to prosper from the christians' suffering. Having demonic qualities depicted in images, etc. anti-Judaism of the church - Theological in nature, Problematized by the economic prosperity of the jews, Elevated status also poses a threat to the christians' beliefs/status Bc their lowly status is supposed to reassure that the faithful christians are higher up than the jews (rejected Jesus). The crusades began in 1096 → beginning of the decline of the jews in medieval europe.

"Golden Age of Spain"

Umayyad Emirate in Spain (756-929 CE), Centered in Cordoba, Emphasis on economic activity, specifically trade, Jews flourish, Cordoba as a political, commercial, and cultural center, Multiple urban centers, Jewish communities expand, Ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity, Jews as cultural intermediaries

Karaites/Karaism

Wanted to institute the Bible back as sole Jewish authority. Movement within Judaism which sought to overthrow the authority of the geonim by declaring the whole history of rabbinic Judaism to be a fraudulent distortion of the principles of the Jewish religion, origins in the 8th century under Anan ben David, Reached peak in the 10th century, when up to 40% of world Jewry was ___________ (centered largely in the East), Chief dispute with the Rabbis: rejection of "oral Law", i.e., the Mishnah and Talmud

Rabbi Issac Luria

Was a leading rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Syria, now Israel. He devised a new approach to the great mystical classic of Spain, the Zahar, by which he attempted to explain the sufferings of the Jews as cosmic events bound up with the very nature of the Deity and Jewish ritual as a means of redeeming God Himself and bringing about the messianic age. His ideas were disseminated by his disciples to all parts of the Ottoman Empire as well as to Italy and the rest of Europe.

Saadia Gaon

Was the first important rabbinic authority to write books in Arabic on Jewish law and religion,a bare linguistic fact that symbolizes the extent to which he revolutionized Jewish intellectual life. ________ actually represented a new type of rabbi, since he did not cultivate only the Jewish legal and homiletical traditions, but dealt with a wider range of intellectual concerns than had been traditional.

Reconquista

Weakened Muslim power paves the way for the Christian ____________ of Spain. 11th-13th Centuries: Toledo captured in 1085, By 1248 everything was under Christian rule except Granada, 1492 Granada fell. Jews invited to settle in Christian Spain. Jews generally prosper during Reconquista, serving important functions for the monarchs. Jews are skilled in administration and diplomacy. Jews are politically neutral, and do not pose a threat. Speak Arabic, familiar with Muslim culture. Jews are vehicles to high culture.

Lower East Side

When 2 million Jews immigrated from Eastern Europe, many settled in slums like NYC's _________

Don Joseph Nasi

While still a young man, he came to the attention of some of the most powerful men of the age, including Charles V, Francis I, and the future Emperor Maximilian. He was able to use connections in the Ottoman court to secure the sultan's support for Dofia Gracia's release from Venice. Joining her there in Istanbul in the following year, he also reverted to Judaism under the name ______________. A court Jew and Lord of Teberias who tried to resettle the Jews in Palestine. ____________'s plan for Tiberias may have been the nucleus of a larger plan to solve the problem of the Marranos by creating a refuge for them in Palestine. He had collaborated in Dofia Gracia's activities on behalf of the Marranos, attempting to induce the city of Venice to give one of the city's islands as a refuge for them. Later, when the Turks went to war with Venice over Cyprus, he was promised the kingship of the island in the event of a Turkish victory, and he may have had thoughts of using the island as a political solution to the Marrano problem. But after the Turkish defeat at Lepanto (1571), his career went into eclipse

What are the main factors that pave the way for the rise of Hitler and the National Socialist Party and ultimately, the Holocaust? (essay)

World War I and its Aftermath, German humiliation, Demilitarized and Weimar republic was founded, Dem republic, Intense opposition from left and right, Economic upheaval, Inflation, Middle class lost most of their savings., 1930s stock market crash and great depression. Jews as scapegoat, blamed for economic misfortune, Nazi party gaining votes until dismantling democratic weimar republic, now totalitarian regime

Why Jews settled there, what factors prompt their decline, and, if applicable, why they were expelled? (essay)

You should be able to discuss the recurring pattern of Jewish settlement into new lands and how their economic activity plays a role in their invitation to settle, their legal and social status and decline/ persecutions/expulsions. (For ex., Muslim & Christian Spain, Ashkenaz, Ottoman Empire, Eastern Europe (Poland & Lithuania), Pre-Modern/Enlightenment Western Europe, America)

Dreyfus Affair

________ was a high-ranking Jewish officer in the French army who, in 1893, was charged with treason and convicted on the evidence of documents later proved to have been forged. The case and the cover-up by the French military establishment became an international cause celebre, especially with the intervention of the novelists Emile Zola and Anatole France, who called worldwide attention to the injustice done to _______ by the French military establishment. _________ was eventually vindicated, but not before he had served five years on the Devil's Island penal colony lfred _____________ (a Jew) convicted of treason despite lack of evidence. It was an act of anti-semitism. Alfred ________________ (a Jew) convicted of treason despite lack of evidence. It was an act of anti-semitism.

Uriel Da Costa

a Portuguese New Christian who converted to Judaism and fled to Amsterdam to join the Jewish community there. But he had had doubts about religion even in Portugal, and in Amsterdam his freethinking led to his excommunication by the Amsterdam mahamad Twice he begged for reconciliation with the community; on the second occasion, the penance to which he was ordered to submit was so humiliating that he committed suicide after undergoing it.

Pale of Settlement

a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish residency, permanent or temporary, was mostly forbidden

Almohads

an extremist Islamic sect from Morocco, arrived in and gradually took control of Spain, outlawing both Judaism and Christianity in their territories. This was only the second case in the history of Islam of a governmentally organized campaign against dhimmis (the first will be mentioned presently), and it was destructive and traumatic for the Jews. Although they eventually relaxed their rules, the damage to Jewish life was permanent, since it spelled the end of one of the most successful and creative Jewish communities. ("those who affirm the unity of God"), Berber confederation that created an Islamic empire in North Africa and Spain (1130-1269), founded on the religious teachings of Ibn Tūmart, conquer Spain in 1146, Jewish responses: Converted to Islam to save their lives, Fled to Christian lands in the North, Flee to Egypt (Cairo Geniza)

What is the difference between anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism? What are the factors that gave rise to modern Anti-Semitism and what are its defining characteristics? (essay)

anti-judaism is more about religion. As soon as they give up the religion, they would be more accepted within a community. Anti-semitism is more about them as an ethnic group. It's more race based. Their hatred doesn't go away because they see them as inherently bad, different, and toxic kinds of people. They were thought to be parasites within society. Some causes of anti-semitism include the rise of nationalism and the fact that Jews gained emancipation and success which made many people angry.

Ashkenaz/Ashkenazim

born in the 10th century in Medieval Europe (900-1500) = Northern France and Western Germany ( Jews), Nucleus of Jewish settlement in Western and Central Europe. Jewish Communities of blank: decentralized local leadership (as in Christian Spain), semi-autonomy with judicial and executive powers (courts, no execution or imprisonment but fines and flogging, the "Ban"/Herem), central institutions (synagogue, cemetery, ritual bath/Mikvah, bridal suite, soup kitchen/Hekdesh, study house)

Karl Lueger

leader of the antisemitic *Christian Social Party, that was elected mayor of Vienna during the Dreyfus affair.

Pope Innocent III

pontification in 1130 marked a turning point in the history of the rise of medieval anti-Judaism: through his virulent anti-Jewish rhetoric and his attempts to restrict Christian-Jewish contact, the pope ushered in an age of growing interreligious tension. waged war on the heretical sects of the Catharites and the Waldensians in Languedoc and Provence. To help in stamping out these heresies, he created the Inquisition, which would play such an important role in Spain and Portugal from the last part of the fifteenth century on. Innocent also authorized the creation of the Franciscan and Dominican orders of monks; the Dominicans were particularly assigned the responsibility of prosecuting heresy and preaching orthodox Christianity to the non-orthodox. Both orders were to contend with the Jews and to incite Christians against them in the coming centuries.

UN Partition Plan

proposed the establishment of two separate states for the Jewish and the Arab.

Abd al-Rahman III

was an Umayyad prince who reigned as Emir of Cordoba, and later Caliph of Cordoba, from 912 to 961 CE. His reign is remembered as a golden age of Muslim Spain and Umayyad rule, epitomized by his declaration of the second Umayyad Caliphate in 929 CE.