6 - Selected issues in judaism for IWRBS

This material contains the selected issues in Judaism as part of the lesson in Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems

1. Selected issues in judaism Introduction to world religions and belief systems

2. Women in judaism Women’s role in the Jewish religion is determined by the tanakh , the “oral torah,” and Jewish customs. Mishnah instructs that women must follow nearly all the negative commandments except trimming the beard and viewing a dead body.

3. Women in judaism Women must also follow all positive commandments not structured by time but are exempted from those that are restricted by time. - to release women from laws that they find difficult or impossible to perform given their traditional domestic roles, such as giving birth, taking care of the family, and accomplishing household chores.

4. Women in judaism Women have the right to be consulted on matters concerning marriage. Judaism offers tremendous respect to roles given to women as wives and mothers. Even Jewishness or the question of Jewish self-identification is passed down through the mother.

5. Women in judaism God is neither male nor female. The Talmud likewise mentions both positive and negative remarks about women. Respect for women is deeply shown in Judaism.

6. Women in judaism The presence of women in the hebrew bible is also noticeable. Examples: Miriam, the elder sister of Moses and Aaron, is considered one of the liberators of the children of Israel. Deborah, being one of the judges, is the only female judge mentioned in the bible.

7. Women in judaism 3. Seven out of the 55 prophets of the bible were women, namely, Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther. 4. Numerous feminist leaders of the twentieth century are also Jewish, including the two American activists Gloria Marie Steinem and Betty Friedan.

8. Women in judaism Orthodox Judaism - It is sufficient for any woman to understand the practical nature of the Torah , but she is traditionally excused from furthering her education beyond that knowledge. - she is dissuaded from studying the Talmud and other complex Jewish writings up until the twentieth century.

9. Women in judaism Orthodox Judaism - the concept of agunot or married women who wish to divorce their husbands but whose husbands decline to do so. only the husbands are given this privilege.

10. Women in judaism Conservative Judaism - Enable women to actively participate in Jewish rituals thereby minimizing legal disparity between men and women Ex. Women can now read the torah in public and be counted as part of a minyan .

11. Women in judaism Reform Judaism - Men and women should be equal in terms of performing their duties within the Jewish community. - Prayer books have been revised in order to avoid words and pronouns that appear male in character.

12. Women in judaism Reform Judaism - allowed women to sit together with men. - Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs must be placed side by side whenever they are mentioned in prayer books.

13. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement In the 16th and 17th centuries, there had been calls to persuade the Jews to return to Palestine. During the late 18th century, the haskalah (“Jewish enlightenment”) movement promoted Jewish assimilation to western secular culture.

14. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement In the early 19th century, the idea of Jewish returning to Palestine was kept alive by Christian millenarians or believers of divine intervention that will ultimately bring a new world order. However, these movements failed in their objectives.

15. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement In 1881, a state-supported mob attack or pogrom against the Jews occurred in Ukraine. While a pogrom was aimed to persecute religious, racial or national minorities, this violent riot became frequently directed at Jews.

16. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement From 1881 to 1884, over 200 pogroms occurred in the Russian empire. As a result, Russian Jews emigrated to the US and western Europe.

17. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement At the end of the nineteenth century, the Hungarian journalist and political activist Theodor Herzl founded the Zionist movement that advocated the return of Jews to Eretz Yisrael or “Land of Israel.”

18. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement The term Zion , also a Jewish synonym for Jerusalem , came from the name of a mountain where Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem was located. Originally secular in nature, supporters of this movement are called Zionists .

19. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement The Zionists believed that Jews as the chosen people of God will be reunited from dispersion or exile back to their rightful homeland. The dispersion of Jewish communities outside Israel that have continually occurred since ancient history is called diaspora .

20. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement Leon Pinsker , another Zionist pioneer and activist, published his work Auto-emancipation in 1882 that urged the Jewish people to strive for independence and appealed for the establishment of a Jewish colony in Palestine.

21. Jewish diaspora and Zionist movement Zionist activities in the US became influential in garnering American congressional and presidential support that led to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Since that time of establishment, the Zionist movement has come to promote the development and protection of Israel.

22. holocaust The term holocaust is of Greek origin that means “sacrifice by fire.” In history, it pertains to the methodical, bureaucratic, and state sponsored persecution and execution of around six million Jews undertaken by the Nazi regime and its collaborators from 1933 to 1945.

23. holocaust Heinrich Himmler - Hitler’s police chief - Believed in Aryan superiority leading to the enslavement and extermination of “non-Aryans” and the inferior race. - He was one of the German officials directly responsible for the holocaust.

24. holocaust Reinhard Heydrich - a high ranking German official - became the chief planner of the Nazis to wipe out the Jews in Europe. - also considered inferior were: the Romani (or gypsies), some Slavic peoples (such as the poles and Russians), and even the physically and mentally handicapped.

25. holocaust Reinhard Heydrich - the Jews were perceived as the major threat to the German racial community that had to be exterminated en masse especially since there were over nine million Jews in Europe by 1933.

26. holocaust Reinhard Heydrich - From 1941 up until 1945, Heydrich’s plan called the “final solution to the Jewish problem ” was implemented by the Nazis with the main objective of annihilating European Jews through genocide or murder of an entire group of people.

27. holocaust Reinhard Heydrich - Jews were arrested, brought to death camps , became victims of mass shootings , and placed in gas chambers , while others were beaten, starved, and tortured to death . Still others became subjects of ruthless medical experiments .

28. holocaust Reinhard Heydrich - Apart from the six million Jews who lost their lives, around 200,000 Romani and 200,000 disabled patients became victims of nazi policies. - The Nazis also targeted Jewish children for extermination to create a biologically pure Aryan society --- 1.5 millions Jewish children were murdered .

29. Anti-semitism the term pertains to hostility towards and discrimination against the Jewish people that was strongly felt in France, Germany, Poland, and Russia in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. the term was popularized in Germany around 1870s.

30. Anti-semitism The most common manifestations of anti-semitism were the many violent riots or pogroms undertaken against the Jews. The planned extermination of the entire Jewish race during the time of the holocaust was the most extreme form of anti-semitism .

31. Anti-semitism Political parties that were anti-semitic in character were founded in Germany, France, and Austria. Quite notable was the Nazi party formed in 1919 that provided political articulation to theories of racism and achieved popularity through dissemination of anti-Jewish propaganda.

32. Anti-semitism Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Struggle) called for the removal of Jews from Germany. These deplorable activities continued with the Nazi’s rise to power as the party that called for economic boycotts against the Jews, burned Jewish books and enacted laws that were anti-Jew .

33. Anti-semitism Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass” - On the night of November 9, 1938 , coordinated deadly attacks were carried out by the Nazis that destroyed synagogues and shop windows of Jewish-owned stores throughout Germany and Austria. - More than a thousand synagogues were burned and over seven thousand Jewish businesses were destroyed or damaged.