JUDAISM IN MIDDLE EAST

Judaism in Middle East

Judaism in Middle East

In the Middle East, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 (on land claimed by Arabs) generated a resurgence of Jewish anti-Semitism in an attempt to stop Zionist immigration to the region. This conflict continues, and Israeli people live with the constant threat of terrorism from numerous pro-Arab terrorist organizations (Lewis, 2007).

The history of Israel and Judaism in Palestine is told in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. Recorded there are the laws, the religious rituals, and the distinctive outline of a religious and philosophical system. The Jews had been in constant conflict with their neighbors, including the Hittites, the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Assyrians, the Phoenician traders, the Syrians, and the Roman armies and traders.

Judaism survives cycles of military success and defeat, and exile and dispersion. In the process, its followers have developed enduring religious and cultural structures, a temple, a canon of accepted scripture, and religious tradition (Armstrong, 2005). All the while, the religion has weathered periodic internal storms of dissent and change, the emergence and disappearance of its early tribal culture, hereditary kings and royal families, prophets and prophetesses and their struggles to maintain doctrinal consistency, and a monotheistic religion in the midst of hostile polytheistic neighbor cultures. Internal unrest resulted in the division of the tribes into two kingdoms: Judah, a southern kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem, and Israel, a northern kingdom with its capital in Sechem. After Israel was defeated militarily, both kingdoms were destroyed and its people dispersed into exile. By 587 B.C., Palestine became a part of the Persian Empire. Their return from exile was followed by the development of a canon of scripture with laws, prescribed rituals, the establishment of a priestly caste, and a return to their geographical homeland ...