Transcript Unit 2: Religion: Consensus and Conflict

Unit 2: Religion: Consensus
and Conflict
Judaism
Judaism
I. The Faith
•
1850 BCE - Abram (Abraham) was
summoned by God to journey to Canaan.
- If he made a covenant with him
recognizing him as the only true God, he
would give him and his
descendants the land of Canaan
(Israel).
I. The Faith
•
“To your descendants I will give you this
land.” (Genesis 12:7)
- God’s revelation to Abraham.
•
Problem: Jews, Christians and Muslims all claim
to be descendants of Abraham. So……
Who gets the land??
I. The Faith
•
Since God revealed himself to Abraham,
Jews felt that they are the “chosen
people.”
- “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and
keep My covenant, then you shall be My own
possession among all the peoples, for all the earth
is Mine.” (Exodus 19:5)
I. The Faith
•
Canaan / Israel / Palestine
becomes the “Holy Land” for
the three monotheistic
religions based on God’s
revelation to Abraham.
I. The Faith
•
God gave Moses, a major
Jewish prophet, the Ten
Commandments, the basis of
the Torah.
- Mount Sinai
- the 10 Commandments
imposed the divine order
on the world and was a
revelation of God’s will.
- 613 commandments in all
- governed every aspect of Jewish
life
- One of the main commandments
– “Thou shall not kill.”
II. Persecution and Struggle
•
From the beginning, journeys and migrations have been
crucial to the formation of Judaism.
- Exodus from Egypt
- Roman oppression
•
•
- return from Babylon
- Zionist project
Forced and voluntary migrations have led to the Jewish
people to struggle to preserve their identity.
From the beginning, a “siege mentality” has been
characteristic for Jews.
- Egyptians
- Babylonians
- pagans
- Romans
- Christian Europe
- Muslims
II. The Struggle
1.
Egyptian Enslavement & the Exodus
-
God instructed Moses to lead the Israelites to Canaan.
- God afflicted the Egyptians with plagues.
- the “Angel of Death” passed over the houses of the Jews and
killed the firstborn son in every Egyptian family
- Passover – the example to Jews that they are the chosen
people.
II. Persecution and Struggle
1.
Egyptian Enslavement & the Exodus
- The Pharaoh’s army pursued the Jews and caught them by the
Reed Sea.
- Once again God saved the Jews by parting the sea, allowing the
Jews to escape. When the Egyptians followed they drowned.
- Salvation of the “chosen people” means annihilation of the
enemy.
Parting of the “Red Sea”
The real “Red Sea” or Sea of Reeds
II. Persecution and Struggle
2. 722 BCE – The Kingdom of Israel was
conquered by the Assyrians.
-
Ten northern tribes of Israel were deported and
forced to assimilate.
- Jewish unity was broken prior to the invasion when the
northern tribes of the Kingdom of Israel broke from the
southern Kingdom of Judah.
II. Persecution and Struggle
3. Babylonian Captivity
- 589 BCE – Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, and most of the
inhabitants were deported to Babylonia.
- Exile became a metaphor for sin as well as punishment. It
meant:
- shame
- desertion by God
- weakness
- banishment
- vulnerability
II. Persecution and Struggle
3. Babylonian Captivity
- The Babylonians were defeated by the Medes and the
Persians in 538 BCE.
- Persian king Cyrus gave the Jews permission to
return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple in
Jerusalem.
- By giving the people of his empire autonomy, he felt they
would be more loyal and that their gods would bless him.
- Although 40,000 Jews left Babylon, most remained.
II. Persecution and Struggle
•
Many Jews chose not to return to the Holy Land. This is
the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora – the long history
of Jews living outside of Israel.
The Babylonian Captivity
II. Persecution and Struggle
4. Roman Rule
•
For a period the Jewish people governed themselves
again and were at peace with the Roman Empire. But
internal divisions weakened the Jewish kingdom and
allowed the Romans to establish control in 63 BCE.
II. Persecution and Struggle
4. Roman Rule
- 66 - 70 CE – Jewish Revolt failed to rid the Holy Land of pagan
Romans. Romans conquered Jerusalem and burned down the
Temple.
- 132 CE – a second Jewish revolt resulted in hundreds of
thousands of deaths and the banishment of the Jews from
Jerusalem
- The “chosen people” had lost their land for a
second time and began a new exile which would last for
nearly two thousand years.
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by
the Romans, 70 CE
II. Persecution and Struggle
4. Roman Rule – the Christian period
•
•
200-400’s CE - Jews were allowed to become Roman
citizens, but later were forbidden to own Christian slaves
or to marry Christians.
In 439 CE the Romans banned synagogue building, and
barred Jews from official jobs.
II. Persecution and Struggle
5. The Crusades
•
Although the Crusades were Christian wars waged
against the Muslims to regain control of the Holy Land,
violence was also perpetrated against the Jews.
- The armies of the first Crusade attacked Jewish communities on
their way to Palestine, especially in Germany.
- When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem they slaughtered and
enslaved thousands of Jews as well as Muslims.
- Following the example of the Romans earlier, they banned Jews
from the city.
II. Persecution and Struggle
5. The Crusades
Why should Christians
travel to "the ends of the
world to fight the
Saracens, when we
permit among us other
infidels a thousand times
more guilty toward Christ
than the
Mohammedans?”
- The Abbot of Cluny
II. Persecution and Struggle
6. Persecution in Europe (13th century – 16th century)
II. Persecution and Struggle
•
1215: the Catholic Church ordered Jews to live in
segregated areas (ghettos) and to wear distinctive
clothes.
II. Persecution and Struggle
•
In England the Jews faced increasing restrictions during
the Thirteenth Century, and in 1290 they were all
expelled from the country.
II. Persecution and Struggle
•
Shortly afterwards the Jews were expelled from
France.
II. Persecution and Struggle
•
In 1478 the Jews in Spain suffered under the Spanish
Inquisition, and in 1492 Jews were expelled from Spain
altogether. The same thing happened in Portugal in
1497.
II. Persecution and Struggle
•
50 years later in Germany, Martin Luther
(founder of Protestant Christianity) preached
viciously against the Jews.
“We are at fault for not slaying them,
rather, we allow them to live freely in our
midst despite their murder, cursing,
blaspheming, lying and defaming.”
•
- The Jews and Their Lies (1543)
II. Persecution and Struggle
•
Towards the end of the 1700s Jews began to suffer
persecution in central Europe, and in Russia they began
to be restricted to living in a particular area of the
country, called The Pale. There were brutal pogroms
against Jews in which they were ejected from their
homes and villages, and cruelly treated.
II. Persecution and Struggle
Konstantin
Pobedonostsev (18271907) – Russian
official on the “Jewish
Question:”
"One-third was to
emigrate, one-third
was to die, and onethird to disappear (i.e.
be converted)."
The Roots of Anti-Semitism
1.
2.
3.
4.
Religious
Racial / Ethic
Economic
Social
The Roots of Anti-Semitism:
Religious
1.
2.
Jews were/are depicted as the killers of Jesus by
Christians
Accused of blood libel – the alleged Jewish sacrifice of
Christian children at Passover to obtain blood for
unleavened bread
The Roots of Anti-Semitism:
Racial/Ethnic
•
With the rise of nationalism in Europe in the 19th
century, anti-semitism took on a racial character.
- Jews were not part of any European “nation”
- Racially different and inferior
- Anti-Semitic policies in Nazi Germany and the
Holocaust (1933-1945)
•
Jews as a distinct nation or race – “racial Zionism”
The Roots of Anti-Semitism:
Racial/Ethnic
•
•
•
The Holocaust was the horrible result of extreme
form of anti-Semitism.
Ironically, the Holocaust (and the Zionist
movement) were the main factors that caused
Muslim anti-Jewish feelings.
It is incorrect to call Arabs anti-Semitic because
they are Semites themselves.
The Roots of Anti-Semitism:
Economic
•
In the late Middle Ages, many of the guilds which
regulated trades and crafts excluded Jews. One of the
few professions open to Jews was lending money for
interest, a practice considered a sin for Christians. Jews
also served as middle men for landowners, collecting
taxes from their serfs and carrying out administrative
tasks. The association of Jews with these activities
increased Christian antipathy for, and suspicion of, Jews.
These negative notions about Jews have persisted to the
present even though Christians now engage in these
activities, and Jews have gained access to many trades
formerly restricted to the Jewish community.
- From the Florida Holocaust Museum
The Roots of Anti-Semitism:
Economic
•
•
The first victims of the religious
intolerance of the king were the
Jews who were often the bankers
of the kingdom. Since it was, in
theory, prohibited to the Christians,
the Church condemned any
financial transaction comprising
the payment of interest. The
miniature shows a Jewish money
lender who wears a yellow witch's
hat. He counts gold coins and
gives them in a bag to a Christian.
The closed door, on the left,
symbolizes the clandestinity of the
act.
http://flholocaustmuseum.org/history_wing/
antisemitism/crusades.cfm#economic
The Roots of Anti-Semitism:
Economic
•
•
Medieval iconography
is filled with images of
Jews engaged in
financial activities and
often implies that
Jews are draining
resources from the
Christian community.
http://flholocaustmuseum.org/
history_wing/antisemitism/crus
ades.cfm#economic
The Roots of Anti-Semitism:
Economic
•
•
A Biblical scene in a German
church: Judas is counting
money—his reward for
betraying Jesus. He is
portrayed as a medieval Jew
wearing the obligatory pointed
hat. Church of Naumburg,
Germany, Thirteenth Century.
http://flholocaustmuseum.org/history_
wing/antisemitism/crusades.cfm#econ
omic
The Roots of Anti-Semitism:
Social
1.
2.
Jews separated themselves and tended to live
in isolated communities.
Jews were forced to live in “ghettos”
III. Holy War
•
•
The Jews of the Exodus found Canaan populated by
inhabitants that had been there for centuries.
They were in the way of the “Divine Plan:”
- "For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of
the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the
Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy
them…They shall not live in your land. (Exodus 23:23, 33)
III. Holy War
•
•
“Yahweh your God will deliver them over to you and you will
conquer them. You must lay them under a ban.”
“Instead, deal with them (Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites,
Canaanites, Perizzities, Hivites, Jebusites) like this: tear down their
altars, smash their standing stones, cut down their sacred poles and
set fire to their idols. For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh
your God. It is you that Yahweh your God has chosen to be his very
own people out of all peoples on the earth.”
- Deuteronomy 7:1-6
III. Holy War
•
•
Moses died before he led the Jews to Canaan. It was Joshua who
led the twelve tribes of Israel into Canaan in 1200 BC.
Joshua fulfilled God’s command:
- “When Israel finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open
ground and where they had followed them into the wilderness, and when
all to a man had fallen by the edge of a sword, all Israel returned to Ai and
slaughtered all its people. The number of those that fell that day, men and
women together, was twelve thousand…Then Joshua burned Ai, making it a
ruin for evermore, a desolate place, even to this day.” (Joshua 8:24, 25,
28).
III. Holy War
•
And further:
- “Then Joshua came and wiped out the
Anakim from the highlands, from Hebron, from
Debir, from Anab, from all the highlands of
Judah and all the inhabitants of Israel; he
delivered them and their towns over to the ban.
No more Anakim were left in Israelite territory
except at Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. (Ibid., 11:21,
22)
III. Holy War
•
•
•
•
Holy war in Canaan continued for another two hundred years.
As the Israelites exterminated their foes and pagan towns and
shrines were destroyed, temples to Yahweh were built at Shiloh,
Dan, Bethel, Bethlehem, and Hebron.
1000
BCE –
King David conquered the Jebusite city of Jerusalem.
From this point on the Jews had to rely on help and benevolence of
foreign leaders
- Cyrus of Persia
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
•
Zionism – Jewish nationalist
movement that began in Europe in
the late nineteenth century
- goal of the movement: create a
Jewish homeland
- Zionism was a reaction to the
hundreds of years of
persecution, discrimination, antiSemitism, and insecurity that
Jews experienced living in foreign
countries.
- Most of the early Zionists were
from Russia where the Jews
felt the most oppressed.
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
•
1882 - The first wave of Jewish settlers arrived in
Palestine, then under Ottoman rule.
- known as “the First Aliyah (first immigration)
•
Most of the early Jewish settlers were either:
- “Labor” Zionists – socialists / kibbutzim
- “Mizrachi” – create a religious society based on the Torah.
•
Most of the early settlers were from Russia.
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Population in Palestine – 1918
Muslim Arabs
512,000
Christian Arabs
Jews
61,000
66,000
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) – Founder of the Zionist movement
"We must expropriate gently the private property
on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit
the penniless population across the border by
procuring employment for it in the transit countries,
while denying it employment in our country.
The property owners will come over to our side.
Both the process of expropriation and the removal
of the poor must be carried out discretely and
circumspectly. Let the owners of the immoveable property believe that
they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth.
But we are not going to sell them anything back."
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) – First President of Israel
"In its initial stage, Zionism was conceived by
its pioneers as a movement wholly depending
on mechanical factors: there is a country which
happens to be called Palestine, a country without
people, and, on the other hand, there exists the
Jewish people, and it has no country. What else is
necessary, then, than to fit the gem into the ring,
to unite this people with this country? The owners
of the country [the Ottoman Turks] must, there for, be persuaded and
conceived that this marriage is advantageous, not only for the
[Jewish] people and for the country, but also for themselves."
(1914)
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Vladimir Jabotinsky – militant Zionist
“Zionism is a colonizing adventure and it
therefore stands or falls by the question of
armed force. It is important to build, it is
important to speak Hebrew, but unfortunately,
it is even more important to be able to shoot…”
- Armstrong, pg. 103
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Yosef Weitz (1890-1970) – director of the Jewish National Fund’s
Land Settlement Department
"The land of Israel is not small at all, if only the Arabs will be removed,
and if its frontiers would be enlarged a little; to the north all the
way to Litani [River in Lebanon], and to the east including the Golan
Heights . . . . while the [Palestinian] Arabs be transferred to
northern Syria and Iraq. . . . From now on we must work out a
secret plan based on the removal of the [Palestinian] Arabs from
here . . . [and] . . . to include it into American political circles. . . .
today we have no other alternative. . . . We will not live here with
Arabs."
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Berl Katzenelson (1887-1944) – leader of the Zionist
labor movement
“ I am willing to give the Arabs equal rights
if I know that only a small minority stays in
the land.”
- Armstrong, pg. 104
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) – first Prime and
Defense Minister of Israel
“ I favor partition of the country (Palestine)
because when we become a strong power
after the establishment of the state, we will
abolish partition and spread throughout
Palestine.”
“We will expel the Arabs and take their places.”
- Armstrong, pg. 105.
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Golda Meir – PM of Israel
(1969-1974)
"There is no such thing as a
Palestinian people... It is
not as if we came and
threw them out and took
their country. They didn't
exist."
"How can we return the
occupied territories? There
is nobody to return them
to."
http://www.monabaker.com/
quotes.htm
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) – Israeli military hero and
politician on Arab identity:
“We came to this country which was already
populated by Arabs, and we were establishing
a Hebrew, that is, Jewish state here….Jewish
villages were built in the place of Arab villages.
You do not even know the names of these Arab
villages, and I do not blame you because these
geography books no longer exist; not only do the books
not exist, the Arab villages are not there either….There is
not one place built in this country that did not have a
Former Arab population.”
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Menachem Begin – former Israeli Prime Minister,
quoted in 1977 and 1982:
“The Jewish people have unchallengeable,
eternal, historic right to the Land of Israel
[including the West Bank and Gaza Strip],
the inheritance of their forefathers."
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two
legs."
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Menachem Begin
"Israel will not transfer Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza
District to any foreign sovereign authority, [because] of
the historic right of our nation to this land, [and] the
needs of our national security, which demand a
capability to defend our State and the lives of our
citizens."
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu – Israeli PM, 1996-1999
"Israel should have exploited the
repression of the demonstrations in
China, when world attention focused
on that country, to carry out mass
expulsions among the Arabs of the
territories."
Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister
former Prime Minister of Israel, speaking to students at
Bar Ilan University, from the Israeli journal Hotam,
November 24, 1989.
-
III. Holy War:
Zionism and Israel
Ariel Sharon – Israeli PM, 2001-2006
"Israel may have the right to put others on trial,
but certainly no one has the right to put the
Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial."
(2001)
"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to
public opinion, clearly and courageously, a
certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first
of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or
Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the
expropriation of their lands.“ (1998)