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Eternal India
encyclopedia
JUDAISM
RELIGIONS
Origin : 2000 B.C.
Founder
Global Following
Global Spread
Predominant
Place:
Canaan
:
ABRAHAM
: 18,153,000(0.3%)
: All Continents (134 countries)
: North America
Nos. in ('000)
Africa
Asia
Europe
South
America
North
America
Oceania Eurasia
359
6,264
1,475
1,132
6,850
100
1,973 _
CHRONOLOGY
*
1800 B.C. Abraham Migrates from Ur of the Chaldees to
Canaan (modem Israel and Lebanon).
*
ca. 1700 B.C. Some ancestors of the Israelites migrate to
Egypt in a time of famine in Canaan. Become forced
labourers.
*
13th B.C. Under the leadership of Moses, they return
again to Canaan.
*
ca. 1000 B.C. David becomes king over Israel. Establishes
an empire.
*
ca. 925 B.C. On death of Solomon, united Israel divides
into the northern kingdom of Israel, whose capital
eventually becomes Samaria, and the southern kingdom of
Judah, whose capital is Jerusalem.
*
332 B.C. Alexander the Great incorporates the Jews into
his Hellenistic Empire, which reached as far as India.
*
63 B.C. Pompey takes Jerusalem; Jews fall under Roman
rule.
*
A.D. 66 First Jewish Revolt breaks out
*
A.D. 70 Jewish Revolt crushed; Jerusalem Temple
destroyed. The synagogue becomes the focal point for
Jewish worship.
*
A.D. 220 Compilation of the
Mishnah
by Rabbi Judah the
Prince. Contains rabbinic interpretations of Torah (the
Law of Moses).
*
A.D. 324 After Constantine’s conversion to Christianity,
Palestine becomes part of the Byzantine Empire. Many
Christian churches built in Palestine.
*
A.D. 636 Palestine conquered by Muslim Arabs, who, in
the next four and a half centuries, sometimes treat Jews
badly, sometimes tolerated them.
*
A.D. 1099 Beginning of the Christian Crusades. Crusaders
persecuted and slaughtered the Jews of Palestine.
*
A.D.
1291
Crusaders
driven
from
Palestine.
The
Mameluks, who ruled from Egypt, at times encouraged
Jewish settlement; many Jews came to escape persecution
from Europe.
*
A.D. 1517-1918 Palestine under the rule of the Ottoman
Turks. Jews of Europe sought refuge in Palestine from
persecution.
*
A.D. 1860 Beginnings of Zionism, the movement seeking
a Jewish home in Palestine. First Jewish settlements in
1880.
*
A.D. 1917 Balfour Declaration gives British support for
the establishment of a national home for Jewish people in
Palestine. British troops take Palestine from the Turks.
*
A.D. 1922 Britain received a League of Nations Mandate
over Palestine.
*
A.D. 1933 Beginning of Persecution of Jews in Germany
under Hitler.
*
A.D. 1939 -1945 The Holocaust: Six million Jews murdered
in Nazi-dominated Europe.
A.D. 1947 on 29 November, the United Nations votes the
partition of Palestine.
A.D. 1948 on 15 May, the British withdrew; the State of
Israel was declared; the war of Independence began.
LINEAGE
*
The ancestors of the Jews or the Hebrew people may origi-
nally have come from the Arabian desert.
*
Some ancestors of the Jewish people may have migrated
from Mesopotamia to Canaan in the time of the Patriarchs
(Abraham, Issac, Jacob).
*
Earlier, the Hebrews had a variety of Gods. Under Moses
and Joshua they became the worshippers of only one God,
Yahweh.
*
The history of the Jews is narrated in the Old Testament.
JEWS IN INDIA
*
ca. 175 B.C. The first Jews reach India via Persia or the
Persian Gulf, coming as traders and refugees. Their earliest
large settlement was in Bombay. By A.D. 1170 there were
1,000 Jewish families there.
*
ca. A.D. 600 Jews were in Cranganore. After a massacre by
Muslims in 1523, the remnant fled to Cochin.
*
A.D. 1543 Portuguese Jews in Goa subjected to the
Inquisition. Over 100 Jews burned to death in 1543-1623.
Many Jews flee to Madras.
*
A.D. 1662 Cochin Jews massacred by the Portuguese. After
1663 the Jews here were protected, first by the Dutch (to
1795), then by the British. In 1950 there were 1,200 Jews in
Cochin, divided into “black”, “brown” and “white” castes,
with separate synagogues. Today fewer than 30 Jews live in
Cochin.
*
A.D. 1950 With the establishment of the State of Israel in
1948, many Indian Jews migrate to Israel, leaving only a
remnant behind in India.
PHILOSOPHY
*
Judaism is based on the concept of a transcendent and om-
nipotent one true God, the revelation of his will in the Torah,
and the special relation between God and his "chosen
people".
*
The idea of reincarnation is rejected.
*
Jesus is not recognised as the Messiah and the Messiah has
not yet come.
*
Judaism believes in one God (Jehovah). Their moral laws are
considered as an expression of Jehovah's will.
*
Judaism believes that God loves man but punishes him if he
does wrong and is always prepared to forgive a sinner who
repents.
*
*
Judaism is the parent of Christianity and Islam.
*
Judaism is the oldest of the great monotheist religions.
*
Jerusalem - Holy place of Jews, Christians and Muslims.
*
On three things does the world stand: on justice, on truth,
and on peace.’
-
Gamaliel
Menorah
(Seven-branched
candlestick of the Temple of
Jerusalem.) shown in coat of
arms.
‘David's
Shield’,
is
in
the
centre of the flag of Israel. The
sphere
of
God
(three
points
from above) is interlinked with
the sphere of humans (three
points from below).