A Brief History of the Jewish People

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2004 - 280 pages
It is truly staggering to imagine that nearly four thousand years of Jewish history could ever be condensed into a single volume. Yet this is what Moshe Weiss has accomplished in A Brief History of the Jewish People, and he has done so with a breadth of narrative and a depth of learning that render this book remarkably accessible and informative to readers and students from all walks of life. From the journey of the patriarch Abraham as he spread the teaching of monotheism in Canaan, to the dazzling achievements of the American-Jewish community and the creation of the State of Israel in the latter half of the twentieth century, the entire spectrum of tumultuous history is traversed. In twenty-three concise, lucid and information-packed chapters, the reader moves from the formative years of the Jewish people to the kingdoms of Judea and Samaria, to the destruction of the First and Second Temples followed by two thousand years of exile peopled by brilliant, legendary figures as well as by adventurers and knaves. It is an inspiring and enlightening history of a unique people distinguished by suffering and survival, by scholarship and spirituality. Beginning with the growth of a small tribe on the sands of Israel, and concluding with the ongoing negotiations between the children of Abraham--Isaac and Ishmael--to secure a place in the land of their ancestors, it is a vibrant and heroic history, at times tragic, at times triumphant, all of it coming alive in these pages. Comprehensive in scope yet rich in detail, this book was created for students of all kinds--those in the classroom at every level of their education as well as those interested intelligent readers who want to advance their knowledge and learn on their own. Readers will find represented here every contemporary group of the Jewish faith--Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform--as well as almost every great empire and nation that had ever existed on the earth as Jewish history unfolded over four millennia. A Brief His

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Table des matières

Abraham to David 1726958 bce
1
Solomon to the Destruction of the First Temple Circa 990586 bce
11
The Babylonian Exile to the Return to Zion 586333 bce
21
Alexander the Great to the Syrian Rule 333165 bce
31
The Maccabean Revolt and the Hasmonean Period 16537 bce
37
Herod to the Destruction of the Second Temple 37 BCE70 CE
47
Postdestruction Period to the Compilation of the Mishnah 70217
57
Talmudic Period to the Rise of Islam 225622
67
Poland and Pogroms 12501772
131
False Messiahs to Hasidism 16501800
139
Enlightenment and Emancipation 17501900
151
France and Religious Toleration 17851906
159
England and the United States 17001914
169
Russia and Jewish Nationalism 18001914
177
World War I to the Holocaust 19141945
189
The American Jewish Community 19452000
199

The Geonim and Saadiah Gaon 7001040
75
The Golden Age in Spain to Maimonides 9001200
83
Rashi and the Crusades 10401300
97
Public Disputations and the Maimonidean Controversy 12001400
107
The Spanish Inquisition to the Kabbalists of Safed 14801600
115
Germany and Holland 15001650
123
The State of IsraelThe First Fifty Years 19481998
219
Historic Dates
247
Glossary
253
Index
257
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À propos de l'auteur (2004)

Moshe Weiss is an Orthodox rabbi with a doctorate from Yeshiva University who makes his home in Israel and the United States. Raised in Oswiecim, which later became known as Auschwitz, he arrived in America with his family before the Second World War. A prolific columnist and popular lecturer, he is the author of From Oswiecim to Auschwitz (1996), based on the many visits he made back to Poland, beginning in the 1950s, well before such pilgrimages became common. He is also the author of a scholarly study of the Rushino commentary on the Pentateuch, as well as biographies of leading figures in the Religious Zionist movement.

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