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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew
Jewish definitions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew#Judaic_origins

Judaic origins

Jews themselves hold scholarly traditions that trace the name "Jew" to Genesis xxix. 35, which says that Judah's mother the matriarch Leah named him Judah because she wanted to praise God for giving birth to so many sons: "She said, 'This time let me praise (odeh) God,' and named the child Judah (Yehudah)." Thereafter in the Biblical narrative, Judah vouchsafes the Jewish monarchy, and the Israelite kings David and Solomon derive their lineage from Judah. Indeed, there is the tradition that the "Judaeans" (Jews) are named for him, their ancient tribal ancestor.
In Hebrew, the name "Judah" contains the four letters of the Tetragrammaton ? the special, holy, and ineffable name of the Jewish God. The very holiness of the name of Judah attests to its importance as an alternate name for "Israelites" that it ultimately replaces.

Ancient schisms among the Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew#Ancient_schisms_among_the_Jews
First Temple era

Based on the historical narrative in the Bible and archeology, civilization at the time was prone to idol worship, astrology, worship of reigning kings, and paganism. This was in direct contrast to the teachings in the Torah, and was condemned by the ancient Biblical prophets who attacked those Israelites and Judeans who became idol worshipers. The split by the Kingdom of Israel from the Kingdom of Judah was completed by Jeraboam who crowned himself king, and built a northern temple with calf-like idol images that were condemned by the Judeans of Judah. After the destruction and exile of the northern Kingdom of Israel by Assyria, the temptations to follow non-Judaic practices continued, so that according to the narratives of Jeremiah and others, it brought about the failure, destruction, and exile of the southern Kingdom of Judah by Babylonia.

Second Temple era

This was a time when the Jews lived under Persian, Greek, and Roman power and influence. The main struggles during this era were between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, as well as the Essenes and Zealots. The Pharisees wanted to maintain the authority and traditions of classical Torah teachings and began the early teachings of the Mishna, maintaining the authority of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court. The Sadducees sought to adapt to more Hellenistic ideas, as espoused by Philo of Egypt. The Essenes preached a reclusive way of life. The Zealots advocated armed rebellion against any foreign power such as Rome. All were at violent logger-heads with each other, leading to the confusion and disunity that ended with the destruction of the Jewish Temple and the sacking of Jerusalem by Rome.

Break-offs: Samaritans and Christians

One small sect of Samaritans is still extant; however, their religion is not the same as rabbinic Judaism. The Samaritan faith and that of other Jews diverged over a millennium ago; Samaritans do not consider themselves, nor call themselves, Jews. This is because they believe they are of tribes other than Judah.
Of course, the most famous schism in Jewish history was the split between the followers of Jesus (who were known as Notzrim or Nazarenes) with the claim by his disciples that he was the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, and the majority Pharisees (the rabbinically led Jews) who rejected him 2,000 years ago and still do so until the present time. The abandonment of Jewish Law and the subsequent deification of Jesus by early Church leaders, by for example Paul of Tarsus and the publication of the New Testament, ensured that Christianity and Judaism would became completely different and often conflicting religions. The New Testament depicts the Pharisees as Jesus' opponents and depicts the "Good Samaritan" as a hero, which of course runs counter to the Jewish perspective: That the Pharisees were the justified followers of the rabbis who upheld the Torah, and the Samaritans were a suspicious cult that practiced secret forbidden rites, rejecting rabbinic Judaism.

Rabbinical Jews vs. Karaite Jews

Almost all Jews today are derived from "Rabbinical Jews" following from the Pharisees, who follow Judaism through the lens of the oral law, contained in the Mishnah and Talmud. Some Karaites claim to be descendants of the Sadducees and other non-Talmudic sects.
Karaism was historically rejected as a heretical sect by Rabbinic Judaism, but a re-evaluation of the Karaite Jews' status vis-a-vis Judaism has recently been undertaken. While Karaites had a wide following in the times of the 9th century (some claim, that at one time 40% of Jews may have been Karaites) over the centuries their numbers have dwindled drastically. Presently a small group (perhaps 30,000), many living in Israel, they have gained a more favorable hearing from religious authorities.

There is a divergence of views about the historical origins and present beliefs of the Karaites:

Karaites claim that they are not the historical disciples of Anan ben David at all. In fact, many of their sages such as Ya'acov Al-Kirkisani spoke critically about him. They accept the whole of the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, but reject the teachings in the later Mishnah and Talmud. As a result, for example, the Karaites do not accept the Talmud's prohibition against eating milk and meat together.
Some scholars maintain that Karaism was founded by Anan ben David in the 8th Century in the area of present Iraq, whereas some claim that he founded only a sect called the "Ananites" who rejected the Talmud. Anan ben David was imprisoned as a result of his dessire to be the "exilarch". In the presence of the calif Almansur (754-775) Anan defended himself. Anan won for himself the favor of the calif by his deep veneration for Muhammed as the prophet of the Arab peoples, and by the radical declaration that his new religion, in many ways was similar to Islam (An example: They used actual sighting of the New Moon as the basis of their calendar). The leading rabbis such as Saadia Gaon considered him a heretic and devoted their time and writings to battling the Karaites and their ideas which continued throuout the centuries.

While many Jews have not heard of the Karaites at all, and are unfamiliar with them and their doctrines, and some do not consider Karaites to be Jewish, the state of Israel, with its concern for gathering in "lost" parts of the Jewish people, recognizes Karaites as Jews. However, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate has ruled that Karaites are Jewish.

While critical differences between Orthodox Judaism and the Karaites still exist, some Orthodox rabbis believe that Karaite Judaism is much closer to Orthodoxy than the Conservative and Reform movements. This may make it easier regarding issues of formal conversion. However, some Karaites are known to refer to themselves as not Jewish. Others as a "Turkic people". During the Holocaust many denied that they were Jews, they may have been descendants of Karaites, or an altogether different group of Karaites believing in a completely different Karaism which is a Turkish tribal religion. Great confusion was created by Anan ben David as from the Isawites and the Yudganites immediately preceding this epoch, he borrowed the recognition and justification of Jesus as the prophet for the followers of Christianity, and of Muhammed for those of Islam; in this way ingratiating himself with professors of those creeds.

Sabbatians and Frankists

In 1666 Shabtai Tzvi declared himself to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah whilst living in the Ottoman Empire. Vast numbers of Jews believed him; but when under pain of a death sentence in front of the Turkish sultan Mehmed IV he became an apostate to Judaism by becoming a Moslem, his movement crumbled. Nevertheless, for centuries, small groups of Jews believed in him, and the rabbis were always on guard against any manifestations of this schism, always suspicious of hidden "Shebselach" (Yiddish for "little Sabbatians", a play on the word for "young dumb sheep"). Indeed, when the movement of Hasidism began attracting many followers, the rabbis were once again suspicious that this was Sabbatianism in different garb. It would take many centuries to sort out these complex divisions and schisms and see where they were headed.

After his mysterious death somewhere in the area of Turkish Albania, groups of Jews continued to be clandestine followers of Shabtai Tzvi even though they had outwardly converted to Islam, these Jews being known as the Donmeh. Jewish converts to Islam were, at times, therefore regarded with great suspicion by their fellow Moslems.

A few decades after Shabtai's death, a man by the name of Jacob Frank claiming mystical powers preached that he was Shabtai Tzvi's successor. He attracted a following, preached against the Talmud, advocated a form of licentious worship, and was condemned by the rabbis at the time. When confronted by the Polish authorities, he converted to Catholicism in 1759 in the presence of King Augustus III of Poland, together with groups of his Jewish followers, known as "Frankists". To the alarm of his opponents, he was received by reigning European monarchs who were anxious to see their Jewish subjects abandon Judaism and apostacise. The Frankists eventually joined the Polish nobility and gentry.


Reform vs. Orthodox: West vs. East

From the time of the French Revolution of 1789, and the growth of Liberalism, added to the political and personal freedoms granted by Napoleon to the Jews of Europe, many Jews chose to abandon the forboding and isolating ghettos and enter into general society. This influenced the internal conflicts about religion, culture, and politics of the Jews to this day.

Many Jews in Western Europe joined the religiously liberal new Reform Judaism movement, which drew inspiration from the writings of modernist thinkers like Moses Mendelson. They coined the name "Orthodox" to describe those who opposed the "Reform". They were criticized by the Orthodox Judaism rabbis such as Samson Raphael Hirsch in Germany, and condemned, particularly by those known today as followers of Ultra Orthodox Judaism, (or Haredim in Israel), and the leaders of Hasidic Judaism, the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, based mainly in Eastern Europe.

There was thus also created a cultural schism between the more westernised English, German and French speaking Western European Jews and their more religiously observant Yiddish speaking Eastern European brethren whom they denigratingly labelled Ost Yidden ("Eastern Jews"). These schisms and the debates surrounding them, continue with much ferocity in all Jewish communities today as the Reform and Orthodox movements continue to confront each other over a wide range of religious, social, political, and ethnic issues.


Persecution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew#Persecution
Nazism

Modern persecution of the Jews reached its peak under the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. The Nazis, who thought of themselves as a "Master Race", considered the Jews inferior and subhuman. Upon capturing most of the European mainland, and in accordance with its Wannsee Conference, Nazi Germany built concentration camps designed to kill Jews for the mere "sin" of being born ethnically Jewish. Over 6,000,000 Jews perished. Even Jews who had long assimilated and had been baptized into Christianity were not spared. These racist laws were embodied in the Nuremberg Laws specifically designed to discriminate against Jews. With the defeat of the Axis Powers by the Allied Nations, many high German officials were punished by the Nuremberg Trials and Germany paid reparations to Holocaust survivors and to the State of Israel.

Soviet Union

The former Communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics also instigated a policy banning Jewish religious life completely, and executed and banned many Jews to Siberia to suffer and die. Even though many of the original Bolsheviks were ethnically Jewish they sought to uproot Judaism and even established the Yevsektsiya to do so. Prior to his demise in 1953 Joseph Stalin issued orders for the deportation and persecution of Russia's Jews. Following his death, secular Russian Jews who knew only of their ethnic origins began to rediscover their cultural and religious roots and began to fight for the rights of Jews to practice their religion, adopt Zionism and to leave Russia which was unheard of at that time. They were persecuted and became known as Refuseniks, such as Anatoly Scharansky, until the fall of the Soviet Union opened the gates of freedom for Jews to leave Russia.

Christian

Christianity, which owes its origins and theology to Jewish teachings about the Messiah, has long had an ambiguous relationship with Judaism, giving rise to Christianity and anti-Semitism. Christians had difficulty with the Jews' claim as the "chosen people" of God, and they were seen as having contributed to Jesus' demise. In medieval Europe, many notorious persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the Crusades - when Jews all over Germany were massacred - and in the Spanish Inquisition, when the entire Jewish population that refused to baptise was expelled and found refuge mainly in the Ottoman Empire and the Low Countries. Until the end of Tsarist times in Russia, Jews were restricted to the Jewish Pale of Settlement and subjected to frequent pogroms. On the other hand, in the 16th century, the Council of Trent (article 4) declared that the Jews were no more responsible for death of Christ than Christians, and this was later reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council.

Arab and Islamic

Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Jews have generally enjoyed the benefits of "protected" Dhimmi status under Islam; yet the political conflict between Muhammad and the Jews of Madina in the seventh century left ample ideological fuel for Islam and anti-Semitism through the centuries. During the Middle Ages, Jews had a better status in the Muslim world than in Christendom, though still short of full equality with Muslims. During the Holocaust the Middle East was in turmoil: in Egypt, with a Jewish population of 75,000, Anwar Sadat was imprisoned for conspiring with the Nazis to bring independence from Britain; the British-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem was in Berlin supporting Hitler; a coup briefly brought a pro-Axis government to power in Iraq terrifying Iraq's Jews; and the Jewish Stern Gang assassinated Lord Moyne for closing Palestine to Jewish immigration. The tensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict was also a factor in the rise of animosity to Jews all over the Middle East, as hundreds of thousands of Jews fled as refugees, the main waves being soon after the 1948 and 1956 wars. The vast majority of the Jews of Iraq fled in 1952.

Leadership
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew#Leadership

Orthodox

Traditionally only the greatest scholars of the Torah and Talmud rise to become the spiritual and even temporal leaders of the Jewish people. This requires deep study of the Talmud and the Shulkhan Arukh Code of Jewish Law as well as many other classical texts of Jewish scholarship. Normally, one must study many years in a Yeshiva to become a rabbi. Synagogues are led by rabbis meaning "great ones or teachers". In many synagogues there is a hazzan (cantor) that leads many parts of the prayer service. Many Sephardic rabbinic Jewish communities refer to their leaders as hakham. Among Yemenite Jews, known as Teimanin, the term mori (teacher) is used.

Secular

Following the Renaissance and the Enlightenment in Europe (with its Jewish "extension" the Haskalah movement, which led to much modern-day assimilation into the cultures of their native countries), most Jews dropped much of Judaism. Many even became Christians, and adopted secular values and life-styles. Thus most modern local Jewish communities, or international ones such as the World Jewish Congress, are guided by secular leaders who may not be religiously knowledgeable or observant at all and they are most often very Zionistic.

USA communities

In the USA today, the mainly secular United Jewish Communities (UJC), formerly known as the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), represents over 150 Jewish Federations and 400 independent communities across North America. Every American city has its local "Jewish Federation", and many have sophisticated community centers and provide services, mainly health care related. They raise record sums of money for philanthropic and humanitarian causes in the USA and Israel. Other organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, and the Bnai Brith represent different segments of the American Jewish community on a variety of issues.

Decrease and growth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew#Decrease_and_growth

Both persecution and assimilation have resulted in small Jewish numbers vis-a-vis the world's population.

Wars against the Jews

Many empires and rulers have sought to "liquidate" the Jews through wars of destruction, extinction, genocide, expulsions, exiles, and torture. Some examples are: the Great Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire as described by Josephus; the Spanish Inquisition led by Torquamada and the Auto de fe against the Marrano Jews; the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres in the Ukraine; the Pogroms by the Russian Czars; Blood libels; Adolf Hitler's Final Solution which lead to the Holocaust and the World War II atrocities in Poland and elsewhere; and modern wars and Jihad via "suicide bombing" against Israel and its Jewish citizens.

Assimilation

Secular Jews tend to marry late and have smaller families with wide acceptance of birth control. When granted political, economic and religious freedom, many Jews, probably the majority, choose to adopt the ways and religions of their host nations, abandoning many vestiges of their own ethnicity and religion, and then frequently choose to marry non-Jews when living outside of Israel. In the United States, the National Jewish Population Survey has shown that over 50%, and as high as 75% according to some calculations, of America's Jews presently marry non-Jewish partners. These figures are probably also true for the Jews of Europe today. Most non-Jewish spouses do not convert to Judaism, surveys show. This phenomenon is known as "intermarriage" and is the leading cause for the shrinkage of almost all Jewish populations in Western countries since World War Two, it has been called the "Silent Holocaust" by some social observers.

Growth

Only in the State of Israel have secular Jews increased due to natural growth and immigration, and both Orthodox Jews and Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who shun birth control for religious reasons, have increased due to their large families. The Reform Judaism movement has officially launched an "outreach" effort to bring in not only the non-Jewish spouses of Jews, but to actively seek new members for the faith. There is also a growing movement of Jews by Choice by gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews.

- posted by Izak @ 2:29 AM