Introduction

A very brief outline of the history of Judaism and the Jewish people is given by Cohn-Sherbok, showing the diversities in beliefs and practices that have resulted. Thus, mention is made of Abraham and Moses and of the lands of Canaan, then Israel and Judah – the Holy Land – with, later, how the Jews became a diaspora people. The scriptures of Judaism are presented, the Mishnah and Talmud, and the development of diversities with reference to the Kabbalah and movements ranging from the Hasidic Jews to the Reconstructionists to the Humanist Jews – and, of course, the creation of modern Israel and its relationship to antisemitism and anti-Zionism.