I am ethnically, Ashkenazi on one side of the family. The story, I will summarize it. In 1880, my 2nd great grandmother was born out of wedlock to Dutch Jews in Antwerp, Belgium. All I know is they were Orthodox and giving birth out of wedlock is a sin. They were also Middle Class Jews. Around September 1880, a family from West Flanders, which is very country, wanted to leave. Those who do not know about the flemish culture, West Flemish people were treated horribly. They were very poor and the stereotypes the British , Dutch and Germans has was awful.
The family saved up enough money for a family of 6 to go to America but once they came to Antwerp they didn't have enough. That is when they met a woman who said their daughter gave birth out of wedlock and said if they would take the baby and raise as their own, the woman would pay for the entire family's passage to go to America. The West Flemish woman was thankful and took the baby in.
My 2nd great grandmother's story was written and passed down for generations. I did take a DNA test which proved, that I have Ashkenazi ancestry, which came from her. Questions I know people have "Why didn't the Jewish family give her to a Jewish family to be raised?"
Remember I said West Flemish people were treated horribly ? The family wasn't going to say they are from there as they would have been turned down instantly. Also, they had never met a Jew at that point as in West Flemish in 19th century, there were no Jews living there. How did the West Flemish family meet the Jewish woman? They stayed at the house in Antwerp-a room and board , which was common back then, since Antwerp was the hub for many of our ancestors throughout Europe to go to America.
I have always been interested in my Dutch Jewish ancestry- and as a result, I am putting together a "Jewish Learning" Section on saltyvixenstories.com - here is a brief history of Judaism, I will expand on topics soon.
Judaism
Judaism is the religion, philosophy and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is a monotheistic religion originating in the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh ) and explored in later texts, such as the Talmud . Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God established with the Children of Israel.
Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a structured religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Of the major world religions, Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions. The Hebrews / Israelites were already referred to as “Jews” in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title “Children of Israel”. Judaism’s texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam and the Baha’i Faith. Many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law.
Jews are an ethnoreligious group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. As of 2023, the world's "core" Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 16.1 million, 0.2% of the 8 billion worldwide population. This number rises to 18 million with the addition of the "connected" Jewish population, including those who say they are partly Jewish or that have Jewish backgrounds from at least one Jewish parent, and rises again to 21 million with the addition of the "enlarged" Jewish population, including those who say they have Jewish backgrounds but no Jewish parents and all non-Jewish household members who live with Jews. Counting all those who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under Israel's Law of Return, in addition to Israeli Jews, raised the total to 23.8 million.
The largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism.
History
Origins
At its core, the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is an account of the Israelites’ relationship with God from their earliest history until the building of the Second Temple (c. 535 BCE). Abraham is hailed as the first Hebrew and the father of the Jewish people. As a reward for his act of faith in one God, he was promised that Isaac , his second son, would inherit the Land of Israel (then called Canaan). Later, Jacob and his children were enslaved in Egypt, and God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt.
At Mount Sinai they received the Torah — the five books of Moses . These books, together with Nevi’im and Ketuvim are known as Tanakh, as opposed to the Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishna and the Talmud.
Eventually, God led them to the land of Israel where the tabernacle was planted in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years to rally the nation against attacking enemies. As time went on, the spiritual level of the nation declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle. The people of Israel then told the prophet Samuel that they needed to be governed by a permanent king, and Samuel appointed Saul to be their King. When the people pressured Saul into going against a command conveyed to him by Samuel, God told Samuel to appoint David in his stead.
Antiquity
The United Monarchy was established under Saul and continued under King David and Solomon with its capital in Jerusalem. After Solomon’s reign the nation split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah (in the south).
The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian ruler Sargon II in the late 8th century BCE, with many people from the capital Samaria being taken captive to Media and the Khabur River valley.
The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by a Babylonian army in the early 6th century BCE, destroying the First Temple that was at the center of ancient Jewish worship. The Judean elite were exiled to Babylonia and this is regarded as the First Jewish Diaspora . Later many of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylonia by the Persians seventy years later, a period known as the Babylonian Captivity. A new Second Temple was constructed, and old religious practices were resumed.
During the early years of the Second Temple , the highest religious authority was a council known as the Great Assembly, led by Ezra of the Book of Ezra. Among other accomplishments of the Great Assembly, the last books of the Bible were written at this time and the canon sealed. Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BCE. After the Great Revolt (66–73 CE), the Romans destroyed the Temple.
Hadrian built a pagan idol on the Temple grounds and prohibited circumcision; these acts of ethnocide provoked the Bar Kokhba revolt 132–136 CE after which the Romans banned the study of the Torah and the celebration of Jewish holidays, and forcibly removed virtually all Jews from Judea.
This became known as the Second Jewish Diaspora . In 200 CE, however, Jews were granted Roman citizenship and Judaism was recognized as a religio licita (“legitimate religion”), until the rise of Gnosticism and Early Christianity in the fourth century.
Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, prayer took the place of sacrifice, and worship was rebuilt around the community (represented by a minimum of ten adult men) and the establishment of the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities.
Historical Jewish Groupings (to 1700)
Around the 1st century CE there were several small Jewish sects: the Pharisees , Sadducees , Zealots , Essenes , and Christians . After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, these sects vanished.
- Christianity survived, but by breaking with Judaism and becoming a separate religion.
- The Pharisees survived but in the form of Rabbinic Judaism (today, known simply as “Judaism”).
- The Sadducees rejected the divine inspiration of the Prophets and the Writings, relying only on the Torah as divinely inspired. Consequently, a number of other core tenets of the Pharisees’ belief system (which became the basis for modern Judaism), were also dismissed by the Sadducees.
- The Samaritans practiced a similar religion, which is traditionally considered separate from Judaism.
Like the Sadducees who relied only on the Torah, some Jews in the 8th and 9th centuries rejected the authority and divine inspiration of the oral law as recorded in the Mishnah (and developed by later rabbis in the two Talmuds), relying instead only upon the Tanakh.
Expressions of Judaism
Jews derive their Jewishness through either being born to a Jewish mother (for Reform Judaism, Jewish identity can be derived from either parent) or through conversion to Judaism under an orthodox Rabbinical court. Some individuals identify with Judaism as a personal choice. Judaism is mainly a communal culture and relies on family and community institutions to ensure continuity and manage membership.
For those who subscribe to Judaism as a religion, the central text is the Torah - the five books of Moses - the Law, containing 613 commandments expounded on by the Talmud - the Oral/Rabbinic Law. Religious expressions of Judaism believe that God is one, has no form, created the world, is eternal and is still actively involved in world affairs. Different streams differ in the degree to which the law can be interpreted and applied to modernity. Common religious streams of Judaism in Australia include: Orthodox, Reform (Progressive) and Conservative.
Jews who identify culturally may be secular, agnostic, humanist, traditional, and may choose any combination of a range of cultural experiences as their focus including language, Israel, history, music, stories and Jewish cultural experiences from Europe, the Middle East or Spain and its former colonies. Little information is available about the affiliations of Jewish people in the Northern Territory.
The lack of community structures such as synagogues, illustrates that it is rare to find observant religious Jews as long-time residents of the Northern Territory. Most Jews in the Northern Territory adopt personal cultural expressions based on their own preferences and while they may hold small informal gatherings on festivals and on the Sabbath no communal structure exists.
The recitation of prayers, daily as well as on the Sabbath and Holy Days, is a defining characteristic of Jewish religious worship. The traditional Jewish prayer book is known as the Siddur and the oldest and most important of all Jewish prayers is the Shemah. The Shemah contains verses from the Torah and is an affirmation of Judaism and a declaration of faith. Observant Jews are obligated to recite the Shemah twice a day, morning and evening.
Persecutions
Antisemitism arose during the Middle Ages, in the form of persecutions, pogroms, forced conversion, expulsions, social restrictions and ghettoization. This was different in quality to any repressions of Jews in ancient times. Ancient repression was politically motivated and Jews were treated no differently than any other ethnic group would have been. With the rise of the Churches, attacks on Jews became motivated instead by theological considerations specifically deriving from Christian views about Jews and Judaism.
I will be talking about the Holocaust in another article. That is important to talk about and to remember. I talked about the start of this article about my Dutch Jewish ancestry- When I took the DNA test, and continued to do research, my direct ancestors, sadly, are gone. The closest relatives are my 5th direct cousins and they are currently residing in the Netherlands.
Also it is worth noting, historically, Most Christians, have Jewish ancestors - a lot of Jews, over the years, were forced converts- so if follow the history of your ancestors footprints, where they lived, and moved, it is a good chance you have some amazing and beautiful Jewish ancestors. Next Article- is Culture & Religion.
