Although definitions of “Judaism” as a religious tradition vary, they often involve a combination of commitments to monotheistic belief, sacred texts, and the social and cultural histories and traditions of Jewish people.... Read more about God, Torah, and Israel

In the ancient Near East, the Jewish theology of one singular, universal God represented a synthesis of existing beliefs and an influential innovation in the history of the world’s religions.... Read more about God: Biblical Monotheism

The Torah, the central Jewish scripture, provides Judaism with its history, theology, and a framework for ethics and practice. Torah technically refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). However, it colloquially refers to all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, also called the Tanakh. ... Read more about Torah: Covenant and Constitution

Israel has existed for Jews as a physical historical homeland and as a term that refers to the shared identity, history, and culture of the Jewish “tribe,” “family,” or “people.” The Jewish “nation,” whether metaphorical or literal, has provided some modern Jews with the opportunity to define Judaism as a shared history, culture, and religion.... Read more about Israel: Jewish Nationhood

After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, Jewish rabbis developed a system of Jewish ethics (including laws of justice, dietary laws, and a yearly cycle of holidays) and refashioned Jewish practice to center on the synagogue, or “house of assembly,” and the home.... Read more about Post-Biblical Religion

The Jewish commentaries and interpretations of the Bible, ranging from legal codes to rabbinic dialogues, from philosophical inquiry to folklore, collectively form the Talmud. The earliest commentary is called the Mishnah, while the later commentary on and elaboration of the Mishnah is called the Gemara, taken together these two commentaries make up the Talmud. Talmudic Midrash, another genre of rabbinic writing, also includes stories, philosophical explications, and historical writing.... Read more about Rabbinic Text

Throughout their history, Jews have been forced to flee from their homelands into galut, or exile, creating distinct and prominent communities in Babylonia, Germany, and Iberia. Diaspora, or dispersion, created Jewish communities such as the Ashkenazi (German) and Sephardic (Iberian) communities. These communities are still recognizable far afield and centuries after their creation, even in the United States.... Read more about Diaspora Community

Kabbalah, the mystical tradition within Judaism, includes the modern Hasidic movement, which emerged out of the charismatic Jewish communities of 18th century Eastern Europe. Kabbalistic practice concerns the potential involvement of God in the world through messianic figures and the spiritual reading of Jewish texts and laws.... Read more about Kabbalah and Hasidism

Judaism’s syncretic interaction with the European Enlightenment created the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment). From the Haskalah came the contemporary Jewish Reform, Conservative, and neo-Orthodox movements, as well as Zionism, a political form of Jewish expression that some considered “secular” (that is, divorced from theistic belief or Jewish practice).... Read more about Modern Jewish Culture

Zionism is a political movement that was initiated in the late 19th century with the aim of actualizing the Jewish sense of peoplehood in a physical nation, leading to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Zionism today informs many Jews’ continued support and commitment to Israel.... Read more about Zionism and Israel

Many trace the roots of antisemitic sentiment to particular passages in the Christian New Testament, but antisemitism became especially fervent in the European Enlightenment as Jews began gaining greater civil freedoms. The most horrific and destructive antisemitic event was the Holocaust (or Shoah, in Hebrew), in which the Nazis systematically killed over six million Jews and created a lasting need for remembrance among surviving Jews. ... Read more about Antisemitism and the Holocaust

The first colonial American synagogues were formed on the Atlantic seaboard in the second half of the 17th century. A colonial synagogue represented a kehillah kedosha, or holy community, bringing together and fulfilling many social and religious functions for Jews.... Read more about Colonial Synagogue Community

In the 18th century, many Jewish synagogues adopted American Christian forms of worship and organization. Jews democratized synagogue leadership and began employing hazzans, spiritual leaders who had less traditional authority than rabbis and whose roles were similar to those of Christian pastors. American Jews also began to participate in American culture and civic life.... Read more about Early Americanization

More Ashkenazi (Central and Eastern European) than Sephardic (Iberian) Jews immigrated to the U.S. in the 19th century, leading to the fracturing of singular synagogue-communities into multiple congregations with varying levels of Americanization. The Jewish American landscape shifted from synagogue-communities to a community of synagogues.... Read more about Antebellum Judaism

After the Civil War, many German-born rabbis immigrated to the United States, where they helped to organize and solidify the Jewish Reform movement. They sought to align the Jewish and the American experience and to loosen many traditional rules and requirements of Jewish prayer and practice. ... Read more about Classical Reform

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Jews emigrated from the Pale of Settlement, a large Polish and Russian territory in which Jews were allowed to live in impoverished shtetls (small Jewish villages). Most immigrant Jews from these areas had not cultivated the same religious reforms as the Jews of Germany and Western Europe. As a result, these new Jewish immigrants to America developed a more traditional movement called Orthodox Judaism.... Read more about Immigrant Orthodoxy

Both the Modern Orthodox and Conservative Jewish movements, now quite distinct, were created in the early 20th century not through the efforts of any one leader, but through the creation of organizations and schools built upon shared values. Since then, the Conservative movement has become the more liberal and Orthodox the more conservative movement in religious practice and doctrine.... Read more about Orthodoxy in Transition

Eastern European Jewish immigrants brought to America a strong sense of Yiddishkeit, or social, political, and cultural “Jewishness,” which manifested most prominently in the political movement of Zionism throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries.... Read more about Ethnic Jewishness

After World War II, many American Jews moved to the suburbs and further assimilated into American culture. While Jewish institutions rose in prominence during this period, Jewish religious practice diminished. Additionally, the recognition of the horrors of the Holocaust elicited a specifically modern and American reexamination of Jewish theology.... Read more about Postwar Judaism

In the second half of the 20th century, American Jews expressed a growing sense of Jewish peoplehood through support for Israel and for Soviet Jews. Simultaneously, some American Jews found new opportunities for spiritual expression in Jewish mysticism and the formation of a havurah, an informal Jewish worship community.... Read more about Countercultural Judaism

While many Jewish institutions define themselves as specifically Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or Reconstructionist, contemporary American Judaism contains a strain of intra-Jewish pluralism, in which Jewish identity is not solely defined by denominational commitments. This strain of internal Jewish pluralism has led to a flourishing of educational and organizational opportunities for American Jews whose Jewish identity does not revolve around specific Jewish practices. ... Read more about Jewish Pluralism

In the Jewish calendar, Shabbat (also called the Sabbath) begins at sunset on Fridays and ends at sunset on Saturdays. Jews traditionally “keep” the Sabbath by resting and refraining from labor. They instead share meals and rituals with family, study, and attend synagogue services. ... Read more about Keeping Shabbat

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, together referred to as “The High Holy Days,” are the two most important holidays of the Jewish year, the former celebrating the coming of the New Year and the creation of the world, the latter (ten days later) beginning the new year with a Day of Atonement for one’s wrongdoings. Synagogue services on these days are the most well attended of the year; they involve the blowing of the shofar (a ram’s horn), and, on Yom Kippur, a day of fasting.... Read more about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

The eight day harvest festival of Sukkot commemorates the Jews’ forty years of wandering in the desert after their exodus from Egypt, as described in the Torah. Jews build sukkahs, temporary structures made of organic materials like bamboo and leaves in backyards, yards, or rooftops. Jews then eat meals—and, for some, sleep—in the structures. Shemini Atzeret is the eighth day of Sukkot. Simchat Torah, the following day, celebrates the congregation’s yearly completion of the reading of the whole Torah, finishing the Book of Deuteronomy and beginning again with Genesis.... Read more about Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah

Hanukkah, the “Festival of Lights,” is a minor Jewish holiday that is particularly popular in the United States due to its proximity to Christmas. It is an eight day holiday that celebrates the military victory of the Jewish Maccabeans over the Hellenistic empire and the miracle which took place after regaining the temple in Jerusalem, when a day’s worth of ritual oil burned for eight straight days and nights. On Hanukkah, Jews light an eight-branched candelabra, give gifts, play a gambling game called dreidel, and eat latkes (potato pancakes) and other foods cooked in oil.... Read more about Hanukkah

The Festival of Purim celebrates the heroism in the biblical Book of Esther, in which Esther, through insight and wit, saved the Jews of Persia from genocide at the hands of Haman, the King’s adviser. Purim is celebrated with a raucous and playful religious service, eating of triangle-shaped pastries called Hamantashen, and raising of money for charities.... Read more about Purim

Passover, or Pesach, is an eight day festival celebrating the exodus of the people of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. During this period, Jews abstain from leavened bread and eat only matzah (unleavened bread) to remember the hastiness preparing to depart from their homes. Jews also have a seder (literally “order”), a special meal featuring elaborate symbolism and a distinctive liturgy following the reading of a special prayer book that recounts the Passover story.... Read more about Passover

Brit milah is a rite of passage taking place eight days after the birth of Jewish males that symbolizes their entrance into a covenant with God through circumcision, or the removal of the foreskin of the penis. This is generally an occasion for a small family celebration. Some Jews hold similar rituals, involving only naming ceremonies, for newborn Jewish females.... Read more about Brit Milah

The major rite of passage for Jewish boys and girls is the bar mitzvah (son of the commandment) and bat mitzvah (daughter of the commandment) service. The term refers both to the person and the ritual, in which Jewish children, at ages twelve or thirteen, and adult Jewish converts, lead their congregation for the first time in the recitation of a weekly Torah portion. They thereby begin full participation in Jewish congregational life, and the is often followed by a large celebration.... Read more about Bar and Bat Mitzvah

Jewish weddings are traditionally joyous occasions; and while the specificities of Jewish weddings vary, most will include the signing of a ketubah, or marriage contract, the recitation of seven prayers, the smashing of a glass to represent the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and the presence of a huppah, a special small canopy held over the rabbi and newlyweds for the duration of the service.... Read more about Under the Huppah: The Jewish Wedding

Jewish funerary rituals are simple, requiring the deceased be buried in consecrated ground within 48 hours of death. But the period of mourning after the burial, called sitting shiva (literally “seven”), involves the immediate family remaining at home, seeing visitors, and engaging in prayer services. Mourners recite the Kaddish, a prayer recited at the conclusion of every synagogue service. The Kaddish honors the dead but makes no mention of death, instead affirming God’s holiness. ... Read more about Funeral and Mourning

The ultra-Orthodox Hasidic communities in America often live in close proximity, retaining a strong sense of identity distinct from secular American culture. A tish is an Orthodox Hasidic practice in which a ritual meal is shared between men in a Hasidic community and their rebbe, the Hasidims’ spiritual leader, after which the rebbe lectures on Jewish scriptures, the Torah and Talmud.... Read more about A Hasidic Tish

The synagogue was first an institution meant to temporarily replace the temple of Jerusalem during the Jewish Diaspora, or exile from Israel. In its early forms, the synagogue represented a community in its entirety. In the 19th century, the growth of Jewish organizations and federations took the social and political emphasis away from the synagogues. However, by the 20th and 21st centuries, synagogues sought to once again become multifunctional spaces of Jewish encounter and expression.... Read more about The Synagogue

Due to the relative acceptance of Jews in modern American civil society, there exists a concern that assimilation will reduce the Jewish population over time. The high rate of intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews is considered both an indication and source of Jewish-American assimilation.... Read more about The Challenge of Assimilation

The question “Who is a Jew?” is complicated in the United States. Traditionally, Jewish identity was determined by matrilineal religious commitments. However, the major Jewish denominations vary in whom they consider Jewish. Even further, new Jewish movements like Jewish Renewal and Jews for Jesus have expanded and complicated the definition of Judaism itself.... Read more about Who is a Jew?

Particularly after the Six Day War in 1967, many American Jews have felt a strong religious and political obligation to support Israel. However, since Israel has become more secure and powerful, and tension with Palestinians has increased, some American Jews have tempered their support for Israel.... Read more about American Jews and Israel

Jews disagree on the extent to which antisemitism has existed and currently persists in the United States. Nevertheless, nearly all Jews hold the Holocaust as a definitive event in Jewish history, requiring memorialization and remembrance.... Read more about Facing Antisemitism

American Jews have, for all of American history, tended to be politically liberal. Possible reasons for this trend are found in biblical sources, historical factors, and immigration trends. This liberalism has led to strong Jewish support for religious freedom, progressive economic policies, and social justice.... Read more about Politics: The Liberal Tradition

For most of its history, Judaism has traditionally been a patriarchal religion; however, women’s movements since the mid-20th century have advocated for and achieved greater equality for women in many Jewish denominations. Jewish women are now ordained as rabbis in all non-Orthodox denominations, and many Jewish theologians are expanding their field of interest to include the roles and characters of biblical and historical Jewish women.... Read more about Feminism and Judaism

The Jewish Renewal movement grew out of the Jewish counterculture of the 1960s, seeking to rediscover Jewish mysticism and spirituality while creating a community, called a havurah, that was more intimate than the traditional synagogue. The movement draws upon 18th century Hasidic practices, such as musical worship, as well as New Age, Buddhist, and other religious sources. ... Read more about Spirituality: The Jewish Renewal Movement

Due to contemporary anxieties about the extent of Jewish assimilation in America, many Jewish organizations and philanthropies focus on “Jewish Continuity,” keeping Jewish people within communities and networks of other Jews. This has led some to develop informal, unaffiliated groups for Jews to come together to participate in Shabbat or other Jewish events.... Read more about Jewish Continuity: The Next Generation