Where did the Jews live and where do they live now? misconceptions about Jews. Where did the Jews live in Russia

What people have the strongest roots on our planet? Perhaps this question is relevant for any historian. And almost every one of them will answer with confidence - the Jewish people. Despite the fact that humanity has inhabited the Earth for hundreds of thousands of years, we know our history at best for the last twenty centuries of our era and approximately the same amount BC. e.

But the history of the Jewish people dates back much earlier. All events in it are closely intertwined with religion and consist in constant persecution.

First mentions

Despite their considerable age, the first mention of the Jews dates back to the time of the pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs. As for the records themselves, the history of the Jewish people from ancient times begins with its first representative - Abraham. The son of Shem (who, in turn, is accounted for, he was born in the expanses of Mesopotamia.

As an adult, Abraham moves to Canaan, where he meets the local population, subject to spiritual decay. It is here that God takes this man under his protection and concludes an agreement with him, thereby putting his mark on him and his descendants. It is from this moment that the events described in the gospel stories, which are so rich in the history of the Jewish people, begin. Briefly, it consists of the following periods:

  • biblical;
  • ancient;
  • antique;
  • medieval;
  • modern times (including the Holocaust and the return to the Jews of Israel).

Moving to Egypt

Abraham starts a family, he has a son, Isaac, and from him - Jacob. The latter, in turn, gives birth to Joseph - a new bright figure in the gospel stories. Betrayed by his brothers, he ends up in Egypt as a slave. But still, he manages to free himself from slavery and, moreover, to become close to the pharaoh himself. This phenomenon (the presence of a miserable slave in the retinue of the supreme ruler) is facilitated by the closeness of the very kind of pharaoh (Hyksos), who came to the throne due to vile and cruel actions that led to the overthrow of the previous dynasty. This genus is also known as shepherd pharaohs. Once in power, Joseph transports his father and his family to Egypt. This is how the strengthening of the Jews in a certain area begins, which contributes to their rapid reproduction.

The beginning of persecution

The history of the Jewish people from the Bible shows them as peaceful shepherds, doing their own thing and not getting involved in politics, despite the fact that the Hyksos dynasty sees them as a worthy ally, giving them the best lands and other necessary conditions for the economy. Before entering Egypt, Jacob's family consisted of twelve tribes (twelve tribes), which, under the auspices of the shepherd pharaohs, grew to a whole ethnic group with its own culture.

Further, the history of the Jewish people tells of deplorable times for him. An army is leaving Thebes to overthrow the self-proclaimed pharaoh and establish the power of a true dynasty. She will soon be able to do this. They still refrain from reprisals against the favorites of the Hyksos, but at the same time turn them into slaves. Long years Jews suffer slavery and humiliation (210 years of slavery in Egypt) until the arrival of Moses.

Moses and the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt

The history of the Jewish people in shows Moses as a native of ordinary family. At that time, the Egyptian authorities were seriously alarmed by the growth of the Jewish population, and a decree was issued - to kill every boy born in a family of slaves. Miraculously surviving, Moses ends up with Pharaoh's daughter, who adopts him. So the young man finds himself in the ruling family, where all the secrets of government are revealed to him. However, he remembers his roots, which begins to torment him. He becomes unbearable from the way the Egyptians treat his brethren. On one of the walking days, Moses kills the overseer, who severely beat the slave. But he turns out to be betrayed by the same slave, which leads to his flight and forty years of hermitage in the mountains. It was there that God turns to him with a decree to bring his people out of the lands of Egypt, while endowing Moses with unprecedented abilities.

Further events include various miracles that Moses performs to the Pharaoh, demanding the release of his people. They do not end and after the exit of the Jews from the Jewish people for children (Gospel stories) shows them as:

  • the flow of the river before Moses;
  • the fall of manna from heaven;
  • rock splitting and formation of a waterfall in it and much more.

After the release of the Jews from the power of the pharaoh, the lands of Canaan, which were assigned to them by God himself, become their goal. That is where Moses and his followers go.

Education of Israel

Moses dies after forty years. Right in front of the walls of Canaan, where he gives his power to Joshua. For seven years, he conquers one Canaanite principality after another. On the occupied land, Israel is formed (translated from Hebrew as “the God-fighter”). Further, the history of the Jewish people tells about the formation of the city - both the capital of the Jewish lands and the center of the world. On his throne appear such famous people like Saul, David, Solomon and many others. A huge temple is erected in it, which the Babylonians destroy and which is restored again after the liberation of the Jews by the wise Persian king Crete.

Israel is divided into two states: Judea and Israel, which are subsequently captured and destroyed by the Assyrians and Babylonians.

As a result, several centuries after the conquest of the Canaan lands by Joshua Nun, the Jewish people disperse throughout the earth, having lost their home.

Subsequent tenses

After the collapse of the Jewish and Jerusalem states, the history of the Jewish people has several branches. And almost every one of them comes to our times. Perhaps, there is not a single side, wherever the Jews went after the loss, just as there is not a single country in our time, wherever the Jewish diaspora is.

And in each state they met "God's people" in different ways. If in America they automatically had equal rights with the indigenous population, then closer to the Russian border they were awaited by mass persecution and humiliation. The history of the Jewish people in Russia tells of pogroms, from Cossack raids to the Holocaust during World War II.

And only in 1948, by the decision of the United Nations, the Jews were returned to their "historical homeland" - Israel.

The Hebrew ethnos was formed during the 2nd millennium BC. on the territory of Canaan (modern Israel) as a result of the integration of Semitic-speaking nomadic pastoralists and farmers of the oases of Canaan. According to Jewish tradition, recorded in the Torah, the Jews formed into a nation in the process of the exodus of the enslaved ancestors of the Jews from Egypt and their conquest of the “land” promised by God in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.

At the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. Jews are already becoming an agricultural people. During this period, the first ancient Jewish kingdom was formed, founded by the kings Saul (1025-1004 BC) and David (1004-965 BC) with its capital in Jerusalem, the First Temple was being built, the monotheistic religion of the Jews, the priestly Judaism, created during the 1st millennium BC. Tanakh, or Old Testament of the Bible.

The ethnic and cultural unity of the ancient Jews was broken with the collapse of the ancient Jewish kingdom and the subsequent conquest of two independent monarchies formed in its place (Israeli and Judaic) Assyria and Babylon in the 8th-6th centuries. BC. The conquerors destroyed the First Temple and took away most population outside of Israel. folk tradition preserved the memory of the former inhabitants of the kingdom of Israel, the so-called "10 lost tribes", whose traces were lost somewhere behind.
At the end of the 6th c. BC. part of the Jews returned to Judea from the Babylonian captivity and built the Second Temple in Jerusalem, around which the state and spiritual consolidation of the Jews began. Since then, a model of ethnic development has been taking shape, which included a center in Judea and a vast diaspora, originally formed in Mesopotamia, and at the turn of the Common Era. engulfed, Asia Minor, Iran, the Western Mediterranean, the Caucasus, part Central Asia.

During the period of the second Hebrew Hasmopean, or Maccabean, kingdom (164-37 BC), the non-Jewish Semitic peoples of the Negev and Transjordan and the Hellenized population of Galilee and the coastal strip of Israel are included in the composition of the Jews. Roman conquest and defeat of Jewish movements in the 1st-2nd centuries. led to the mass forced expulsion of a significant part of the Jews from Judea; the exiles joined the Jewish communities of the diaspora. The ethnic center in Judea practically ceased to exist after the Arab conquest of Palestine in 638, although small groups of Jews continued to live in historical homeland constantly.

The desire to return to Israel, i.e. "return to Zion" (to the mountain on which stood the Temple of Jerusalem) was constantly preserved among the Jews and was sanctified by Judaism. With the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. rabbinical Judaism adapted to life in the Diaspora is taking shape, which, along with Taiach, is based on another religious and legal monument - the Talmud. The center of religious and communal life becomes the synagogue, or a place for meetings (“meeting house”), its minister is a rabbi (rabbi), a scholar and interpreter of tradition.

In the diaspora, several dominant centers are successively replaced, bearing traditional Jewish names: Bavel (Mesopotamia with the adjacent regions of Transcaucasia and the Kurdistan Highlands), 5-11 centuries. AD; Sefarad (Iberian Peninsula), from the beginning of our era. until 1492, when the Jews were expelled from; Ashkenaz (originally Central, then Eastern Europe), from the 10th c. up to the 1st floor. 20th century

In modern times, with the abolition of a number of medieval restrictions on the rights of Jews in most European countries, the process of rapprochement between the Jews of Western Europe and the local peoples began, the departure of Jews from Orthodox Judaism, and mixed marriages spread. of Eastern Europe and the countries of the East kept longer traditional culture. Remaining restrictions on the rights and occupations of the Jews of Europe, the growth social mobility, characteristic of the new time, led in the 2nd half of the 19th century. to the expansion of Jewish migration. More than 2 million Jews moved in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. to North America; from the end of the 19th century, with the emergence of the ideology of Zionism, which set as the goal the resettlement of all Jews in Palestine, the migration of Jews began different countries, mainly from Eastern Europe, to Palestine.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, along with the intensified processes of acculturation and assimilation of the Jews of Europe and North America, there was also a consolidation of the Jews, expressed in the emergence of common Jewish cultural and political movements. The ethnic development of the Jews was stopped by the mass genocide of the Jews of Europe carried out by German fascism, as a result of which 6 million Jews were killed. After the war, part of the Jewish population of Europe, and later the Middle Eastern countries, moved to the countries of the New World, mainly to, and also to Palestine, where in 1948, on the basis of a decision General Assembly The United Nations created the State of Israel.

According to the 2002 census, in Russian Federation There are more than 230 thousand Jews, including Mountain Jews - 3394 people, Jews - 53 people, Central Asian Jews - 54 people.

The largest ethnic groups among the Jews are (from Central and Eastern Europe, in particular, almost all the Jews of Russia) and (originally from Spain and Portugal, then scattered throughout the Mediterranean).

Other ethnic groups are: Arab Jews; lahluhs, Persian and Bukharian Jews; Georgian Jews; mountain Jews; Krymchaks; Indian Jews, Romaniotes, Italian (Romim), Falasha, etc.

The study of the genotype of different groups of Jews and comparison with the genotypes of other peoples shows that the main Jewish groups are closer to each other than to neighboring peoples. This contradicts the arguments that Jews are united only by cultural and not by ethnic origin.

close groups

On the basis of religion, Jews refer to themselves as the so-called. Judaizers and Crypto-Jews.

Crypto-Jews are the descendants of Jews who were forcibly converted to or who continued to secretly profess elements and preserve elements of the transformed Jewish everyday culture: marans (maranos - lit. “pigs”) (“new Christians” in the Iberian Peninsula, southern USA, Latin America and in the Philippines; now they partially join the Jewish communities of their countries or move to Israel - the most compact group of marans is preserved in the city of Belmonte in Portugal); Shuetos (descendants of the baptized Jews of the Balearic Islands); Jadids and Chalas in Iran and Central Asia, formally considered Muslims, but preserving elements of Jewish culture in everyday life; dönme in Turkey.

Maurycy Gottlieb, Public Domain

By religion, Jews adjoin Judaizers - groups of different ethnic origin, professing or striving to profess Judaism (often its peculiar form) and considering themselves part of the Jews: subbotniks Central Russia, Siberia and Transcaucasia; the bnei menashe of the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur and the Myanmar state of Chin; Telugu-speaking Bnei Ephraim in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, who converted to Judaism in 1981; abayudaya in Uganda; Bantu-speaking Lemba in South Africa and Zimbabwe, etc.

Finally, on the periphery of the Jewish ethnic group are ethno-confessional groups and. The latter are not considered by Jews as part of the Jewish people.

Jewish languages

The oldest language of the Jews is (), in which (the Hebrew Bible) is written.

In the first centuries A.D. e. it was replaced by one of them as a colloquial language, later in the diaspora, on the basis of the languages ​​of the surrounding peoples, Jewish languages ​​​​and ethnolects arose.

The Hebrew language ceased to be a means of oral communication, but was preserved in the form of lashon-a-kodesh ("the language of holiness") as the main written language, serving the religious, literary, educational, cultural and business spheres.

In the 20th century, this language was revived in the form of Hebrew and became the official and main spoken language of the Jews of Israel.

In the countries of the diaspora, Hebrew (Hebrew) is preserved as the main language of Judaism. Spoken language a number of communities in the USA, Israel, Belgium, Great Britain, Canada and some other countries serves. Of the other specifically Jewish languages ​​and ethnolects, Tat (Mountain-Jewish), Jewish-Aramaic, and Jewish-Iranian are also the most preserved.

Today, about 45% of Jews speak English (in the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, Israel, etc.), approximately 34% in Hebrew (in Israel and the USA), 13% in Russian, about 5 % - in Spanish, about 4.5% - in French, about 4% in Yiddish, about 3.5% in Arabic (including e), German, Romanian, Persian, Polish, Amharic, Portuguese, Hungarian, Dutch, Turkish, etc.

Religion

Most believing Jews are followers of Judaism (Jews).

The term "Judaism" comes from the Greek. yudáismos, which goes back to Heb. yahadut‎ (יהדות), cognate with Yehudi - Jew / Jew.

The holy book of the Jewish people is the Tanakh (Jewish Holy Scripture) (Tanakh is an abbreviation: Torah Hebrew תורה‎‎, Neviim Heb. נביאים‎‎‎, Ktuvim Heb. כתובים‎‎ - , Prophets and Scriptures).

Tanakh is part of Holy Scripture Christians (Old Testament) and revered in Islam.

traditional culture

The incomplete socio-economic status of the Jews in the Diaspora contributed to the formation of a specialized culture among them.

Jewish participation in agriculture was limited everywhere, the main occupations were craft and trade, some were engaged in entrepreneurship and usury, liberal professions. B

Most Jews lived in closed communities (kegila) in urban areas (ghettos in Italy and Germany, huderia (juderia) in Spain and Portugal, mellah in North Africa, mahalla in Iran and Central Asia).

Self-government (kagal) was headed by the economic elite (gvir - "strong", parnas - "breadwinner") and the rabbinate.

vestiges persisted big family, in the Near and Middle East until the middle of the 20th century - polygamy (normative monogamy was introduced among the Ashkenazim in the 10th century). The kinship account is patrilineal, but according to Jewish standards, only those born to a Jewish mother are considered a Jew.

Common Jewish Features material culture were determined by the prescriptions of Judaism: in food, the obligatory head covering for men and married women and others. With the abolition of a number of restrictions on the rights of Jews in modern times, in most European countries their assimilation and acculturation took place, a departure from, mixed marriages spread; Jews in Eastern Europe and Asia retained their traditional culture longer.

At the same time, the consolidation of Jews developed, expressed in the emergence of common Jewish cultural and political movements.

In 1881-1914, Jewish migration intensified (especially from Russian Empire) - in Western Europe, America, Australia, etc., with the spread of the ideology of Zionism, their resettlement began in. The ethnic development of European Jews was destroyed by the Holocaust during World War II. After its completion, the emigration of Jews to the countries of the New World, as well as to the newly formed one, where the nation of Israelis is taking shape, intensified.

Photo gallery

population

The number of the population declared in the censuses may differ significantly from the number of persons internally aware of themselves as Jews.

In Russia, in post-revolutionary censuses, the respondent himself named nationality. Therefore, for example, until the 1930s. they do not include people who did not consider themselves as Jews (at that time, about 20%).

In the future, the proportion of Jews in the USSR who did not consider it reasonable to declare their nationality continued to grow - until the beginning of the 80s.

Jewish communities

Organized Jewish communities exist in 110 countries around the world.

The largest Jewish communities (over 60 thousand people) are located in the following countries:

  1. USA - 5.2 - 5.5 million people. (of which recent immigrants from former USSR about 400 thousand)
  2. Israel - 5.4 million people (2008 census; over 1.12 million of them were recent immigrants from the former USSR)
  3. France - 575 thousand people
  4. Argentina - 400 thousand people
  5. Canada - 348.6 thousand people (census 2001)
  6. Great Britain - over 300 thousand people.
  7. Germany - about 250 thousand (of which 110 thousand are registered members of communities; in total, immigrants from the former USSR are about 216 thousand) (data for 2004).
  8. Russia - 233.4 thousand people (2002, census, including in Moscow 80.4 thousand people, St. Petersburg 36.6 thousand people, in the city of Birobidzhan of the Jewish Autonomous Region does not exceed 7 thousand people)
  9. Ukraine - 104 thousand (2001 census)
  10. Australia - 90 thousand
  11. South Africa - 89 thousand
  12. Brazil - 87 thousand (2000 census)

There are 6 million Jews living in Israel, which is 75% of the country's population.

In addition to Jews, there are 1.6 million Arabs (20.5%) and 350,000 (4.5%) Christians of non-Arab origin and those who do not belong to any denomination in Israel.

These are mainly new repatriates and members of their families.

The population of the country is constantly growing: according to newsru, in 2012, 170,000 children were born in Israel, and about 17,000 new immigrants arrived in their historical homeland.

About 500,000 Israelis live abroad - they are mainly tourists, students, doctoral students, Israelis working in foreign companies.

Where do Jews live? Felix Nussbaum. Self-portrait with a Jewish passport. 1943

In 2012, Israel surpassed its main "rival" - the United States - in terms of the number of Jews: now the Jewish state is the largest Jewish community in the world.

Israel is the only country in which the Jewish population is growing and has reached 6 million.

In second place is the United States - 5.5 million Jews, in third - France - 0.5 million Jews.

In 4th place - Canada - 380 thousand Jews live here, 5th - Great Britain - 290 thousand, 6th - Russia - 190 thousand Jews live here, although after the 2010 census there were about 250 thousand Jews.

There are also many Jews in Argentina - 180 thousand, Germany - 120 thousand, Australia - 102 thousand and Brazil - 75 thousand people.

These 10 countries are home to 96% of all Jews in the world.

There is a question to which, usually, no one gives an answer: how many Jews assimilated?

And, if you ask questions, then to the end: how many Jews hide their belonging to Jews, how many Jews hate their people - because from childhood they experienced inconvenience or even persecution ...

Maybe one of the readers will express their opinion.

It is especially interesting to hear it from anti-Semitic Jews...

And, pointing to the paintings of the artist Felix Nussbaum, who died in a concentration camp, I would like to recall - this is what happened to our European ancestors, who believed that educated fascists would not destroy Jews ...

The world Jewish population has increased significantly in last years and reached pre-holocaust levels. It is reported by The Guardian.

The Institute for Jewish Policy Planning stated in its annual report to the government that 14.2 million Jews currently live in the world. If you take into account the descendants of mixed marriages, this number rises to 16.5 million - the figure recorded before the outbreak of World War II.

The report also points out that part of the reason for the increase is natural population growth, mainly in Israel, which is home to 6.1 million Jews. It is also associated with an increase in the number of children from mixed marriages who identify themselves as Jews. It is reported that 59 percent of US residents with one Jewish parent identify themselves as representatives of this nation.

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Institute director Avinoam Bar-Yosef noted that some cases of self-identification of people as Jews in the United States are associated with the growing popularity and respect that this nation inspires.

The Holocaust is the Nazi-organized persecution and mass extermination of Jews living in Europe during World War II. Traditionally, 6 million Jews are considered victims of the Holocaust, which in 1939 was almost a third total number Jews living in the world.

5 , 19:18

The word "Jew" in Hebrew means "Zarechensky", "one who lives across the river." According to the most common version, the ancient Jews are a small tribe that lived in the Bronze Age on lands controlled by ancient egypt; a tribe that gradually gained independence, replaced sedentary life on a partly nomadic life, from under the yoke of the damned Egyptians in one way or another escaped, strengthened and even founded its own small state.

To live in ancient world exactly between Egypt and Mesopotamia - a risky occupation, so the Jews in the end were forced to huddle in a very deserted area and endlessly butt heads with also quite aggressive local tribes. There were many peoples, peoples and peoples on the Fertile Crescent between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, but in fact only the Jews managed to survive and survive - primarily thanks to their ideology.

Firstly, from the Egyptians and Babylonians, they learned legal norms, including the ideas of private property, proto-statehood, social hierarchy, and other ideas that were extremely advanced at that time.

Secondly, they also owned highly developed technologies, also borrowed from the most powerful civilizations of the world at that time. And military affairs, and agriculture, and the manufacture of tools were extremely advanced by those standards.

Therefore, the Jews practically did not mix with other tribes, maintaining an exceptional ethnic solidity, and acquired such an interesting thing as national self-consciousness by the first millennium BC (for comparison, it is worth noting that the countries of modern Europe, say, began to understand what it is, around the 16th century AD). Judaism was a religion of blood, family books were sacred here, Jews did not support any multiculturalism and ethnic diversity even in the heyday of their kingdoms, they practically did not know colonies, and defeated tribes preferred to destroy or expel, making an exception only in rare cases. Well, they endlessly fought for the purity of the fasteners, traditionalism, and so that there were exactly as many hooks on the ceremonial curtain as indicated in Leviticus.

In this state of affairs, the Jews could dominate the small tribes. But, faced with new strong civilizations, they were helpless. Persians, Greeks, Ptolemaic troops - everyone who wanted to, did whatever they wanted on the Jewish lands, without destroying, however, the Jewish statehood to the end and even bringing some cultural innovations there on spears.

In the end, Judea was conquered by Rome, and the Latin pagans, tired of fighting unrest in a province that was inert and not amenable to real reforms, simply put out virtually all the Jews from there to throw them wherever they look. By that time, the Jews had already been scattered, consider, throughout Asia and the Hellenic world (thanks to the former conquerors), so, sighing and packing their belongings, they dispersed - some to Aunt Sarah in Damascus, some to their uncle in Armenia, some to former business partner in Anatolia, and who to his wife's relatives in the Pyrenees. Thus began the almost two thousand year journey of the Jewish people around the world.

Why do Jews exist and others do not?

The Jews were not the only people who did not have their own land or lost it. But only the Jews in human memory managed to exist for two thousand years, without dissolving into foreign nations, without losing (well, almost) their language, saving their religion, retaining a relative, but still undoubted genetic unity and realizing themselves as Jews.

We must thank for this, firstly, their initial desire for such cultural and ethnic isolation, and secondly, those who created the Mishnah and the Talmud - collections of religious prescriptions and explanations for them. These prescriptions were to be observed by every Jew. These collections began to be compiled and edited in the 1st-2nd centuries of our era, immediately after the Roman exile, and they were written with an amazingly well-thought-out goal - to preserve the Jewish people in their wandering.

If you study the holy book of the Jews, the Torah (it is, in fact, almost everything Old Testament Christians and a large part of the Koran of Muslims), we will find there only a very small number of prohibitions and rules. But in the Mishnah, and then in the Talmud, these rules were so expanded and supplemented that now being an Orthodox Jew is a very dreary and laborious task. You can only eat kosher, specially prepared food, you must use not only separate utensils, but even separate hearths for cooking meat and dairy, you must dress in such a way that people on the streets run after you in order to take a colorful selfie against your background, on Saturday you turn into a complete invalid, unable to even turn off the light in the toilet, and so on and so forth.

All these very inconvenient, cumbersome rules, for all their ridiculousness, however, played a major role in the preservation of the Jews as a people. From childhood, a Jew was accustomed to the fact that he was different from other people, he could not come to a non-Christian for dinner (but it’s easy to invite him to his place), he was forced to live next to Jewish butchers, milkmen, bakers and winemakers, since only their food was allowed to him, he could only marry a Jewish woman. The Jew who broke these rules was eventually expelled from his people, and mourned more for him than for the dead.

Of course, the prohibitions gradually weakened and traditions collapsed, but this happened very slowly. True, the 19th and 20th centuries inflicted enormous damage on Jewish identity, the stock of nomadic strength among the people was already on the wane. But here the journey ended: the UN created Israel and the Jews returned home. Although not all.

What do Jews look like?

Despite the ban on marriages with goyim, Jews, of course, still mixed with the local population - slowly and sadly. In different groups of Jews, we see completely different types of appearance. Nevertheless, they all consider themselves one people (and they have a genetic relationship).

Why Jews were so often disliked

Diaspora is a group of people united on some basis in another, larger group- will always enjoy certain advantages due to its unity. It's a simple mechanic: together we're strong and the like. Therefore, diasporas, especially numerous and strong ones, generally do not enjoy special sympathy for the main population.

The Jews, on the other hand, who are so demonstratively isolated and limited in their ability to contact, make friends and join family ties with the natives, they were perceived as 100% aliens, not their own, incomprehensible and sinister. In this state of affairs, anti-Semitism was an inevitable evil, and in the end, during the Second World War, it took on completely monstrous forms. Today, being an anti-Semite is positively not cool. As, however, and to show any other xenophobia.

Why are there so many Jews Nobel laureates not to mention musicians, poets and stand-up comedians
In fact, the entire crop Nobel Prizes(26% of the total number issued in general) went to only one group of Jews - Ashkenazim, immigrants from Central Germany, Poland, etc. All Ashkenazim are very close relatives. According to the calculations of scientists from Yale, the Albert Einstein Institute, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who studied the genetic formula of Ashkenazi Jews in 2013, total strength The original group of Ashkenazim was about 350 people, later their descendants interbred mainly with each other.

In the Christian Northern Europe of the Dark Ages, where the Ashkenazi community was developing, living conditions for the Jews were extremely difficult. While their tribesmen in Asia and Byzantium enjoyed virtually all the rights of citizens, the Jews of this part of Europe were severely persecuted and restricted in their activities (for example, they were forbidden to cultivate land and own it); only a few of them could exist here, tolerable local authorities for exceptional merit or on special petitions. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Ashkenazim are the descendants of very often influential merchants, government advisers, large moneylenders, revered rabbis and other medieval intellectual and business elite.

After the flight of the Jews from Constantinople, the situation did not change much, and it was then that this sub-ethnos finally took shape. Guild rules forbade them to be artisans in many professions, land cultivation and military service were also closed to them, so Ashkenazim occupied other niches - primarily trade, banking, medicine, and law.

In the future, when the Ashkenazim had the opportunity to more or less safely settle in Poland and Germany, they still enjoyed the evolutionary advantage of people with increased intelligence. The rich preferred to marry off their daughters to the most successful students of the religious school - the yeshiva, even if this beacon of wisdom was naked as a falcon.

So yes, Ashkenazim have a genetic history of increased intellectual ability. But do not rush to envy: centuries-old closely related marriages have led to the fact that Ashkenazim suffer from many genetic diseases, from which representatives of other ethnic groups are practically insured. Now that the Ashkenazim have broken their marriage isolation, the situation is beginning to level off, and in a couple of centuries they will no longer be any different from ordinary earthlings.

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Everyone knows about Karl Marx and Albert Einstein. And that's what these are, too, yes, did you know?

How to become a Jew

Unlike Christians or Muslims, Jews have never sought to convert everyone around them into Jews. On the contrary, they tried to avoid such metamorphoses in every possible way. Nevertheless, they have a “conversion” rite, which makes the one who passed it a 100% Jew - both in the religious and in the social and legal sense.

Conversion is an extremely tedious task. First you need to find three rabbis who will agree to make you a Jew. Moreover, the rabbis will refuse you, intimidate, dissuade you and tell you what a terrible thing it is to be a Jew. But if a Jewish candidate is stubborn like a bull and is not afraid of anything, he must learn the 613 commandments of the Torah (yeah, these are not ten Christian commandments for you), undergo training in the religious canon, and then clearly utter aloud the cabalat in front of the religious court - an oath to accept these commandments. If he cannot pronounce it (for example, he is deaf and dumb), then he cannot become a Jew.

In addition, men will have to part with one part of their body, you know what. The converted convert is immersed in a ritual container (mikvah) and becomes a Jew, a "hero" - this is the name of those who converted to Judaism, being a goy from birth. By the way, if you know for sure that you had the ancient Amalekites in your family, refrain from reporting it. The Torah clearly states that an Amalekite cannot be a Jew. True, now there are no Amalekites in nature, and it is not known exactly who they are.

Is it true that the Jews despise the goyim

Do you hate elephants? The Jews believe that the Jews on Earth special function— to maintain the harmony of the world, bringing it into line with the wishes of the Creator. They are the chosen ones, they are different from other people, as other people are different from animals. In the ideal world that will come after the coming of the Messiah, the Jews will do nothing but pray without ceasing. And they will be fed and served by other nations in gratitude for the fact that the Jews are saving this world, which generally exists only because God loves the Jews.

But being the favorite of the Jewish God is a suicidal occupation, for this all-powerful sadist severely punishes his people for any disobedience. Therefore, the destiny of the Jew - at least at this historical moment, before the Advent - is suffering. All other nations live better because they don't count. Elephants, you know, are also very well settled.

10 Misconceptions About Jews

A Jew can only be one who is born Jewish.
No, people who have converted (see this in the article) are considered 100% Jews, regardless of their genetics. Theoretically, even a Martian can become a Jew if he has a body part suitable for religious circumcision.

Most Jews live in Israel.

Most of the Jews - 6.5 million - live in the United States. There are a little over five million of them in Israel.

The Jews crucified Christ.

No, according to all the Gospels, Christ was crucified by the Romans, and the Jews-Pharisees only informed on him and then did not interfere with the execution.

Jews have the biggest noses in the world.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the most a long nose in the world - 88 mm - belongs to the Turk Mehmet Ozyurk. The second contender for this record is also a resident of Turkey.

Jews are greedy.

No more than other nations. But the Jews for a long time what was forbidden for religious reasons to Christians and Muslims was allowed - to lend money at interest. Therefore, they stood at the origins of the banking business in most regions of the world.

There are so many Jews in Russia because they have always been well received here.
No, the entry of Jews into Russia was extremely difficult and most often impossible since the time of Ivan the Terrible. The Jews ended up here because Russia conquered the territories in which they traditionally lived, primarily the Caucasus and Poland. Jews who did not renounce their religion were deprived of their rights almost until the very revolution: they were forbidden to move freely, own certain types of real estate, live in most cities, etc.

Yiddish is the Hebrew language.

Yiddish is just a dialect form German language spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. There are two Jewish languages: Aramaic and Hebrew. They are both very ancient and very similar.

Jews have big breasts.

According to a 2004 study by Wonderbra, women in the UK hold the lead in consumption of D+ cup bras. Israel was not even close.

All Jews burr.

They used to burr - and for the same reason that the Russian nobility burred. The native Jews had Yiddish - with a guttural "r". Russian nobility chatted in the nursery in French, also complicated relationship with this letter. But if a Jew (or a nobleman) grew up in a Russian-speaking environment with a traditional pronunciation, he has no problems with “r”.

Jews drink the blood of Christian babies and make matzah out of it.

The blood of the Jews, like that of Muslims, is a completely forbidden substance for eating, no matter who it belongs to. Therefore, a religious Jew is forever deprived of the happiness of having dinner. blood sausage or matzah with the blood of a Christian baby.

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