A Jew is a person of Judaic religion and race who share common racial origins, history and culture and who date from at least 1500 BC. It is nevertheless very difficult to define what constitutes Jewishness. In Israel there are Jews from many origins and races, but most Jews in Israel are not observant or practicing religious Jews.
However varied their communities, all Jews see themselves as members of a community whose origins lie in the patriarchal period. This past lives on in its rituals, and there is a marked preference for expressing beliefs and attitudes more through ritual than through abstract doctrine. The family is the basic unit of Jewish ritual, though the synagogue has come to play an increasingly important role. The Sabbath, which begins at sunset on Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday, is the central religious observance. The synagogue is the center for community worship and study. Its main feature is the 'ark' (a cupboard) containing the hand-written scrolls of the Pentateuch. The rabbi is primarily a teacher and spiritual guide. There is an annual cycle of religious festivals and days of fasting. The first of these is Rosh Hashanah, which is the New Year's Day, the holiest day in the Jewish year. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement which is Jewish holy day (io tishri). Other annual festivals include Hanukkah (the feast of dedication) and Pesach, the family festival of Passover.
Modern Judaism is rooted in rabbinic Judaism, and its historical development has been diverse. Today most Jews are the descendants of either the Ashkenazim or the Sephardim, each with their marked cultural differences. There are also several religious branches of Judaism. Orthodox Judaism (19th century) seeks to preserve traditional Judaism. Reform Judaism (19th century) represents an attempt to interpret Judaism in the light of modern scholarship and knowledge which is a process carried further by Liberal Judaism. Conservative Judaism which attempt to steer a course between orthodoxy and reform through an emphasis on the positive historical elements of Jewish tradition. Women are no longer required to be segregated in special gallery.
Judaism in Europe
Europe has been home to Jews for around two thousand years. There were Jews in Rome, for example, from the 2nd century BCE (before the Christian era), and a community in Cologne as early as 321CE. During the Dark Ages their presence spread north and east into Poland, the Baltic and Ukraine, but it was from the 10th century that numbers increased, especially with the encouragement of urban Jewish settlement by European rulers for the stimulation of the economy. Thus despite sporadic violence and some social and religious restrictions, Jews flourished culturally and economically. However, by the end of the 11th century, when Jewish skills were less essential, the religious fervor of the crusades found expression in anti-Jewish sentiment, beginning a process which culminated in the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. Soon afterwards urban Jews in various other places were confined to ghettos outside working times. With the enlightenment new freedoms were experienced. Initially this encouraged assimilation, a problem that the reform movement sought to tackle. At the same time many Jews emigrated to America as a result of continued anti-semitism in the 19th century. This new type of prejudice, racial rather than specifically religious ended in the Nazi Holocaust, devastating the Jewish population of Europe. Since then America has in many ways taken over from Europe as a vital force in world Jewry alongside Israel.
Judaism in North America
Jews first settled in North America in the mid 17th century, although the number was small until the 19th century. However, from the outset life there was different from that in Europe with few restrictions based on religion, either before or after American independence (1776). Since Jews were able to integrate with their non-Jewish neighbors, no separate, autonomous Jewish community was needed as it had been in Europe. There were individuals Jewish congregations with synagogue, of course.