JUDAISM Judaism is a monotheistic religion which believes that the world was created by a single, all-knowing divinity, and that all things within that world were designed to have meaning and purpose as part of a divine order. According to the teachings of Judaism, God's will for human behavior was revealed to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The Torah, or commandments, which regulate how humans are to live their lives, were a gift from God so that they might live in according to His will. The Old Testament books of the Bible describe numerous struggles of the Jewish people. After their triumphant Exodus from Egyptian captivity following Moses, they wandered around in the desert for forty years before entering the Promised Land. They had many conflicts with neighboring societies, yet for several centuries were able to maintain a unified state centered in Jerusalem. This occupation of the Promised Land was not to last. In 722 BC, the northern part of the Hebrew state fell to Assyrian raiders.

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By 586 BC, Jerusalem was conquered by Babylonians. The land of Israel was successively ruled by Persians, Macedonians, Greeks, Syrians, and Romans in the time that followed. As a result of the Syrian King Antiochus IV Epiphanes' attempt to suppress the Jewish religion, a rebellion led by Judas Maccabaeus in 167 BC resulted in the independence of the Jewish nation. This is celebrated today by the festival Hanukkah.

In 70 AD, the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, and the Jews were forced out of the area and settled in Mediterranean countries and in other areas in southwest Asia. This migration of the Jewish population is known as Diaspora. Many of these Jews settled in Europe and became victims of persecution and poverty. Ghettoes and slums became their homes and massacres were common. Because of these living conditions, many fled to the United States in the late 19th century. Migration to the States especially climbed during the aftermath of the Holocaust, the organized murder of Jews during and after World War II. Today the United States has the largest population of Jewish people with high concentration areas in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, and Washington D.C.

In 1917, an attempt to reestablish Palestine as the Jewish homeland began. By 1948, the State of Israel became an independent country. They have regained their Hebrew language, which involved inventing words for modern inventions and concepts unheard of centuries ago and writing a Hebrew dictionary to unify the language.

Judaism is one of the oldest religions still existing today. It began as the religion of the small nation of the Hebrews, and through thousands of years of suffering, persecution, dispersion, and occasional victory, has continued to be a profoundly influential religion and culture. Today, 14 million people identify themselves as Jewish. Modern Judaism is a complex phenomenon that incorporates both a nation and a religion, and often combines strict adherence to ritual laws with a more liberal attitude towards religious belief.

These are the three branches of Judaism which form the framework for the type of lifestyle and beliefs of Jewish individuals: 

	ORTHODOX: Traditionalists who observe most of the traditional dietary and ceremonial laws of Judaism.
	CONSERVATIVE: They do not hold to the importance of a Jewish political state, but put more emphasis on the historic and religious aspects of Judaism, doctrinally somewhere between Orthodox and Reform.
	REFORM: The liberal wing of Judaism, culture and race oriented with little consensus on doctrinal or religious belief .

Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
Blessed is His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might.
These words that I command you today shall be upon your heart.
Repeat them to your children, and talk about them when you sit in your home,
and when you walk in the street; when you lie down, and when you rise up.
Hold fast to them as a sign upon your hand,
and let them be as reminders before your eyes.
Write them on the doorposts of your home and at your gates.

Deuteronomy 6: 4-9