Judaism is a set of beliefs, practices, and ethics based on the Torah. You can practice Judaism and not be Jewish and can be a Jew and not practice Judaism. This is one of the many surprising things I found when reading this book. The Jewish population is larger than I imagined. There is 1,750,000 Jews in New York. Most Jews today identify with one of two groups: Ashkenaz and Sephardi. The Ashkenazi lived anywhere from northwest Europe to east Europe. The majority of Jews in the world are Ashkenazi. The Sephardi are the Jews who lived in Spain up till the 15th century. Jews have been through so much throughout history and still survived. Their first temple was destroyed around 587 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar's troops and the remaining Jews were dragged into exile. Their second temple was built some 50 years later in Jerusalem. For the next century live was fairly good for the Jews. Happiness of course did not last, the second temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. Romans changed the name of Judea to Palestine. Jews were allowed to remain Jewish, but were charged a special tax.
             Fast forward to the Holocaust, in 1930 the Nazi party instituted laws that would make Jews miserable enough to emigrate. In 1935 the Nurembery Laws were instituted, they stripped Jews of their citizen ship and prohibited mixed marriages. Chaim Weizman said in 1936 "The world is divided into places where Jews can't live and places in which they can't enter." That statement to me is so true they were stuck wherever they were. By the end of 1939 Nazi's had killed more than 250,000 Jews. In 1942 Hitler's goal was the extermination of every Jewish person. Finally, in 1948 was the birth of Israel a place were Jews would always be welcomed. If the birth of Israel didn't take place the Jews probably would have faced more pain and death. I think the book did an excellent job explaining the history of the Jews as people. It almost covers th...