The Hebrews

The Hebrews were different from others of their time because they were monotheistic; they believed in only one God. The Hebrews believed they had a special relationship with their God and that they were God's chosen people. The Hebrews trace their identity as a people to Abraham, a citizen of the Mesopotamian city of Ur. According to Hebrew scripture, about 2000BC, God told Abraham to leave his native land. Abraham and his followers wandered through the desert to settle in Palestine. Palestine is on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea on land that is part of the modern nation of Israel. Abraham's decedents are known as Jews, and their religious beliefs are known as Judaism.

Many years after Abraham died, his followers traveled to Egypt to escape a famine. A famine is a great period of hunger. At first, the Egyptians treated the Hebrews well, but in time the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews. According to Hebrew tradition, God sent ten deadly plagues to Egypt when the Egyptians would not release the Hebrews from slavery. When the Hebrews did escape, tradition states that Moses, the leader of the Hebrews, parted the Red Sea for just enough time to allow the Hebrews to pass. After their escape across the Red Sea 1250BC, God revealed Ten Commandments to Moses. The Ten Commandments are the model for both Jewish and Christian moral thought.

Upon their return to their homeland, the Hebrews established a nation they called Israel. One of Israel's greatest leaders was Solomon. Solomon married the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and established a friendly relationship between Israel and Egypt. Both nations grew strong during this period of peace, and Solomon used his great wealth to build a magnificent temple in Jerusalem, Israel's greatest city.

In 586BC, the Babylonians of Mesopotamia destroyed Solomon's temple. The Jews were exiled, or forced from their homes, and made to move to Babylon. They Jews continued to worship by praying and reading their holy texts. Their holiest book, the Torah, became part of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.

About fifty years after being exiled to Babylon, a Persian leader named Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their home and to rebuild their temple. Many years later, Israel fell to the Roman army. The Jews revolted against Rome in AD66. Their second temple was destroyed in the battle, so the Jews were once again forced to leave their homes and live in exile.

For the next 1,800 years, most Jews lived as minorities in other lands. The Jews remained united despite the often severe treatment they faced in other lands. European Jews were ordered to leave Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. The Jews also faced organized massacres called pogroms in many nations, particularly in Eastern Europe. In the last century, as many as six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, where the Nazi party of Germany attempted genocide, or the planned killing of a whole group of people because of their religion or nationality. In 1948, the United Nations created a homeland for the Jewish people on the land the Hebrews once occupied. This homeland became the modern nation of Israel. Many of the Arab people who lived in the region did not believe the United Nations had the right to create a homeland for Jewish people on land they considered to be Arab. Several wars and a great deal of violence followed, but Israel continues to be a Jewish homeland, coexisting in an often uneasy relationship with many of its neighbors.

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