HERITAGE: Civilization and the jews - PBS

GLOSSARY
ASHKENAZIM (singular, Ashkenazi): Jews of Central or
Eastern European descent.
B.C.E. Abbreviation for “before the common era,” the
equivalent of B.C.
BA’AL SHEM TOV (literally,“Master of the Good
Name”): Israel ben Eliezer, founder of Hasidism.
BALFOUR DECLARATION 1917 British declaration of
official support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
BUND See Jewish Labor Bund.
C.E. Abbreviation for “the common era,” the
equivalent of A.D.
CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM A movement, established
in the United States in the late 19th century, which
sought a middle ground between Orthodox and
Reform Judaism.
CONVERSOS Jews in Spain and Portugal who
converted to Christianity. (See also Marranos.)
COURT JEWS Jewish advisors and financial agents of
European rulers in the 18th-19th centuries.
DIASPORA Jewish populations or Jewish settlements
outside the land of Israel. (See also Exile.)
EXILE Term used by those who view the Diaspora as
the “exile” of the Jewish people from the Land of
Israel. (See also Diaspora.)
FIRST TEMPLE See Temple.
GEMARA (literally, “completion”) Commentaries
on the Mishnah; together, the Mishnah and Gemara
form the Talmud.
HALAKHAH Jewish religious law.
HASIDISM A religious revivalist movement founded
by the Ba’al Shem Tov in Eastern Europe in the early
18th century that emphasized joyful prayer and
charismatic leadership. (See also Rebbes.)
HASKALAH The Jewish Enlightenment, a movement
that helped spread European culture among Jews
from the late 18th to late 19th centuries.
HEBREW Language of the Israelites and the Tanakh.
Also sometimes used as a synonym for Israelite.
ISRAEL The Jewish term for the Jewish people; also,
the kingdom established by the Israelites in Canaan
in biblical times and the modern state established in
1948.
JEWISH LABOR BUND A Jewish socialist movement.
Founded in Eastern Europe in the late 19th century
as part of the Russian revolutionary movement, its
activities also included the fostering of Yiddish
culture.
JUDAH Biblical southern kingdom of Judah, known as
Judea by the Greeks and Romans; also one of the
twelve tribes of Israel.The terms “Judaism” and
“Jew”are derived from this word.
JUDEA See Judah.
KABBALAH (literally,“received tradition”):The Jewish
mystical tradition.
KIDDUSH HA-SHEM (literally,“sanctifying the
Name [of God]”): Martyrdom in support of Jewish
religious principles.
KRISTALLNACHT (“Crystal night,” or “night of broken
glass”): Government-sponsored, anti-Semitic
pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria that took
place on November 9-10, 1938.
LADINO A language of Sephardic Jews, a blend of
15th-century Castilian Spanish and Hebrew.
MARRANOS Spanish Jews and their descendants who
professed Christianity but secretly observed Jewish
rituals. (See also Conversos.)
MASKIL (plural, Maskilim; adjective, Maskilic):
Adherent of the Haskalah, the Jewish
Enlightenment.
MIDRASH Rabbinic interpretations of the Bible.
MISHNAH Collection of Jewish laws gathered from
the oral tradition and edited during the 1st and 2nd
centuries, C.E.
MUHAMMAD The founder of Islam.
OLD TESTAMENT See Tanakh.
ORTHODOX JUDAISM A form of Judaism that holds
that Jewish law is divinely ordained and
immutable. Compared to Conservative and Reform
Jews, Orthodox Jews are much more cautious about
modifying Jewish law for the sake of modern
needs. Hasidism and “Modern Orthodox” Judaism
are two examples of Orthodox Jewish movements.
PALE OF SETTLEMENT Area stretching from the
Baltic to the Black Sea that was the only place Jews
were permitted to live in Czarist Russia.
PENTATEUCH The first five books of the Hebrew Bible,
also known as The Five Books of Moses or the Torah.
(See also Tanakh and Torah.)
PHARISEES Ancient Jewish sect that emphasized the
teaching of Oral Law,believed by Orthodox Jews to have
been revealed at Sinai along with the Written Law.
POGROMS Violent mob attacks on Jewish communities.
QURAN Islam’s most sacred text.
REBBE (literally, “teacher”) Hasidic religious leader.
REFORM JUDAISM A movement that originated in
Germany in the early 19th century and which
regards Judaism as an evolving religion, not as an
immutable set of laws. It sought to divest Judaism
of beliefs and practices that seemed to conflict with
modern life.
SANHEDRIN Ancient Jewish court combining religious
and civil authority in Palestine during the Roman
period.
SECOND TEMPLE See Temple.
SEMITIC Adjective for a group of related Near Eastern
languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and
Akkadian.
SEPHARDIM Jews of Spanish or Portuguese descent.
SHABBOS Yiddish word for Sabbath; in modern
Hebrew, Shabbat.
SHTETL Yiddish word for a type of Eastern European
market town with a large Jewish population.
TALMUD (“study”) The fundamental work of
Halakhah, comprising the Mishnah and the Gemara.
TANAKH The Jewish Bible, made up of the Torah (the
Five Books of Moses), Nevi’im (Prophets), and
Ketuvim (Writings); called the “Old Testament” by
Christians, who appended the “New Testament” to it
to create the Christian Bible.
TEMPLE The central institution of Judaism before 70
C.E. The First Temple was built in Jerusalem in
Solomon’s time, ca. 965 B.C.E., and destroyed in 586
B.C.E. The Second Temple was constructed ca. 516
B.C.E. and was destroyed in 70 C.E.
TORAH The Five Books of Moses. (See also Pentateuch.)
Also used to denote the entire body of Jewish
religious teaching.
YHWH A biblical name for God. Most scholars believe
that it was pronounced “Yahweh.”
YESHIVA (plural,yeshivot): Advanced Talmudic academy.
YIDDISH Everyday language of Ashkenazic Jews from
Eastern Europe, a blend of German, Hebrew, Slavic,
and Romance languages.
YISHUV The Jewish community in the Land of Israel
before the establishment of the State of Israel in
1948.
ZIONISM Modern ideology and political movement
that sought the return of the Jewish people to the
Land of Israel.
ZOHAR (“splendor”) The most important book of
the kabbalistic tradition, written by Moses of Leon
in the late 13th century.
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