1. Born in the Middle East: Judaism

2. Founded Abraham – 2000 – 1500 BCE in Israel
Established concept of monotheism (belief in one powerful God)
Established concept of covenant (special relationship between God and Abraham’s family

3. Founder
Moses BCE
Expanded the concept of covenant to include more people
Gave the people The Ten Commandments

4. Sacred Books Torah – The Five Books of Moses
(part of the Hebrew Scriptures)
Tells the story of the covenant between God and his Chosen People
Hebrew Scriptures includes the Torah, other parts of the Jewish Bible and the Talmud.

5. Practices Pray 3x a day facing Jerusalem Synagogue
No pork or other non-kosher foods
Bar/bat mitzvah at religious adulthood
Circumcision at birth, bar/bat mitzvah at adulthood. Synagogue services on Saturdays. No pork or other non-kosher foods. Holidays related to historical events.

6. Holy Days Saturday – day of prayer and rest
Fall holidays: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
Spring holiday: Passover
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7. Beliefs
Required to live a moral and ethical life as taught in the Torah
Afterlife – Not historically emphasized; focus is on this life, not the next
Obey God's commandments, live ethically. Focus is more on this life than the next
Afterlife - Not historically emphasized. Beliefs vary from no afterlife to shadowy existence to the World to Come (similar to heaven).

8. Holy Places Jerusalem City of David
Western Wall (remnants of Second Temple)

9. Clergymen Rabbi – a teacher

10. Diaspora The forced exile of Jews from their homeland
Lost a war against the Romans in 70 CE

11. Ethnic Groups
Divided into two ethnic groups: Ashkenazi – European Jews Sephardic – Spanish-speaking or Middle Eastern

13. Religious Sects Religiously: Jews divided into three groups:
The Orthodox (Fundamentalists)
The Conservative (U.S.)
The Reform (More modern, secular, liberal)