The formation of a common and diverse Judaic consciousness
How Did the Jewish Story Change Over the Generations?
“So that the last generation might know, sons who will be born should tell their sons”
– Psalms 78:6
“The ‘self’ of every person is the sum of his memory and his will, of joining the past with the future”
– Ahad Ha’am
The sources and origin of the Jewish people are uncertain and the connection between Jews today
and those who were called Israelites or Judeans in the past is subject to dispute between researchers.
Nevertheless, the accepted premise is that the ancestors of the Jews developed a collective consciousness,
primarily in the Land of Israel. Following the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem (in the 6th century BCE)
and up to the present time, the majority of Jews have lived outside the Land of Israel.
Living as a minority within so many cultures and societies had an impact
on the Jewish people and molded them into a mosaic of cultural diversity.
At times Jews integrated into the social and cultural fabric of their surroundings,
and at other times they were rejected or persecuted.
Because their alien status was for the most part tolerated,
they enjoyed varying degrees of communal autonomy.
This enabled them to cultivate not only their religion, but also their ethnic and cultural singularity.