9781422284360

I SRAEL 14

years (the United States, by contrast, is only about 240 years old). But Jewish national independence in the Middle East was extin- guished through conquest by the Roman Empire in 63 BCE , and most Jews were exiled from or left their homeland around 135 CE . Some Jews came back over the centuries from the dozens of countries in which they lived, and certain places in Israel—the cities of Jerusalem, Tiberias, Safad, and Hebron, for example—always main- tained Jewish communities. But significant numbers of Jews did not begin to return to the country, by then known as Palestine, until the end of the 19th century. No other people in history has ever managed to maintain its identity over such a long period without being able to live together, and no other people has been able to reestablish its national independence after so long a break. Relatedly, the main language in Israel is Hebrew, and Israel is the only country in the world where the majority speaks Hebrew. While the language is not identical to the ancient Hebrew of the Bible, it is close enough so that all educated Jewish Israelis can easily read their ancient literature—far more readily, for example, than native English-speakers can read Beowulf , or the works of Chaucer or even Shakespeare. There are no other such examples in the world today; modern Greeks cannot readily read ancient Greek, modern Iranians cannot easily decipher ancient Persian texts, and so on. Most Israelis also speak some English, which they learn in school and are exposed to through cable television, movies, and other forms of entertainment. Israelis in professional walks of life

Words to Understand in This Chapter

anti-Semitism— hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a group. gross domestic product— the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a one-year period.