The Amazing

History
of the Jews
Chaya Burstein
 n In memory of the grandparents I never knew,
Eliyahu, Michal, Chaya, and Mosheh
Chaya

ISBN: 978-1-934527-48-1
Text and illustration © 2012 Chaya Burstein. Published by Torah Aura Productions. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
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.Table of Contents.
Chapter 1: In the Beginning, A Quick Look at the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter 2: Trouble and Triumphs in Second Temple Times . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 3: Jews and Greeks Fight It Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Chapter 4: Rome Takes Over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 5: Tempers Boil in Israel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Chapter 6: The Great Revolt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter 7: Living By the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Chapter 8: Babylonia Takes the Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 9: Islam, the Desert Religion, Takes Over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chapter 10: Home Sweet(?) Home in Spain and North Africa . . . . . . . . . 64
Chapter 11: Life and Death in England, France and Germany . . . . . . . . . 72
Chapter 12: The Last Act in Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chapter 13: Desperate Escapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Chapter 14: Welcome (in Poland) and not so welcome (in Central Europe). 97
Chapter 15: Shadows and Lights in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Chapter 16: Giddy with Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Chapter 17: In Darkest Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Chapter 18: In Arab Lands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Chapter 19: To the Golden Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Chapter 20: Pogroms, Revolution and War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Chapter 21: Between Two Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Chapter 22: War and Holocaust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Chapter 23: Coming Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chapter 24: War, War and Growing Pains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Chapter 25: Jewish Americans/American Jews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Chapter 26: What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

iii
iv
 In the Beginning,
a Quick Look at the Bible

Why don’t you

try something
crunchier?

The story of Jewish history starts in the Torah

scroll that Jews read aloud in the synagogue. The
Torah, also called the five books of Moses, tells
about the creation of the world and the beginning
of the Jewish people. It ends with the arrival of the
Jews at the border of the land God has promised to
them, the land of Israel.

1
 HOLY MATH

Two more books of the Bible called Nevi’im Torah scroll

(Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings) continue the (Five Books of Moses)
story until the sad time when the Jews were
forced to leave their land and go into exile
in Babylonia. Ketuvim ends when some of the
Jewish people return to their land. +
Together, the Five Books of Moses, Nevi’im and
Ketuvim make up the tANAKH (also known as Nevi’im
the Bible). The Tanakh has been a guide that (Prophets)
holds the Jewish people together, comforts
them and inspires them on the amazing,
centuries-long journey that they travel. +
Ketuvim
(Writings)
=
Bible (Tanakh).

Five Book
Here’s a Timeline of Events Described in the Torah

s of Mos
In the
six day beginning t
es (Torah)
God crs of creation here w
e ere
a
earth, ed the he when
t
th av
and al e sun, moon ens, the …humans were driven
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…
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disobeyed God.
n ing
ble r ears
ecko
by Bi 000 y

…
on theand then,
agolmost 6,

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All thGod restedh day,
lived ine creature .
s
Eden rthe Gardenwho
A

ested, of
But la t
ter … oo.

2
 A Torah scroll dressed ed of as
ippaham ere w the and
up in a velvet mantle, r s h r h e m n em .
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3
 Here’s a
• •• ••
•
0 ibes of

Timeline
ut 1 1 0 r
Ab o w t
e nd ere
Hebr e la
The d in th ribes w

for Nevi’im
le t .
sett l. Manyjudges
ae y
Isr led b

and Ketuvim The t About 10

r 0
Saul. ibes unite 0 • •• •• •
king, D avid, I d under
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built on , the on d
a Tem Israel’s t kingdom .
of J ple h ir d
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at th h t -tim
922 • •• •• • el split e Tem gifts to G e
ple . od
e kin gd o m of Isra Samaria .
Th nd
: Judea a t
into two o kingdoms fought
The tw t, bu
dependen
to stay inas conquered by
Samaria w 722 • •• •• •
Assyria in
800’s t 60
Prophets o 0’s • •• •• •
kingdomsaarose in both
people that nd taught
mercy towa justice and
are more im rd each oth
p er
than gifts ortant to God
and
at the Temspacrifices 586 • •• •• •
le .
The Babylon
conquered ians
Jud
destroyed ea ,
the Temple
a
many Judea nd took
•• ns away
8 • •• •• rs ia int o e x il e.
About 450 • •• •• • to about 400 • •• •• • 53 f Pe d
C yr us o ylonia an n
Two Babylonian Jews named King red Bab to retur
ue s ild
Ezra and Nehemiah helped to conq wed Jew nd rebu
rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem allo Judea a emple. de
rs
and to renew the Jewish to their T r e lea and
d o
people’s covenant with God. we Go le t o
h ets ke to peop and t s
p o e u
Instead of reaching the end of Proho sp t th laws nero .
w ugh d’s d ge her
their history, the Jews found a ta y Go t an h ot
e
new beginning! ob e jus h eac
b itw

4
 Trouble and triumphs
in second temple times
T imel
ine 58
6 B.C.
E. to 3
Dat
e
Eve :

00 B.C.E
nts 58 6
:

.
• •• •
Firs ••
des t Tem
t p
Peo
ple wer royed le wa 538
e . s M
: B exi Jew any • •• •
Pro abylonled to s J ew
••
p
Eze hets ia . t o s r
Isra the et abou
kiel Jer
and emia el a Land urned t 450
– 400
Isa h, n
Jer d re f o In • •• ••
iah us b a g • about 400 • •• •• •
Cyr
us t alem . uilt reviv reat reli
king he G of J e a l the w gi o us Persian Je
of P reat
ers , rebu rusalem alls ws face
death and were d
ia i lt an were
stud d Tora saved.
y gre
Ezra w. h Esther, Mordecai,
and N Haman,
e h em
iah Ahasueros

On a summer day in
586 b.c.e., the
Babylonian army burned
the Jewish Temple to the ground
and tore apart the city of
Jerusalem. Some Jews were
forced into exile. The great
prophet Jeremiah fled to Egypt.
THE HEART OF JEWISH LIFE WAS
DESTROYED!

5
To a Strange Landd
Of course we’ll come
back home. We’re
God’s people. God
would never let us
die in exile.
Mama, will
we ever come
back home?

The Babylonians blinded King

Zedekiah of Judea and dragged
him to Babylonia along with
priests, merchants and other
leaders of Judea.

Ha! Are you kidding?

We defeated your God.
He’s a loser—a nothing. Your
God can’t help you. No way! That’s
God can’tnot true.
God left be a loser .
u
we disobes because
ye
Torah’s lad the
ws .

If I forget
Play us some music How can we sing Jerusalem let my
and sing some of the songs of Zion right hand forget
those Temple in a strange land? its skill.
songs. Come on—
Look alive!

6
Finally the exiles reached But there was one BIG problem.
Babylonia, the land of two great
rivers. They settled down and to
their surprise found that exile How will God hear us if we
wasn’t so bad. haven’t got a Temple and priests
and sacrifices?
Hey, Babylonia is okay.
There’s plenty of clay
and water to make Stop crying! God will
my pots. manage without our
sacrifices. The prophets
told us that God wants us
to pray and study Torah
and be honest and fair
with each other.

Good soil for my

garbanzo beans
and grass for
my goats.

So the Jews built meeting places (Batei Knesset) where they could
study Torah together and pray. Later these meeting places were
called synagogues. And they set up schools where their children
Plenty of studied.
customers to
buy all
my wares.
How come
none of the
Babylonian kids
have to learn We’re lucky.
Torah? We’re Jews.

Even in Babylonia there were Hebrew

prophets. They reminded the Jews to
follow the Torah’s laws and promised
that God would bring them back to
the Land of Israel. The prophet
Ezekiel said. . . The prophet Isaiah
You’ll see, if you’re sorry had a glowing vision.
for the bad things you’ve
done, God will give you a
new heart and a new spirit,
and you’ll rebuild the holy
Temple. Here’s what the
Temple will look like. . .

We’ll rebuild God’s

Temple and all the
people of the world will
come to worship with us.
Righteousness, peace and
happiness will fill
the world!

7
Almost fifty years after the Jews had been exiled to Babylonia a king called Cyrus the
Great marched down from Persia and conquered Babylonia.

Uh-oh! Now
what?

The new king, Cyrus, gave Some Jews were

permission to all the captive wildly happy.
peoples to go back home.

All you Some were

foreigners, not.
Jews too, go
home! You guys go
ahead. I’m a
little busy
right now.

I baked you
cookies for
the trip.

So, many Jews headed west across the

desert to Israel. And many others stayed
in Babylonia…which turned out to be a
good thing, as you’ll see in Chapter Eight.

Bye, have May God

fun. protect you.

We’ll
miss
you.

8
Home again…in Jerusalem a few months later..
Where’s
Jerusalem? Home at last!

Is this it?

You
must be
kidding…

Listen people, the prophets never

promised us a rose garden. We have to
work to clean up
the ruins and
build a new Fired up, everyone got
altar. Don’t be to work to rebuild
scared. God is the ruins.
with us!