The Jewish World Today

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world. The sacred text, the Hebrew Bible, teaches several doctrines - such as those about God, the Messiah, human beings, and the universe - making beliefs very important to Jews. Judaism has no official creed, however. It is important to understand that the term "Jewish" can be used very much to describe a race and a culture as opposed to just a religion, so some who identify themselves as Jewish may have little interest in the actual beliefs of Judaism

The first Jew in the world is said to have been Abraham, father of Isaac and Ishmael, the tenth generation from Noah and born in 2018BC, some 352 years after the Flood. However, there is nothing in the Bible that either confirms or denies this

The four main movements within Judaism are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist. Orthodoxy is the modern grouping for the traditional section of Jewry that upholds the Jewish Book of the Law or ‘Torah’ to the letter (although by varying degrees of religiousness, from ultra-Orthodox [typified by those who dress in black] to ‘abstainers’ who were born Orthodox); Reform Judaism (also known as Liberal or Progressive Judaism) subjects religious law and customs more to individual human judgment (they will happily drive to synagogue on the Sabbath day); Conservative Judaism, a twentieth century development as a reaction to Reform Judaism's liberalism; Reconstructionism is the most recent denomination within Judaism and it rejects the contention that the Torah was given to Moses on Mount Sinai during the Exodus

The Western Wall (in Hebrew, "Ha-Kotel Ha-Ma'aravi") in Jerusalem, built in Roman style by King Herod in 20 BC, is classed as the holiest of Jewish sites. It is so because it is a remnant of the Herodian retaining wall that once enclosed and supported the Second Temple. It is also called the "Wailing Wall" because for centuries Jews have gathered here to lament and pray for the loss of their temple and the loss of close ones. The Plaza in front of Western Wall Plaza serves as an open-air synagogue. Prayers take place here day and night, and special services, such as Bar Mitzvahs and Weddings are held here as well

The Jewish wedding ceremony ends when the groom steps on and breaks a glass. It is to serve a reminder that while a wedding is wonderful, as the bride and groom travel through life, not everything around them will always be joyous. It is also that Jewish people should remember the tragic destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

Because the Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle, each Jewish month begins with the new moon. This is called the Rosh Khodesh (Head of the Month). Rosh Khodesh was once a major holiday in biblical times, but was downgraded to a minor holiday after the Babylonian exile and is no longer generally recognised today. However, some extra lines acknowledging the new moon are inserted into some prayers in the synagogue service around the time of the new month

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a very important collection of some 981 texts that were discovered between 1946 and 1956 at Khirbet Qumran on the West Bank. They were found inside caves about a mile inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, hence their name. The texts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mainly on parchment but some are written on papyrus and bronze. They demonstrate that some Jewish traditions and customs are still with us today. They are housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israeli Museum, Jerusalem and include instructions on how to use the body-healing powers of the Dead Sea safely

There are some 118,000 Jewish residents living in Germany, according to the Federal Statistical Office with Berlin’s Jewish community being the largest in the country. The world's core Jewish population, as of the beginning of 2013, was estimated at just 13,854,800 (around only 0.2% of the world population). With a world Muslim population in excess of 1.6 billlion (23.2% of the world’s population) living in the 49 Muslim-majority countries throughout the world, this produces one of the key academic questions regarding the hostility towards the sole country in the world with a Jewish majority, Israel, with its mere 6.1 million Jewish inhabitants

Superman was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster who were high school students living in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1933; the character was sold to Detective Comics, Inc. (later DC Comics) in 1938. According to Lebanon’s Al-Manar (Hezbollah) TV in 2014, Jews seek to rule public opinion in the US through the invention of movie characters such as Superman. However, Lebanon gained its independence from France in 1943, some 10 years after the appearance of Superman. [Lady Gaga, by the way, is a Roman Catholic]

The Jewish lunar year does have twelve months, but these are of either 29 or 30 days each, which results in a 354-day year. To ensure the same Jewish festivals fall in the same season every year, an additional month (called 'Adar II') is added seven times in every nineteen years to make up the difference