:: wikimiki.org ::

Bahrain/People

Bahrain/People

Most of the population of Bahrain is concentrated in the two principal cities, Manama and Al Muharraq. The indigenous people—66 percent of the population—are from the Arabian Peninsulaand Iran. The most numerous minorities are Europeans and South and East Asians. Islam is the official religion. Though Shi'a Muslims make up more than two-thirds of the population, Sunni Islam is the prevailing belief held by those in the government, military, and corporate sectors. Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, as well as a tiny indigenous Jewish community, also exist in Bahrain. Bahrain has traditionally boasted an advanced educational system. Schooling and related costs are entirely paid for by the government, and, although not compulsory, primary and secondary attendance rates are high. Bahrain also encourages institutions of higher learning, drawing on expatriate talent and the increasing pool of Bahrainis returning from abroad with advanced degrees. Bahrain University has been established for standard undergraduate and graduate study, and the College of Health Sciences--operating under the direction of the Ministry of Health--trains physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and paramedics.

Demographic data from the CIA World Factbook

Population

:688,345 :Note: Includes 235,108 non-nationals (July 2005 est.)

Age structure

:0-14 years: 27.8% (male 96,807/female 94,863) :15-64 years: 68.7% (male 275,792/female 197,424) :65 years and over: 3.4% (male 12,078/female 11,381) (2005 est.)

Median age

:Total: 29.19 years :Male: 32.16 years :Female: 25.54 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate

:1.51% (2005 est.)

Birth rate

:18.1 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate

:4.08 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate

:1.04 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Sex ratio

:At birth: 1.03 male(s)/female :Under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female :15-64 years: 1.4 male(s)/female :65 years and over: 1.06 male(s)/female :Total population: 1.27 male(s)/female (2005 est.)

Infant mortality rate

:Total: 17.27 deaths/1,000 live births :Male: 20.17 deaths/1,000 live births :Female: 14.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

:Total population: 74.23 years :Male: 71.76 years :Female: 76.78 years (2005 est.)

Total fertility rate

:2.63 children born/woman (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS

:Adult prevalence rate: 0.2% (2001 est.) :People living with HIV/AIDS: Less than 600 (2003 est.) :Deaths: Less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality

:Noun: Bahraini(s) :Adjective: Bahraini

Ethnic groups

:Bahraini 63% (Many Persian origin), Asian 19%, Arabs from other countries 10%, Iranian 8%

Religions

:Shi'a Muslim 70%, Sunni Muslim 30%

Languages

:Arabic, English, Persian, Urdu

Literacy

:Definition: age 15 and over can read and write :Total population: 89.1% :Male: 91.9% :Female: 85% (2003 est.)

References

and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website. Bahrain Category:Bahrain

Bahrain

The Kingdom of Bahrain, or Bahrain (formerly spelled Bahrein), (Arabic: مملكة البحرين) is a borderless island nation in the Persian Gulf (Southwest Asia/Middle East, Asia). Saudi Arabia lies to the west and is connected to Bahrain by the King Fahd Causeway (officially opened on November 25, 1986), and Qatar is to the south across the Persian Gulf. The Qatar–Bahrain Friendship Bridge, currently being planned, will link Bahrain to Qatar as the longest fixed link in the world.

History

Bahrain has been populated by humans since prehistoric times, and has even been proposed as the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden. Its strategic location in the Persian Gulf has brought rule and influence from the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, and finally the Arabs, under whom the island became Muslim. Bahrain was in the ancient times known as Dilmun, Tylos (its Greek given name), Awal, as well as Persian name Mishmahig when it came under of the imperial rule of the Persian Empire. The islands of Bahrain, positioned in the middle south of the Persian Gulf, have attracted the attention of many invaders in history. Bahrain, meaning "Two Seas" refers to the fact that the islands contain the two sources of water, sweet water springs and salty water in the surrounding seas. A strategic position between East and West, fertile lands, fresh water, and pearl diving made Bahrain a centre of urban settlement throughout history. Some 2300 years BC, Bahrain became a centre of one of the ancient empires trading between Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and the Indus Valley (now the region near India). This was the civilization of Delmon that was linked to the Sumerian Civilization in the third millennium BC. Bahrain became part of the Babylonian empire about 600 BC. Historical records referred to Bahrain as the "Life of Eternity", "Paradise", etc. Bahrain was also called the "Pearl of the Persian Gulf". Bahrain up until 1521 comprised the bigger region of Ahsa, Qatif (both are now the eastern province of Saudi Arabia) as well as Awal (now Bahrain Islands). The region stretched from what is now Kuwait to Oman. This was Iqlim Al-Bahrain (Province of Bahrain). In 1521, the Portuguese separated Awal (now Bahrain) from the rest and since then the name of Bahrain specifically referred to today's Bahrain. Portuguese rule was followed by a period of control by the Persian Empire. In the late 18th Century the Al-Khalifa family invaded and captured the islands. In order to secure Bahrain from Persian expansionism to the East, the Emirate entered into a treaty relationship with Britain. Oil was discovered in 1932 and brought rapid modernization and improvements to Bahrain. It also made relations with Britain closer, and this was evidenced by the British moving more bases to the island nation. British influence would continue to grow as the country developed, culminating with the appointment of Charles Belgrave as an advisor; Belgrave established modern education systems in Bahrain. After World War II, increasing anti-British feeling spread throughout the Arab world and led to riots in Bahrain. In the 1960s, Britain put Bahrain's future to international arbitration and requested that the United Nations General Secretary take on this responsibility. In a plebiscite to decide the country's future, the majority of the population voted for independence and chose to reject the Iranian Shah's long held claims to the country. The British withdrew from Bahrain in August 1971, making it an independent emirate. The oil boom of the 1980s greatly benefitted Bahrain, but its downturn was not as badly felt, and the economy was forced to diversify. After 1979, Iran sought to export its revolution to the region, and in 1981 orchestrated a failed coup attempt under the auspices of a front organisation, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. The coup would have installed an Iranian based cleric, Hojjat ol-Eslam Hadi al-Modarresi, as supreme leader heading a theocratic government. In 1994 occurred a wave of rioting by disaffected Shi'a Islamists due to what they perceived as injust actions by the government. The Kingdom was badly affected by sporadic violence during the mid-1990s in which over forty people were killed. In March 1999, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa succeeded his father as head of state and instituted elections for parliament, gave women the right to vote and released all political prisoners. This provided the country with a great chance to move forward, and to unite its people.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Bahrain Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy headed by the King, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; the head of government is the Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa who presides over a cabinet of 15 members. Bahrain has a bicameral legislature with a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, elected by universal suffrage and the upper house, the Shura Council, appointed by the King. Both houses have forty members. The inaugural elections were held in 2002, with parliamentarians serving four year terms. Women's political rights in Bahrain saw an important step forward when women were granted the right to vote and stand in national elections for the first time in 2002's election. However, no women were elected to office in that year’s polls and instead Shia and Sunni Islamists dominated the election, collectively winning a majority of seats. In response to the failure of women candidates, six were appointed to the Shura Council, which also includes representatives of the Kingdom’s indigenous Jewish and Christian communities. The King recently created the Supreme Judicial Council to regulate the country's courts and institutionalize the separation of the administrative and judicial branches of government. On 11-12 November 2005, Bahrain hosted the Forum for the Future bringing together leaders from the Middle East and G8 countries to discuss political and economic reform in the region.

Governorates

Forum for the Future Main article: Governorates of Bahrain Bahrain is split into five governorates. Until July 3 2002, it was divided into twelve municipalities; see Municipalities of Bahrain. #Capital #Central #Muharraq #Northern #Southern For further information, see: [http://www.capital.gov.bh/pages/pdf/govlawe.pdf Decree-Law establishing governorates] from the Bahrain official website

Economy

Main article: Economy of Bahrain In Bahrain, petroleum production and processing account for about 60% of export receipts, 60% of government revenues, and 30% of GDP. Economic conditions have fluctuated with the changing fortunes of oil since 1985, for example, during and following the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990-91. With its highly developed communication and transport facilities, Bahrain is home to numerous multinational firms with business in the Persian Gulf. A large share of exports consists of petroleum products made from imported crude. Construction proceeds on several major industrial projects. Unemployment, especially among the young, and the depletion of both oil and underground water resources are major long-term economic problems.

Geography

Persian Gulf :Main article: Geography of Bahrain Bahrain is a generally flat and arid archipelago, comprising of a low desert plain rising gently to a low central escarpment, in the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia. The highest point is the 122m Jabal ad Dukhan. Considered to be one of the fifteen states that comprise the so-called "Cradle of Humanity" in the Middle East, Bahrain has a total area of 620 km², which is slightly larger than the Isle of Man, though it is smaller than the nearby King Fahd Airport in Dammam Saudi Arabia which boasts an incredible 780 km². As an archipelago of 33 islands, Bahrain does not share a land boundary with another country but does have a 161 km coastline and claims a further 12 nm of territorial sea and a 24 nm contiguous zone. Bahrain enjoys mild winters and endures very hot, humid summers. Bahrain's natural resources include large quantities of oil and associated and nonassociated natural gas as well as fish stocks, which is perhaps fortunate as arable land constitutes only 1% of the country. Desert constitutes 92% of Bahrain and periodic droughts and dust storms are the main natural hazards for Bahrainis. Environmental issues facing Bahrain include desertification resulting from the degradation of limited arable land and coastal degradation (damage to coastlines, coral reefs, and sea vegetation) resulting from oil spills and other discharges from large tankers, oil refineries, and distribution stations. Over-ion of the Dammam aquifer, the principal aquifer in Bahrain, by the agricultural and domestic sectors, has led to its salinization by adjacent brackish and saline water bodies.

Demographics

Dammam aquifer Main article: Demographics of Bahrain The official religion of Bahrain is Islam, with the population overwhelmingly comprised of Shi'a (70%) and Sunni Muslims (30%), but there are also small indigenous Jewish and Christian minorities. Most Bahrainis are of Arab origin, although some tribes trace their roots back to Persia. Nowadays Bahrain is a cosmopolitan society with mixed communities: two thirds of Bahrain's population consists of Arabs while the rest are immigrants and guest workers that are largely from Iran, South Asia and Southeast Asia. A Financial Times published on 31 May 1983 found that "Bahrain is a polyglot state, both religiously and racially. Leaving aside the temporary immigrants of the past 10 years, there are at least eight or nine communities on the island". The present communities may be classified as Al-Khalifa, Arab tribes allied to Al-Khalifa, the Baharnah (Shia Arabs), the Howilla (Sunni Arabs from Persia), Sunni Arabs (from the mainland), Ajam (Persian Shia), Indians who traded with Bahrain and settled before the age of oil (used to be called Banyan), a tiny Jewish community, and a miscellaneous grouping.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Bahrain As flashy and modern as central Manama may be, the basic rhythms of life in the island's many villages (and in parts of Manama itself) remain remarkably traditional. By the same token, where there's tradition in the Persian Gulf there's Islamic conservatism: women cover themselves from head to foot and women travellers are expected to wear long skirts and one-piece bathing suits. Bahrain's population is 85% Muslim and Islam is the state religion. Arabic is the official language but English is widely spoken. Traditional craftwork continues in several places around Bahrain: dhows (fishing boats) are built on the outskirts of Manama and Muharraq, cloth woven at Bani Jamrah and pottery thrown at A'ali. A few goldsmiths still operate in the Manama souk, though a lot of the work is now done abroad. One of the mainstays of Bahraini culture is the drinking of traditional Arabian coffee. You can't go far without finding a coffee pot in a shop or a souk. Traditional Arabian street food like shawarma (lamb or chicken carved from a huge rotating spit and served in pita bread) and desserts such as baklava are also ubiquitous. It was revealed on October 20, 2005 that Michael Jackson intended on permanently leaving the United States in order to seek a new life in Bahrain.

Formula One

Bahrain is the home of Formula One racing in the Middle East, hosting the Bahrain Grand Prix. In 2005, it was held on April 4. Bahrain has been chosen to host the opening Grand Prix of the 2006 season on March 12th.

Holidays

Tourism

Main articles, Tourism in Bahrain and List of Bahrain's tourist attractions Bahrain has long been a popular tourist destination for visitors from neighboring states, but growing awareness of its rich heritage dating back five thousand years to the Dilmun civilization means that the Kingdom is steadily attracting visitors from further abroad. Bahrain combines a modern infrastructure and comparatively liberal society with an authentic Gulf experience making it an ideal introduction to the Middle East. Tourist attractions include historic sites such as the recently UNESCO listed Qalat Al Bahrain castle and archaeological complex, the tens of thousands of ancient Dilmun Burial Mounds that dot the landscape, traditional Arab culture, shopping in the Kingdom's malls and souks, and the opportunity to relax in the many hotel beach resorts and luxury spas.

Education

Main article: Education in Bahrain Numerous international educational institutions and schools have established links to Bahrain. One prominent school is DePaul University of the United States. Quranic schools (Kuttab) were the only form of education in Bahrain at the beginning of the 20th century. They were traditional schools aimed at teaching children and youth the reading of the Holy Quran. Many people of Bahrain had felt that this type of education did not fulfil the academic efficiency that match with the spirit of age. After the First World War, things have been changed and Bahrain became widely open upon the modern western renaissance. Political and social changes have occurred in the country that caused the rise of social and cultural awareness among people. Due to all these, a demand for modern educational institutions different from (Kuttab) has appeared in terms of system, curricula and objectives. 1919 marked the beginning of modern public school system in Bahrain. Al-Hidaya Al-Khalifia school for boys was opened in Muharraq. In 1926, the Education Committee had opened the second public school for boys in Manama. In 1928 the first public school for girls was opened in Muharraq. The first institution of higher education in Bahrain, the Gulf Polytechnic, was accomplished in 1968 as the Gulf Technical College. In 1986 Gulf Polytechnic merged with the University College of Art, Science, and Education (UCB), founded in 1979, to create the University of Bahrain, a national university offering bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees.

External links

Government'
- [http://www.bahrain.gov.bh/english/index.asp Bahrain Government ] official web site General information
- [http://bahrainblogs.com/ Bahrain Blogs.com - Aggregator for all Bahraini blogs]
- [http://www.bna.bh/ Bahrain News Agency] [http://english.bna.bh/ in English]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ba.html CIA World Factbook - Bahrain]
- [http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/ Gulf Daily News - Bahrain's main English language daily newspaper]
- [http://www.hotels-bahrain.com/travel_info.html Hotels Bahrain Travel Destination]
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Middle_East/Bahrain Open Directory Project - Bahrain] directory category
- [http://ixpats.com/bh iXpats.com - Bahrain] Online community for expats living and working in Bahrain
- [http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c3219.htm US State Department - Bahrain] includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports Category:Arabia
- Category:Arab League Category:Persian Gulf states Category:Middle Eastern countries Category:Southwest Asian countries Category:Monarchies Category:Island nations Category:Arab Gulf states zh-min-nan:Bahrain ko:바레인 ms:Bahrain ja:バーレーン simple:Bahrain th:ประเทศบาห์เรน

Manama

Manama (Arabic: المنامة Al-Manāmah) is the capital city of Bahrain and is the country's largest city with a population of approximately 155,000, roughly a quarter of country's entire population. Manama is located at . Manama was mentioned in Islamic chronicles at least as far back as 1345. It was conquered by the Portuguese in 1521 and then by the Persians in 1602. It has been held, with brief interruptions, by the ruling Al-Khalifa dynasty since 1783. Manama was declared a free port in 1958, and in 1971 became the capital of independent Bahrain. The economic base for Manama is financial services, with over two hundred financial institutions and banks based in the Diplomatic Area. There is also a large retail sector in the shopping malls around Seef, while the centre of Manama is dominated by small workshops and traders. Manama is served by Bahrain International Airport on the nearby island of Al Muharraq, to which it is connected with a causeway. Manama also is home to the American Mission Hospital, founded in 1893. Al Manamah was also one of the twelve municipalities of Bahrain, and it is now in the Capital Governorate.

Adliya

Adliya is the bohemian quarter of Manama, with many of the old traditional houses being turned into art galleries, cafes and chic restaurants.

Diplomatic Area

The Diplomatic Area is Manama's financial district, housing hundreds of banks, investment firms and Takaful societies that serve the entire Gulf. It is mainly comprised of office blocks and government buildings, although it does include [http://www.beitalquran.com/main.htm Beit Al Quran].

Gudabiya

An older part of the capital, Gudabiya is a highly cosmopolitan area and home to many new arrivals in the Kingdom, as well as government offices including parliament.

Juffair

Juffair is built on a massive land reclaimation scheme which has extended Bahrain's coastline two kilometres to the east. The area is the site of frenetic building activity, with dozens of new apartment buildings and hotels constructed each year. Most of those who live in the area are well to do foreigners or upwardly mobile young Bahrainis. It is also the site of Bahrain's largest mosque, the huge domed Al Fateh Mosque, and will soon house the new national library which is due to open in 2006.

Seef

Surrounded on three sides by the sea, Seef is new zone of reclaimed land comprised of luxury apartments, five star hotels and shopping malls including the Kingdom's largest and most popular, [http://www.seef.net/ Seef Mall]. Rents are reportedly the highest in the entire country.

More information

- [http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/464590 A bit about life in Adliya, A westerner's perspective of living in Adliya]

Notes and References

# Category:Cities in Bahrain Category:Coastal cities Category:Capitals in Asia als:Manama ko:마나마 ms:Manama ja:マナーマ

Arabian Peninsula

:For other meanings, see Arabia (disambiguation). Arabia (disambiguation) The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. The coastal limits of the peninsula are: on the (south)west, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba; on the south(eastern) coast, the Arabian Sea (part of the Indian Ocean); and on the northeast, the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Persian Gulf. Its northern limit is defined by the Zagros collision zone, a mountainous uplift where a continental collision between the Arabian plate and Asia is occurring. Geographically, it merges with the Syrian Desert with no clear line of demarcation. Politically, the Arabian peninsula is separated from the rest of Asia by the northern borders of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The following countries are considered part of the peninsula:
- Bahrain - technically an island just off the coast of the Peninsula
- Kuwait
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates
- Yemen With the exception of Yemen, these countries (called the Arab Gulf states) are among the wealthiest in the world in relation to their small populations. The country of Saudi Arabia covers the greater part of the Peninsula. The majority of the population of the peninsula lives in Saudi Arabia and in Yemen. The peninsula contains the world's largest reserves of oil and is home to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, both of which are in Saudi Arabia. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a small peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the famous Arabic language television station Al-Jazeera. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq and claimed as an Iraqi province, was invaded by Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War and is an important country strategically, forming one of the main staging grounds for coalition forces to mount the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Geologically, this region is more appropriately called the Arabian subcontinent because it lies on a tectonic plate of its own, the Arabian Plate, which has been moving incrementally away from northeast Africa (forming the Red Sea) and north into the Eurasian plate (forming the Zagros mountains). The rocks exposed vary systematically across Arabia, with the oldest rocks exposed in the Arabian-Nubian Shield near the Red Sea, overlain by younger sediments that become younger towards the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the best-preserved ophiolite on Earth, Semail ophiolite, lies exposed in the mountains of the UAE and northern Oman. The peninsula is thought to have been the original homeland of the Proto-Semitic peoples, ancestors of all the Semitic peoples in the region - the Akkadians, Arabs, Assyrians, Hebrews, etc. Linguistically, the Peninsula was the cradle of the Arabic language (spread beyond the Peninsula along with the Islamic religion during the Islamic expansion beginning in the 7th century AD) and still maintains tiny populations of speakers of South Semitic languages such as Mehri and Shehri, remnants of a language family that held greater importance in earlier historical periods when the kingdom of Sheba flourished in the southern part of the peninsula (modern-day Yemen and Oman). Geographically, the peninsula consists of: # a central plateau with pastures for sheep and other livestock and fertile valleys # a range of deserts, the Nefud in the north, stony; the Rub' Al-Khali or Great Arabian Desert, a perfect Sahara, in the south, with sand estimated to extend 600 ft. below the surface; and the Dahna in between # stretches of dry or marshy coastland with coral reefs on the Red Sea side # ranges of mountains, primarily paralleling the Red Sea on the west (e.g. Asir province) and southeastern end (Oman). The highest, Jabal Al-Nabi Sho'aib in Yemen, is 3666 m high. Arabia has no lakes or permanent rivers, only wadis, which are dry except during the brief rainy season. Plentiful ancient aquifers exist beneath much of the peninsula, however, and where this water surfaces, oases form (e.g. the Al-Hasa and Qatif oases) and permit agriculture. The climate being extremely hot and arid, the peninsula has no forests, alhtough desert-adapted wildlife is present throughout the region.

Jew

The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי transliterated: Yehudi) is used in many ways, but generally refers to a follower of Judaism, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for a consideration of Jewish religion, please refer to Judaism. Most Jews regard themselves as a people, members of a nation, descended from the ancient Israelites and converts who joined their religion at various times and places. The Hebrew name Yehudi (plural Yehudim) came into being when the Kingdom of Israel was split between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. The term originally referred to the people of the southern kingdom, although the term Bnei Yisrael (Israelites) was still used for both groups. After the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom leaving the southern kingdom as the only Israelite state, the word Yehudim gradually came to refer to people of the Jewish faith as a whole, rather than those specifically from Judah. The English word Jew is ultimately derived from Yehudi (see Etymology). Its first use in the Bible to refer to the Jewish people as a whole is in the Book of Esther. In modern usage, Jews include both those Jews actively practicing Judaism, and those Jews who, while not practicing Judaism as a religion, still identify themselves as Jews by virtue of their family's Jewish heritage and their own cultural identification. Usage note: The word "Jew" is a noun. Its use as an adjective (e.g. "Jew lawyer") is widely considered offensive; "Jewish" is strongly preferred. Its use as a verb (e.g. "to jew someone") is also considered offensive. However, some sources, such as the American Heritage Dictionary, suggest that phrases like "Jewish person" may be offensive if pointedly used to avoid the word "Jew".

Etymology

There are different views as to the origin of the English language word Jew. The most common view is that the Middle English word Jew is from the Old French giu, earlier juieu, from the Latin iudeus from the Greek Ioudaios (Ιουδαίος). The Latin simply means Judaean, from the land of Judaea. The Hebrew for Jew, יהודי , is pronounced ye-hoo-DEE. The Hebrew letter Yodh (or Yud), י, used as a 'y' in the Hebrew language (as in the word ye-hoo-DEE), becomes a 'j' in languages using the Latin-based alphabet when the Yodh is used as a consonant rather than as a vowel. Therefore, a rough transliteration of יהודי in English would be Jew. The etymological equivalent is in use in other languages, e.g., "Jude" in German, "jøde," in Norwegian, etc., but derivations of the word "Hebrew" is also in use to describe a Jewish person, e.g., in Italian (Ebrei) and , (Yevrey). (See Names of the Jewish people for a full overview.)

Who is a Jew?

Names of the Jewish people. (1878 painting by Maurice Gottlieb)]] Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion, and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used. For discussions of the religious views on who is a Jew and how these views differ from each other, please see Who is a Jew?. Generally, in modern secular usage, Jews include three groups: people who practice Judaism and have a Jewish ethnic background (sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent), people without Jewish parents who have converted to Judaism; and those Jews who, while not practicing Judaism as a religion, still identify themselves as Jewish by virtue of their family's Jewish descent and their own cultural and historical identification with the Jewish people. Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based on Halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halachic conversions. Historical definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the oral traditon into the Babylonian Talmud. Biblical interpertations of sections in the Tanach, such as Deuteronomy 7:1-5, by learned Jewish sages, is used as a warning against intermarriage between of Jews and non Jews because "[the non-Jewish male spouse] will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods of others." Leviticus 24:10 speaks of the son in a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an Egyptian man to be "of the community of Israel.", which contrasts with Ezra 10:2-3, where Israelites returning from Egypt, vowed to put aside their gentile wives and their children. Since the Haskalah, these halakhic interpertations of Jewish identity have been challenged.

Jewish culture

Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life," which has made drawing a clear distinction between Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish nationality rather difficult. In many times and places, such as in the ancient Hellenic world, in Europe before and after the Enlightenment (see Haskalah), and in contemporary United States and Israel, cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews with others around them, others from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community, as opposed to religion itself.

Ethnic divisions

The most commonly used terms to describe ethnic divisions among Jews currently are: Ashkenazi (meaning "German" in Hebrew, denoting the Central European base of Jewry); and Sephardi (meaning "Spanish" or "Iberia" in Hebrew, denoting their Spanish, Portuguese and North African location). They refer to both religious and ethnic divisions. Other Jewish ethnic groups include Mizrahi Jews (a term overlapping Sephardi, but emphasizing North African and Middle Eastern rather than Spanish history, and including the Maghrebim); Teimanim (Yemenite and Omani Jews); and such smaller groups as the Gruzim and Juhurim from the Caucasus, the Bene Israel, Bnei Menashe, Cochin and Telugu Jews of India, the Romaniotes of Greece, the Italkim (Bené Roma) of Italy, various African Jews (most notably the Beta Israel or Ethiopian Jews), the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia, and the Persian Jews of Iran.

Population

Prior to World War II the world population of Jews was approximately 18 million. The Holocaust reduced this number to approximately 12 million. Today, there are an estimated 13 million to 14.6 million Jews worldwide in over 134 countries.

Significant geographic populations

Please note that these populations represent low-end estimates of the worldwide Jewish population, accounting for around 0.2% of the world's population. Higher estimates place the worldwide Jewish population at over 14.5 million.

State of Israel

world's population (Shown standing between the two banners)]] Israel, the Jewish nation-state, is the only country in which Jews make up a majority of the citizens, although the United States has a larger number of Jews. It was established as an independent democratic state on May 14, 1948. Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset, 9 members are Israeli Arabs and 2 are Israeli Druses. At the time of its independence, approximately 600,000 Jews lived in Israel. Since then, the country's Jewish population has increased by about one million over each decade as more immigrants arrived and more Israelis were born, resulting in one of the most significant global Jewish population shifts in over 2,000 years. All the Arab Israeli Wars have not slowed Israel's growth. Israel opened its doors to the Holocaust survivors. It has absorbed a majority of the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews from the Islamic countries. It has taken in hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former USSR, and has airlifted tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jewsto Israel. In the past decade nearly a million immigrants came to Israel from the former Soviet Union. Many Jews who emigrated to Israel have moved elsewhere, known as yerida ("descent" [from the Holy Land]), due to its economic problems or due to disillusionment with political conditions and the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Diaspora (outside Israel)

The waves of immigration to the United States at the turn of the 19th century, massacre of European Jewry during the Holocaust, and the foundation of the state of Israel (and subsequent Jewish exodus from Arab lands) all resulted in substantial shifts in the population centers of world Jewry during the 20th century. Jewish exodus from Arab lands of the Russian Empire to the safety of the US from 1881-1924.]] Currently, the largest Jewish community in the world is located in the United States, with around 5.6 million Jews. Elsewhere in the Americas, there are also large Jewish populations in Canada and Argentina, and smaller populations in Brazil, Mexico , Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, and several other countries (see History of the Jews in Latin America). Western Europe's largest Jewish community can be found in France, home to 600,000 Jews, the majority of whom are immigrants or refugees from North African Arab countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (or their descendants). There are over 265,000 Jews in the United Kingdom. In Eastern Europe, there are anywhere from 500,000 to over two million Jews living in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Belarus and the other areas once dominated by the Soviet Union, but exact figures are difficult to establish. The fastest-growing Jewish community in the world, outside Israel, is the one in Germany, especially in Berlin, its capital. Tens of thousands of Jews from the former Eastern Bloc have settled in Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East were home to around 900,000 Jews in 1945. Systematic persecution after the founding of Israel caused almost all of these Jews to flee to Israel, North America, and Europe in the 1950s. Today, around 8,000 Jews remain in Arab nations. Iran is home to around 25,000 Jews, down from a population of 100,000 Jews before the 1979 revolution. After the revolution some of the Iranian Jews emigrated to Israel or Europe but most of them emigrated (with their non-Jewish Iranian compatriots) to the United States (especially Los Angeles). Outside Europe, Asia and the Americas, significant Jewish populations exist in Australia and South Africa.

Population changes: Assimilation

Since at least the time of the ancient Greeks, a proportion of Jews have assimilated into the wider non-Jewish society around them, by either choice or force, ceasing to practice Judaism and losing their Jewish identity. Some Jewish communities, for example the Kaifeng Jews of China, have disappeared entirely, but assimilation has remained relatively low over much of the past millenium, as Jews were often not allowed to integrate with the wider communities in which they lived. The advent of the Jewish Enlightenment (see Haskalah) of the 1700s and the subsequent emancipation of the Jewish populations of Europe and America in the 1800s, changed the situation, allowing Jews to increasingly participate in, and become part of, secular society. The result has been a growing trend of assimilation, as Jews marry non-Jewish spouses and stop participating in the Jewish community. Rates of interreligious marriage vary widely: In the United States they are just under 50%, in the United Kingdom around 50%, and in Australia and Mexico as low as 10%, and in France they may be as high as 75%. In the United States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate themselves with Jewish practice. Additionally, since non-religious Jews generally tend to marry later and have fewer children than the general population, the Jewish community in many countries is aging. The result is that most countries in the Diaspora have steady or slightly declining Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the countries in which they live.

Population changes: Wars against the Jews

Diaspora Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations, or sought to eliminate them entirely. Methods employed have ranged from expulsion to outright genocide; within nations, often the threat of these extreme methods was sufficient to silence dissent. Some examples in the history of anti-Semitism are: the Great Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire; the First Crusade which resulted in the massacre of Jews; the Spanish Inquisition led by Torquamada and the Auto de fe against the Marrano Jews; the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres in Ukraine; the Pogroms backed by the Russian Tsars; as well as expulsions from Spain, England, France, Germany, and other countries in which the Jews had settled. The persecution culminated in Adolf Hitler's Final Solution which led to the Holocaust, and the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jews from 1939 to 1945.

Population changes: Growth

Israel is the only country with a consistently growing Jewish population due to natural population increase, though the Jewish populations of other countries in Europe and North America have recently increased due to immigration. In the Diaspora, in almost every country the Jewish population in general is either declining or steady, but Orthodox and Haredi Jewish communities, whose members often shun birth control for religious reasons, have experienced rapid population growth, with rates near 4% per year for Haredi Jews in Israel, and similar rates in other countries. Orthodox and Conservative Judaism discourage proselytization to non-Jews, but many Jewish groups have tried to reach out to the assimilated Jewish communities of the Diaspora in order to increase the number of Jews. Additionally, while in principle Reform Judaism favors seeking new members for the faith, this position has not translated into active proselytism, instead taking the form of an effort to reach out to non-Jewish spouses of intermarried couples. There is also a trend of Orthodox movements pursuing secular Jews in order to give them a stronger Jewish identity so there is less chance of intermarriage. As a result of the efforts by these and other Jewish groups over the past twenty-five years, there has been a trend of secular Jews becoming more religiously observant, known as the Baal Teshuva movement, though the demographic implications of the trend are unknown. Additionally, there is also a growing movement of Jews by Choice by gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews.

Jewish languages

Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed lashon ha-kodesh, "the holy tongue"), and is the language of the State of Israel. It was revived by Eliezer ben Yehuda, who arrived in Palestine in 1881 at a time when no one spoke the Hebrew language. Diaspora Jews (outside Israel) today speak the local languages of their respective countries. Yiddish is the historic language of many Ashkenazi Jews, and Ladino of many Sephardic Jews.

History of the Jews

:See also: Historical Schisms among the Jews

Jews and migrations

Historical Schisms among the Jews Throughout Jewish history, Jews have repeatedly been directly or indirectly expelled from both their original homeland, and the areas in which they have resided. This experience as both immigrants and emigrants (see: Jewish refugees) have shaped Jewish identity and religious practice in many ways. An incomplete list of such migrations includes:
- The patriarch Abraham was a migrant to the land of Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees.
- The Children of Israel experienced the Exodus (meaning "departure" or "going forth" in Greek) from ancient Egypt, as recorded in the Book of Exodus.
- The Kingdom of Israel was sent into permanent exile and scattered all over the world by Assyria.
- The Kingdom of Judah was exiled first by Babylonia and then by Rome.
- The 2,000 year dispersion of the Jewish diaspora beginning under the Roman Empire, as Jews were spread throughout the Roman world and, driven from land to land, and settled wherever they could live freely enough to practice their religion. Over the course of the diaspora the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia to Spain to Poland to United States and to Israel.
- Many expulsions during the Middle Ages and Enlightenment in Europe, including: 1290, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England; in 1396, 100,000 from France; in 1421 thousands were expelled from Austria. Many of these Jews settled in Eastern Europe, especially Poland.
- Following the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, the Spanish population of around 200,000 Sephardic Jews were expelled by the Spanish crown and Catholic church, followed by expulsions in 1493 in Sicily (37,000 Jews) and Portugal in 1496. The expelled Jews fled mainly to the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and North Africa, others migrating to Southern Europe and the Middle East.
- During the 19th century, France's policies of equal citizenship regardless of religion led to the immigration of Jews (especially from Eastern and Central Europe), which was encouraged by Napoleon Bonaparte.
- The arrival of millions of Jews in the New World, including immigration of over 1,000,000 Eastern European Jews to the United States from 1890-1925, see History of the Jews in the United States.
- The Pogroms in Eastern Europe, the rise of modern Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and the rise of Arab nationalism all served to fuel the movements and migrations of huge segments of Jewry from land to land and continent to continent, until they have now arrived back in large numbers at their original historical homeland in Israel.
- The Islamic Revolution of Iran, forced many Iranian Jews to flee Iran. Most found refuge in the US (particularly Los Angeles, CA) and Israel. Smaller communities of Persian Jews exist in Canada and Western Europe.

Kingdoms of Israel and Judah

Persian Jews)]] Jews descend mostly from the ancient Israelites (also known as Hebrews), who settled in the Land of Israel. The Israelites traced their common lineage to the biblical patriarch Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. A kingdom was established under Saul and continued under King David and Solomon. King David conquered Jerusalem (first a Canaanite, then a Jebusite town) and made it his capital. After Solomon's reign the nation split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah (in the south). The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian ruler Shalmaneser V in the 8th century BC and spread all over the Assyrian empire, where they were assimilated into other cultures and become known as the Ten Lost Tribes. The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by a Babylonian army in the early 6th century BC, destroying the First Temple that was at the centre of Jewish worship. The Judean elite was exiled to Babylonia, but later at least a part of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylonia by the Persians seventy years later, a period known as the Babylonian Captivity. A new Second Temple was constructed, and old religious practices were resumed.

Persian, Greek, and Roman rule

:See related article Jewish-Roman wars. The Seleucid Kingdom, which arose after the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great, sought to introduce Greek culture into the Persian world. When the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, supported by Hellenized Jews (those who had adopted Greek culture), attempted to convert the Jewish Temple to a temple of Zeus, the non-Hellenized Jews revolted under the leadership of the Maccabees and rededicated the Temple to the Jewish God (hence the origins of Hanukkah) and created an independent Jewish kingdom known as the Hasmonaean Kingdom which lasted from 165 BCE to 63 BCE, when the kingdom came under influence of the Roman Empire. During the early part of Roman rule, the Hasmonaeans remained in power, until the family was annihilated by Herod the Great. Herod came from a wealthy Idumean family and became a very successful client-king under the Romans. He significantly expanded the Temple in Jerusalem. Upon his death in 4 BCE the Romans directly ruled Judea and there were frequent changes of policies by conflicting and empire-building Caesars, generals, governors, and consuls who often acted cruelly or to maximize their own wealth and power. Rome's attitudes swung from tolerance to hostility against its Jewish subjects, who had since moved throughout the Empire. The Romans, worshipping a large pantheon, could not readily accommodate the exclusive monotheism of Judaism, and the religious Jews could not accept Roman polytheism. After a famine and riots in 66 CE, the Judeans began to revolt against their Roman rulers. The revolt was smashed by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus Flavius. In Rome the Arch of Titus still stands, showing enslaved Judeans and a menorah being brought to Rome. It is customary for Jews not to walk through this arch. menorah The Romans all but destroyed Jerusalem; only a single "Western Wall" of the Second Temple remained. After the end of this first revolt, the Judeans continued to live in their land in significant numbers, and were allowed to practice their religion. In the second century the Roman Emperor Hadrian began to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city while restricting some Jewish practices. Angry at this affront, the Judeans again revolted led by Simon Bar Kokhba. Hadrian responded with overwhelming force, putting down the revolution and killing as many as half a million Jews. After the Roman Legions prevailed in 135, Jews were not allowed to enter the city of Jerusalem and most Jewish worship was forbidden by Rome. Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, and instead was rebuilt around rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities. No new books were added to the Jewish Bible after the Roman period, instead major efforts went into interpreting and developing the Halakhah, or oral law, and writing down these traditions in the Talmud, the key work on the interepretation of Jewish law, written during the first to fifth centuries CE.

Beginning of the Diaspora

Though Jews had settled outside Israel since the time of the Babylonians, the results of the Roman response to the Jewish revolt shifted the center of Jewish life from its ancient home to the diaspora. While some Jews remained in Judea, renamed Palestine by the Romans, some Jews were sold into slavery, while others became citizens of other parts of the Roman Empire. This is the traditional explanation to the Jewish diaspora, almost universally accepted by past and present rabbinical or Talmudical scholars, who believe that Jews are almost exclusively biological descendants of the Judean exiles, a belief backed up at least partially by DNA evidence. Some secular historians speculate that a majority of the Jews in Antiquity were most likely descendants of converts in the cities of the Graeco-Roman world, especially in Alexandria and Asia Minor. They were only affected by the diaspora in its spiritual sense and by the sense of loss and homelessness which became a cornerstone of the Jewish creed, much supported by persecutions in various parts of the world. Any such policy of conversion, which spread the Jewish religion throughout Hellenistic civilization, seems to have ended with the wars against the Romans and the following reconstruction of Jewish values for the post-Temple era. During the first few hundred years of the Diaspora, the most important Jewish communities were in Babylonia, where the Talmud was written, and where relatively tolerant regimes allowed the Jews freedom. The situation was worse in the Byzantine Empire which treated the Jews much more harshly, refusing to allow them to hold office or build places of worship. The conquest of much of the Byzantine Empire and Babylonia by Islamic armies generally improved the life of the Jews, though they were still considered second-class citizens. In response to these Islamic conquests, the First Crusade of 1096 attempted to reconquer Jerusalem, resulting in the destruction of many of the remaining Jewish communities in the area.

Middle Ages: Europe

First Crusade story in Moorish Spain, from a 14th century Spanish Haggadah.]] Jews settled in Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, but the rise of the Catholic Church resulted in frequent expulsions and persecutions. The Crusades routinely attacked Jewish communities, and increasingly harsh laws restricted them from most economic activity and land ownership, leaving open only moneylending and a few other trades. Jews were subject to explusions from England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire throughout the Middle Ages, with most of the population moving to Eastern Europe and especially Poland, which was uniquely tolerant of the Jews through the 1700s. The final mass expulsion of the Jews, and the largest, occurred after the Christian conquest of Spain in 1492 (see History of the Jews in Spain). Even after the end of the expulsions in the 17th century, individual conditions varied from country to country and time to time, but, as rule, Jews in Western Europe generally were forced, by decree or by informal pressure, to live in highly segregated ghettos and shtetls.

Middle Ages: Islamic Europe and North Africa

During the Middle Ages, Jews in Islamic lands generally had more rights than under Christian rule, with a Golden Age of coexistence in Islamic Spain from about 900 to 1200, when Spain became the center of the richest, most populous, and most influential Jewish community of the time. The rise of more radical Muslim regimes, such as that of the Almohades ended this period by the thirteenth century, and Jews were soon expelled from Spain. Many of these Jews found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, which remained tolerant of its Jewish population for much of its history.

Enlightenment and emancipation

During the Age of Enlightenment, significant changes occurred within the Jewish community. The Haskalah movement paralleled the wider Enlightenment, as Jews began in the 1700s to campaign for emancipation from restrictive laws and integration into the wider European society. Secular and scientific education was added to the traditional religious instruction received by students, and interest in a national Jewish identity, including a revival in the study of Jewish history and Hebrew, started to grow. Haskalah, and 1804 French print.]] The Haskalah movement influenced the birth of all the modern Jewish denominations, and planted the seeds of Zionism. At the same time, it contributed to encouraging cultural assimilation into the countries in which Jews resided. At around the same time another movement was born, one preaching almost the opposite of Haskalah, Hasidic Judaism. Hasidic Judiasm began in the 1700s by Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov, and quickly gained a following with its exuberant, mystical approach to religion. These two movements, and the traditional orthodox approach to Judaism from which they spring, formed the basis for the modern divisions within Jewish observance. At the same time, the outside world was changing. France was the first country to emancipate its Jewish population in 1796, granting them equal rights under the law. Napoleon further spread emancipation, inviting Jews to leave the Jewish ghettos in Europe and seek refuge in the newly created tolerant political regimes (see Napoleon and the Jews). By the mid-19th century, almost all Western European countries had emancipated their Jewish populations, with the notable exception of the Papal States, but persecution continued in Eastern Europe, including massive pogroms at the end of the 19th century throughout the Pale of Settlement. The persistance of anti-semitism, both violently in the east and socially in the west, led to a number of Jewish political movements, culminating in Zionism.

Zionism and immigration

Zionism Many of the newly secular Jews who had embraced Haskalah found themselves deeply troubled by the continuing virulent anti-semitism of the late 1800s, especially the massive pogroms of the 1880s in Russia and the Dreyfus Affair, which occurred in France in 1894, a country many Jews had previously thought of as particularly accepting. Many Jews in Eastern Europe embraced socialism as a potential escape from persecution, but another group, the Zionists, led by Theodor Herzl, viewed the only solution as the creation of a Jewish state. Initially, religious Jews opposed Zionism, as did many secular Jews, who saw integration or other social movements as more promising. The chain of events between 1881 and 1945, however, beginning with waves of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia and the Russian-controlled areas of Poland, and culminating in the Holocaust, converted the great majority of surviving Jews to the belief that a Jewish homeland was an urgent necessity, particularly given the large population of disenfranchised Jewish refugees after World War II. In addition to responding politically, during the late 19th century, Jews began to flee the persecutions of Eastern Europe in large numbers, mostly by heading to the United States, but also to Canada and Western Europe. By 1924, almost two million Jews had emigrated to the US alone, creating a large community in a nation relatively free of the persecutions of rising European anti-Semitism (see History of the Jews in the United States).

The Holocaust

This anti-Semitism reached its most destructive form in the policies of Nazi Germany, which made the destruction of the Jews a priority, culminating in the killing of approximately six million Jews during the Holocaust from 1941 to 1945. Originally, the Nazis used death squads, the Einsatzgruppen, to conduct massive open-air killings of Jews in territory they conquered. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the Final Solution, the genocide of all of the Jews of Europe, and increase the pace of the Holocaust by establishing extermination camps specifically to kill Jews. Millions of Jews who had been confined to diseased and massively overcrowded Ghettos were transported to these "Death-camps" where they were either gassed or shot. Many Jews tried to escape Europe before or during Holocaust, but were unable to find refuge, giving new urgency to the Zionist goal of establishing a Jewish homeland. Holocaust

Israel

In 1948, the Jewish state of Israel was founded, creating the first Jewish nation since the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. After a series of wars with neighboring Arab countries, almost all of the 900,000 Jews previously living in North Africa and the Middle East fled to the Jewish state, joining an increasing number of immigrants from post-War Europe. By the end of the 20th century, Jewish population centers had shifted dramatically, with the United States and Israel being the centers of Jewish secular and religious life.

Persecution

:Related articles: Anti-Semitism, History of anti-Semitism, Modern anti-Semitism

Jewish leadership

There is no single governing body for the Jewish community, nor a single authority with responsibility for religious doctrine. Instead, a variety of secular and religious institutions at the local, national, and international levels lead various parts of the Jewish community on a variety of issues.

Famous Jews

Jews have made contributions in a broad range of human endeavors, including the sciences, arts, politics, business, etc.

External links

General

- [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761567959/Jews.html#s1 Encarta Encyclopedia entry on Jews]
- [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org Jewish Virtual Library] - collection of many articles on many topics, including Jewish history
- [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia]
- [http://www.jta.org Jewish Telegraphic Agency] - news bureau reporting on contemporary Jewish news and issues
- [http://www.book-lover.com/legendsofthejews/ Legends of the Jews] - online text of classic work by Louis Ginzberg

Maps

- [http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415236614/resources/indi.asp Map collection] related to Jewish history and culture from Routledge Publishing

Photos

- [http://www.ZionOzeri.com Zion Ozeri Photography] - photos of many Jewish communities worldwide (requires Macromedia Flash player)

Major Jewish secular organizations

- [http://www.adl.org/adl.asp Anti-Defamation League]
- [http://www.bnaibrith.org B'nai B'rith International]
- [http://www.ajc.org American Jewish Committee]
- [http://www.ujc.org United Jewish Communities: The Federations of North America]
- [http://www.ajcongress.org American Jewish Congress]
- [http://www.science.co.il/JSO.asp Jewish Student Organizations]

Global Jewish communities

- [http://www.haruth.com/JewsoftheWorld.html Jewish Communities of the World] - large list of Jewish communities in many countries
- [http://www.ujc.org/ir_category_listing.html?nt=0&id=200 List of international Jewish organizations]
- [http://uk-org-bod.supplehost.org/bod/index.jsp Board of Deputies of British Jews]
- [http://www.cjc.ca Canadian Jewish Congress] - Jewish advocacy organisation representing Canadian Jewry
- [http://www.einst.ee/factsheets/jews/ Jews in Estonia]
- [http://www.fjc.ru/default.asp Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (Russia)]
- [http://www.col.fr/ Communaute Online: France]
- [http://www.haruth.com/JewsArgentina.html Jewish Argentina]
- [http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/index.htm African Jews] - also contains information about various small Jewish communities elsewhere
- [http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/Jews.html Chinese Jews] - history of Jews in China
- [http://www.bh.org.il/Communities/index.aspx/ The Database of Jewish Communities]
- [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?AID=6268 Global Chabad-Lubavitch Centers and Institutions Directory]

Zionist institutions

- [http://www.wzo.org.il/en/default.asp World Zionist Organization]
- [http://www.zoa.org Zionist Organization of America]
- [http://www.hadassah.org Hadassah] - Women's Zionist Organization, also operates a number of prominent hospitals
- [http://www.habonimdror.org Habonim Dror] - Union of Progressive Zionists

Israeli institutions

- [http://www.jafi.org.il The Jewish Agency]
- [http://www.yad-vashem.org.il Yad VaShem] - The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
- [http://www.imj.org.il Israel Museum]
- [http://www.bh.org.il/index.html/ Beth Hatefutsoth - The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora]

Lists of notable Jews

- [http://www.science.co.il/Nobel.asp Jewish Nobel Prize Laureates]
- [http://www.jinfo.org Prominent Jewish Scientific and Cultural Figures]

Religious Links

- Orthodox: [http://ou.org The Orthodox Union]
- Conservative: [http://www.uscj.org United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism]
- Karaite: [http://www.karaite-korner.org The Karaite Korner]
- Reform: [http://urj.org/ Union for Reform Judaism]
- Humanistic: [http://www.shj.org/ Society for Humanistic Judaism]
- Reconstructionist: [http://www.jrf.org Jewish Reconstructionist Federation]
- Chabad-Lubavitch: [http://www.chabad.org Chabad]
- Haredi Forum: [http://www.harediforum.com/forum/ Haredi Discussion Forum]

Notes

# Data based on a [http://www.jpppi.org.il/JPPPI/SendFile.asp?TID=67&FID=2377 study] by Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI). See [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1088046787193&p=1008596975996 Jewish people near zero growth] by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2004. # See, for example Jews by country page for higher estimates. # Data based on a study by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. See [http://www.cbs.gov.il/sidrnge.cgi?sid=3764&stid=1&tid=2] (Updated to June 2005). # 1993 Russian census. Some estimates are much higher, the US State Department Religious Freedom Report [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35480.htm] estimates the number of Jews in Russia alone at 600,000 to 1 million. # [http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Judaism/jewpop.html Jewish Virtual Library], [http://www.jewfaq.org/populatn.htm JewFAQ] # # # #
- Jew ko:유대인 ja:ユダヤ人 simple:Jew th:ยิว

English language

English is a West Germanic language that is spoken in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, and many other countries. English is now the third-most spoken native language worldwide (after Chinese and Hindi), with some 380 million speakers. It has lingua franca status in many parts of the world, due to the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries and that of the United States from the 20th century to the present. Through the global influence of native English speakers in cinema, airlines, broadcasting, science, and the Internet in recent decades, English is now the most widely learned second language in the world. Many students worldwide are required to learn some English, and a working knowledge of English is required in many fields and occupations.

History

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Old Saxon language brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany. The original Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second wave was of the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke a variety of French. These two invasions caused English to become "creolised" to some degree (though it was never a full creole in the linguistic sense of the word); creolisation arises from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication. Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Friesian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance branch of European languages; this new layer entered English through use in the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of considerable suppleness and huge vocabulary. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, around the year 449, Vortigern, King of the British Isles, invited the "Angle kin" (Angles led by Hengest and Horsa) to help him against the Picts. In return, the Angles were granted lands in the south-east. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes). The Chronicle talks of a subsequent influx of settlers who eventually established seven kingdoms, known as the heptarchy. Modern scholarship considers most of this story to be legendary and politically motivated. These Germanic invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants, whose languages survived largely in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. The dialects spoken by the invaders formed what would be called Old English, which resembled some coastal dialects in what are now the Netherlands and north-west Germany. Later, it was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north-east (see Jorvik). The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distant, including the prefixes, suffixes and inflections of many of their words. The Germanic language of these Old English inhabitants of Britain would be partly creolised by the contact with Norse invaders. This resulted in a stripping away of much of the grammar of Old English, including gender and case, with the notable exception of the pronouns; thus, the language became simpler and plainer. The most famous work from the Old English period is the epic poem "Beowulf", by an unknown poet. For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and the high nobility spoke only a variety of French. A large number of Norman words were assimilated into Old English, with some words doubling for Old English words (for instance, ox/beef, sheep/mutton). The Norman influence reinforced the continual evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in what is now referred to as Middle English. Among the changes was a broadening in the use of a unique aspect of English grammar, the "continuous" tenses, with the suffix "-ing". During the 15th century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of printing. Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William Shakespeare. The most well-known work from the Middle English period is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

Classification and related languages

The English language belongs to the western subbranch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is Scots (Lallans), a West Germanic language spoken mostly in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. Like English, Scots is a direct descendant of Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon. After Scots, the next closest relative is Frisian—spoken in the Netherlands and Germany. Other less closely related living languages include Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Plattdüütsch and the Scandinavian languages. Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (pronunciations are not always identical, of course), because English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from French, via the Norman language after the Norman conquest and directly from French in further centuries; as a result, a substantial share of English vocabulary is quite close to the French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional differences in meaning.

Geographic distribution

Norman conquest English is the second or third most widely spoken language in the world today; a total of 600–700 million people use English regularly. About 377 million people use English as their mother tongue, and an equal number of people use it as their second or foreign language. It is used widely in either the public or private sphere in more than 100 countries all over the world. In addition, the language has occupied a primary place in international academic and business communities. The current status of the English language compares with that of Latin in the past. English is the primary language in Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados (Caribbean English), Bermuda, Belize, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Ireland (Irish English), Isle of Man, Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Saint Helena, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom (various forms of British English), the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. English is also an important minority language of South Africa (South African English), and in several other former colonies and current dependent territories of the United Kingdom and the United States, for example Guam and Mauritius. In Hong Kong, English is an official language and is widely used in business activities. It is taught from kindergarten, and is the medium of instruction for a few primary schools, many secondary schools and all universities. Substantial numbers of students acquire native-speaker level. It is so widely used and spoken that it is inadequate to say it is merely a second or foreign language, though there are still many people in Hong Kong with poor or no command of English. The majority of English native speakers (67 to 70 per cent) live in the United States. Although the U.S. federal government has no official languages, it has been given official status by 27 of the 50 state governments, most of which have declared English their sole official language. Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico have also designated Hawaiian, French, and Spanish, respectively, as official languages in conjunction with English. In many other countries where English is not a major first language, it is an official language; these countries include Cameroon, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. English is the most widely learned and used foreign language in the world, and as such, many linguists believe it is no longer the exclusive cultural emblem of "native English speakers", but rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it grows in use. Others believe that there are limits to how far English can go in suiting everyone for communication purposes. It is the language most often studied as a foreign language in Europe (32.6 per cent), followed by French, German, and Spanish. It is also the most studied in Japan, South Korea and in the Republic of China (Taiwan), where it is compulsory for most high school students. See English as an additional language.

English as a global language

See also: English on the Internet Because English is so widely spoken, it has been referred to as a "global language". While English is not the official language in many countries, it is the language most often taught as a second language around the world. It is also, by international treaty, the official language for aircraft/airport communication. Its widespread acceptance as a first or second language is the main indication of its global status. There are numerous arguments for and against English as a global language. On one hand, having a global language aids in communication and in pooling information (for example, in the scientific community). On the other hand, it excludes those who, for one reason or another, are not fluent. It can also marginalise populations whose first language is not the global language, and lead to a cultural hegemony of the populations speaking the global language as a first language. Most of these arguments hold for any candidate for a global language, though the last two counter-arguments do not hold for languages not belonging to any ethnic group (like Esperanto). A secondary concern with respect to the spread of global languages (English, Spanish, etc.) is the resulting disappearance of minority languages, often along with the cultures and religions that are primarily transmitted in those languages. English has been implicated in a number of historical and ongoing so-called "language deaths" and "linguicides" around the world, many of which have also led to the loss of cultural heritage. In the Americas, Native American nations have been most strongly affected by this phenomenon.

Dialects and regional variants

The expansiveness of the British and the Americans has spread English throughout the globe. Because of its global spread, it has bred a variety of English dialects and English-based creoles and pidgins. The major varieties of English in most cases contain several subvarieties, such as Cockney within British English, Newfoundland English within Canadian English, and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") within American English. English is considered a pluricentric language, with no variety being clearly considered the only standard. Some consider Scots as an English dialect. Pronunciation, grammar and lexis differ, sometimes substantially. The Scottish dialect retains many German aspects including guttural pronunciations. Because of English's wide use as a second language, English speakers can have many different accents, which may identify the speaker's native dialect or language. For more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English speakers. For more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Many countries around the world have blended English words and phrases into their everyday speech and refer to the result by a colloquial name that implies its bilingual origins, which parallels the English language's own addiction to loan words and borrowings. Named examples of these ad-hoc constructions, distinct from pidgin and creole languages, include Engrish, Wasei-eigo, Franglais and Spanglish. (See List of dialects of the English language for a complete list.) Europanto combines many languages but has an English core.

Constructed variants of English

- Basic English is simplified for easy international use. It is used by some aircraft manufacturers and other international businesses to write manuals and communicate. Some English schools in the Far East teach it as an initial practical subset of English.
- Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of 1500 words.
- English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
- Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international co-operation and communication in specific areas.
- European English is a new variant of the English language created to become the common language in Europe.

Sounds

Vowels

Notes: It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to the sounds used in North American English, the second corresponds to English spoken elsewhere. #North American English lacks this sound; words with this sound are pronounced with or . According to The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (1998), this sound is present in Standard Canadian English. #Many dialects of North American English do not have this vowel. See cot-caught merger. #The North American variation of this sound is a rhotic vowel. #Many speakers of North American English do not distinguish between these two unstressed vowels. For them, roses and Rosa's are pronounced the same, and the symbol usually used is schwa . #This sound is often transcribed with or with . #The letter U can represent either /u/ or the iotated vowel /ju/.

Consonants

This is the English Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). #The velar nasal is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only before /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas. #The alveolar flap is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and increasingly in Australian English. This is the sound of "tt" or "dd" in the words latter and ladder, which are homophones in North American English. This is the same sound represented by single "r" in some varieties of Spanish. #In some dialects, such as Cockney, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ are usually merged with /f/ and /v/, and in others, like African American Vernacular English, /ð/ is merged with /d/. In some Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become the corresponding dental plosives, which then contrast with the usual alveolar plosives. #The sounds are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. #The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is used only by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such as loch or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach or Chanukah /xanuka/, or in some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) where the affricate [kx] is used instead of /k/ in words such as docker . Most native speakers have a great deal of trouble pronouncing it correctly when learning a foreign language. Most speakers use the sounds [k] and [h] instead. #Voiceless w is found in Scottish, Irish, s