ABSTRACT
Jewish history emerged sometime in the middle of the second millennium before the Christian era. The Jewish communities in general, and that in Eretz Israel in particular, became increasingly entangled in the political struggles of the region. There were two poles to the continuity of Jewish civilization: first, the development of institutional and cultural frameworks which made possible the continuity of the Jewish people and civilization in a situation of dispersion of Jews in many lands. Secondly the strong, ambivalent attitude of the 'host' civilizations, reciprocated by a parallel ambivalent attitude among the Jews towards these civilizations. The crystallization of Jewish society in Eretz Israel and the development of Israeli society, have been continuously related both to the perennial themes or orientations of Jewish civilization – themes and to the reality of Jewish life throughout the world, in the Jewish communities in the Diaspora.
