ABSTRACT
Jewish history is more than the history of a religion called Judaism. Although Judaism is a central component, Jewish history also recounts the development of a civilization with a complex social order and political culture, and generations of social relations between Jews, and between Jews and non-Jews. Jewish civilization has been around in one form or another for more than three millennia, and has traversed five continents, from central Asia to the New World. Jews have come within the perception of intellectuals and statesmen from Aristotle to Zola, and have lived in a wide variety of contexts, including the ancient Near East, the Hellenistic world, Rome, Byzantium, Islam, Christendom, Europe, Russia, and the New World.
