ABSTRACT
Judaism is often called an historical religion. Judaism is more than the religion of a sect; it is the religion of a people, of a people whose career stretches back almost to the beginning of history. It is the history of a people that has lived for an idea, and above all, for the religious idea. Of no other people can this be said. A nation, as a rule, consciously lives for material things. If it has a distinctly defined ideal, that ideal is usually conquest or empire or commercial supremacy. To foster the historic consciousness is, then, one of the duties of the Israelite. And the study of Jewish history is an obvious way of fulfilling this duty. Every Jewish child should be as familiar with the story of his people as he is with the annals of the land in which he has been born. Judaism does its best to foster this knowledge.
