Judaism is the oldest monotheistic world religion to survive into present day. Its origin can be traced back 3,000 years to Abraham and the monotheistic covenant established between him and God as narrated in the Book of Genesis.
Although considered a world religion, Judaism does not fit neatly into conventional Western categories such as religion, ethnicity, or culture. This is partly because in Judaism’s more than 3,000-year history, Jews experienced slavery, anarchic and theocratic self-government, conquest, occupation, exile, the Holocaust, Diasporas, and the formation of a modern Jewish state, Israel.
Throughout this history, Jews have maintained traditions and customs even while adopting to local customs and languages around the world, although many Jews – even in Israel – consider themselves “culturally Jewish” in that they identify with their heritage as Jews but have no actual religious practice.
