Jewish History

"What is Jewish Histor y? In the first place, what does it offer as to quantity and as to quality? What are its range and content, and what distinguishes it in these two respects from the histor y of other nations? Furthermore, what is the essential meaning, what the spirit, of Jewish Histor y? Or, to put the question in another way, to what general results are we led by the aggregate of its facts, considered, not as a whole, but genetically, as a succession of evolutionar y stages in the consciousness and education of the Jewish people? If we could find precise answers to these several questions, they would constitute a characterization of Jewish histor y as accurate as is attainable. To present such a characterization succinctly is the purpose of the following essay."