Judaism Today An Introduction

For nearly four millennia Judaism was essentially a unified religious system based on shared traditions. Despite the emergence of various sub-groups through the centuries such as the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Karaites, Shabbateans and Hasadim, Jewry was united in the belief in a providential God who had chosen the Jews as his special people and given them a code of law. In the modern period, however, the Jewish religion has fragmented into a series of separate denominations with competing ideologies and theological views. Despite the creation of the State of Israel, the Jewish people are deeply divided concerning the most fundamental issues of belief and practice.

Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok is currently Visiting Professor at St Mary's University College, London, UK, and was the first Professor of Judaism at the University of Wales, UK. He is also a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Peer Review Council, UK. He has written numerous books, including The Paradox of Anti-Semitism, Dictionary of Jewish Biography, Messianic Judaism and Modern Judaism.