The First Chosen People

What This Book Covers

1. Chapter One - In the Beginning
2. Chapter Two - Exodus and Empire
3. Chapter Three - The Kingdom
4. Chapter Four - Exile.exe
5. Chapter Five - Return and Rebuild
6. Chapter Six - Rome and Revolution
7. Chapter Seven - Wandering and Withstanding
8. Chapter Eight - The Money Problem
9. Chapter Nine - Pogroms and Prejudice
10. Chapter Ten - The Holocaust
11. Chapter Eleven - Israel and the Aftershock
12. Chapter Twelve - Jews Today
13. Chapter Thirteen - So… What’s the Deal?

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE In the Beginning YOU’VE HEARD THE words your whole life. Jewish. Jews. Judaism. They show up in history class, family trees, Kanye rants, stand-up comedy, political debates, TikToks, and war zones. But ask ten people what Judaism actually is — and you’ll get ten different answers. Is it a religion? An ethnicity? A culture? A vibe? The truth? It started as a story. And like all the oldest stories, it begins somewhere in the fog of the ancient world — in the Bronze Age, before maps made sense and gods were everywhere. We’re talking about a time when most people believed in many gods — some friendly, some terrifying, some drunk — and none of them particularly loyal. Storm gods,...