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VOCABULARY ( KSJ Home) A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z =A (Undergoing revision)= The biblical God promised Abraham that through his offspring, all the nations of the world will come to be blessed. Jews, Christians, and Muslims consider him father of the people of Israel through his son Isaac. For Muslims, he is a prophet of Islam, and the ancestor of Muhammed through his other son Ishmael. By his concubine Keturah, Abraham is also claimed as a progenitor of the Semitic tribes of the Negev who trace their descent from their common ancestor Sheba. According to the Torah, Abraham was brought by God from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. There Abraham entered into a covenant: in exchange for sole recognition of YHWH (One of God's names; See definition, page "Y") as supreme universal deity and authority, Abraham will be blessed with innumerable progeny. His life as narrated in the book of [|Genesis] (chapters 11–25) reflects the compilation of various traditions. For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham || Professor Dietz Bering of the University of Cologne describes the structure of antisemitic beliefs: To antisemites, "Jews are not only partially but totally bad by nature, that is, their bad traits are incorrigible. Because of this bad nature: (1) Jews have to be seen not as individuals but as a collective. (2) Jews remain essentially alien in the surrounding societies. (3) Jews bring disaster on their 'host societies' or on the whole world, they are doing it secretly, therefore the antisemites feel obliged to unmask the conspiratorial, bad Jewish character." Bernard Lewis defines antisemitism as a special case of prejudice, hatred, or persecution directed against people who are in some way different from the rest. According to Lewis, antisemitism is marked by two distinct features: Jews are judged according to a standard different from that applied to others, and they are accused of "cosmic evil." Thus, "it is perfectly possible to hate and even to persecute Jews without necessarily being anti-Semitic" unless this hatred or persecution displays one of the two features specific to antisemitism.
 * **Word/Phrase** || **Short Definition** || **Long Definition** ||
 * Abraham || According to Jewish mythology, the first Jew. || In the Jewish tradition, he is called //Avraham Avinu// or "Abraham, our Father". A character useful in explaining the origins and relationships between peoples of the Middle East.
 * Anti-semitism || Hatred or prejudice toward Jews || While the term's etymology literally implies that antisemitism is directed against all Semitic peoples (those of "Near Eastern" descent), it is in practice used exclusively to refer to hostility towards Jews as a religious, racial, or ethnic group.

There are many explanations given for the prevalence and recurrance of anti-semitism. Christians have accused Jews of deicide (being responsible collectively for the death of Jesus) and Muslims and Christians have at certain periods found Jews to be convenient scapegoats. While there are many horrific examples of antisemitism progressing from discrimination to mass murder, the climax of rabid antisemitism in the 20th century was the Holocaust, the extermination of Jews, perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War. Antisemitism is still persisent, currently propagated primairly by ultranationalistic xenophobes and Muslim fundamentalists.

For more information, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Semitism || After World War 2, most of the remaining Jews fled Europe primarily to Israel. In Israel, the two major groupings of Jews, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, still exist, and many retain their separate cultural and religious identities. There is one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi chief rabbi in Israel, there are differences in the details of their traditional religious services and holiday traditions, and there is still some residual feelings of prejudice/discrimination between the two groups, although through intermarriage, those distinctions are lessening over time. ||
 * Apikoros, apikorsim (plural) || Heretic or freethinker. From the Greek word epikoureios, followers of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. || While many progressive Jews consider this skeptical approach to be an appropriate way to view the world, before the enlightenment and and still among many in the Orthodox Jewish community, considered a derrogatory label. Aspects of these beliefs can be found in Ecclesiastes, the story of Job and other Jewish folklore. ||
 * Ashkenazim || Jews who live in, or whose ancestors come from Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. || As a result of being separated from the other main group of Jews, the Sephardim, Ashkenazim developed distinctive cultural and religous traditions. Yiddish language and culture flourished as a uniting feature of these Jews, until the enlightenment, at which time many of those in Western Europe embraced the culture and languages of the country in which they lived. Because of antisemitism and difficult living conditions, many Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to North and South America in waves beginning in the late 19th century with a smaller number emigrating to other countries including Palestine, (later to become Israel.) During World War 2, millions of Ashkenazi Jews still living in Europe were exterminated by the Nazis.