For Dahvi and Hanna
The aim of this book is to provide students of Jewish History with a compact,
one-volume history of the Jews from antiquity to the present. As such, this
book has benefitted from my exchanges with dozens of colleagues who spe-
cialize in various areas of Jewish History. Throughout I have tried to appose a
straightforward narrative with more in-depth analysis and discussion of
recent scholarly debates on various aspects of this narrative. In order to allow
readers to encounter the historical experiences of Jews through the words of
those who lived through or observed these events, I have included numerous
direct quotations. Limitations on length precluded the use of footnotes or
endnotes, so most of these direct quotations were drawn from one of the pri-
mary sources included in the list of further reading. In the end, I hope that
readers will come to discover and embrace, as I have, the notion that a greater
familiarity with the whole of Jewish History facilitates and enhances one’s
understanding of any part of that history.