What does it mean to be a Jew? What is Judaism? How similar is modern Judaism to the Judaism of the Bible? What does the expression “Modern Judaism� actually mean? What are the characteristics of the various movements within Judaism today: Hasidism, the haskalah or Jewish enlightenment, reformed, orthodox and conservative Judaism, the reconstructionist movement, Zionism, the Judaism of the Holocaust, etc...? In this book, the author provides a broad outline of the historical development of Judaism from its origins up to the present, while attempting to understand the basic tensions that shape its structure in its various movements today.