The History of Israel: A Jewish Perspective from Creation to Statehood

How should I start writing about Israel? Should I begin with facts and dates, or with the feeling that every Jew carries in their heart for this land?

Let me start with the feeling — because that is actually part of the history.

I visit Israel two or three times a year, and I never stop thinking about her between visits. That longing, that pull toward the Land of Israel — it is not just my personal quirk. It is a central thread in the Jewish story going back thousands of years. The Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, captures it perfectly: "As long as deep within the heart the Jewish soul is warm... our hope is not yet lost, the hope of two thousand years, to be a free people in our own land."

Our own land. Those words carry the weight of centuries.

torah">Israel in the Torah

The Jewish connection to Israel does not begin with modern Zionism or even with ancient kingdoms. It begins at the very beginning.

The Midrash teaches that G-d started the Torah with the account of world creation — rather than beginning with the first commandment — so that the nations of the world would know that He created the earth and gave the Land of Israel to the Jewish people by His will.

According to ancient Hebrew texts, the earth's creation itself began with Israel. The Zohar states that creation had three phases: first the Temple Mount and Jerusalem, then the Land of Israel, and then the rest of the world. Israel was the center of creation.

The verse in Devarim (Deuteronomy 11:12) says about the Land of Israel: "The eyes of G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year." The Torah is filled with expressions of G-d's love for this holy land.

Israel also holds a special place in Jewish law. There are fifteen commandments in the Torah related to agricultural work that apply only in the Land of Israel — laws about tithes, the sabbatical year, and first fruits that have no parallel anywhere else.

The Biblical Period

The history of Jews in Israel goes back to Avraham (Abraham), Yitzchak (Isaac), and Yaakov (Jacob) — the patriarchs. They all lived and settled in the Land of Israel. G-d's prophecy to Avraham was that the Jewish people would be slaves in Egypt for four hundred years and would afterwards return to the promised land.

The Jewish people first settled in Israel as a nation in approximately 1422 BCE, when Yehoshua (Joshua) led them across the Jordan River and conquered the land from the Canaanites. What followed was a remarkable era — the period of the Judges, then the united monarchy under King Shaul, King David, and King Shlomo (Solomon), who built the first Beis HaMikdash (Holy Temple) in Jerusalem.

During the time of the First Temple, the Jewish people lived in their homeland in relative prosperity and peace. Shlomo's wisdom was legendary, and the Temple was the spiritual center of the world.

The First Exile

This period of stability did not last forever. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia in 423 BCE when the First Temple was destroyed. It was a devastating blow — not just the loss of sovereignty, but the loss of the Temple, the place where G-d's presence dwelled most intensely.

The exile lasted close to seventy years, just as the prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) had predicted.

The Return and the Second Temple

The Jews began returning to Israel around 370 BCE, but the full return was not complete until 353 BCE, when Darius the Persian permitted the rebuilding of the Temple. The Second Temple stood in Jerusalem for over four centuries.

During this period, the Jewish people lived in their homeland under a succession of foreign rulers — Persians, Greeks, and eventually Romans. There was one brief but glorious period of Jewish self-rule under the Hasmoneans (165 BCE to 63 BCE) — this is the era of the Chanukah miracle, when a small band of Jewish fighters defeated the mighty Greek army and rededicated the Temple. But even this period was marked by constant warfare, and full independence was short-lived.

The Destruction and Dispersion

The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in the year 68 CE (some sources say 70 CE), and with it came the great dispersion. Jews were scattered across the globe — to Babylonia, North Africa, Europe, and beyond.

For nearly two thousand years, Jews lived in exile. But they never forgot Israel. Every day in their prayers, they faced Jerusalem. At every wedding, the groom broke a glass to remember the destruction of the Temple. At every Passover Seder, they declared: "Next year in Jerusalem."

Centuries of Foreign Rule

While Jews were scattered, the Land of Israel passed through the hands of one foreign power after another:

• Byzantine Rule (313-636 CE)
• Arab Rule (636-1099)
• The Crusaders (1099-1291)
• Mamluk Rule (1291-1516)
• Ottoman Rule (1517-1917)
• British Rule (1918-1948)

Throughout all of these periods, a small Jewish presence remained in the land. But they were few in number, often desperately poor, and frequently subject to persecution. The land itself suffered — earthquakes, plagues, political upheaval.

The Return Home

Beginning in the late 1800s, during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire and into the British Mandate period, Jewish people began returning to Israel in large numbers. Despite government opposition and severe restrictions, Jews kept coming — by boat, overland, by any means possible.

The Zionist movement grew into a powerful political force. The Hebrew language, which had been preserved for centuries as a language of prayer and study, was revived and modernized for everyday use. Jewish communities established farms, towns, schools, and institutions throughout the land.

The Birth of the State

After the horrors of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered, the world's conscience was stirred. On May 14, 1948, when the British Mandate came to an end, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the State of Israel.

The Jewish population in the land numbered over 650,000 at that point, with well-developed political, social, and economic institutions already in place. The dream of two thousand years — a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel — had become reality.

Israel Today

It is impossible to capture the full history of Israel in a single article. I have barely scratched the surface. But what I want you to take away is this: the Jewish connection to Israel is not a political invention. It is not a twentieth-century development. It runs through every page of the Torah, every line of our prayers, every generation of our history.

Orthodox Jews of every stripe — conservative, modern, Hasidic — visit Israel constantly. It is always the first choice for a family vacation, and it is not unusual for an entire Orthodox family to pack up and move there permanently. The pull of the holy land is that strong.

When an Orthodox Jew visits the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem, they are not just visiting a historic site. They are standing at the remnant of the Temple that their ancestors built, praying to the same G-d their ancestors prayed to, on the same ground where Jewish history began.

That is what Israel means to the Jewish people. It always has. It always will.