by Quinn Korach

Introduction

Before World War II, there were about 9.5 million Jews in Europe and 16.5 million Jews throughout the world. After World War II, there was around 3.5 million Jews in Europe and around 11.8 million Jews throughout the world. Before the Nazi Party’s rise to power in Germany, Europe had vibrant Jewish communities with flourishing culture. After the war, 2 out of every 3 Jews in Europe was killed and many of the remaining survivors migrated to places outside of Eastern Europe. Places like the United States, Israel, Great Britain, France, and more. This migration led to a shift in the center of Jewish culture from Eastern Europe and led to an era in which key Jewish ideals changed. Thus arose a new age of Judaism in which political activism, Zionism, pride, and nationalism became key parts of the Jewish social ideology. The items I chose to represent different trends and key ideas for Jews after World War 2 and all played significant roles in today’s Judaism.