A story is told of a young man who came to a crossroads while traveling from Jerusalem to Tiberius. To his dismay, the signpost showing directions lay broken upon the ground with the arrow marked “Tiberius” pointing straight up to the sky. But the young man did not hesitate. He seized hold of the signpost and lifted it upright. True, he did not know which road led to Tiberius, but he did know from where he had come. He pointed the arrow marked “Jerusalem” back along the road he had travelled, then followed the arrow overhead, confident that he was going in the right direction.

In each successive generation, the future of the Jewish people has looked increasingly uncertain. We have no roadmap leading us into the future, but we have a clear signpost that points to our past. It is our history, the story of almost four thousand years of survival in an inhospitable - and, at times, genocidal - world. Jewish history is our guide to who we are and where we are going.

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