The ten essays assembled in this volume represent the fruit of fifty years of research and study in the fields of Jewish history and World history. They show that the Jewish people has played a progressive role in world history, a role which grew out of the political culture of the Habiru.

Mentioned in literally hundreds of cuneiform inscriptions dating from the 2nd millenium BCE, the Habiru formed scattered bands of runaway slaves and other fugitives who maintained themselves on the outskirts of the settled areas of the Middle East. Constituting a social class rather than an extended...