Jacob and his family leave the land of Canaan and settle in the land of Egypt. They do so under the protection of Pharoah and Joseph. From a small family of 70, they grow to a nation of millions.
They settle in the land of Goshen, a fertile land- remaining a nation unto itself and rarely mixing with the Egyptian population.
Eventually a "new" Pharoah arises and purposely sets out to exterminate the Jewish people by enslaving, abusing, and murdering them- similiar to how the Holocaust was a rein of terror in our own times.
The Jewish people are unable to mount a proper rebellion and seem locked into a slave mentality. Moses, who was born Jewish but raised in the Egyptian court, arrives on the scene. He is the person who will bring the Jews out of Egypt and into both physical and spiritual greatness.
Rabbi Berel Wein 
