Jewish diaspora: Encyclopedia II - Jewish diaspora - Post-Roman Diaspora

Jewish diaspora - Post-Roman Diaspora

Jewish diaspora - Roman destruction of Judea

Roman rule continued until a revolt from 66-70, terminating in the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, the center of the national and religious life of the Jews throughout the world. After this catastrophe, Judea formed a separate Roman province, governed by a legate, at first "pro prætore," and later, "pro consule," who was also the commander of the army of occupation. The complete destruction of the Jerusalem, and the settlement of several Grecian and Roman colonies in Judea, indicated the express intention of the Roman government to prevent the political regeneration of the Jewish nation. Nevertheless, forty years later the Jews put forth efforts to recover their former freedom. With Palestine exhausted, they strove, in the first place, to establish upon the ruins of Hellenism actual commonwealths in Cyrene, Cyprus, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. These efforts, resolute but unwise, were suppressed by Trajan (115-117); and under Hadrian the same fate befell the last and glorious attempt of the Jews of Palestine to regain their independence (133-135). From this time on, in spite of unimportant movements under Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, and Severus, the Jews of Palestine, reduced in numbers, destitute, and crushed, lost their preponderance in the Jewish world. The Jews no longer had reason to cling to a soil where the recollection of their past grandeur only helped to render more bitter the spectacle of their present humiliation, where Jerusalem had become, under the name "Ælia Capitolina," a Roman colony, a city entirely pagan, to enter which was forbidden the Jews, under pain of death.

Jewish diaspora - Dispersion of the Jews

The destruction of Judea exerted a decisive influence upon the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world, as the center of worship shifted from the Temple to Rabbinic authority.

Some Jews were sold as slaves or transported as captives after the fall of Judea, others joined the existing diaspora, while still others remained in Judea and began work on the Palestinian Talmud. For those Jews in the diaspora, they were generally accepted into the Roman Empire, but with the rise of Christianity, restrictions grew. Forced expulsions and persecution resulted in substantial shifts in the international centers of Jewish life to which far-flung communities often looked; although not always unified due to the Jewish people's dispersion itself, moved from Judea to Babylonia to Spain to Poland to the United States and finally back to Israel.

During the Middle Ages Jews divided into distinct regional groups which today are generally addressed according to two groupings: the Ashkenazi (Northern and Eastern European Jews) and Sephardic Jews (Spanish, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern Jews). These groupings incorporate parallel histories sharing many series of persecutions and forced expulsions, which finally culminated in events in the 20th century that led to the State of Israel.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Post-Roman Diaspora", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki