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Jewish diaspora (Hebrew: Tefutzah, or Galut, "exile") refers to the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world. The notion of diaspora is commonly accepted to have begun with the Babylonian Captivity in 597 BCE, after which a number of Middle Eastern Jewish communities were established then as a result of tolerant policies and remained notable centers of Torah life and Judaism for centuries to come. The defeat of the Great Jewish Revolt in 70 and of Bar Kokhba's revolt in 135 against the Roman Empire notably contributed to the numbers and geography of diaspora, as many Jews were scattered after losing their state Judea or were sold to slavery throughout the empire.

Pre-Roman Diaspora

After the overthrow in 588 B.C. of the kingdom of Judah by the Chaldeans (see Babylonian captivity), and the deportation of a considerable portion of its inhabitants to the valley of the Euphrates, the Jews had two principal rallying-points Babylonia and Palestine. But though a majority of the Jewish race—especially the wealthy families—were to be found in Babylonia, the existence it led there, under the successive rules of the Achæmenidæ, the Seleucids, the Parthians, and the Neo-Persians, or Sassanians, was obscure and devoid of political influence. The poorest but most fervent element among the exiles returned to Palestine during the reigns of the first Achæmenidæ. There, with the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem as its center, it organized itself into a community, animated by a remarkable religious ardor and a tenacious attachment to the Bible, which thenceforth constituted the palladium of its nationality. No sooner had this little nucleus increased in numbers with the accession of recruits from various quarters, than it awoke to a consciousness of itself, and strove for political enfranchisement.

After numerous vicissitudes, and especially owing to internal dissensions in the Seleucid dynasty, on the one hand, and to the interested support of the Romans, on the other, the cause of Jewish independence finally triumphed. Under the Hasmonean princes, who were at first high priests and then kings, the Jewish state displayed even a certain luster, and annexed several territories. Soon, however, discord in the royal family, and the growing disaffection of the pious, the soul of the nation, toward rulers who no longer evinced any appreciation of the real aspirations of their subjects, made the Jewish nation an easy prey to the ambition of the Romans, the successors of the Seleucids. In 63 B.C. Pompey invaded Jerusalem, and Gabinius subjected the Jewish people to tribute.

Early Diaspora populations

Even before the destruction of Judea, Jews were widespread. As early as the middle of the second century B.C. the Jewish author of the third book of the Oracula Sibyllina, addressing the "chosen people," says: "Every land is full of thee and every sea;" and if these words contained some exaggeration, the prophecy became true in the subsequent century. The most diverse witnesses, such as Strabo, Philo, Seneca, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, and Josephus, all bear testimony to the fact that the Jewish race was disseminated over the whole civilized world. King Agrippa, in a letter to Caligula, enumerates among the provinces of the Jewish Diaspora almost all the Hellenized and non-Hellenized countries of the Orient; and this enumeration is far from being complete, as Italy and Cyrene are not included. The epigraphic discoveries from year to year augment the number of known Jewish communities. There is only scant information of a precise character concerning the numerical significance of these diverse Jewish conglomerations; and this must be used with caution. After Palestine and Babylonia, it was in Syria, according to Josephus, that the Jewish population was densest; particularly in Antioch, and then in Damascus, in which latter place, at the time of the great insurrection, 10,000 (according to another version 18,000) Jews were massacred. Philo gives the number of Jewish inhabitants in Egypt as 1,000,000; one-eighth of the population. Alexandria was by far the most important Jewish community, the Jews in Philo's time inhabiting two of the five quarters of the city. To judge by the accounts of wholesale massacres in 115, the number of Jewish residents in Cyrenaica, at Cyprus, and in Mesopotamia must also have been large. In Rome itself, at the commencement of the reign of Augustus, there were over 8,000 Jews: this is the number that escorted the envoys who came to demand the deposition of Archelaus. Finally, if the sums confiscated by the propretor Flaccus in 62 represented actually the tax of a didrachma per head for a single year, the inference may be safely drawn that in Asia Minor the Jewish population numbered 45,000 males, or a total of at least 180,000 persons.

Post-Roman 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.

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, restictions grew. Forced explusions and persecution resulted in substantial shifts in the centers of Jewish life, from Judea to Babylonia to Spain to Poland to America, and finally back to Israel.

The Diaspora in Jewish life

Between the Roman destruction of Judea and the re-establishment of a Jewish state with the independence of Israel in 1948, all Jews were considered to be living in the Diaspora. Currently, the term refers to Jews living outside of Israel.

Subsequent numerous exiles and persecution, as well as political and economic conditions and opportinuties, affected the numbers and dynamics of Jewish diaspora. In today's diaspora, the largest number of Jews (5,671,000 in 2003) live in the United States.

Israel's Jewish population, though very diverse in background, is usually not considered as diaspora, was about 5,094,000 in 2003. See Demographics of Israel.

Footnotes

• According to the article by Tovah Lazaroff, Jewish people near zero growth published in Jerusalem Post on June 24, 2004.

See also

• Timeline of Jewish history
• History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
• History of the Jews in Carpathian Ruthenia
• History of the Jews in Poland
• History of Israel
• History of Jews in the United States
• Jewish refugees
• Anti-Semitism and History of anti-Semitism
• Christianity and anti-Semitism
• Islam and anti-Semitism
• Arab anti-Semitism

• Jewish history
• Diasporas
• Jewish diaspora