Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their religion and culture, as it evolves and interacts with others, religion and culture. Although Judaism as a religion first appeared in the Greek record during the Hellenistic period (323 BC - 31 BC) and the earliest mention of Israel was written on Merneptah Stele dated 1213-1203 BC, the religious literature tells the story of Israelites returning at least as far as c. 1500 BC. Diaspora Jews began with the Assyrian conquest and continued on a much larger scale with the conquest of Babylon. The Jews were also widespread throughout the Roman Empire, and this continued to a lesser extent during the period of Byzantine rule in the central and eastern Mediterranean. In 638 CE the Byzantine Empire lost control of the Levant. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain coincides with the Middle Ages in Europe, the period of Muslim rule in most of the Iberian Peninsula. During that time, Jews were generally accepted in Jewish society and religion, culture, and economic life developed.
During the Ottoman Classical period (1300-1600), the Jews, along with most other communities in the empire, enjoyed a certain level of prosperity. In the 17th century, there were significant Jewish populations in Western Europe. During the period of European Renaissance and Enlightenment, significant changes took place within the Jewish community. Jews began in the 18th century to campaign for the emancipation of laws that limit and integrate into the wider European society. During the 1870s and 1880s, Jewish inhabitants in Europe began to more actively discuss immigration back to Israel and the re-establishment of the Jews in their national homeland. The Zionist movement was officially established in 1897. Meanwhile, Jews in Europe and the United States succeeded in science, culture, and economics. Among those generally considered the most famous are Albert Einstein scientist and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. A large number of Nobel Prize winners today are Jews, as is still the case.
In 1933, with the rising power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany, the Jewish situation became more severe. The economic crisis, anti-Semitic laws, and fear of the coming war caused many Jews to flee from Europe to Palestine, to the United States and to the Soviet Union. In 1939 World War II began and until 1941 Hitler occupied almost all of Europe, including Poland - where millions of Jews lived at that time - and France. In 1941, after the Soviet invasion, the Final Solution began, an extensive organized operation on an unprecedented scale, aimed at the destruction of the Jews, and resulted in the persecution and murder of Jews in European politics, including North Africa Europe (pro-Nazi Vichy-North Africa and Libya Italy). This genocide, in which some six million Jews are methodically exterminated, is known as The Holocaust or Shoah (Hebrew term). In Poland, three million Jews were killed in gas chambers in all concentration camps combined, with a million in the Auschwitz concentration camp alone.
In 1945 the Jewish resistance organization in Palestine united and formed the Jewish Resistance Movement. The movement began to attack the British authorities. David Ben-Gurion proclaimed on May 14, 1948, the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel to be known as the State of Israel. Soon afterwards all the neighboring Arab states attacked, but the newly formed IDF refused. In 1949 the war ended and the state of Israel began to build the country and absorbed a huge wave of hundreds of thousands of Jews from all over the world. Today (2018), Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a population of over 8 million people, of which about 6 million Jews. The largest Jewish community exists in Israel and the United States, with large communities in France, Argentina, Russia, Britain, Australia, Canada, and Germany. For statistics related to modern Jewish demographics, see the Jewish population .
Video Jewish history
The time period in Jewish history
The history of the Jews and Judaism can be divided into five periods: (1) ancient Israel before Judaism, from early to 586 BC; (2) the beginning of Judaism in the 6th and 5th centuries BC; (3) the formation of rabbinic Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70; (4) the age of rabbinic Judaism, from the rise of Christianity to political power under the emperor Constantine the Great in 312 CE until the end of the political hegemony of Christianity in the 18th century; and (5), the age of diverse Judaism, from the French and American Revolutions to the present.
Ancient Jewish History (around 1500 BC - 63 BCE)
Ancient Israel (up to c. 586 BC)
The history of the early Jews, and their neighbors, centered on the Fertile Crescent and the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It began among the people who occupied the area that lies between the Nile and Mesopotamia. Surrounded by ancient cultural places in Egypt and Babylonia, in the desert of Arabia, and by the plateau of Asia Minor, the land of Canaan (roughly the same as modern Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Lebanon) is the meeting place of civilization..
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jews descended from the ancient Israelites who settled in the land of Canaan between the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan. The Hebrew Bible refers to the "sons of Israel" as the descendants of Israel from the ancestral ancestor of Jacob. It also shows that the Hebrew nomadic journeys centered in Hebron in the first century of the second millennium BC, leading to the formation of the Caves of the Patriarchs as their burial site in Hebron. The children of Israel, in this story, are composed of twelve tribes, each descended from one of the twelve sons of Jacob, Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Judah, Yissak, Zevulun, Dan, Gad, Naphtali, Asher, Josep, and Benjamin.
Genesis, chapters 25-50, tells the story of Jacob and his twelve sons, who left Canaan in the famine and settled in Goshen from northern Egypt. The Egyptian Pharaonic government allegedly enslaved their descendants, although no independent evidence of this has occurred. After 400 years of slavery, YHWH, the God of Israel, sent the Hebrew prophet Moses from the tribe of Levi to free the Israelites from bondage. According to the Bible, the Hebrews miraculously emigrated out of Egypt (an event known as Exodus), and returned to their ancestral land in Canaan. According to the Bible, after their emancipation from Egyptian slavery, the Israelites roamed around and lived in the Sinai desert for a span of forty years before conquering Canaan in 1400 BC under Joshua's command. While living in the desert, according to biblical writings, the Israelites received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai from YHWH through Moses. After entering Canaan, a portion of the land was given to each of the twelve tribes of Israel.
However, archeology reveals a different story about the origin of the Jews: they need not leave the Levant. Archaeological evidence of Israel's native origins in Canaan, not Egypt, is "extraordinary" and leaves "no room for the exodus from Egypt or a 40-year-old pilgrimage through the Sinai desert". Many archaeologists have abandoned archaeological investigations of Moses and the Exodus as "the fruitless pursuit". A century of research by Egyptian archaeologists and experts could find no evidence that could be directly related to the Exodus narrative of Egyptian detention and escape and journey through the wilderness, leading to the notion that the Iron Age of Israel - the kingdom of Judah and Israel - his proposal in Canaan, not in Egypt: Early Israeli settlement culture was Canaan, their cult objects were those of the dean of El Canaan, the pottery remained in the local Canaanic tradition, and the alphabet used was the beginning of Canaan. Almost the only marker that distinguishes the "Israeli" villages from Canaanite sites is the absence of pig bones, although whether these can be considered ethnic markers or because other factors are still a matter of dispute.
For several hundred years, the Land of Israel was set in a twelve-tribe confederation ruled by a series of Judges. After that appeared the Israeli monarchy, founded in 1000 BC under Saul, and continued under King David and his son, Solomon. During the reign of David, the existing Jerusalem city became the national and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Solomon built the First Temple on Mount Moria in Jerusalem. However, the tribes were politically cracked. After his death, civil war broke out among the ten tribes of northern Israel, and the tribes of Judah (Simeon absorbed into Judah) and Benjamin to the south. The people split into the Kingdom of Israel to the north, and the Kingdom of Judah to the south. Assyria ruler Tiglath-Pileser III conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in the 8th century BC. There is no historical record generally accepted for the final destiny of the ten northern tribes, sometimes referred to as the Ten Tribes of Israel, despite speculation abounding.
captivity of Babylonia (c. 587 - 538 BC)
After rebelling against the new dominant forces and the ensuing siege, the Kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonian army in 587 BC and the First Temple was destroyed. The royal elite and many of their men were exiled to Babylon, where religion developed beyond their traditional temples. Others fled to Egypt. After the fall of Jerusalem, Babylon (modern-day Iraq), will be the focus of Judaism for over a thousand years. The first Judah community in Babylonia began with the exile of the Tribe of Judah to Babylon by Jehoiakin in 597 BC and after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC. Babylonia, where some of the largest and most prominent Jewish towns and communities were founded, became the center of Jewish life all the way up to the 13th century. In the first century Babylonia already had a rapidly growing population of about 1,000,000 Judahites who increased to about 2 million between 200 and 500 CE, both by natural growth and by immigration of more Jews from the Land of Israel, making about one-sixth of the world's Jewish population in that era. There they will write the Babylonian Talmud in the language used by the Jews of ancient Babylon - Hebrew and Aramaic.
The Jews founded the Talmud Academy in Babylonia, also known as the Geonik Academy, which became the center of Jewish scholarship and the development of Jewish law in Babylon from about 500 CE to 1038 CE. The two most famous academies are the Pumbedita Academy and the Sura Academy. Major yeshivot is also located in Nehardea and Mahuza.
After several generations and with the conquest of Babylonia in 540 BC by the Persian Empire, some followers led by prophets Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to their homelands and traditional practices. The other Judeans did not return permanently and remained in exile and developed independently outside the Land of Israel, especially after the Muslim conquest of the Middle East in the 7th century.
Initial trade with ancient India (c. 562 BCE - 70 CE)
Traditionally, merchants from Judea arrived at what is now Kochi city in India in 562 BC, and more Judeans came as exiles in AD 70 after the destruction of the Second Temple.
The post- disposal (c: 538 - 332 BC)
After they returned to Jerusalem after returning from exile, and with Persia's approval and financing, the construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BC under the leadership of the last three Jewish prophets, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
After the death of the last Jewish prophet and while still under Persian rule, the leadership of the Jews moved into the hands of five generations of zugot leaders ("pairs") in a row. They flourished first under the Persians and then under the Greeks. As a result, the Pharisees and Sadducees were formed. Under the Persians then under the Greeks, Jewish coins were printed in Judea as Jehud's currency.
Hellenistic period (about 332 - 110 SM))
In 332 BC, the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great of Macedon. After his death, and the division of Alexander's empire among his generals, the Seleucid Kingdom was formed.
Greek culture spread to the east through the conquest of Alexandria. The Levant is not immune to the spread of this culture. During this time, the current of Judaism was influenced by the Hellenistic philosophy that developed from the 3rd century BC, especially the Jewish diaspora in Alexandria, culminating in the Septuagint compilation. An important supporter of the Jewish theological symbiosis and Hellenistic thought is Philo.
Hasmonean Kingdom (110-63 Bce)
The decline of relations between Jewish-mediated Jews and orthodox Jews led the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes to impose a decree banning certain Jewish religious rituals and traditions. As a result, orthodox Jews rebelled under the leadership of the Hasmonean family (also known as the Maccabees). This revolt eventually led to the formation of an independent Jewish empire, known as the Hasmona Dynasty, lasting from 165 BC to 63 BC. The Hasmonean dynasty was finally destroyed by the civil war between the sons of Salome Alexandra; Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. The people, who did not want to be ruled by the king but by the theocratic clergy, made a plea in this spirit to the Roman authorities. A campaign of Roman conquest and annexation, led by Pompey, soon followed.
Roman Government in Israel (63 BCE - 324 CE )
Judea was an independent Jewish empire under Hasmonea, but was conquered by Roman general Pompey in 63 BC and reorganized as a client state. The Roman expansion also took place in other areas, and would continue for over one hundred and fifty years. Later, Herod the Great was appointed the "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate, replacing the Hasmonean dynasty. Some of his descendants held various positions after him, known as the Herodian dynasty. Briefly, from 4 BC to 6 AD, Herod Archelaus ruled the Judean tetrarchy as ethnark, the Romans denying him the title of King. After the Quirinius Census in AD 6, the Roman province of Judea was formed as a Syrian Roman satellite under the rule of a prefect (like the Roman Egyptian) until AD 41, then a procurator after 44 AD The empire was often unfeeling and brutal in treating the Jews , (see Anti-Judaism in the pre-Christian Roman Empire). At 30 AD (or AD 33), Jesus of Nazareth, a rabbi rabbi from Galilee, and the central figure of Christianity, was killed by crucifixion in Jerusalem under the Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate. In 66 CE, the Jews began to rebel against the Roman rulers of Judea. The rebellion was defeated by the Roman emperor of the future of Vespasian and Titus. In the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and, according to some stories, seized artifacts from temples, such as the Menorah. The Jews continued to live on their land in significant numbers, the Kitos War of 115-117 AD, until Julius Severus struck Judea when it overthrew the Bar Kokhba rebellion in 132-136 AD 985 villages destroyed and most of the Jewish population in central Judea basically destroyed, killed, sold into slavery, or forced to flee. Released from Jerusalem, except for Tisha B'Av, the Jewish population is now centered in Galilee and originally at Yavne. Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina and Judea was renamed Palestinian Syria, to insult the Jews by naming it after their ancient enemy, the Philistines. Jews were only allowed to visit Aelia Capitolina on the day of Tisha B'Av.
The diaspora
The Jewish diaspora began with the conquest of Assyria and continued on a much larger scale with the Babylonian conquest, in which the Tribe of Judah was exiled to Babylon along with the stripped King of Judah, Yoyakhin, in the 6th century BC, and was taken into custody in 597 BC. The isolation continued after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC. Many Jews migrated to Babylon in 135 AD following the uprising of Bar Kokhba and in later centuries.
Many Jewish Jews were sold as slaves while others became citizens of other states of the Roman Empire. The Book of Acts in the New Testament, as well as other Paulic texts, often refers to the large population of Jews who were insulted in the cities of the Roman world. These Hellenistic Jews were influenced by the diaspora only in its spiritual sense, absorbing the feelings of loss and homelessness which became the cornerstone of the Jewish faith, which was widely supported by persecution in different parts of the world. The policy of encouraging proselytism and conversion to Judaism, which spread Judaism throughout the Hellenistic civilization, seems to have subsided with the war against the Romans.
Very important for the re-establishment of the Jewish tradition of the Temple-based religion into the Diaspora rabbinic tradition, is the development of an interpretation of the Torah found in Misnah and the Talmud.
Final Roman Period in the Land of Israel
The relationship of the Jews to the Roman Empire in the region continues to be complicated. Constantine I allows the Jews to grieve for their defeat and humiliation once a year on Tisha B'Av on the Western Wall. In 351-352 AD, the Jews in Galilee waged another rebellion, provoking vengeance. The Gallus uprising came during the increasing influence of early Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire, under the Constantine dynasty. However, in 355, the relationship with Roman rulers improved, after the Emperor Julian, the last of the Constantine dynasties, unlike his predecessors against Christianity. In 363, shortly before Julian left Antioch to wage his campaign against Persian Sasanians, in an attempt to cultivate religions other than Christianity, he ordered the Jewish Temple to be rebuilt. The failure to rebuild the Temple is largely thought to have originated from the dramatic Galilean quake 363 and traditionally also for the Jewish ambivalence of the project. Sabotage is a possibility, like an accidental fire. Divine intervention was a common view among Christian historians at the time. Julian's support of the Jews caused the Jews to call him "Julian the Hellene". Julian's fatal wound in the Persian campaign and his death had ended the Jewish aspirations, and Julian's successors embraced Christianity through the entire time line of the Byzantine government of Jerusalem, preventing Jewish claims.
In 438 CE, when Queen Eudocia lifted the prohibition of the Jews praying on the temple site, the head of the Community in Galilee issued a call "to the great and mighty Jews" which begins: "Know that the end of the exile of our people has come! "However, the Christian population in the city, who saw this as a threat to their virtues, did not allow it and riots erupted after which they expelled the Jews from the city.
During the 5th and 6th centuries, a series of Samaritan revolts broke out in the province of Palaestina Prima. Especially violence is the third and fourth rebellion, which resulted in almost all the destruction of the Samaria community. It is quite possible that the Samaritan Rebellion 556 was followed by the Jewish community, which also suffered brutal repression against the religion of Israel.
In the belief of the impending restoration, in the early 7th century the Jews allied with Persia, who attacked the Prime Palaestina in 614, fought on their side, controlled the Byzantine garrison in Jerusalem, and were given Jerusalem to be governed as autonomy. However, their autonomy was brief: Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were killed for a time during the Christian uprising and although Jerusalem was recaptured by the Persians and Jews within 3 weeks, it fell into anarchy. With the withdrawal of the Persian army, the Jews surrendered to Byzantium in 625 or 628 AD, but were massacred by Christian radicals in 629 AD, with survivors fleeing to Egypt. Byzantine control (Eastern Roman Empire) in the region finally disappeared for the Muslim Arab army in 637 AD, when Umar ibn al-Khattab completed Akko's conquest.
Maps Jewish history
Medieval
Jews from Babylonia (219-1250 CE)
After the fall of Jerusalem, Babylon (modern-day Iraq), will be the focus of Judaism for over a thousand years. The first Jewish community in Babylon began with the exile of the Tribe of Judah to Babylon by Jehoiakin in 597 BC and after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC. Many Jews migrated to Babylon in AD 135 after the Bar Kokhba rebellion and in later centuries. Babylonia, where some of the largest and most prominent Jewish towns and communities were founded, became the center of Jewish life all the way up to the 13th century. In the first century, Babylon already had a rapidly growing population of about 1,000,000 Jews, which increased to about 2 million between 200 CE and 500 CE, both by natural growth and by immigration of more Jews from the Land of Israel, making about 1/6 of the world's Jewish population of that era. There they will write the Babylonian Talmud in the language used by the Jews of ancient Babylon: Hebrew and Aramaic. The Jews founded the Talmud Academy in Babylonia, also known as the Academy of Geonik ("Geonim" meaning "splendor" in Biblical Hebrew or "genius"), which became the center for Jewish scholarship and the development of Jewish law in Babylon from about 500 CE to 1038 CE. The two most famous academies are the Pumbedita Academy and the Sura Academy. Major yeshivot is also located in Nehardea and Mahuza. The Talmudic Yeshiva Academy became a major part of Jewish culture and education, and the Jews continued to establish the Yeshiva Academy in Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and in later centuries to America and other countries around the world where Jews lived in Diaspora.. The Talmudic study at Yeshiva academy continues today with the establishment of a large number of Yeshiva academies, mostly located in the United States and Israel.
The Talmudic Yeshiva Babylonian Academy follows the era of Amoraim ("magnifying") - an active Talmud sage (both in the Land of Israel and in Babylon) at the end of the Mishnah sealing age and up to the sealing time of the Talmud (220CE - 500CE), and following Savoraim ("reasoners ") - the wise men of Beth midrash (Babylonian study places) in Babylon from the end of the Amoraim era (the 5th century) and to the beginning of the Geonim era. The Geonim (Hebrew: ??????) was the president of two great rabbinical colleges of Sura and Pumbedita, and was a generally accepted spiritual leader of the Jewish community throughout the world in the early Middle Ages, in contrast to Resh Galuta (Exilarch ) who holds secular authority over Jews in the land of Islam. According to tradition, Resh Galuta is a descendant of the kings of Judea, which is why the Parthian kings will treat them with respect.
For early and early medieval Jews, the yeshivots of Babylonia serve many of the same functions as the ancient Sanhedrin. That is, as a board of Jewish religious authorities. The Academy was founded in the pre-Islamic Babylon under the Sassanid Zoroastrian dynasty and is located not far from the capital of Sassanid Ctesiphon, which at that time was the largest city in the world. After the conquest of Persia in the 7th century, the academy then operated for four hundred years under the Islamic caliphate. The first prison of Sura, according to Sherira Gaon, is Mar bar Rab Chanan, who held office in 609. Sura's last guard is Samuel ben Hofni, who died in 1034; Pumbedita's last guard is Hezekiah Gaon, who was tortured to death in 1040; Geonim's activity covers a period of nearly 450 years.
One of the chief seats of Babylonian Judaism was Nehardea, who was then a very large city of mostly Jews. A very ancient synagogue, built, believed, by King Jehoiachin, is in Nehardea. In Huzal, near Nehardea, there is another synagogue, not far from the ruins of Ezra's academy. In the period before Hadrian, Akiba, on his arrival at Nehardea on the mission of the Sanhedrin, entered into a discussion with a resident scholar at the point of marriage law (Mishnah Yeb., End). At the same time it was in Nisibis (northern Mesopotamia), a very fine Jewish college, where there stood Judah ben Bathyra, and where many scholars of Judea found shelter in times of persecution. Certain temporary interests are also achieved by schools in Nehar-Pe? Od, founded by immigrant immigrant Judea, the nephew of Joshua ben Hananya, which school might be the cause of the split between Jews in Babylon and the Judeans. Israel, not the authority of Judah immediately checks Hananya's ambitions. Byzantine Period (324-638 CE)
The Jews were also widespread throughout the Roman Empire, and this continued to a lesser extent during the period of Byzantine rule in the central and eastern Mediterranean. Militant and exclusive Christianity and the caesaropapism of the Byzantine Empire did not treat the Jews well, and the conditions and influence of diaspora Jews in the Empire declined dramatically.
It was the official Christian policy to turn the Jews into Christianity, and Christian leadership used the official Roman powers in their efforts. In 351 AD, the Jews revolted against the added pressure of their Governor, Constantius Gallus. Gallus stopped the rebellion and destroyed the big cities in the area of ​​Galilee where the uprising began. Tzippori and Lydda (the site of two major law academies) have never recovered.
In this period, Nasi in Tiberias, Hillel II, created an official calendar, which did not require monthly monthly sightings. The months have been set, and the calendar does not require any further authority from Judea. At about the same time, the Jewish academy in Tiberius began to compose a mixture of Mishnah, braitot, explanations, and interpretations developed by the generation of scholars who studied after the death of Judah HaNasi. The text is arranged in the order of Mishna: every paragraph of the Mishnah is followed by a compilation of all the interpretations, stories, and responses associated with the Mishnah. This text is called Jerusalem Talmud.
The Jews in Judea received a brief respite from the official persecution during the reign of Emperor Julian the apostate. Julian's policy was to return the kingdom to Hellenism and he encouraged the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem. When the Julian government was short lived from 361 to 363, the Jews were unable to rebuild adequately before the Christian Roman rule was restored over the Empire. Beginning in 398 with the consecration of St. John Chrysostom as a Patriarch, Christian rhetoric against the Jews continues to increase; he preached with titles such as "Against the Jews" and "In Statues, Homily 17," where John preached against "Jewish sickness". Such hot language contributes to a climate of Christian distrust and hatred of large Jewish settlements, such as in Antioch and Constantinople.
At the beginning of the fifth century, Emperor Theodosius issued a decree setting the official persecution of the Jews. Jews are not allowed to have slaves, build new synagogues, hold public office or try cases between a Jew and a non-Jew. The marriage between Jews and Gentiles was a major offense, as Christians converted to Judaism. Theodosius removed the Sanhedrin and abolished the post of Rice. Under the Emperor Justinian, the authorities further restricted the civil rights of the Jews, and threatened their religious rights. The Emperor interfered with the internal affairs of the synagogue, and forbade, for example, the use of Hebrew in divine worship. Those who disobey restrictions are subject to corporal punishment, exile, and loss of property. The Jews in Borium, not far from Syrtis Major, who fought General Belisarius in his campaign against the Vandals, were forced to embrace Christianity, and their synagogue was converted into a church.
Justinian and his successors have concerns outside the province of Judea, and he has insufficient troops to enforce these rules. As a result, the 5th century is the period when new synagogue waves are built, many with beautiful mosaic floors. Jews adopted the rich art form of Byzantine culture. The Jewish mosaic of the day depicts people, animals, menorahs, zodiacs, and biblical characters. Excellent examples of the floor of this synagogue have been found in Beit Alpha (which includes the Abraham scene sacrificing a ram instead of his son Isaac along with the zodiac), Tiberius, Beit Shean, and Tzippori.
The precarious existence of Jews under Byzantine rule did not last long, largely because of Muslim religious outbursts out of the remote Arab peninsula (where large populations of Jews live, see Jewish History under Muslim Rules for more). The Muslim Caliphs drove the Byzantines from the Holy Land (or Levant, defined as modern Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) within a few years of their victory at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636. Many Jews escaped from the remaining Byzantine districts for the sake of dwelling in caliphate over the following centuries.
The size of the Jewish community in the Byzantine Empire was unaffected by attempts by some emperors (especially Justinian) to forcibly convert the Anatolian Jews into Christianity, because these efforts were unsuccessful. Historians continue to examine the status of Jews in Asia Minor during the Byzantine rule. (for example, J. Starr Jews in the Byzantine Empire, 641-1204 ; S. Bowman, Byzantine Jews ; R Jenkins > Byzantium ; Averil Cameron, "Byzantine and Jewish: The Newest Work at the Beginning of Byzantium", Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 20 (1996)). There was no systematic persecution of endemic species at that time in Western Europe (pogroms, stakes, mass expulsions, etc.) was recorded in Byzantium. Most of the Jewish population in Constantinople remained in place after the conquest of the city by Mehmet II.
Perhaps in the fourth century, the kingdom of Semien, a Jewish nation in modern Ethiopia was founded, which lasted until the 17th century.
Islamic Period (638-1099)
In 638 CE the Byzantine Empire lost control of the Levant. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. As a political system, Islam creates radical new conditions for Jewish economic, social, and intellectual development. Caliph Omar allowed the Jews to rebuild their presence in Jerusalem - after an interval of 500 years. The Jewish tradition considers Caliph Umar as a benevolent ruler and Midrash (Nistarot de-Rav Shimon bar Yo? Ai) calls him "a friend of Israel."
According to Arabic geographer Al-Muqaddasi, Jews work as "co-founders of coin, beggars, tanners, and bankers". During the Fatimid period, many Jewish officials served in the regime. Professor Moshe Gil documented that at the time of the Arab conquests in the 7th century, the majority of the population was Jewish.
During that time the Jewish people living in developing communities around the ancient Babylonians. In Geonik period (650-1250 AD), Babylon Yeshiva Academy is a major center of Jewish learning; Geonim (meaning "Splendor" or "Geniuses"), which is the head of these schools, recognized as the highest authority in Jewish law.
Jewish Golden Age in Muslim Spain beginning (711-1031)
The Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain coincides with the Middle Ages in Europe, the period of Muslim rule in most of the Iberian Peninsula. During that time, Jews were generally accepted in Jewish society and religion, culture, and economic life developed.
A period of tolerance that later dawned on the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula, whose numbers increased with immigration from Africa after the Muslim conquest. Especially after 912, during the reign of Abd-ar-Rahman III and his son, Al-Hakam II, the Jews prospered, devoted themselves to serving the Cordoba Caliphate, to study science, and to commerce and industry, especially to trade sutras and slaves, in this way promote the prosperity of the country. Jewish economic expansion is unrivaled. In Toledo, the Jews were involved in translating Arabic texts into Roman languages, and translating Greek and Hebrew texts into Arabic. Jews also contribute to botany, geography, medicine, mathematics, poetry, and philosophy.
Generally, the Jews were allowed to practice their religion and live according to the laws and scriptures of their community. Furthermore, the restrictions on which it is subject are social and symbolic rather than tangible and practical in character. That is, these rules serve to determine the relationship between two communities, and not to oppress the Jewish population.
'Doctors and ministers Abd al-Rahman are Hasdai ben Isaac ibn Shaprut, protector Menahem ben Saruq, Dunash ben Labrat, and other Jewish scholars and poets. Jewish thought during this period developed under famous figures such as Samuel Ha-Nagid, Moses ibn Ezra, Solomon ibn Gabirol Judah Halevi and Moses Maimonides. During the reign of Abd al-Rahman, the scholar Moses ben Enoch was appointed as a rabbi from CÃÆ'³rdoba, and as a consequence of al-Andalus became the center of the Talmud study, and CÃÆ'³rdoba became the meeting place for Jewish scholars.
The Golden Age ends with an al-Andalus invasion by Almohades, a conservative dynasty originating from North Africa, who is extremely intolerant of religious minorities.
Crusaders period (1099-1260)
Preaching messages to avenge the death of Jesus encouraged Christians to participate in the Crusades. The 12th-century Jewish narrative of R. Solomon ben Samson notes that the crusaders on their way to the Holy Land decided that before fighting the Ishmaelites they would slaughter the Jews who were in their midst to avenge the crucifixion of Christ. The massacre begins in Rouen and the Jewish community in the Rhine Valley is severely affected.
The attack on the cross was committed against Jews in the area around Heidelberg. The great loss of Jewish life took place. Many are forced into Christianity and many commit suicide to avoid baptism. The main driving factor behind the choice to commit suicide is the Jewish consciousness that when massacred, their children can be taken to be raised as Christians. The Jews lived in the middle of Christian land and felt this danger acutely. This massacre is seen as the first in a series of anti-Semitic events culminating in the Holocaust. The Jewish population felt that they had been abandoned by their Christian neighbors and rulers during the massacre and lost faith in all promises and plaques.
Many Jews choose to defend themselves. But their means of self-defense are limited and their victims only increase. Most forced conversions have proved ineffective. Many Jews return to their original faith later. The Pope protested this but Emperor Henry IV agreed to allow this reversal. The massacre started a new age for Jews in the Christian world. The Jews have defended their faith from social pressure, now they must preserve it at the point of the sword. Crusade during the crusade strengthened the Jews from within the spiritual. The Jewish perspective is that their struggle is Israel's struggle to sanctify the name of God.
In 1099, the Jews helped the Arabs to defend Jerusalem against the Crusaders. When the city collapsed, the Crusaders gathered many Jews in the synagogue and burned it. In Haifa, the Jews were almost alone in defending the city against the Crusaders, lasting for a month, (June-July 1099). At this time there are Jewish communities scattered throughout the country, including Jerusalem, Tiberias, Ramleh, Ashkelon, Caesarea, and Gaza. Since Jews were not allowed to hold land during the Crusader period, they worked in trade and commerce in coastal cities during the period of calm. Most of the artisans: glassmen in Sidon, looters and beggars in Jerusalem.
During this period, Masoret Tiberias established niqqud , a diacritic marking system used to represent the vowels or distinguish between the alternative pronunciation of the Hebrew alphabet. Many piyutim and midrashim are recorded in Palestine today.
Maimonides writes that in 1165 he visited Jerusalem and went to the Temple Mount, where he prayed in the "holy mansion". Maimonides held an annual vacation for himself and his sons, 6th Cheshvan, commemorating the day he went up to pray at the Temple Mount, and the other, 9th Cheshvan, commemorated the day he cherished to pray in the Caves of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
In 1141 Judah Halevi issued a call to the Jews to emigrate to the land of Israel and take the long journey itself. After passing through a storm from CÃÆ'³rdoba, he arrived in Alexandria Egypt, where he was greeted with enthusiasm by his friends and admirers. At Damietta, he has to fight against his heart, and his friend's plea? Alfon ha-Levi, that he remains in Egypt, where he will be free from the intolerant oppression. He started on a rough land route. He was found along the way by the Jews in Tire and Damascus. The Jewish legend tells that when he came near Jerusalem, overwhelmed by the sights of the Holy City, he sang the most beautiful elegi, the famous "Zionide" ( Zion ha-lo Tish'ali ). At that moment, an Arab ran out of the gate and climbed up; he was killed in the accident.
Mamluk Period (1260-1517)
In the years 1260-1516, the land of Israel was part of the Mamluk Empire, which ruled first from Turkey, then from Egypt. Period is marked by war, rebellion, bloodshed and destruction. The Jews suffered persecution and humiliation, but the surviving records recorded at least 30 urban and rural Jewish communities at the opening of the 16th century.
Nahmanides was noted as settling in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1267. He moved to Acre, where he was active in spreading Jewish learning, which at that time was neglected in the Holy Land. He collected the circles of students around him, and people came, even from the Euphrates district, to hear it. Karaite is said to have attended his lecture, including Aaron Ben Joseph the Elder. He then became one of the greatest Karaite rulers. Shortly after the arrival of Nahmanides in Jerusalem, he delivered a letter to his son Nahman, where he described the sadness of the Holy City. At that time, there were only two Jewish residents - two brothers, dyers by trade. In later letters from Acre, Nahmanides advised his son to cultivate humility, which he considered the first of virtue. On the other hand, addressed to his second son, who occupied the official position at Castile castle, Nahmanides recommended daily prayer studies and warned above all to immorality. Nahmanides died after reaching seventy-six, and his body was buried in Haifa, near the tomb of Yechiel of Paris.
Yechiel had emigrated to Acre in 1260, along with his son and a large group of followers. There he founded Tamudic College Midrash haGadol d'Paris . He is believed to have died there between 1265 and 1268. In 1488 Obadiah ben Abraham, commentator on the Mishnah, arrived in Jerusalem; this marks a new period of return for the Jewish community in the country.
Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East
During the Middle Ages, Jews were generally better treated by Islamic rulers than Christians. Despite second class citizenship, Jews played an important role in Muslim courts, and experienced a "Golden Age" in the Moorish Spain around 900-1100, though the situation worsened after that time. The unrest that resulted in the deaths of Jews occurred in North Africa for centuries and especially in Morocco, Libya and Algeria, where finally the Jews were forced to live in the ghetto.
During the 11th century, Muslims in Spain pogromed the Jews; which occurred in Cordoba in 1011 and in Granada in 1066. During the Middle Ages, the governments of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen imposed a decree ordering the destruction of the synagogue. At times, Jews are forced to convert to Islam or face death in parts of Yemen, Morocco and Baghdad. Muwahidun, who had ruled most of the Islamic Iberians in 1172, surpassed Almoravides in fundamentalist view. They treat dhimmi roughly. They expel Jews and Christians from Moroccan and Islamic Spain. Faced with the choice of death or repentance, many Jews emigrated. Some, like the Maimonides, fled south and east to a more tolerant Muslim land, while others went north to settle in the growing Christian kingdom.
Europe
According to American author James Carroll, "Jews account for 10% of the total population of the Roman Empire, and with that ratio, if other factors do not intervene, there will be 200 million Jews in the world today instead of something like 13 million."
The Jewish population had existed in Europe, especially in the territory of the former Roman Empire, from the early days. Because Jewish men have emigrated, some sometimes take wives from local populations, as demonstrated by various MtDNAs, compared to Y-DNA among the Jewish population. These groups are followed by traders and then by diaspora members. Records of the Jewish community in France (see History of the Jews in France) and Germany (see History of the Jews in Germany) date from the 4th century, and substantial Jewish communities in Spain were even listed earlier.
Historian Norman Cantor and other twentieth-century scholars denied the tradition that the Middle Ages were a difficult uniform time for Jews. Before the Church was fully organized as an institution with increasing rules, early medieval society became tolerant. Between 800 and 1100, about 1.5 million Jews live in Christian Europe. Since they are not Christians, they are not included as a division of the feudal system of the clergy, knights and slaves. This means that they do not have to comply with the oppressive demands for the conscripts and labor that the common people of Christianity are subjected to. In connection with Christian society, Jews are protected by kings, princes and bishops, because of the important services they provide in three areas: finance, administration and medicine. The lack of political power makes the Jews vulnerable to exploitation through extreme taxes.
Christian scholars interested in the Bible consult with the Talmudic rabbis. When the Roman Catholic Church was strengthened as an institution, the command of Franciscan and Dominican preaching was established, and there was a resurrection of competing middle-class Christians living in the city. In 1300, local monks and priests staged a Passion drama during Holy Week, depicting Jews (in contemporary attire) killing Christ, according to a Gospel report. From this period, the persecution of Jews and deportation became endemic. Around 1500, the Jews found the relative security and renewal of prosperity in Poland today.
After 1300, the Jews experienced more discrimination and persecution in Christian Europe. European Jews are mainly city dwellers and scholars. Christians tend to regard Jews as stubborn believer of truth because in their view Jews are expected to know the truth of Christian doctrine from their knowledge of Jewish scriptures. The Jews were aware of the pressure to accept Christianity. Since Catholics are forbidden by churches to lend money for interest, some Jews become prominent moneylenders. The Christian rulers gradually saw the advantage of having a class of people who could provide capital for their use without being ostracized. As a result, Western European money trading became a Jewish specialty. However, in almost every instance when Jews earn large sums of money through banking transactions, during their life or at the time of their death, the king will take over. Jews into the kingdom's " servi camerÃÆ'Â| " , which may present them and their property to the prince or city.
The Jews were often slaughtered and exiled from various European countries. The persecution reached its first peak during the Crusades. In the People's Crusade (1096) the Jewish community that flourished on the Rhine and Danube was completely destroyed. In the Second Crusade (1147) the Jews in France were subjected to the frequent massacres. They were also subjected to attacks by the Crusades of Shepheres 1251 and 1320. The Crusades were followed by massive expulsions, including (in 1290) expelling all British Jews; in 1396 100,000 Jews were expelled from France; and in 1421, thousands of people were expelled from Austria. During this time many Jews in Europe, either escaped or expelled, migrated to Poland, where they prospered into another Golden Age.
Initial Modern Period
Historians studying modern Jews have identified four distinct pathways where European Jews are "modernized" and thus integrated into the mainstream of European society. The general approach is to see the process through the lens of the European Enlightenment when the Jews face the promises and challenges posed by political emancipation. Scholars using this approach have focused on two social types as a paradigm for the decline of Jewish tradition and as agents of sea change in the Jewish culture that led to the collapse of the ghetto. The first of these two social types is the Jewish Court described as a pioneer of modern Jews, having achieved integration with and participation in the proto-capitalist economy and the people of the palaces of central European countries such as the Habsburg Empire. In contrast to the Jewish Cosmopolitan Court, the second social type presented by modern Jewish historians is mascil, (the learned man), a supporter of Haskalah (Enlightenment). This narrative sees the maskil's pursuit of secular science and its rationalistic critique of rabbinical tradition as laying down a strong intellectual foundation for the secularization of Jewish society and culture. The established paradigm is one in which Ashkenazic Jews enter modernity through a self-aware westernization process led by "very unorthodox and benign Jewish intellectuals". Haskalah gave birth to the Reformed and Conservative movements and planted the seeds of Zionism while at the same time encouraging cultural assimilation to the countries where Jews live. At about the same time as Haskalah developed, Hasidic Judaism spread as a movement that preached the world's views almost against Haskalah.
In the 1990s, the concept of "Port Jew" has been suggested as an "alternative path to modernity" different from that of Europe Haskalah. Unlike the focus on the German Jews who are Ashkenazic, the Jewish Port concept focuses on Sephardi's conversations that escape the Inquisition and settled in European port cities on the Mediterranean coast, the Atlantic and the Eastern coast of the United States.
Jewish Court
Jewish courts are Jewish bankers or businessmen who lend money and handle the finances of some Christian European noble houses. Appropriate historical terms are Jailan Jew and shtadlan .
Examples of what would later be called Jewish courts arise when local authorities use the services of Jewish bankers for short-term loans. They lend money to the nobility and in the process gain social influence. The noble patrons of the Jews in court employed them as financiers, suppliers, diplomats, and trade delegates. Jewish courts may use their family connections, and connections between each other, to provide sponsorship with, inter alia, food, weapons, ammunition and precious metals. In return for their services, Jewish courts gained social rights, including a noble status for themselves, and could live outside the Jewish ghetto. Some nobles want to keep their bankers in their own courts. And because they are under noble protection, they are freed from rabbinical jurisdiction.
Since medieval times, Jewish courts have been able to accumulate personal wealth and gain political and social influence. Sometimes they are also prominent people in the local Jewish community and can use their influence to protect and influence their brothers. Sometimes they are the only Jews who can interact with the local community and present the Jewish petition to the authorities. However, Jewish courts have social relations and influence in the Christian world primarily through its Christian protectors. Due to the precarious position of Jews, some nobles can only ignore their debts. If the sponsoring nobleman dies, his Jewish financier could face exile or execution.
Spanish and Portuguese
Significant repression of many Spanish communities occurred during the 14th century, especially a large pogrom in 1391 which resulted in a majority of the 300,000 Jews turning to Catholicism. With the conquest of the Muslim Kingdom of Granada in 1492, the Catholic kings issued the Alhambra Decision where the remaining 100,000 Jews were forced to choose between conversion and exile. As a result, about 50,000 to 70,000 Jews left Spain, the rest joined the already large Converso Spanish community. Perhaps a quarter of a million Conversos were thus gradually absorbed by the dominant Catholic culture, although those who secretly practiced Judaism were subjected to intense oppression for 40 years by the Spanish Inquisition. This was especially so until 1530, after which the Inquisition's Conversos trials fell to 3% of the total. The expulsion of similar Sephardic Jews occurred in 1493 in Sicily (37,000 Jews) and Portugal in 1496. The expelled Spanish Jews fled mainly to the Ottoman Empire and North Africa and Portugal. A small number also settled in Holland and England.
Port Jew
The Port Jew describes the Jews involved in European shipping and maritime economics, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. Helen Fry shows that they can be regarded as "the earliest modern Jews". According to Fry, Port Jews often come as "refugees from the Inquisition" and the expulsion of Jews from Iberia. They were allowed to settle in port cities because merchants gave permission to trade at ports such as Amsterdam, London, Trieste and Hamburg. Fry noted that their relationship with the Jewish Diaspora and their expertise in maritime trade made them very interested in European mercantilist governments. Lois Dubin portrays Port Jews as Jewish traders who are "valued for their involvement in the international maritime trade in which cities are flourishing." Sorkin and others have characterized the socio-cultural profile of these people as being marked by the flexibility of religion and the "enlightened 'traditional" reluctant cosmopolitanism that is foreign to Jewish identity ".
Ottoman Empire
During the Ottoman Classical period (1300-1600), the Jews, along with most other communities in the empire, enjoyed a certain level of prosperity. Compared to other Ottoman subjects, they are the dominant force in trade and commerce and in diplomacy and other high positions. In the 16th century in particular, the Jews were the most prominent under the milets, the Jewish influence of apogee arguably being the appointment of Joseph Nasi to Sanjak-bey ( governor , the rank is usually only given to Muslims) from the island of Naxos.
At the time of the Battle of Yarmuk when the Levant passed under the Rule of Muslims, thirty Jewish communities existed in Haifa, Sh'chem, Hebron, Ramleh, Gaza, Jerusalem, and much to the north. Safed became a spiritual center for the Jews and Shulchan Aruch was gathered there as well as many Kabbalistic texts. The first Hebrew print machine, and the first print in West Asia began in 1577.
Jews live in the geographical region of Asia Minor (modern Turkey, but more geographically either Anatolian or Asian Minor) for over 2,400 years. Early prosperity in Hellenistic times had faded under the Byzantine Christian rule, but recovered somewhat under the reign of various Muslim governments who fled and ruled from Constantinople. For much of the Ottoman period, Turkey was a safe place for Jews who escaped persecution, and continued to have a small Jewish population today. The situation in which the Jews alike enjoyed cultural and economic prosperity at times but was widely persecuted at other times summarized by G.E. Von Grunebaum:
It would not be difficult to collect the names of a large number of Jewish subjects or citizens of Islamic lands who have attained a high rank, in power, for substantial financial influence, for significant and recognized intellectual achievement; and the same can be done for Christians. But it would not be difficult to compile a long list of persecutions, arbitrary foreclosures, attempted forced conversions, or pogroms.
Polish-Lithuanian
In the 17th century, there were significant Jewish populations in Western Europe. The relatively tolerant Poland has the largest Jewish population in Europe dating from the 13th century and enjoys relative prosperity and freedom for nearly four hundred years; But the calm situation there ended when the Polish and Lithuanian Jews were slaughtered in the hundreds of thousands by the cossacks during the Chmielnicki uprising (1648) and by the Swedish war (1655). Encouraged by this and other persecution, the Jews moved back to Western Europe in the 17th century. The last restriction on Jews (by the British) was repealed in 1654, but periodic evictions from individual cities still occurred, and the Jews were often restricted from possession of the land, or forced to live in the ghetto.
With the separation of Poland at the end of the 18th century, the Jewish population split between the Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian, and Prussia, which divided Poland for themselves.
Hasidic Judaism
Hasid Judaism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularization and internalization of Jewish mysticism as a fundamental aspect of the Jewish faith. Hasidism consists of part of contemporary Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, in addition to the previous Lithuanian-Yeshiva Talmudic approach and the Sephardi Oriental tradition.
It was founded in the eighteenth century in Eastern Europe by the Israeli Rabbi Baal Shem Tov in reaction to overly legalistic Judaism. Contrary to this, Hasid's teachings appreciate the earnestness and hide the unfinished sanctity of ordinary people, and their equality with the scientific elite. The emphasis on the presence of Divine Immanen in all things gives new value to prayer and good deeds, in addition to the supremacy of Rabbinic studies, and replaces the historical mystical (kabbalistic) and ethical (musar) asceticism and warnings with daily optimism, encouragement and passion. This popular emotional awakening accompanies the ideals of the abortive cancellation to the paradoxical Divine Panentheism, through the intellectual articulation of the inner dimensions of mystical thought. Adjustment of Jewish values ​​seeks to add standardized standards of ritual obedience, while relaxing others where inspiration dominates. His communal gathering celebrates a song full of feeling and storytelling as a form of mystical devotion.
19th century
Although persecution still exists, emancipation spread throughout Europe in the 19th century. Napoleon invites the Jews to abandon the Jewish ghettos in Europe and seek refuge in the newly created tolerant political regime that offers equality under the Law
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