The Jewish diaspora (Hebrew: Tefutzah, "scattered", or Galut ‫תולג‬, "exile", Yiddish:
tfutses), the presence of Jews outside of the Land of Israel, is a result of the expulsion of
the Jewish people out of their land, migrations from there, and religious conversion to
Judaism. The diaspora is commonly accepted to have begun with the 8th-6th century BC
conquests of the ancient Jewish kingdoms, destruction of the First Temple, and expulsion
of the enslaved Jewish population, and is also associated with the destruction of the
Second Temple and aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt, during the Roman occupation of
Judea in the 1st and 2nd Century AD.
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 the year 70 AD and of Bar Kokhba's
revolt in 135 AD against the Roman Empire notably contributed to the numbers and
geography of the diaspora, as many Jews were scattered after losing their state Judea or
were sold into slavery throughout the empire.
Pre-Roman Diaspora
In 722 BC, the Assyrians under Shalmaneser V conquered the (Northern) Kingdom of
Israel and many Israelites were deported to Khorasan. Since then, for over 2,700 years,
the Persian Jews have lived in the territories of today's Iran.
After the overthrow in 588 BC of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II of
Babylon, (see Babylonian captivity), and the deportation of a considerable portion of its
inhabitants to Mesopotamia, the Jews had two principal cultural centers: Babylonia and
the land of Israel.
Although a majority of the Jewish people, especially the wealthy families, were to be
found in Babylonia, the existence it led there, under the successive rules of the
Achaemenids, the Seleucids, the Parthians, and the Sassanians, was obscure and devoid
of political influence. The poorest but most fervent element among the exiles returned to
Judaea during the reign of the Achaemenids. 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 Torah, which thenceforth constituted the
focus of its identity. 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 BC,
Pompey invaded Jerusalem, and Gabinius subjected the Jewish people to tribute.
Early diaspora populations
As early as the middle of the 2nd century BC, 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." The most diverse witnesses, such as Strabo, Philo, Seneca, Luke (the author
of the Acts of the Apostles), Cicero, and Josephus, all mention Jewish populations in the
cities of the Mediterranean. See also History of the Jews in India and History of the Jews
in China for pre-Roman (and post-) diasporac populations.
King Agrippa I, 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 the Land of Israel and Babylonia, it was in Syria, according to
Josephus, that the Jewish population was the 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 of the Jewish communities, the Jews in Philo's time were 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 were
also large. In Rome, at the commencement of the reign of Caesar Augustus, there were
over 7,000 Jews: this is the number that escorted the envoys who came to demand the
deposition of Archelaus. Finally, if the sums confiscated by the governor Lucius Valerius
Flaccus in the year 62/61 BC represented the tax of a didrachma per head for a single
year, it would imply that the Jewish population of Asia Minor numbered 45,000 adult
males, for a total of at least 180,000 persons.
Post-Roman Diaspora
Roman destruction of Judea
In Rome the Arch of Titus still stands, depicting the enslaved Judeans and objects from
the Temple being brought to Rome.
Roman rule continued until a revolt from 66-70, terminating in the capture of Jerusalem
and the destruction of the Temple, the centre 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 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 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. Jerusalem had
become, under the name "Ælia Capitolina," a Roman colony, a city entirely pagan. The
Jews were forbidden entrance, under pain of death. Nevertheless, 43 Jewish communities
in Palestine remained in the sixth century: 12 on the coast, in the Negev, and east of the
Jordan, and 31 villages in Galilee and in the Jordan valley. Further Jewish revolts erupted
in the years 351, 438 and 614 in alliance with the Persians who governed Jerusalem for
five years.
Dispersion of the Jews
Expulsion of the Jews in the Reign of the Emperor Hadrian (135 AD): How Heraclius
turned the Jews out of Jerusalem. (Facsimile of a Miniature in the Histoire des
Empereurs, Manuscript of the 15th century, in the Library of the Arsenal, Paris.)
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
Jerusalem 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. Jewish communities were thereby largely expelled from Judea
and sent to various Roman provinces in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa.
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 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.