Hence, the Jews of North Africa developed the communal district called a mellah , whereas the Jews of Central Europe were compelled to live in a confined area called a ghetto , so named after the first of its kind in 16th century Venice.
Still later, the Jews of Eastern Europe created a new form of community, a predominantly Jewish town called a shtetl. Echoes of these diverse communal forms may be seen today in the nationwide Jewish socio-political organizations and in the local ethnic neighborhoods of American and, more broadly, Western Jewry.
The communal expansion of the Diaspora also served to fragment world Jewry. Living apart in diverse regions over many centuries, Jews have taken on a multiplicity of cultural and even racial characteristics.
Today, the most critical distinction is that between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, representing the two most historically significant communities. During the Middle Ages, the largest Jewish community in the world was in Spain under Muslim rule, arguably a golden age of Jewish life and freedom. This flourishing Jewish community was referred to by the Hebrew name for Spain, Sepharad.
At the same time, the Jewish communities of France and Germany were developing a distinctive culture of their own in a community known as the Hebrew name for Germany, Ashkenaz. See synonyms for diaspora on Thesaurus. Usually Diaspora. Often Diaspora. See antonyms for diaspora on Thesaurus. We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.
Diaspora first entered English in the late 17th century to describe the communities of urban, observant Jews who lived in the larger cities of the Roman Empire e. The Jewish Diaspora often capitalized began with the deportation of Israelites by the Assyrian and Babylonian kings in the 8th, 7th, and 5th centuries b. John A large number of Jews in Egypt became mercenaries in Upper Egypt on an island called the Elephantine. All of these Jews retained their religion, identity, and social customs; both under the Persians and the Greeks , they were allowed to run their lives under their own laws.
Some converted to other religions; still others combined the Yahweh cult with local cults; but the majority clung to the Hebraic religion and its new-found core document, the Torah. In 63 BC, Judaea became a protectorate of Rome. Coming under the administration of a governor, Judaea was allowed a king; the governor's business was to regulate trade and maximize tax revenue. While the Jews despised the Greeks , the Romans were a nightmare. Governorships were bought at high prices; the governors would attempt to squeeze as much revenue as possible from their regions and pocket as much as they could.
Even with a Jewish king, the Judaeans revolted in 70 AD, a desperate revolt that ended tragically. In 73 AD, the last of the revolutionaries were holed up in a mountain fort called Masada ; the Romans had besieged the fort for two years, and the 1, men, women, and children inside were beginning to starve.
In desperation, the Jewish revolutionaries killed themselves rather than surrender to the Romans. The Romans then destroyed Jerusalem , annexed Judaea as a Roman province, and systematically drove the Jews from Palestine. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library.
Category » Ancient Jewish History. Academies in Babylonia and Erez Israel. Administration of Judaea.
After Exile. Age of Patriarchs. Akkadian Language. Architecture and Architects. Ark of Covenant. Baal Worship. By the turn of the Common Era, Jews lived on most of the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Cyprus and Crete, in mainland Greece and Macedonia, on the shores of the Black Sea, and in the Balkans.
Jewish inscriptions from the early centuries CE have been found in the Crimea and in modern Romania and Hungary. When the Roman presence was felt in the Near East, the growth of Jewish settlement further west ensued. By the mid-first century BCE, the Roman statesman Cicero, in his speech in defense of Flaccus, insinuates the Jews were a troublesome element among the Roman masses.
Large masses of Jews were brought to Rome as slaves by Roman generals campaigning in Judea. Ransomed by other Jews and augmented by a steady stream of voluntary migrants, they swelled the Roman-Jewish community, despite occasional government efforts, on one pretext or another, to reduce their numbers. According to satirical remarks in the Roman poets, most Roman Jews were poor and some were beggars, but there were Jewish storekeepers, craftsmen, and actors in Rome and visiting Jewish diplomats, merchants, and scholars.
In the later Roman Empire, cities in southern Italy became important Jewish centers and large settlements appeared in western North Africa and in Spain. Jewish groups were found in Gaul modern-day France and in the Roman garrison towns on the Rhine.
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