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137-465: Ease of tracing ownership has been facilitated since "numerous owners" wrote their name. It has been described as "containing 577 pages." The original owner can't be determined, since a subsequent owner erased that owner's name, a practice that subsequent owners did not follow. Although it was written in France, it stopped moving from private owner to private owner when, together with other Jewish works, it

274-414: A printing culture . Jewish historians wrote accounts of their collective experiences, but also increasingly used history for political, cultural, and scientific or philosophical exploration. Writers drew upon a corpus of culturally inherited text in seeking to construct a logical narrative to critique or advance the state of the art. Modern Jewish historiography intertwines with intellectual movements such as

411-458: A Jewish military colony existed at Elephantine , established before the exile, where they built their own shrine. Deuteronomy was expanded and earlier scriptures were edited during the exilic period. The first edition of Jeremiah , the Book of Ezekiel , the majority of Obadiah , and what is referred to in research as " Second Isaiah " were all written during this time period as well. According to

548-517: A ban on circumcision, later repealed by Antoninus Pius . The province of Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina as a punitive act against the Jews, aimed at placating non-Jewish residents and erasing Jewish historical ties to the land. The relations of the Jews with the Roman Empire in the region continued to be complicated. Constantine I allowed Jews to mourn their defeat and humiliation once

685-550: A civil war erupted between the ten northern Israelite tribes, and the tribes of Judah ( Simeon was absorbed into Judah) and Benjamin in the south. The kingdom then split into the Kingdom of Israel in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The Kingdom of Israel was the more prosperous of the two kingdoms and soon developed into a regional power. During the days of the Omride dynasty , it controlled Samaria , Galilee ,

822-530: A focal point for Jewish religious and cultural life for a generation. Judaism also underwent a significant shift away from its sectarian divisions. The Sadducees and Essenes , two prominent sects in the late Second Temple period, faded into obscurity, while the traditions of the Pharisees , including their halakhic interpretations, the centrality of the Oral Torah , and belief in resurrection became

959-655: A golden age in Spain , with Jews becoming widely accepted in society and their religious, cultural, and economic life blossomed. However, in 1492 the Jews were forced to leave Spain and migrated in great numbers to the Ottoman Empire and Italy . Between the 12th and 15th centuries, Ashkenazi Jews experienced extreme persecution in Central Europe, which prompted their mass migration to Poland . The 18th century saw

1096-649: A home-made Judaism with practices peculiar to themselves, while those in group 2 had a purely intellectual conception of Judaism based on their reading of ancient Jewish sources preserved by the Church such as the Vulgate Old Testament , the Apocrypha , Philo and Josephus . Both groups therefore needed extensive re-education in Judaism after reaching their places of refuge outside the peninsula. This

1233-437: A large-scale phenomenon mainly dates from that time. Conversos, whatever their real religious views, often (but not always) tended to marry and associate among themselves. As they achieved prominent positions in trade and in the royal administration, they attracted considerable resentment from the " Old Christians ". The ostensible reason given for issuance of the 1492 Alhambra Decree for the conversion, expulsion or execution of

1370-530: A link with Spain, the distinguishing feature of the Western subgroup was the added link with Portugal. Thus, as a subset of the Sephardim, "Portuguese" and "Spanish and Portuguese" could be used interchangeably. Finally, almost all organised communities in this group traditionally employed Portuguese rather than Spanish as their official or working language. In Italy , the term "Spanish Jews" ( Ebrei Spagnoli )

1507-504: A point of matrimonial law (Mishnah Yeb., end). At the same time there was at Nisibis (northern Mesopotamia ), an excellent Jewish college, at the head of which stood Judah ben Bathyra , and in which many Judean scholars found refuge at the time of the persecutions. A certain temporary importance was also attained by a school at Nehar-Pekod , founded by the Judean immigrant Hananiah, nephew of Joshua ben Hananiah , which school might have been

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1644-563: A powerful incentive for the descendants of B'nei Anusim to re-discover their Sephardic ancestry, and it spurred a wave of genealogical inquiry and even genetic research. The law remained in force until 2019, therefore applications for Spanish citizenship on the basis of Sephardic ancestry are no longer accepted by the Spanish authorities. Spanish and Portuguese Jews were originally descended from New Christian conversos (i.e. Jews converted to Roman Catholic Christianity) whose descendants later left

1781-482: A relatively high proportion of the families in question had Portugal as their immediate point of departure from the Iberian peninsula, even when their remoter family background was Spanish rather than Portuguese, since Portugal was the first place of refuge and transit point for many Spanish Jews immediately following their expulsion from Spain. As the term "Sephardim" (when used in its ethnic sense) necessarily connotes

1918-709: A result of the religious anti-Jewish persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391. As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution in prior years, it is estimated that of Spain's total Jewish origin population at the time, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism, and initially remained in Spain. Between 40,000 and 80,000 did not convert to Catholicism, and by their steadfast commitment to remain Jewish were thus expelled. Of those who were expelled as unconverted Jews, an indeterminate number nonetheless converted to Catholicism once outside Spain and eventually returned to Spain in

2055-458: A second revolt in Judah, besieged and destroyed Jerusalem . The First Temple was razed, and its sacred vessels were seized as spoils. The destruction was followed by a mass exile: the surviving inhabitants of the city, including other segments of the population, were carried off to Mesopotamia, marking the onset of the era known in Jewish history as the " Babylonian Captivity ". Zedekiah himself

2192-946: A year on Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall . In 351–352 CE, the Jews of Galilee launched yet another revolt , provoking heavy retribution. The Gallus revolt came during the rising influence of early Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire, under the Constantinian dynasty . In 355, however, the relations with the Roman rulers improved, upon the rise of Emperor Julian , the last of the Constantinian dynasty, who unlike his predecessors defied Christianity. In 363, not long before Julian left Antioch to launch his campaign against Sasanian Persia, in keeping with his effort to foster religions other than Christianity, he ordered

2329-547: Is "overwhelming" and leaves "no room for an Exodus from Egypt or a 40-year pilgrimage through the Sinai wilderness". Many archaeologists have abandoned the archaeological investigation of Moses and the Exodus as "a fruitless pursuit". However, it is accepted that this narrative does have a "historical core" to it. A century of research by archaeologists and Egyptologists has arguably found no evidence that can be directly related to

2466-642: Is derived from Sepharad , a Biblical location. The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania , that is, the Iberian Peninsula . Sepharad still means "Spain" in modern Hebrew . The relationship between Sephardi-descended communities is illustrated in the following diagram : "Sephardim" properly refers to all Jews whose families have extended histories in Spain and Portugal , in contrast to Ashkenazi Jews and all other Jewish ethnic divisions . However, Mizrahi Jews , who have extended histories in

2603-498: Is frequently used, but it includes descendants of Jews expelled as Jews from the Kingdom of Naples , as well as "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" proper (i.e. Jews descended from former conversos and their descendants). In Venice , Spanish and Portuguese Jews were often described as "Ponentine" (Western), to distinguish them from "Levantine" (Eastern) Sephardim from Eastern Mediterranean areas. Occasionally Italian Jews distinguish between

2740-818: Is known from the Bible , extra-biblical sources, apocrypha and pseudoepigrapha , the writings of Josephus , Greco-Roman authors and church fathers , as well as archaeological finds, inscriptions, ancient documents (such as the Papyri from Elephantine and the Fayyum , the Dead Sea scrolls , the Bar Kokhba letters , the Babatha Archives and the Cairo Genizah documents ) supplemented by oral history and

2877-507: Is that all three are descended from conversos. "Western Sephardim" are descendants of former conversos of earlier centuries; "Sephardic Bnei Anusim" are the still nominally Christian descendants of conversos; and "Neo-Western Sephardim" are the increasing in number modern-day former conversos currently returning to Judaism from among the Sephardic Bnei Anusim population. The distinguishing factor between "Western Sephardim" and

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3014-704: The Ashkenazim ( Central and Eastern Europe ), the Sephardim (initially in the Iberian Peninsula ), and the Mizrahim ( Middle East and North Africa ). Byzantine rule over the Levant was lost in the 7th century as the newly established Islamic Caliphate expanded into the Eastern Mediterranean , Mesopotamia , North Africa, and later into the Iberian Peninsula . Jewish culture enjoyed

3151-621: The Al-Yahudu tablets , dated to the 6th-5th centuries BCE and related to the exiles from Judea arriving after the destruction of the First Temple , though there is ample evidence for the presence of Jews in Babylonia even from 626 BCE. In Egypt, the documents from Elephantine reveal the trials of a community founded by a Persian Jewish garrison at two fortresses on the frontier during the 5th-4th centuries BCE, and according to Josephus

3288-801: The Auschwitz camp complex alone. This genocide , in which approximately six million Jews were methodically exterminated, is known as the Holocaust . Before and during the Holocaust, enormous numbers of Jews immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. On May 14, 1948, upon the termination of the British Mandate, David Ben-Gurion declared the creation of the State of Israel , a Jewish and democratic state in Eretz Israel (Land of Israel). Immediately afterwards, all neighbouring Arab states invaded, yet

3425-706: The Belmonte Jews in Portugal, and the Xuetes of Spain. In the case of the Xuetes, the entire community of converso descendants was extended a blanket recognition as Jews by Rabbinical authorities in Israel due to their particular historical circumstances on the island which effectively resulted in a strict social isolation of the Xuetes imposed upon them by their non-Jewish-descended neighbors up until modern times. In

3562-631: The Byzantine garrison in Jerusalem, and were given Jerusalem to be governed as an autonomy. However, their autonomy was brief: the Jewish leader in Jerusalem was shortly assassinated during a Christian revolt and though Jerusalem was reconquered by Persians and Jews within 3 weeks, it fell into anarchy. With the consequent withdrawal of Persian forces, Jews surrendered to Byzantines in 625 or 628 CE, but were massacred by Christian radicals in 629 CE, with

3699-584: The Greater Middle East and North Africa, are often called "Sephardim" more broadly in colloquial and religious parlance due to similar styles of liturgy and a certain amount of intermarriage between them and Sephardim proper. The main factor distinguishing "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" (Western Sephardim) from other "Sephardim proper" is that "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" refers specifically to those Jews who descend from persons whose history as practising members of Jewish communities with origins in

3836-639: The Hasmoneans , but it was conquered and reorganized as a client state by the Roman general Pompey in 63 BCE . Roman expansion was going on in other areas as well, and it would continue for more than a hundred and fifty years. Later, Herod the Great was appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate , supplanting the Hasmonean dynasty. Some of his offspring held various positions after him, known as

3973-688: The Herodian dynasty . Briefly, from 4 BCE to 6 CE, Herod Archelaus ruled the tetrarchy of Judea as ethnarch , the Romans denying him the title of King. After the Census of Quirinius in 6 CE, the Roman province of Judaea was formed as a satellite of Roman Syria under the rule of a prefect (as was Roman Egypt ) until 41 CE, then procurators after 44 CE. The empire was often callous and brutal in its treatment of its Jewish subjects, (see Anti-Judaism in

4110-840: The Iberian peninsula was interrupted by a period of having been New Christians (also known as conversos , the Spanish term for "converts" to Catholicism; or cristãos-novos , "new Christians" in the Portuguese equivalent) or anusim (Hebrew for those "forced" to convert from Judaism to another faith). During their period as New Christians, many conversos continued to practise their Jewish faith in secrecy as best they could. Those New Christian conversos of Jewish origin who maintained crypto-Jewish practices in secret were termed marranos (Spanish "swine") by Old Christian Spaniards and Portuguese. Conversely, those New Christian conversos who have remained as conversos since that time, both those in

4247-567: The Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon , including from all its territories and possessions, by 31 July of that year. The primary purpose of the expulsion was to eliminate the influence of unconverted Jews on Spain's by then large Jewish-origin New Christian converso population, to ensure that the prior did not encourage the latter to relapse and revert to Judaism. Over half of Spain's Jewish origin population had converted to Catholicism as

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4384-725: The Levant during the Iron Age . Although the earliest mention of Israel is inscribed on the Merneptah Stele around 1213–1203 BCE, religious literature tells the story of Israelites going back at least as far as c. 1500 BCE. The Kingdom of Israel fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in around 720 BCE, and the Kingdom of Judah to the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. Part of the Judean population

4521-664: The Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt , dated to about 1200 BCE. According to the modern archaeological account, the Israelites and their culture branched out of the Canaanite peoples and their cultures through the development of a distinct monolatristic —and later monotheistic —religion centred on the national god Yahweh . They spoke an archaic form of the Hebrew language , known today as Biblical Hebrew . The traditional religious view of Jews and Judaism of their own history

4658-721: The Negev . After the fall of Israel, Judah became a client state of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In the 7th century BCE, the kingdom's population increased greatly, prospering under Assyrian vassalage , despite Hezekiah's revolt against the Assyrian king Sennacherib . Large parts of the Hebrew Bible were written during this period. This includes the earliest portions of Hosea , Isaiah , Amos and Micah , along with Nahum , Zephaniah , most of Deuteronomy ,

4795-485: The Persian Empire , the former Kingdom of Judah became the province of Judah ( Yehud Medinata ) with different borders, covering a smaller territory. Contemporary scholars point to a gradual return process that extended into the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE. The population of Persian Judah was greatly reduced from that of the kingdom, archaeological surveys showing a population of around 30,000 people in

4932-828: The Portuguese and Spanish Inquisitions , the early community continued to be augmented by further New Christian emigration pouring out of the Iberian Peninsula in a continuous flow between the 1600s to 1700s. Jewish-origin New Christians were officially considered Christians due to their forced or coerced conversions; as such they were subject to the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church's Inquisitorial system, and were subject to harsh heresy and apostasy laws if they continued to practice their ancestral Jewish faith. Those New Christians who eventually fled both

5069-593: The Seleucid Empire led to an independent Hasmonean kingdom , but it was gradually incorporated into Roman rule. The Jewish-Roman wars , a series of unsuccessful revolts against the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple , and the expulsion of many Jews. The Jewish population in Syria Palaestina gradually decreased during

5206-649: The Twelve Tribes of Israel . The Israelites were later led out of slavery in Egypt and subsequently brought to Canaan by Moses ; they eventually conquered Canaan under the leadership of Joshua . Modern scholars agree that the Bible does not provide an authentic account of the Israelites' origins; the consensus supports that the archaeological evidence showing largely indigenous origins of Israel in Canaan, not Egypt,

5343-489: The city council of Porto. As mentioned, these communities of modern-day returnees to Judaism are among the first in the emergence of the nascent Neo-Western Sephardim. Neo-Western Sephardim are the modern returnees to Judaism throughout Iberia and Ibero-America emerging from among the population of Sephardic Bnei Anusim, and are distinct from Western Sephardim (those termed "Spanish and Portuguese Jews"). Even more recent examples of such Neo-Western Sephardim communities include

5480-458: The ingathering of exiles and the reconstruction of the Temple , these communities may have sought to spark a broader movement possibly aimed at returning to Judea and rebuilding Jerusalem. Ancient sources describe the revolt as extremely brutal, with cases of cannibalism and mutilation, though modern scholars often consider these accounts to be exaggerated. The Roman suppression of the revolt

5617-413: The menorah , which were then put on display in the new Temple of Peace . The Flavian dynasty leveraged this victory for political gain, erecting monuments in Rome and minting Judaea Capta coins . The war concluded with the siege of Masada (73-74 CE). The Jewish population suffered widespread devastation, with displacement, enslavement, and Roman confiscation of Jewish-owned land. The destruction of

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5754-518: The "Portuguese Jews" of Pisa and Livorno and the "Spanish Jews" of Venice, Modena and elsewhere. The scholar Joseph Dan distinguishes "medieval Sephardim" (15th and 16th-century Spanish exiles in the Ottoman Empire who arrived as Jews) from "Renaissance Sephardim" (Spanish and Portuguese former converso communities who arrived as New Christians), in reference to the respective times of each grouping's formative contacts with Spanish language and culture. The term Sephardi means "Spanish" or "Hispanic", and

5891-409: The "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" to distance themselves from Spain in the times of political tension and war between Spain and the Netherlands in the 17th century. Similar considerations may have played a role for ethnic Sephardic Jews in the French regions of Bayonne and Bordeaux , given their proximity to the Spanish border. Another reason for the terminology of "Portuguese" Jews may have been that

6028-430: The "apostle of the Marranos". In 1921, realizing that there were less than twenty Ashkenazi Jews living in Porto, and that recent returnees to Judaism like himself were not organized and had to travel to Lisbon for religious purposes whenever necessary, Barros Basto began to think about building a synagogue and took initiative in 1923 to officially register the Jewish Community of Porto and the Israelite Theological Center in

6165-466: The 'modern' numbering system." This article about a book on Jewish history is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews , their nation , religion , and culture , as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah , two related kingdoms that emerged in

6302-498: The 16th and early 17th centuries, conversos were also seeking refuge beyond the Pyrenees , settling in France at Saint-Jean-de-Luz , Tarbes , Bayonne , Bordeaux , Marseille , and Montpellier . They lived apparently as Christians; were married by Catholic priests; had their children baptized, and publicly pretended to be Catholics. In secret, however, they circumcised their children, kept Shabbat and feast-days as best they could and prayed together. Henry III of France confirmed

6439-409: The 1870s and 1880s, the Jewish population in Europe began to more actively discuss emigration to Ottoman Syria with the aim of re-establishing a Jewish polity in Palestine . The Zionist movement was officially founded in 1897. The pogroms also triggered a mass exodus of more than two million Jews to the United States between 1881 and 1924. The Jews of Europe and the United States gained success in

6576-441: The 5th to 4th centuries BCE. The final Torah is widely seen as a product of the Persian period (539–333 BCE, probably 450–350 BCE). This consensus echoes a traditional Jewish view which gives Ezra , the leader of the Jewish community on its return from Babylon, a pivotal role in its promulgation. Three prophets, considered the last in Jewish tradition— Haggai , Zechariah , and Malachi —were active during this period. After

6713-423: The Americas have Spanish and Portuguese Jewish roots though they no longer follow the distinctive customs of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Although the 1492 and 1497 expulsions of unconverted Jews from Spain and Portugal were separate events from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions (which were established over a decade earlier in 1478), they were ultimately linked, as the Inquisition eventually also led to

6850-430: The Book of Ezra, Persian Cyrus the Great , king of the Achaemenid Empire , brought an end to the Babylonian exile in 538 BCE, a year after his conquest of Babylon. The return from exile was led by Zerubbabel , a prince from the royal line of David, and Joshua the Priest, descended from former High Priests of the Temple. They oversaw the construction of the Second Temple , completed between 521 and 516 BCE. As part of

6987-402: The European Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment but drew upon earlier works in the Late Middle Ages and into diverse sources in antiquity. Today, the history of the Jews and Judaism is often divided into six periods: The history of the early Jews, and their neighbours, centres on the Fertile Crescent and east coast of the Mediterranean Sea . It begins among those people who occupied

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7124-399: The Exodus narrative of an Egyptian captivity and the escape and travels through the wilderness, leading to the suggestion that Iron Age Israel—the kingdoms of Judah and Israel—has its origins in Canaan, not in Egypt: The culture of the earliest Israelite settlements is Canaanite, their cult-objects are those of the Canaanite god El , the pottery remains in the local Canaanite tradition, and

7261-400: The Great of Macedon defeated the Persians. After Alexander's death and the division of his empire among his generals, the Seleucid Kingdom was formed. The Alexandrian conquests spread Greek culture to the Levant. During this time, currents of Judaism were influenced by Hellenistic philosophy developed from the 3rd century BCE, notably the Jewish diaspora in Alexandria , culminating in

7398-401: The Great Revolt, in 66 CE. Future emperor Vespasian quelled the rebellion in Galilee by 67 CE, capturing key strongholds. He was succeeded by his son Titus , who led the brutal siege of Jerusalem , culminating in the city's fall in 70 CE. The Romans burned Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. The Roman victory was celebrated with a triumph in Rome, showcasing Jewish artifacts like

7535-536: The Iberian Peninsula and those who moved to the Iberian colonial possessions during the Spanish colonization of the Americas , became the related Sephardic Bnei Anusim . Sephardic Bnei Anusim are the contemporary and largely nominally Christian descendants of assimilated 15th century Sephardic Anusim, and are today a fully assimilated sub-group within the Iberian-descended Christian populations of Spain, Portugal, Hispanic America and Brazil. For historical reasons and circumstances, Sephardic Bnei Anusim have not returned to

7672-462: The Iberian cultural sphere and jurisdiction of the Inquisition were able to officially return to Judaism and open Jewish practice once they were in their new tolerant environments of refuge. As former conversos or their descendants, Western Sephardim developed a distinctive ritual based on the remnants of the Judaism of pre-expulsion Spain, which some had practiced in secrecy during their time as New Christians, and influenced by Judaism as practiced by

7809-621: The Iberian cultural sphere. Although Jewish communities were re-established in Spain and Portugal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely with the help of communities of Spanish and Portuguese Jews such as that in London, these present-day Jews in Portugal and Jews in Spain are distinct from "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" as, for the most part, the modern Jewish communities resident in Spain and Portugal also include other Jewish ethnic divisions recently immigrated to Spain and Portugal, such as Ashkenazi Jews of Northern Europe. In modern Iberia, practicing Jews of Sephardic origins, such as

7946-453: The Iberian peninsula and reverted to Judaism. Although legend has it that conversos existed as early as the Visigothic period, and that there was a continuous phenomenon of crypto-Judaism from that time lasting throughout Spanish history, this scenario is unlikely, as in the Muslim period of Iberia there was no advantage in passing as a Christian instead of publicly acknowledging one was a Jew. The main wave of conversions, often forced, followed

8083-452: The Inquisition in the 19th century, and this time frame necessitated their migration out of the Iberian cultural sphere. Conversely, the converso descendants who are today becoming the nascent Neo-Western Sephardim have been reverting to Judaism between the late 20th and early 21st centuries, they have been doing so at a time after the abolition of the Inquisition in the 19th century, and this time frame has not necessitated their migration out of

8220-414: The Islamic caliphate. The first gaon of Sura, according to Sherira Gaon , was Mar bar Rab Chanan, who assumed office in 609. The last gaon of Sura was Samuel ben Hofni , who died in 1034; the last gaon of Pumbedita was Hezekiah Gaon , who was tortured to death in 1040; hence the activity of the Geonim covers a period of nearly 450 years. One of principal seats of Babylonian Judaism was Nehardea , which

8357-429: The Jewish Temple rebuilt. The failure to rebuild the Temple has mostly been ascribed to the dramatic Galilee earthquake of 363 and traditionally also to the Jews' ambivalence about the project. Sabotage is a possibility, as is an accidental fire. Divine intervention was the common view among Christian historians of the time. Julian's support of Jews caused Jews to call him "Julian the Hellene ". Julian's fatal wound in

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8494-409: The Jewish community in Alexandria existed since the founding of the city in the 4th century BCE by Alexander the Great . By 200 BCE, there were well established Jewish communities both in Egypt and Mesopotamia (" Babylonia " in Jewish sources) and in the two centuries that followed, Jewish populations were also present in Asia Minor , Greece , Macedonia , Cyrene , and, beginning in the middle of

8631-403: The Jewish community of Oporto , however, are also not Western Sephardim, but are Neo-Western Sephardim, as they were re-established in the 20th century and early 21st centuries with a campaign of outreach to the crypto-Jews of Sephardic Bnei Anusim origins. The Oporto community's return to Judaism was led by the returnee to Judaism Captain Artur Carlos de Barros Basto (1887–1961), known also as

8768-430: The Jewish faith over the last five centuries, In modern times, some have begun emerging publicly in increasing numbers, especially in the last two decades. For "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" (Western Sephardim), their historical period as conversos has shaped their identity, culture, and practices. In this respect, they are clearly distinguishable from those Sephardim who descend from the Jews who left Iberia as Jews before

8905-500: The Jewish religion; they and their descendants are known as Eastern Sephardim . During the centuries following the Spanish and Portuguese decrees, some of the Jewish-origin New Christian conversos started emigrating from Portugal and Spain, settling until the 1700s throughout areas of Western Europe and non-Iberian realms of the colonial Americas (mostly Dutch realms, including Curaçao in the Dutch West Indies, Recife in Dutch areas of colonial Brazil which eventually were regained by

9042-423: The Jewish-origin Christians to also emigrate out of Spain and Portugal in the immediate generations following the expulsion of their unconverted Jewish brethren. The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion) was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ( Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon ) ordering the expulsion of all unconverted practicing Jews from

9179-453: The Jews were again issued with a similar decree just a few years later in 1497, giving them the choice of exile or conversion. Unlike in Spain, however, in actual practice Portugal mostly prevented them from leaving, thus they necessarily stayed as ostensible converts to Christianity whether they wished to or not, after the Portuguese King reasoned that by their failure to leave they accepted Christianity by default. For this reason, crypto-Judaism

9316-412: The Jews" which began: "Know that the end of the exile of our people has come!" However, the Christian population of the city, who saw this as a threat to their primacy, did not allow it and a riot erupted after which they chased away the Jews from the city. During the 5th and the 6th centuries, a series of Samaritan insurrections broke out across the Palaestina Prima province. Especially violent were

9453-405: The Livorno synagogue – considered to be the most important building in town – was destroyed in the Second World War: a modern building was erected on the same site in 1958–1962. Many merchants maintained a presence in both Italy and countries in the Ottoman Empire, and even those who settled permanently in the Ottoman Empire retained their Tuscan or other Italian nationality, so as to have

9590-418: The Massacre of 1391 in Spain. Legal definitions of that era theoretically acknowledged that a forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but the Church confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force: a person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism. Crypto-Judaism as

9727-474: The Ottoman Empire, where a complete culture change would be required. On the other hand, in Italy they ran the risk of prosecution for Judaizing, given that in law they were baptized Christians; for this reason they generally avoided the Papal States. The Popes did allow some Spanish-Jewish settlement at Ancona , as this was the main port for the Turkey trade, in which their links with the Ottoman Sephardim were useful. Other states found it advantageous to allow

9864-685: The Persian campaign and his consequent death had put an end to Jewish aspirations, and Julian's successors embraced Christianity through the entire timeline of Byzantine rule of Jerusalem, preventing any Jewish claims. In 438 CE, when the Empress Eudocia removed the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site , the heads of the Community in Galilee issued a call "to the great and mighty people of

10001-583: The Portuguese Nation." The term "Western Sephardim" is frequently used in modern research literature to refer to "Spanish and Portuguese Jews," but sometimes also to "Spanish- Moroccan Jews ". The use of the terms "Portuguese Jews" and "Jews of the Portuguese Nation" in areas such as the Netherlands , Hamburg, Scandinavia , and at one time in London, seems to have arisen primarily as a way for

10138-574: The Portuguese, and New Amsterdam which later became New York) forming communities and formally reverting to Judaism. It is the collective of these communities and their descendants who are known as Western Sephardim , and are the subject of this article. As the early members of the Western Sephardim consisted of persons who themselves (or whose immediate forebears) personally experienced an interim period as New Christians, which resulted in unceasing trials and persecutions of crypto-Judaism by

10275-515: The Second Temple and reinstating sacrificial worship. The successful revolt eventually led to the formation of an independent Jewish state under the Hasmonean dynasty , which lasted from 165 BCE to 63 BCE. Initially governing as both political leaders and High Priests, the Hasmoneans later assumed the title of kings. They employed military campaigns and diplomacy to consolidate power. Under

10412-493: The Second Temple marked a cataclysmic event in Jewish history, triggering far-reaching transformations within Judaism. With the central role of sacrificial worship obliterated, religious practices shifted towards prayer , Torah study , and communal gatherings in synagogues . According to Rabbinic tradition, Yohanan ben Zakkai secured permission from the Romans to establish a center for Torah study in Yavneh , which then served as

10549-812: The Sephardic Jewish communities under Ottoman rule provided spiritual leadership to the dispersed Sephardim through their contributions to the Responsa literature . These Sephardic communities offered refuge to all Jews, including the Sephardi Jewish-origin New Christian conversos fleeing the Inquisition across Europe, as well as their Eastern European Ashkenazi coreligionists fleeing pogroms. The common feature shared by Western Sephardim ("Spanish and Portuguese Jews") to Sephardic Bnei Anusim and Neo-Western Sephardim

10686-534: The Spanish and Portuguese community worldwide, as it was among the earliest to be established, and the first prayer book was published there. Later communities, such as in Amsterdam, followed its lead on ritual questions. With the decline in the importance of Venice in the 18th century, the leading role passed to Livorno (for Italy and the Mediterranean) and Amsterdam (for western countries). Unfortunately,

10823-816: The United States and to the Soviet Union . In 1939, World War II began and until 1941 Hitler occupied almost all of Europe . In 1941, following the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Final Solution began, an extensive organized operation on an unprecedented scale, aimed at the annihilation of the Jewish people, and resulting in the persecution and murder of Jews in Europe and North Africa . In Poland, three million were murdered in gas chambers in all concentration camps combined, with one million at

10960-647: The alphabet used is early Canaanite. The almost sole marker distinguishing the "Israelite" villages from Canaanite sites is an absence of pig bones, although whether this can be taken as an ethnic marker or is due to other factors remains a matter of dispute. According to the Biblical narrative , the Land of Israel was organized into a confederacy of twelve tribes ruled by a series of Judges for several hundred years. Two Israelite kingdoms emerged during Iron Age II: Israel and Judah . The Bible portrays Israel and Judah as

11097-546: The area lying between the river Nile and Mesopotamia . Surrounded by ancient seats of culture in Egypt and Babylonia , by the deserts of Arabia , and by the highlands of Asia Minor , the land of Canaan (roughly corresponding to modern Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, and Lebanon) was a meeting place of civilizations. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in

11234-609: The benefit of the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire . Thus, in Tunisia there was a community of Juifs Portugais , or L'Grana (Livornese), separate from, and regarding itself as superior to, the native Tunisian Jews ( Tuansa ). Smaller communities of the same kind existed in other countries, such as Syria, where they were known as Señores Francos . They were generally not numerous enough to establish their own synagogues, instead meeting for prayer in each other's houses. In

11371-498: The cause of a schism between the Jews of Babylonia and those of Judea-Israel, had not the Judean authorities promptly checked Hananiah's ambition. Jews were also widespread throughout the Roman Empire, and this carried on to a lesser extent in the period of Byzantine rule in the central and eastern Mediterranean. The militant and exclusive Christianity and caesaropapism of the Byzantine Empire did not treat Jews well, and

11508-679: The centre for Jewish scholarship and the development of Jewish law in Babylonia from roughly 500 CE to 1038 CE. The two most famous academies were the Pumbedita Academy and the Sura Academy . Major yeshivot were also located at Nehardea and Mahuza. The Talmudic Yeshiva Academies became a main part of Jewish culture and education, and Jews continued establishing Yeshiva Academies in Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and in later centuries, in America and other countries around

11645-539: The collection of commentaries in the Midrash and Talmud . With the rise of the printing press and movable type in the early modern period , Jewish histories and early editions of the Torah/Tanakh were published which dealt with the history of the Jewish religion, and increasingly, national histories of the Jews , Jewish peoplehood and identity . This was a move from a manuscript or scribal culture to

11782-641: The communities (including Sephardic Jews of the Ottoman Empire and Ashkenazi Jews ) which assisted them in their readoption of normative Judaism; as well as by the Spanish-Moroccan and the Italian Jewish rites practiced by rabbis and hazzanim recruited from those communities to instruct them in ritual practice. A part of their distinctiveness as a Jewish group, furthermore, stems from the fact that they saw themselves as forced to "redefine their Jewish identity and mark its boundaries [...] with

11919-600: The compilation of the Septuagint . An important advocate of the symbiosis of Jewish theology and Hellenistic thought is Philo . Triggered by anti-Jewish decrees from Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and tensions between Hellenized and conservative Jews, the Maccabean Revolt erupted in Judea in 167 BCE under the leadership of Mattathias . His son, Judas Maccabeus , recaptured Jerusalem in 164 BCE, purifying

12056-522: The condition and influence of diaspora Jews in the Empire declined dramatically. It was official Christian policy to convert Jews to Christianity , and the Christian leadership used the official power of Rome in their attempts. In 351 CE the Jews revolted against the added pressures of their Governor, Constantius Gallus . Gallus put down the revolt and destroyed the major cities in the Galilee area where

12193-427: The conversos to settle and mix with the existing Jewish communities, and to turn a blind eye to their religious status. In the next generation, the children of conversos could be brought up as fully Jewish with no legal problem, as they had never been baptized. The main places of settlement were as follows: On the whole, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews remained separate from the native Italian rite Jews , though there

12330-555: The death of the last Jewish prophet and while still under Persian rule, the leadership of the Jewish people passed into the hands of five successive generations of zugot ("pairs of") leaders. 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 minted in Judea as Yehud coinage . In 332 BCE, Alexander

12467-491: The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Many more Jews migrated to Babylon in 135 CE after the Bar Kokhba revolt and in the centuries after. Babylonia, where some of the largest and most prominent Jewish cities and communities were established, became the centre of Jewish life all the way up to the 13th century. By the first century, Babylonia already held a speedily growing population of an estimated 1,000,000 Jews, which increased to an estimated 2 million between

12604-549: The empire. He was soon succeeded by his son, Jehoiachin, who continued his father's policy and faced a Babylonian invasion. In March 597 BCE, Jehoiachin surrendered to the Babylonians and was taken captive to Babylon. This defeat is documented in the Babylonian Chronicles . Zedekiah , Jehoiachin's uncle, was then installed as king by the Babylonians. In 587 or 586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II , responding to

12741-483: The end of the 18th century. They were generally accepted by the host Jewish communities as anusim (forced converts), whose conversion, being involuntary, did not compromise their Jewish status. Conversos of the first generation after the expulsion still had some knowledge of Judaism based on memory of contact with a living Jewish community. In later generations, people had to avoid known Jewish practices that might attract undesired attention: conversos in group 3 evolved

12878-474: The establishment of a short-lived Jewish state in Judea under the leadership of Simon Bar Kokhba , styled as nasi or prince of Israel. The rebel state's coinage proclaimed "Freedom of Israel" and "For the Freedom of Jerusalem," using ancient Hebrew script for nationalistic symbolism. However, the Romans soon amassed six legions and additional auxiliaries under Julius Severus , who then brutally crushed

13015-825: The expiration date for the Alhambra Decree , resulting in the 1492 expulsion from Spain and 1497 expulsion from Portugal of all Jews who had not been baptised into the Catholic faith. These expelled Jews settled mainly around the Mediterranean Basin of Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, namely, Salonika , the Balkans and Turkey , and they became the Eastern Sephardim and North African Sephardim respectively. For centuries,

13152-484: The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and from the Kingdom of Naples in 1533, these areas were an obvious destination for conversos wishing to leave Spain and Portugal. The similarity of the Italian language to Spanish was another attraction. Given their Christian cultural background and high level of European-style education, the new emigrants were less likely to follow the example of the 1492 expellees by settling in

13289-592: The extent of its power. Biblical tradition tells that the Israelite monarchy was established in 1037 BCE under Saul , and continued under David and his son, Solomon . David greatly expanded the kingdom's borders and conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites , turning it into the national, political and religious capital of the kingdom. Solomon, his son, later built the First Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Upon his death, traditionally dated to c. 930 BCE,

13426-589: The fields of science, culture and the economy. Among those generally considered the most famous were Albert Einstein and Ludwig Wittgenstein . Many Nobel Prize winners at this time were Jewish, as is still the case. In 1933, with the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany , the Jewish situation became severe. Economic crises, racial antisemitic laws , and a fear of an upcoming war led many to flee from Europe to Mandatory Palestine , to

13563-649: The first century BCE, in the city of Rome . In the first centuries CE, as a result of the Jewish-Roman Wars , a large number of Jews were taken as captives, sold into slavery, or compelled to flee from the regions affected by the wars, contributing to the formation and expansion of Jewish communities across the Roman Empire as well as in Arabia and Mesopotamia. Jewish communities across Cyrenaica, Cyprus, and Egypt were almost entirely obliterated due to

13700-474: The first edition of the Deuteronomistic history (the books of Joshua / Judges / Samuel / Kings ), and Habakkuk . With the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 605 BCE, a power struggle emerged between Egypt and the Neo-Babylonian Empire for control of the Levant , leading to Judah's rapid decline. In 601 BCE, King Jehoiakim of Judah, who had recently submitted to Babylon, rebelled against

13837-400: The fleeing out of Iberia of many descendants of Jewish converts to Catholicism in subsequent generations. Despite the fact that the original Edicts of Expulsion did not apply to Jewish-origin New Christian conversos —as these were now legally Christians— the discriminatory practices that the Inquisition nevertheless placed upon them, which were often lethal , put immense pressure on many of

13974-591: The following centuries, enhancing the role of the Jewish diaspora and shifting the spiritual and demographic centre from the depopulated Judea to Galilee and then to Babylon , with smaller communities spread out across the Roman Empire . During the same period, the Mishnah and the Talmud , central Jewish texts, were composed. In the following millennia, the diaspora communities coalesced into three major ethnic subdivisions according to where their ancestors settled:

14111-556: The forced expulsion of unconverted Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497 . They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal. The main present-day communities of Spanish and Portuguese Jews exist in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, and several other Jewish communities in

14248-529: The foundation of Rabbinic Judaism . The Jewish diaspora existed well before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and had been ongoing for centuries, with the dispersal driven by both forced expulsions and voluntary migrations. In Mesopotamia, a testimony to the beginnings of the Jewish community can be found in Joachin's ration tablets , listing provisions allotted to the exiled Judean king and his family by Nebuchadnezzar II , and further evidence are

14385-588: The harsh Roman response to the Diaspora Revolt. The book of Acts in the New Testament , as well as other Pauline texts, make frequent reference to the large populations of Hellenised Jews in the cities of the Roman world. These Hellenised Jews were affected by the diaspora only in its spiritual sense, absorbing the feeling of loss and homelessness that became a cornerstone of the Jewish creed, much supported by persecutions in various parts of

14522-568: The intellectual tools they had acquired in their Christian socialization" during their time as New Christian conversos. The main 'Western Sephardic Jewish' communities developed in Western Europe, Italy, and the non-Iberian regions of the Americas. In addition to the term "Western Sephardim", this sub-group of Sephardic Jews is sometimes also referred to also as "Spanish and Portuguese Jews," "Spanish Jews," "Portuguese Jews," or "Jews of

14659-635: The last five to ten years, "organized groups of [Sephardic] Benei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia , Costa Rica , Chile, Ecuador , Mexico, Puerto Rico , Venezuela , and in Sefarad [the Iberian Peninsula] itself". Some members of these communities have formally reverted to Judaism. In 2015, the Spanish government enacted a law conceding Spanish nationality to the descendants of Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin . The law created

14796-409: The nascent "Neo-Western Sephardim" is the time frame of the reversions to Judaism, the location of the reversions, and the precarious religious and legal circumstances surrounding their reversions, including impediments and persecutions. Thus, the converso descendants who became the Western Sephardim had reverted to Judaism between the 16th and 18th centuries, they did so at a time before the abolition of

14933-663: The newly formed IDF resisted. In 1949, the war ended and Israel started building the state and absorbing massive waves of Aliyah from all over Europe and Middle Eastern countries . As of 2022, Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a population of 9.6 million people, of whom 7 million are Jewish . The largest Jewish community outside Israel is the United States , while large communities also exist in France, Canada, Argentina, Russia, United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany . For statistics related to modern Jewish demographics, see Jewish population . Ancient Jewish history

15070-479: The pre-Christian Roman Empire ). In 30 CE (or 33 CE), Jesus of Nazareth , an itinerant rabbi from Galilee , and the central figure of Christianity , was put to death by crucifixion in Jerusalem under the Roman prefect of Judaea , Pontius Pilate . Roman oppressive rule, combined with economic, religious, and ethnic tensions, eventually led to the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War , also known as

15207-429: The privileges granted them by Henry II of France , and protected them against accusations. Under Louis XIII of France , the conversos of Bayonne were assigned to the suburb of Saint-Esprit . At Saint-Esprit, as well as at Peyrehorade, Bidache, Orthez , Biarritz , and Saint-Jean-de-Luz , they gradually avowed Judaism openly. In 1640 several hundred conversos, considered to be Jews, were living at Saint-Jean-de-Luz; and

15344-422: The revolt had started. Tzippori and Lydda (site of two of the major legal academies) never recovered. Spanish and Portuguese Jews Spanish and Portuguese Jews , also called Western Sephardim , Iberian Jews , or Peninsular Jews , are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following

15481-588: The rise of the Haskalah intellectual movement. Also starting in the 18th century, Jews began to campaign for Jewish emancipation from restrictive laws and integration into the wider European society. In the 19th century, when Jews in Western Europe were increasingly granted equality before the law, Jews in the Pale of Settlement faced growing persecution, legal restrictions and widespread pogroms . During

15618-507: The rule of Alexander Jannaeus and Salome Alexandra , the kingdom reached its zenith in size and influence. However, internal strife erupted between Salome Alexandra's sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II , leading to civil war and appeals to Roman authorities for intervention. Responding to these appeals, Pompey led a Roman campaign of conquest and annexation, which marked the end of Hasmonean sovereignty and ushered in Roman rule over Judea. Judea had been an independent Jewish kingdom under

15755-551: The same function as the ancient Sanhedrin —that is, as a council of Jewish religious authorities. The academies were founded in pre-Islamic Babylonia under the Zoroastrian Sassanid dynasty and were located not far from the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, which at that time was the largest city in the world. After the conquest of Persia in the 7th century, the academies subsequently operated for four hundred years under

15892-679: The sealing of the Talmud (220CE – 500CE), and following the Savoraim ("reasoners")—the sages of beth midrash (Torah study places) in Babylon from the end of the era of the Amoraim (5th century) and until the beginning of the era of the Geonim . The Geonim (Hebrew: גאונים) were the presidents of the two great rabbinical colleges of Sura and Pumbedita, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of

16029-408: The secrecy surrounding their situation, the question is not easy to answer: probably the conversos themselves were divided, and could be ranged at different points between the possible positions. The suggested profiles are as follows: For these reasons, there was a continuous flow of people leaving Spain and Portugal (mostly Portugal) for places where they could practise Judaism openly, from 1492 until

16166-426: The successors of an earlier United Kingdom of Israel , although its historicity is disputed . Historians and archaeologists agree that the northern Kingdom of Israel existed from ca. 900 BCE and that the Kingdom of Judah existed from ca. 700 BCE. The Tel Dan Stele , discovered in 1993, shows that the kingdom, at least in some form, existed by the middle of the 9th century BCE, but it does not indicate

16303-584: The survivors fleeing to Egypt. The Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) control of the region was finally lost to the Muslim Arab armies in 637 CE, when Umar ibn al-Khattab completed the conquest of Akko. After the fall of Jerusalem, Babylonia (modern day Iraq) would become the focus of Judaism for more than a thousand years. The first Jewish communities in Babylonia started with the exile of the Tribe of Judah to Babylon by Jehoiachin in 597 BCE as well as after

16440-626: The third and the fourth revolts, which resulted in almost the entire annihilation of the Samaritan community. It is likely that the Samaritan Revolt of 556 was joined by the Jewish community, which had also suffered a brutal suppression of Israelite religion. In the belief of restoration to come, in the early 7th century the Jews made an alliance with the Persians , who invaded Palaestina Prima in 614, fought at their side, overwhelmed

16577-430: The unconverted Jews from Spain was that the unconverted Jews had supported the New Christian conversos in the crypto-Jewish practices of the latter, thus delaying or preventing their assimilation into the Christian community. After the issuance of Spain's Alhambra Decree in 1492, a large proportion of the unconverted Jews chose exile rather than conversion, many of them crossing the border to Portugal. In Portugal, however,

16714-769: The upper Jordan Valley , the Sharon and large parts of the Transjordan . Samaria , the capital, was home to one of the largest Iron Age palaces in the Levant. The kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The Kingdom of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem , controlled the Judaean Mountains , the Shephelah , the Judaean Desert and parts of

16851-597: The uprising. Historical accounts report the destruction of fifty major strongholds and 985 villages, resulting in 580,000 Jewish deaths and widespread famine and disease. Archaeological research confirms the widespread destruction and depopulation of the Jewish heartland in Judea proper , where most of the Jewish population was either killed, sold into slavery, expelled, or forced to flee. The Romans also suffered heavy losses. Post-revolt, Jews were prohibited from entering Jerusalem, and Hadrian issued religious edicts, including

16988-693: The world where Jews lived in the Diaspora. Talmudic study in Yeshiva academies, most of them located in The United States and Israel , continues today. These Talmudic Yeshiva academies of Babylonia followed the era of the Amoraim ("expounders")—the sages of the Talmud who were active (both in Judah and in Babylon) during the end of the era of the sealing of the Mishnah and until the times of

17125-447: The world. Of critical importance to the reshaping of Jewish tradition from the Temple-based religion to the rabbinic traditions of the Diaspora, was the development of the interpretations of the Torah found in the Mishnah and Talmud . During the Diaspora Revolt (115–117 CE), Jewish diaspora communities across several eastern provinces of the Roman Empire engaged in widespread rebellion. Driven by messianic fervor and hopes for

17262-410: The worldwide Jewish community in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta (Exilarch) who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands. According to traditions, the Resh Galuta were descendants of Judean kings, which is why the kings of Parthia would treat them with much honour. For the Jews of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the yeshivot of Babylonia served much

17399-468: The years 200 CE and 500 CE, both by natural growth and by immigration of more Jews from Judea, making up about 1/6 of the world Jewish population at that era. It was there that they would write the Babylonian Talmud in the languages used by the Jews of ancient Babylonia: Hebrew and Aramaic . The Jews established Talmudic Academies in Babylonia , also known as the Geonic Academies ("Geonim" meaning "splendour" in Biblical Hebrew or "geniuses"), which became

17536-460: The years following the expulsion due to the hardships many experienced in their resettlement. Many of Spain's Jews who left Spain as Jews also initially moved to Portugal, where they were subsequently forcibly converted to the Catholic Church in 1497. Most of the Jews who left Spain as Jews accepted the hospitality of Sultan Bayezid II and, after the Alhambra Decree, moved to the Ottoman Empire , where they founded communities openly practising

17673-417: Was achieved with the help of There are still Jewish communities in the North African exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla . These places, though treated in most respects as integral parts of Spain, escaped the Inquisition and the expulsion, so these communities regard themselves as the remnant of pre-expulsion Spanish Jewry. As Sephardic Jewish communities were established in central and northern Italy, following

17810-433: Was based on the narrative of the ancient Hebrew Bible . In this view, Abraham , signifying that he is both the biological progenitor of the Jews and the father of Judaism, is the first Jew. Later, Isaac was born to Abraham, and Jacob was born to Isaac. Following a struggle with an angel , Jacob was given the name Israel . Following a severe drought, Jacob and his twelve sons fled to Egypt , where they eventually formed

17947-639: Was captured, blinded, and transported to Babylon. Others fled to Egypt . The people of Judah lost their statehood, and, for those in exile, their homeland. Following the dissolution of the monarchy, the former kingdom was annexed as a province of the Babylonian Empire. During the several decades between the fall of Judah and their return to Zion under Persian rule, Jewish history enters an obscure phase. Many Jews were exiled across Babylonia , Elam , and Egypt , while others remained in Judea . Jeremiah refers to communities in Egypt, including settlements in Migdol , Tahpanhes , Noph , and Pathros . Moreover,

18084-416: Was considerable mutual religious and intellectual influence between the groups. In a given city, there was often an "Italian synagogue" and a "Spanish synagogue", and occasionally a "German synagogue" as well. Many of these synagogues have since merged, but the diversity of rites survived in modern Italy. The Spanish Synagogue ( Scola Spagnola ) of Venice was originally regarded as the "mother synagogue" for

18221-399: Was exiled to Babylon . The Assyrian and Babylonian captivities are regarded as representing the start of the Jewish diaspora . After the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered the region, the exiled Jews were allowed to return and rebuild the temple ; these events mark the beginning of the Second Temple period . After several centuries of foreign rule, the Maccabean Revolt against

18358-423: Was far more prevalent in Portugal than in Spain, even though many of these families were originally of Spanish rather than Portuguese descent. Over time, however, most crypto-Jews both of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry had left Portugal by the 18th century. Scholars are still divided on the typical religious loyalties of the conversos, in particular on whether they are appropriately described as "crypto-Jews". Given

18495-443: Was marked by severe measures, including ethnic cleansing , leading to the near-total destruction of Jewish diaspora communities in Libya , Cyprus and Egypt , including the significant and influential community in Alexandria . From 132 to 136 CE, Judaea was the center of the Bar Kokhba revolt , triggered by Hadrian's decision to establish the pagan colony of Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of Jerusalem. Early successes led to

18632-408: Was then a very large city made up mostly of Jews. A very ancient synagogue, built, it was believed, by King Jehoiachin, existed in Nehardea. At Huzal, near Nehardea, there was another synagogue, not far from which could be seen the ruins of Ezra's academy. In the period before Hadrian, Akiba, on his arrival at Nehardea on a mission from the Sanhedrin, entered into a discussion with a resident scholar on

18769-411: Was transferred to a government owned library in Munich, "and hence its name." The 95 reflects how it was cataloged. The Munich Bayerische Staatsbibliothek's origin in the 16th century, particularly its holding of Hebrew and Yiddish language articles, can be viewed here . An online copy of what is sometimes called The Munich Talmud is available here , although "it doesn't number individual pages with

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