Diaspora: Expulsions, Forced Conversions, Assimilations and Exterminations

The term Diaspora is based on the words “Gola” and “Galut.” These terms always had a negative connotation in Jewish culture. Implicit in the idea of “exile” is the concept that the Jews are not just a religion, but a community tied to a specific Land. Thus, use of the term carried with it the seeds of Zionism. The Jewish perspective of the concept is that Gola (Diaspora) describes anything that is interminably long.

Assyrian Expulsion

The first exile began when Israel was defeated by the Assyrians and Jews were exiled to the region of modern Kurdistan as recorded in the Bible:

2 KINGS 17:6 “In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”

Chaldean Expulsion

The remaining kingdom of Judea was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar This is recorded both in the Biblical book of Kings and in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judea. Unlike the exile of Israel, which left no organized Jewish presence in the north of the Land and may have been complete, the Babylonian exile was partial:

2 KINGS 25:1 “And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.”

2 KINGS 25:19-22 “And out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in the king’s presence, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, which mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the city: And Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah: And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their Land. And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the…ruler.”

Cyrus’ Decree, 536 B.C., Allowed the Jews to Return to Land

The Jews were partly restored to their land by the Persians beginning the period of the Second Temple. However, important Jewish communities remained in exile in what is now Iraq, making them the oldest surviving Jewish exile. No trace remained of the Assyrian captives of Israel.

Egyptian Expulsion

A large number of Jews were exiled also to Egypt by Ptolemy about 300 BC, forming the Jewish colony in Alexandria. That colony was later almost decimated (40- 60,000 killed) by Ptolemy IV Philopater, whose wrath was kindled by the priests at Jerusalem who refused to let him worship in the Temple.

Roman Expulsion

Under Roman occupation, Judea was again destroyed following the revolt of 70 AD and the destruction of the Temple. Following the revolt of Bar Kochba which was finally crushed about A.D.135, a large number of Jews were carried off into exile. Additional Jews left at different times owing to impossible economic conditions and were scattered throughout the Roman empire. But there were important Jewish communities remaining in Cyprus, Alexandria, Syria and elsewhere after the time of the Bar Kochba revolt.

The Gola or Diaspora produced a profound reorganization of Jewish religion and culture. As there was no temporal authority to lead the nation, the different communities were usually organized under rabbis, who also often acted as the “ambassador” of the Jewish community to the surrounding gentile world. Biblical laws pertained to the Jews of Judea whose religion and culture were centered around the Temple in Jerusalem and the land. The place of the Bible in Jewish religion and culture was somewhat eclipsed by the Talmud and later rabbinical commentaries, which regulated Jewish life and adjusted it to the reality of living in exile under foreign rule. National pride and national self defense were denigrated as dangerous, in part because of the disastrous results of the revolt of Bar Kochba—the suppression of which was accompanied by a virtual genocide in the land of Israel.

Forced Conversions and Extermination

Under medieval Christian rule, Jews of the European Galut (Gola) were despised second or third class citizens, always living in fear of expulsion and subject to special regulations and taxes, as well as frequent outbreaks of murderous persecution and extermination and forced conversion. Jewish life centered around the ghettos of European cities, enclosed areas that were locked in at night. Jews were limited in their choice of occupation, their place of residence and the places they could travel to. They were often forced to wear special dress and were denied citizenship. The ghetto and ghetto life are considered to be “medieval,” but this is not so. Though there were Jewish quarters in towns since at least the Tenth Century, the first recorded enclosed ghetto was established in Venice in 1516, during the Renaissance, and ghettos were a feature of European urban life that lasted well into the Nineteenth Century.

In Muslim countries Jews often fared better, but they were always dhimmi at best: second-class citizens who did not participate in national life, did not serve in the army and paid special taxes. Several Muslim rulers also undertook forced conversion campaigns. Because religion was the only vehicle of national organization, converted Jews were invariably lost to their people as well as to their religion. As with the “Marrano” Jews of Spain, and the “Donmeh” Jews of Turkey, there have been many “secret Jews” living as Muslims throughout the Middleast—having been previously forced to convert to Islam.

ADAPTED FROM http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Gola.htm