Diaspor Jews Amidst Greeks And Romans

Jews’ interactions with Greek and Roman empires shaped and defined Jewish culture and practice. These empires affected Jewish culture through cultural adaptation whose lasting impacts can still be seen today. One of the first power struggles in Jewish history was during the Hellenistic period. At that time, the Jewish practice of circumcision became a negative identifier that alienated the Jewish people from Greek culture. Because a huge part of Greek culture involved social activities in the gymnasium done in the nude, Jewish males were immediately recognized and singled out.

Jews are the oldest diaspora who had no “homeland” for two millennia (Safran 2005). Despite attempts made by Christian evangelists to end the Jewish diaspora, they survived and developed a new relationship with the homeland. Historically, there has been historical meaning of diaspora for Jews- they were exiled because they were powerless, insecure and minority groups. The Jews diaspora who carried on its culture, maintained its ethnic or religious institution in America (hostland) are unwilling to surrender their identities and uphold a transpolitical relationship to the homeland or countries of origin (Safran 2005).

The history of the ancient Greeks and ancient Hebrews is very interesting. The two groups had very different beliefs concerning higher powers and what kind of gods they trusted in. The Hebrews believed in one God who ruled over them and controlled everything. The Greeks believed in multiple gods each ruling their own area of life. Fighting was a very prevalent activity for both of these groups, as it still is for many groups today. However, the reasons for fighting and violence were very different for the Hebrews and Greeks. This can be explained by comparing texts such as The Iliad and the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, which tell many battle stories of the Greeks and Hebrews.

The scattering a Jews beyond Israel has been a reoccurring pattern of events in history. Essential Jewish practice and creation of cultural identity has formed far from Jerusalem, despite the Torah’s vital theme of longing for the Promise Land. The idea that Jews are outsiders is ingrained in Jewish culture and identity Jerusalem faces being exiled too because it is “merely an extension of Western colonialism,” from its neighboring countries. However, today Jews are starting to close the chapter in history of exile and statelessness by returning to the Promise Land but this doesn’t mean that the Diaspora is coming to an end. Jewish history has continuous movement that caused great triumph and sadness. The issue that Jews have faced for so long is not having a home, power, and a sense of belonging because of the continuous exiling and persecution they face, at home and away, while still trying to create an identity for themselves.

In Egypt the Jews were casted out when king Bocchoris believed that Jews were hateful to the gods, so he cast them out into the desert. This demonstrates how the Jews were discriminated against because of their race. Discrimination defined as “to make an unjust or prejudicial distinction in the treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, sex, or age.” So in this case the definition works. Using the evidence from the source, we can see how unfairly Jewish people were treated throughout the Ancient World.

By the year 1000 B.C.E the Jews had founded Israel as their national state (“Jews”). They actively practiced a very distinctive religion, Judaism. Israel was conquered several times and eventually came under the rule of the Roman Empire (“Jews”). During this time, Jews were legal citizens of the Empire. However, the Jews and Christians diverged quickly; the Jews were marginalized for being different and strange. They rejected the belief that Jesus is the Messiah and other christian laws. Eventually the Jewish revolt in 135 C.E. drove the Jews out of Jerusalem (“Jews”). They then lived throughout the Roman Empire and the materializing medieval states. They lived in their own communities called ghettos because they were not allowed to own land

The history of Jews in host cities often depict a story of success or of failure when it comes to relations between the Jews and the Christians in Europe. Historian Jonathan Elukin, author of Living Together, Living Apart, presents the integration as a success process with rare, and special cases, of failure. On the other side of the spectrum is historian Raymond P. Scheindlin. Scheindlin’s novel, A Short History of the Jewish People, presents many cases of integration between the Christians and Jews that led to massacres and brutal endings for the Jewish community. There are many monumental events that take place during the long span of time that oversees European Jewish history, and both historians study and evaluate the events, however, they do so through different lenses.

Jews are human beings with their own history, philosophy, and eccentricities. They are a people apart from others not because of their separate religious beliefs, but because they are an ancient cultivating group of people who have their original antiquities. At the end of the 19th century, millions of Jews are living throughout Europe, and many Jews still do not have the freedoms of movement and live in areas where the government gives them special authorization. Anti-Semitism exists all in the nineteenth century European societies. During the First World War, large Jewish communities advance around the capitals. This concentration of Jewish population in large cities have a strong impact on their lifestyle and make them more visible in the

Biblically, Jews in the City of Rome showed unpredictable tensions and riots against the civil government. “Roman Emperor, Claudius made an edict to expel the Jews from the City of Rome. Right after Claudius was assassinated, many Christian Jews moved back to Rome” (Maier, 1988, pg.355). Meanwhile, there were tensions in Judea. A growing compassion toward Zealots in Judea happened which encouraged the Roman Jews to rebel against the civil government.

The Jewish population in Europe sought the American Jewish community as their source of leadership and security, even as the influx of refugees poured into the country. The effect that the Jewish community had on American life, as well as the subtle change brought from the introduction of Hungarian and Hassidic Jews into the nation, added a significant change to American cultural and intellectual

However, some Ashkenazi Jews experienced anti-semitism violence in these Christian countries. Many Jewish people were killed during this violence in what Robert Seltzer called a “supercharged religious atmosphere” (1980). In the closing centuries of the Middle Ages many Ashkenazi Jews moved to Italy and Poland in search of new and better opportunities and to escape their deteriorating living conditions in the Rhineland and central Europe, “migrations took place to Italy and Poland… by the sixteenth-century Poland had emerged as the foremost centre of Ashkenazic Jewish scholarship” (Eliezer, 2009, 67).

The Sumerian, Egyptian, Hebrew, and Hellenistic religions all have one concept in common. Religion is central to their lives. In Sumerian religion, it was believed humans were created to serve and provide for the gods. The Sumerian people spent their days accommodating the gods because of this belief. . The Jews lived by their God’s commandments in their day-to-day life. The Greek polis was notably tied to their religion. The people’s daily lives depended greatly on following their gods.

The introduction and development of Judaism was not easy. On one hand the people have to adjust to the new place and on the other hand the Jews population have to deal with the different traditions , language, and economic between their religion. Therefore, the main challenge faced by the Jews was the division between German and Eastern European Jews, because it created dispersal communities incapables of supporting Jews in need after the Second World War.

Antin presents an expansive summary of Jewish history that concentrates on the old world and new world for immigrants worldwide,, instead of Jewish ethnisities in Russia or Poltzk. Jewish Immigrants’ History illustrates how religion can effect one’s fate. The ill-fated wars between religions and cultures are mainly to blame for the isolation and extermination of war amongst the

Jewish history is a study of a people in exile. Since the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the experience of the Jewish individual in relation to non-Jewish society has often been that of an outsider looking in. In addition, the distinct Jewish culture, religion, and philosophy identifiably marked the Jews as a separate people. Although this demarcation exposed the Jews to many negative ideological trends, Isaac Deutscher’s “The Non-Jewish Jew” argues that this marginalization enabled the great thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries to revolutionize the European continent. As the title suggests, the non-Jewish Jews were individuals that abandoned Judaism. Deutscher argues that the historical exclusion