Did Jews ever leave the Land of Israel?

Key points

What to understand first

Assyrian and Babylonian conquests caused major deportations.
Roman wars caused death, enslavement, displacement and restrictions.
Diaspora communities created enduring centres of Jewish culture.
Jewish presence and return in the homeland continued.

Several displacements, not one total expulsion

The Assyrian conquest destroyed the northern kingdom. Babylon later conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and deported part of the population. Under Persian rule, some exiles returned while communities also remained abroad. 4 17

Roman destruction in 70 CE and the Bar Kokhba revolt in 132–135 CE caused enormous losses. Hadrian barred Jews from Jerusalem, but this was not a single empire-wide removal of every Jew from the entire land. 5 6 18

Communities flourish across the diaspora

Jewish communities built major centres of learning, worship, commerce, medicine, literature and music across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and beyond. Diaspora history is a history of cultural achievement as well as vulnerability.

From Iraq and Yemen to Spain, Morocco, Poland and France, distinct Jewish traditions enriched the wider Jewish civilisation and later the State of Israel. 37

Continuity and return

Jewish communities in the homeland contracted, moved and revived under changing rulers. The Old Yishuv—especially communities associated with Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias—predated the organised political Zionist migrations of the late nineteenth century. 3 19

Evidence

Sources for this article

S3
The Old Yishuv
National Library of Israel. Long-established Jewish communities before the First Aliyah.
S4
Cyrus and the Judean Diaspora
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Israel, Judah, deportations and Persian-period return.
S5
World Between Empires: Judaea
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Roman Judaea, revolts and Hadrianic reorganisation.
S6
Eastern Mediterranean and Syria, 1–500 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bar Kokhba revolt and Roman provincial changes.
S17
Eastern Mediterranean and Syria, 1000 BCE–1 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Babylonian destruction, deportation and Persian return.
S18
Second Revolt / Bar Kokhba Revolt
British Museum. The revolt, destruction, displacement and hopes of return.
S19
History of Zionism
National Library of Israel. Old Yishuv, First Aliyah and the modern movement.
S37
Jews of the Middle East and North Africa
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Jewish communities across Arab and Muslim-majority countries before and after 1948.

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