Donila, Karen- -Festin, Aegina--Orilla, Kamille

Group II- MHD Histo2

European Diaspora

INTRODUCTION
Judaism is considered to be a religion as well as a nation and culture. Approximately 13 million
people worldwide indentify as Jewish, with the vast majority living in either the United States or Israel.
Jews come in all shapes, sizes, ethnicities and nationalities. There are black Jews from Ethiopia,
Chinese Jews from Shanghai and Indian Jews. There are Jews from Morocco and Iran, Jews from South
America and Oceania. The practices and beliefs held by Jews range from those who openly identify as
Orthodox and strictly observe ancient precepts to those that have nothing to do with the religion or
culture.

WHO IS A JEW?
In common speech, the word "Jew" is used to refer to all of the physical and spiritual descendants
of Jacob/Israel, as well as to the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and their wives, and the word "Judaism" is
used to refer to their beliefs. Technically, this usage is inaccurate, just as it is technically inaccurate to use
the word "Indian" to refer to the original inhabitants of the Americas. However, this technically
inaccurate usage is common both within the Jewish community and outside of it.
According to Jewish law, a child born to a Jewish mother or an adult who has converted to
Judaism is considered a Jew; one does not have to reaffirm their Jewishness or practice any of the laws of
the Torah to be Jewish. According to Reform Judaism, a person is a Jew if they were born to either a
Jewish mother or a Jewish father. Also, Reform Judaism stresses the importance of being raised Jewish; if
a child is born to Jewish parents and was not raised Jewish then the child is not considered Jewish.
According to the Orthodox movement, the fathers religion and whether the person practices is
immaterial. No affirmation or upbringing is needed, as long as the mother was Jewish.

ASHKENAZI JEW
The name Ashkenaz was applied in the Middle Ages to Jews living along the Rhine River in
northern France and western Germany. The center of Ashkenazi Jews later spread to Poland-Lithuania
and now there are Ashkenazi settlements all over the world. The term "Ashkenaz" became identified
primarily with German customs and descendants of German Jews.
In the 10th and 11th century, the first Ashkenazim, Jewish merchants in France and Germany,
were economic pioneers, treated well because of their trading connections with the Mediterranean and the
East. Jewish communities appeared in many urban centers. Early Ashkenaz communities were small and
homogeneous. Until Christian guilds were formed, Jews were craftsmen and artisans. In France,
many Jews owned vineyards and made wine. They carried arms and knew how to use them in self-
defense. The Jews of each town constituted an independent, self-governing entity. Each community,
or kahal, established its own regulations made up by an elected board and judicial courts. They enforced
their rulings with the threat of excommunication. The Ashkenazim generally shied away from outside
influences and concentrated on internal Jewish sources, ideas and customs.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, many Ashkenazi Jews became moneylenders. They were
supported by the secular rulers who benefited from taxes imposed on the Jews. The rulers did not totally
protect them, however, and blood libels cropped up accompanied by violence. In 1182, Jews were
expelled from France. Ashkenazi Jews continued to build communities in Germany until they faced riots
and massacres in the 1200s and 1300s. Some Jews moved to Sephardi Spain while others set up
Ashkenazi communities in Poland.
In the 1600s and 1700s, Jews in Poland, the center of Ashkenazi Jewry, faced blood libels and
riots. The growth of Hasidism inPoland drew many Jews away from typical Ashkenazi practice. After the
Chmielnicki massacres in Poland in 1648, Polish Jewsspread through Western Europe, some even
crossing the Atlantic. Many Ashkenazi Polish Jews fled to Amsterdam and joined previously existing
communities of German Jews. Sephardim there considered the Ashkenazim to be socially and culturally
inferior. While the Sephardim were generally wealthy, the Ashkenazim were poor peddlers, petty traders,
artisans, diamond polishers, jewelry workers and silversmiths. As the Sephardim became poorer in the
18th century, the communities became more equal and more united.

SEPHARDIC JEW
The descendants of Jews who left Spain or Portugal after the 1492 expulsion are referred to as
Sephardim. The word Sephardim comes from the Hebrew word for Spain, Sepharad, that is stated in
the Bible. It is believed that Jews have lived in Spain since the era of King Solomon (c.965-930 B.C.E.).
In the first Sephardi Diaspora, a large number of Jews settled in North Africa and in the Ottoman
Empire, especially,Turkey and Greece. Spanish exiles brought with them a unique culture, language
(Ladino) and traditions. Many of these immigrants continued to speak Ladino until the 20th century.
A Marrano Diaspora took place a century later. Some Marranos had settled in Portugal and
eventually moved toHolland, where they were allowed to outwardly practice Judaism. Many settled in
Western Europe and moved to the Americas. Marranos who settled in Latin America continued practicing
crypto-Judaism for many years because Spainbegan an inquisition in its New World colonies. Fear of
persecution led Crypto-Jews to settle in remote villages. Today, descendants of crypto-Jews can be found
in Colorado and New Mexico.


Diaspora- it is the dispersion of the Jews beyond Israel that began with the Babylonian Exile.
Babylonian Exile
Also called Babylonian Captivity, the forced detention of Jews in Babylonia following the latters
conquest of the kingdom of Judah in BC 598/7 and 587/6. It all started when The Chaldeans, following
standard Mesopotamian practice, deported the Jews after they had conquered Jerusalem in 597 BC. 10,00
people were forced to relocate to BABYLON, the capital of Chaldean empire. Nebuchadnezzar, the king
of the Chaldeans, only deported the most prominent citizens of Judah: professionals, priests, craftsmen,
and the wealthy. The "people of the land" (am-hares ) were allowed to stay.
The Jews formed their own community in Babylon and retained their religion, practices, and
philosophies but for the most part, the community remained united in its common faith in Yahweh. To
them, the disaster of the Exile resulted from their own impurity. The Babylonian Exile was proof of
Yahweh's displeasure. During this period, the Jewish leaders no longer spoke about a theology of
judgment, but a theology of salvation. It is most likely that the Torah took its final shape during this
period or shortly afterward, and that it became the central text of the Jewish faith at this time as well
when Cyrus, the Persian, conquered Mesopotamia allowed the Jews to return home.

In 63 BCE, Judah/Judaea became a 'protectorate' of Rome, and in 6 CE was organized as
a Roman province. From almost the beginning of the Common Era, Judea was ruled by Roman
procurators, whose chief responsibility was to collect and deliver an annual tax to the empire.
Constantine, a great warrior and man of considerable talents, rose to the top of the political ladder and
became the emperor of Rome. The Jews began to revolt against the Roman Empire in 66 CE during the
period known as the First JewishRoman War which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70CE.
During the siege, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and most of Jerusalem. In 132, the
Jews rebelled against Hadrian. In 135, Hadrians army defeated the Jewish armies and Jewish
independence was lost. Jerusalem was turned into a pagan city called Aelia Capitolina and the Jews were
forbidden to live there, and Hadrian changed the countrys name from Judea to Syria Palaestina.

PERSECUTION
POGROM - The word "pogrom" is employed in many languages to describe specifically the attacks
accompanied by looting and bloodshed against the Jews in Russia
Anti-Semitism - is the prejudice, discrimination and hatred of Jews as a national, ethnic, religious or
racial group

One reaction to the pogroms was the birth of a nationalist and Zionist movement among the Jews of
Russia, while many of the Jewish youth joined the revolutionary movement. The year 1881, the first year
of the pogroms, was a turning point not only for Russian Jewry but also for the whole of the Jewish
people.

GHETTO- The term "ghetto" originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, established in
1516, in which the Venetian authorities compelled the city's Jews to live. Various officials, ranging from
local municipal authorities to the Austrian Emperor Charles V, ordered the creation of ghettos for Jews in
Frankfurt, Rome, Prague, and other cities in the 16th and 17th centuries.
PROFESSION
While Jews did not settle in Venice until the 13
th
century, many Jewish merchants and moneylenders
visited and worked in the city beginning with the 10
th
century. In 1290, Jewish merchants and
moneylenders were allowed to work in Venice, but were forced to pay a special tax of five percent on all
their import and export transactions. Those who were not moneylenders were allowed to remain in the
city, albeit with certain restrictions. Jews were forced to wear various markings on their clothing to
identify themselves as Jews.
Venice received an influx of immigrants from Spain and Portugal following the expulsion in 1492. They
decided to let the Jews remain, but their residence would be confined to Ghetto Nuova, a small, dirty
island. Jews were only permitted to work at pawn shops, act as money lenders, work the Hebrew printing
press, trade in textiles or practice medicine. Despite the poor living conditions, Jewish community life
continued to grow inside the ghetto.


Theodore Herzl
He was born on May 2, 1860 at Budapest, Hungary, Austrian Empire (now in Hungary) and founder of
the political form of Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland. In 1894, Captain Alfred
Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was unjustly accused of treason, mainly because of the
prevailing anti-Semitic atmosphere. Herzl concluded that anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable
factor in human society, which assimilation did not solve. He declared that the Jews could gain
acceptance in the world only if they ceased being a national anomaly. The Jews are one people, he said,
and their plight could be transformed into a positive force by the establishment of a Jewish state with the
consent of the great powers. He died July 3, 1904, Edlach, Austria.