Jewish diaspora

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Maurycy Minkowski : After the Pogrom , oil on canvas, 103.9 × 152.4 cm, The Jewish Museum , New York.

The Jewish Diaspora ( Hebrew גלות Galut , Yiddish Golus ) is the dispersion ( Greek διασπορά diasporá ) of the Jews that continues to this day. It began with the first Babylonian conquest of the Kingdom of Judah in 587 BC. BC, whereby many Judeanswere exiled to Babylon . In the 20th century as an analogy to the Greek term was Diaspora the word Tefutsot ( Hebrew תפוצות) educated. In Judaic studies , the term Galut mostly only refers to the period of exile between the ban on Jews from settling in Jerusalem in AD 135 by Emperor Hadrian and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

Concept and delimitation

The Greek word "διασπορά" (diasporá) appears for the first time in ancient literature in the Septuagint , the Greek translation of the Torah in the 3rd century BC. In the context of historical theology, it is derived from the previously used verb “διασπειρω” (diaspeiro) - “scatter, scatter” and was only used for Jews outside Palestine . It is used as a metaphor that describes the dissolution of the people or separation and distance from their homeland. The dispersion is experienced as captivity and exile and understood as a punishment or curse of YHWH . It results from a wrongdoing of the Israelites , the sin towards God ( 5 Mos 28-30  EU ; Ps 126,2  EU ; Jer 13  EU ; 24 EU ; 15,7 EU ; 34,17 EU ). The Hebrew name תְּפוּצָה (təfutṣāh), which corresponds to “Diaspora”, was only used in the 9th – 10th centuries. Century occupied. The anusim ( Hebrew אנוסים, Plural of anús forced) are a rabbinical-legal term for Jews who were forced to leave Judaism against their will and who, as far as possible, continue to practice Judaism under the repressive circumstances. It is derived from the Talmudic term abera be'ones ( treatise Avoda sara 54a). Other synonymous names are Kofer, Min and Epikuros.

The word Falasha, derived from ancient Ethiopian , as a term for Jews in Ethiopia (German: Falaschen ) means "emigrants" or "exiles" and has a derogatory connotation.

In the Hellenistic period , the terms “Jewish Diaspora” or “Diaspora Judaism” emerged after the understanding of the Diaspora had changed. From the end of ancient Greek history (30 BC), the Jewish diaspora was seen as an opportunity for the empire . Even the translation of the Septuagint accentuates the word dispersion completely differently, diaspora means the sowing, the dispersion of a seed. And a seed that falls on fertile ground sprouts and is actually something good. The Jews in the Diaspora lived in a strange environment and should be salvation and light for the peoples ( Isa 35.8  EU ; 49.6 EU ; Dan 12.2  EU ; 2 Makk 1.27  EU ; Ps 8.34  EU ). They had settled in foreign countries voluntarily.

The situation changed with the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, as the use of language in the New Testament suggests: The first Christians still adopted the Jewish diaspora understanding of the "Jewish minority among non-Jews", but with the state church from Emperor Constantine the Great (270/288 - 337) the term "diaspora" disappeared in the Latin-Greek language area up to the 16th century. The Reformation (1517–1648) and the subsequent Pietism introduced the term “diaspora” for the existence of church minorities in church majorities. After the Second World War , the term diaspora was adopted in the Protestant and Catholic Church in Germany.

This is to be distinguished from the use of the term “Jewish Diaspora”, in which the adjective “Jewish” in connection with the noun “Diaspora” denotes the general diaspora in modern parlance , but means the Jews in specific individual cases. Differentiating between diaspora and exile is difficult.

While the term diaspora has a negative connotation in the historical context of religion, the term diaspora in the current theoretical discourse no longer necessarily has a primarily negative connotation. The term Galut (Hebrew: גלות) is a fixed Hebrew term and is used for the exile communities, i.e. for diaspora communities, i.e. for Jews living outside the Land of Israel.

Robin Cohen distinguishes between different concepts of diaspora in his book on the concept of diaspora. First of all, the victim diaspora, for which he cites the Armenians , the Jews or the African slaves as examples . He also categorizes the diaspora of labor migration , the diaspora of commerce , the cultural diaspora, and the diaspora of a strong longing for a homeland , who cultivate a myth of such a homeland. Based on this, Marcia Reynders Ristaino defines the Central European Jewish refugees as a victim diaspora . Victim diasporas are characterized by the traumatic expulsions from home and the feeling of coethinicity shared by the persecuted and scattered Jews. A victim diaspora emerged from the mass exodus of Jewish-Slavic refugees from persecution in Eastern Europe, imperialist Russia and the USSR to Shanghai . The other consisted of the Jewish refugees from the Nazi regime in Europe to escape the Holocaust .

The victim diaspora exists in different forms

  • traumatic experiences in the home country,
  • a collective memory and a myth of the homeland,
  • a development of the return movement,
  • a strong ethnic awareness based on the feeling of otherness,
  • problematic relationships with the host society,
  • an empathy towards members of the same ethnic group in the diaspora and
  • the possibility of a creative and enriching life in a tolerant host society.

Since 1948, a majority of the world's Jews have formally been living in the diaspora voluntarily. According to Hanno Loewy , it is not for the first time in Jewish history that the diaspora is also understood as a positive, enriching experience. He explains that today there is not one, but many different Jewish diasporas, including an Israeli one, for example. With the migration between the diaspora and Israel in both directions, the diaspora itself has changed. However, many Jews in the United States do not consider the United States to be a diaspora at all.

For diaspores, the “homeland” does not necessarily represent a place of immediate physical return. Often a “land of the Jewish diaspora” represents the actual homeland for Jews, with Israel in many cases only an important historical, religious, cultural, linguistic and national point of reference forms its own individual and collective identity and belonging to one another and / or to Israel. In many cases they have no intention of physically migrating to Israel. The demarcation of the Jewish diaspora from Jewish transmigration means belonging to the place of residence as well as to Israel. There is no need for transmigrants to put down new roots as they have never been uprooted. In terms of their identity and often also physically, they are “at home” in both countries.

In the 20th century as an analogy to the Greek term was Diaspora the word Tefutsot ( Hebrew תפוצות) for the Jewish diaspora. It is understood to mean emigration or flight to Jewish communities outside Palestine.

prehistory

Long before the fall of the kingdom of Judah there were already Jewish trading establishments outside the land of Israel (cf. 1. Book of Kings 20:34). There were also some Jews who left their homeland for economic reasons (cf. Book of Ruth 1,1). After the death of King Solomon in 926 BC. According to biblical tradition, the Israelite empire was divided. The northern kingdom of Israel was established between 722 and 721 BC. Conquered by Assyria . Some of the residents were forcibly relocated and replaced by deported residents from other parts of the Assyrian Empire. Over time, the inhabitants mingled with the Samaritan people . The deported residents of the Northern Empire are still considered missing and are referred to as the Lost Tribes of Israel .

The southern kingdom of Judah , consisting of the tribes of Judah , Benjamin and the priestly tribe of the Levites , was able to continue to exist for the time being.

Emergence

597 BC The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah . He deported part of the population of Judea, around 10,000 people, mostly members of the upper class, to Babylon and settled them there.

586 BC After another war campaign by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II, which led to the fall of the kingdom of Judah and the destruction of the Temple of Solomon , at least as many Jews were exiled to Babylon.

The Babylonians settled the Judeans in closed settlements, including on the Kebar River (cf. Ez 1,1 and 3  EU ). This enabled the Judeans to preserve their traditions and their beliefs within a population of different faiths. This way of life as a minority with their own Jewish faith and often with different legal status among people of different faiths is the characteristic of the Jewish diaspora .

According to the book of Jeremiah (Jer 52, 28-30) it came in 582 BC. To a third, smaller deportation, presumably as a result of the assassination of the governor Gedalja ben Achikams appointed by the Babylonians .

It is certain that after 597 BC Names of Hebrews from the privileged upper class appear in Babylonian documents.

Further development

In the ancient

For fear of retaliation by Nebuchadnezzar II for the assassination of the governor Gedalja ben Achikam in 586 BC. Many of the Jews still living on the territory of the former Kingdom of Judah fled to Egypt , see also Book of Jeremiah, chapters 43 and 44. In the 6th century BC. A Judean military colony in Egyptian service settled in Elephantine in southern Egypt .

539 BC The Persian King Cyrus II conquered the Babylonian Empire. In 538 BC he allowed In a decree the exiles returned to the now Persian province of Jehūdāh. However, only a small proportion made use of this. The returnees to the Persian province of Jehūdāh were the first to be called Jews.

From Babylonia and Judea, the Jewish diaspora spread in the following centuries of old Persian rule in Syria , Asia Minor , northern Mesopotamia , Persia in the east, the Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia .

332 BC Chr. Occupied Alexander the Great , the Persian Empire. After the division among the Diadochi , the province of Jehūdāh fell to the Ptolemies .

In the Hellenistic period, after Babylonia, the greatest density of settlements emerged in Egypt. After Alexandria was founded , many Jews settled there. Smaller communities emerged in Cyrenaica , on the Black Sea coast , in Greece and in almost all of the major port and trading cities of the eastern Mediterranean.

Synagogues in antiquity, 1st - 2nd centuries AD

The Seleucids took over in 198 BC. The province of Jehūdāh from the Ptolemies . King Antiochus IV tried with all his might to replace Judaism with Hellenism, which happened in 168 BC. Led to the Maccabees revolt . 141 BC The Jews were able to establish an independent state under the Hasmonean dynasty .

In 63 BC After the conquest by Pompey , the empire lost its independence. It continued to exist as a Roman client state .

The Hasmoneans lost in 37 BC. Their power finally and the Idumean Herod the Great became king. In 6 AD, the kingdom was converted into the Roman province of Judea by the emperor Augustus and lost its statehood.

The Jewish historian Salo W. Baron estimates that there were about two million Jews in Judea at the time, but four million Jews in the Roman Empire outside Judea and at least another million in Babylonia and in other countries not ruled by Rome.

In the following period there were repeated uprisings and rebellions, which culminated in the Jewish War from 66 to 74 AD. Many Jews were enslaved after the lost war or left their devastated homeland and came to all parts of the Roman Empire. Some also migrated to the Persian Empire .

Subsequently

chronology

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Significant events in the Jewish diaspora were:

In the ancient

  • 597 BC Conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II and deportation of about 10,000 Judeans to Babylon
  • 586 BC BC Nebuchadnezzar II defeated Judah again and destroyed the Temple of Solomon . Another 10,000 Jews came to Babylon. Many then fled to Egypt .
  • 49 Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from the city of Rome.
  • 66–74 Jewish War , many Jews were enslaved after the war or left their devastated homeland and came to all parts of the Roman Empire.
  • 115–117 Diaspora uprising
  • 132–135 Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans, destruction of the last major Jewish settlement area

In late antiquity

  • 212 The Roman emperor Caracalla gave the Jewish inhabitants of his empire citizenship.
  • 417 and 423 Jewish laws of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II.
  • 534 Jewish laws of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I , they degraded the Jews to citizens of minor rights.
  • 590–604 Pope Gregory the Great laid down the papal Jewish policy of the Middle Ages: rejection of compulsory baptism, acquisition through privileges, foreigners in need of protection granted by the king (= royal smile).

In the middle ages

In modern times

Since the state was founded in 1948

Diaspora Museum

In 1978, on the campus of Tel Aviv University in Ramat Aviv , Israel, the Beit Hatəfutsot d. H. "Diaspora House" opened.

Demographics

As of January 1, 2016, 8,074,300 Jews lived in the Diaspora and 6,336,400 Jews in Israel. In the diaspora, Jews make up the largest proportion of the Jewish population in the USA with 1.8%, followed by Canada with 1.1% and France with 0.7%. In Germany the proportion of the population is 0.1%. Most Jews live in the following countries in the diaspora:

  1. United States: 5,700,000
  2. France: 460,000
  3. Canada: 388,000
  4. UK: 290,000
  5. Russia: 179,500
  6. Argentina: 180,700
  7. Germany: 117,000
  8. Australia: 113,000
  9. Brazil: 94,200
  10. South Africa: 69,500

By cities:

  1. New York City, New York - USA - 2,007,850
  2. Los Angeles, California - USA - 684,950
  3. Miami, Florida - USA - 485,850
  4. San Francisco, California - USA - 345,700
  5. Paris - France - 284,000
  6. Chicago, Illinois - USA - 270,500
  7. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - USA - 263,800
  8. Boston, Massachusetts - USA - 229,100
  9. Washington, DC - USA - 215,600
  10. London - United Kingdom - 195,000
  11. Toronto - Canada - 180,000
  12. Atlanta, Georgia - USA - 119,800
  13. Moscow - Russia - 95,000

See also

Web links

Commons : Jewish diaspora  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Historical Dictionary Project . Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  2. ^ Wolf Leslau, Etymological Dictionary of Harari, University of California Press, 1963, ISBN 0-520-09293-7 , p. 160.
  3. ↑ Raimund Hoenen, Diaspora. Fate and Chance , Leipzig University. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  4. ^ A b Jörn Kiefer, Diaspora , Bibellexikon in Bibellewissenschaft. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  5. ^ Robin Cohen: Global Diasporas: An Introduction . Routledge, 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-43550-5 .
  6. ↑ Marcia Reynders Ristaino: Port of Last Resort: The Diaspora communities of Shanghai . Stanford University Press, November 2003, ISBN 978-0-8047-5023-3 , p. 2.
  7. ↑ Hanno Loewy, Why Israel is re-establishing the Diaspora , Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialog, January 17, 2008. Accessed June 30, 2017.
  8. ↑ Jenny Kuhlmann, Exil, Diaspora, Transmigration , Federal Center for Political Education, October 6, 2014. Accessed July 1, 2017.
  9. ↑ Relations between Israel and the Diaspora ( Memento of January 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ See Alberto R. Green, The Chronology of the last days of Judah: Two apparent discrepancies. Journal of biblical literature 101, 1982, pages 57-73.
  11. ↑ See Donner, Geschichte , 370–381.
  12. ^ A Social and Religious History of the Jews. Vol. I, Part 1, Philadelphia 1952, pp. 167-171.
  13. ↑ Dan Diner: Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture: Volume 5: Pr-Sy . Springer-Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-476-01220-3 , pp. 119-120.
  14. ↑ Sergio DellaPergola: World Jewish Population, 2016. In: Arnold Dashefsky, Ira M. Sheskin (Ed.): American Jewish Year Book 2016. Springer, 2017. ISBN 978-3-319-46121-2 (e-book: doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-319-46122-9 ). Pp. 274, 311-317. Limited preview in Google Books .