Figure 1.--The Jews of Greece were masacered by Greeks durung the Greek revolt against the Ottomans (1821). Greece as a result of the Balkans Wars (1911-13) acquired hessaloniki with Salonica and its substantial Jewish community. The Ottomons had allowed the Jews to establish their own community institutions like schools and hospitals. The Greeks allowed this situation to continue. Here is a Jewish orphanage in Salonika during 1926. The Hebrew wall lettering reads, "May you merit to live many years."
The various Jewish communites of the Diaspora interacted to varying degrees with the local culture. The Jews of the Diaspora developed remarkably diverse cultural lives as well as religious outlooks. These Jewish communities were established througout Europe as well as the Middle East. Spain and Portugal using law and the Inquisition kept Jews out of the Americas until independence (19th century). Egland did not, however, bar Jews from their American colonies. Each country has its own unique history of Jewish settlement and culture. Some like America, Poland, and Rusia had very large Jewish communities. Other countries have had only tiny Jewish communities. Some Jewish communities were destroyed or exiled in the Medieval era and n some instances later recovered. Some were irevocably destroyed. Jews and later Protestants were a major target of the Inquisition. Many of these communities were destoyed in thr 20th century. The NAZIs destroyed vibrant Jewish communities throughout the areas of Europe they occupied. The Arabs and Iranians have destroyed the Jewish communities in their countries. Here is what we know about the various Jewish communities of the Disopra. While small in number, Jews in many of these countries have played a major role in cultural and intelectual life.
Finland
Finland has only a small Jewish community. Finland for several centuries was a part of the Tsarist Empire which prohibited Jews from settling in many parts of the country and this included Finland. The first Jews to reach Finland were veterans retiring from the Tsarist Army. Jewish army veterans were for the first time given permissiion to retire where ever they wanted (1858). At the times young men were conscrioted for 30 years and often loss contact with their families and loved ones. Thus sone veterans retired where they last served. The numbers involved were relatively small. After independence, the Finnish Parliamented granted these Jews and their dependents full citizenship. The small Jewish population grew somewhat in the inter-war period. At the onset of World War II there were about 2,000 Jews in Finland. Jews fought in the Finnish Army, both the Winter War (1939-40) and the NAZI campaign against the Soviet Union (1941-44). This resulted in the strange situation where Jews fought as allies of the Germans against the Red Army. Atvthe same time, the NAZIs pressured the Finns to turn over their Jews. The Finns not only refused to do so, but also refused to enact any laws descriminating against Jews or restricting their civil rights. The Finns did turn over eight Austrian Jewish refugees to the NAZIs. Finnish veterans recall a “field synagogue” built by Finnish soldiers in which they could worship near SS units. There is a story of a Jewish soldier who helped rescue SS soldiers pinned down by Red Army fire. The Germans Offered an Iron Cross he refused it, speaking flawless German.
Finnish Jews after the War supported Israel's fight for independence (1948). There were 29 Finnish volunteers that fought forvIsrael. This was the highest per capita contribution from any Diaspora community. Finland also had a high rate of aliyah (emigration to Idrael). As the Jewish population in Finland was small to begin with, this substantially reduced the community. Finland's Jewish population, however, was revived by immigrants from Russia which has reinforced the community's original Russian roots. There are today about 1,500 Jews in Filand.
Jews first reached France during the Roman era. There has been a ontinuing Jewish presence in France since that time. With the coming of Christianity, the Jewish community went through periods of both toleration and persecution depending on the policies of both the Church and the ruling monarch. The Crusades brought on an era of persecution and expuslions. When reviewing the many drastic actions taken against Jews in France, it is difficult to understand how Jews survived in France at all. It is unclear what became of the Jews expelled from France and how many survived expullsion. There appears to have been a break after King Charles VI's expulsion (1394). Some Jews may have survived in France by feigning conversion. But basically Jewish culture was extunguished and subsequent Jewish history in France devdlops from immigrants, both Sephardic and Ashkenazim. The secularization of the French Revolution brought an era of toleration and emancipation. Even so there was a strong anti-Semetic element within France. even into the 20th century. Jews in the 19th and 20th century played a major role in French intelectual and commercial life.
The Jewish population is an especially interesting ethnic and religious minority. Jews in Georgia based on both oral traditions as well as actual written records dates millenia (around 500 BC). Despite becoming integrated in Georgian society and the pasage of millenia Georgian Jews maintained a degree of ethnic sepasration. They came to see themselves as direct descendants of the fabeled twelve tribes of Israel who were forcibly settled in Midia by the expanding Assyrian Empire. It was an early exmple of the settlement policy adopted by many major imperial powers. Georgia this becanme one of the earliest points of the Jewish disapora. Georgia was a rare exeption to the vicious abntisemitism prevalent in medieval Christendom. They would be joined later by an influx of Ashkenazi Jews who arrived after the Tsarist annexation of Georgia (1801-04). Tsarist control also introduced severe anti-Semitism. Georgian Jews were a rare exception of the European Jewish population that survived the Holocaust because the Red Army Army stopped NAZI forces seeking oil as they advanced into the Caucasus (1942). Most Georgina Jews would, however, migrate to Israel after the Six Days War. The success of the Israekis reoported by Soviet media ignited the interest in Judaism among Soviet Jews, including Georgin Jews. The work of the Refusniks and American economic pressure convinced the Soviets to allow Jewish emigration (1970s).
Germany until the rise of the NAZIs (1933) was one of the European countries with the richest traditions of Jewish life. It was also the European country that in the 19th century emancipated Jews and provided an environment in which Jews could prosper. It was to Germany and America that Polish and Russian Jews fled whem Tsar Alexander III unleased pogroms in the late 19th century. Today Germany is today viewed through the lens of the Holocaust. This should not obscure the long a rich tradition of the Jewish peopkle in Germany. It is thus an irony of history that the Holocaust of the Jewish people was launched in Germany and devestated European Jewery. Jews have lived in Germany for 16 centuries. German Jewish tradition is known as Ashkenaz Jewry as opposed to Sephardic Jewery from Spain and Portugal.
The indigenous Jewish communities of Greece are the oldest Jewish communities in Europe. It was in Greek comminities (in modern Greece and Turkey) within the Roman Empire that St. Paul preached the Gospel to Jewish communities. This was before the Jewish Revolt and resulting Roman supression of the Jews in Palestine (66-70 AD). More Jews settled in Greece (at the time part of the Ottoman Empire) after their expulsion from European Christian kingdoms. Many of the Sephardic Jews from Spain found shelter in the Ottoman Empire. Many of these Jews settled in Greece which at the time was contolled by the Ottomans and Greek areas of Anatolia. The Ottoman policy was to allow Jews to set up community institutions like schools and hospitals. When Greece became independent (1830s) they allowed this practice to continue. They follow the same policy when after the Balkan Wars (1910s) they obtained Thessalonnika (a European are of the Ottoman Empire in what is now northeastern Greece. The NAZIs succeeded in almost entirely destroying these communities. At that time, the Germans occupied Greece, there were about 76,000 Jews in the country. Most or about 55,000 were in Salonika in the German occupation zone. There were 6,000 Jews in western Thrace under Bulgaria and 13,000 Jews in the Italian zone. The process of the Holcaust was thus affected by which occupation zone the Jews lived.
Hungary had a larger Jewish population than either Germany or Austria. At the time of World War II, Hungary is believed to have had a Jewish population of approximately 825,000, although the Jewish population in the early 1930s was only about 450,000 people. After Poland and the Soviet Union, Hungary had the largest Hungarian community in Europe. Hungarian Jews like German Jews were some of the most assimilated Jews in Europe. Jews within the Austro-Hungarian Empire were emancipated in 1867 when the Empire was created. Jews within the Empire, unlike many ethnic groups, were laregly supportive of the imperial structure. Jews in the Hungarian area of the Empire became Hungarians in all respect, including language, customs, and clothing. This was especially the case of urban Jews. Most identified themselves as Hungarians more than Jews. Over 10,000 Jews were killed during military service in World War I. Many Hungarian Jews did not actively practice Judiasm. Nor was there much interest in Zionism after World War I in the realtively open society under Admiral Horthy. Theodor Herzl described the Hungarian Jews as a"dry bough" of Zionism.
Jews are reported in India even before the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem. Some Indian Jews claim to be descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel. The Roman supression of the Jewish Revolt dispersed Jews from Palestine (66-70 AD). It is at this time that Jewish comminities appear in North Africa and Europe. Jewish colonies existed in Malabar/Kerala (1st century AD).
Iran has one of the oldest Jewish communities outside Israel. Jews first appeared in Iran at the time of the destruction of the First Temple (6th century BC). The Jews had been conquered by the Babalonians and many were brought back to Babylon as slaves. Cyrus the Great who founded the Archemid dynasty, conquered Babylon (539 BC). Cyrus allowed the enslaved Jews to return to Israel. Not all the Jews returned. Scattered Jewish colonies were established in Babylon and various Persian provinces as well as Hamadan and Susa. The experiences of the Jews in Persia under the Achaemids are desctibed in the Bible (books of Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel). Jews in Persia tended to lived in their own communities. Persia was a huge multi-national empire. Thus Persian Jewish communities existed not only in modern Iran, but also what is now Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, northwestern India, Kirgizstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Jews during Sassanid dynasty prospered and spread throughout Persia, albeit they experienced some persecution (226-642 AD). Arab Muslims conquered Persia (642 AD). Persia became part of the Caliphate. Persia was an extremly backward state (19th century). Persian Jews were persecuted and suffered descrimination. Some Jewish communities were forced to convert to Islam. Some Jews as Zionism developed, emigrated to Palestine which at the time was an Ottoman province.
The history of the Hebrew from the very beginning were asociated with Iraq. The great Jewish patriarch Abraham was from what is now Iraq. Subsequent Hebrew history revolve around geogaphy, Palestine's location between the early great civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Then other empires (Persia, Greece, and Rome) would play a major role. Cyrus the Great who conquered the Babylonians freed the Jews. Many retuned to Palestine, but some remained in Persian controlled Iraq. Under Persian, Greek, Parthian, Roman, and Byzantine rule, the Jews in Iraq prospered. Important Jewish scholars worked in Iraq, producing the Babylonian Talmud (500-700 AD). Iraq was an early conquest of Arabian warriors and most of the poplation gradually converted to Islam. The Arab treatment of the Jews varied between periods of toleration and suprression. Ottoman rule was a reltively begign period. There was by the 20th century a substantial Jewish community in Iraq, largely concentrated in Bagdad. One estimate suggests that at the time of World war I about a third of Bagdad was Jewish. Ottomon rule in Iraq was ended by World War I The League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Iraq. Jews prospered under British rule. Britain granted Iraq independence (1932). Jew at first played an important role in independent Iraq. Iraqi nationalists were influenced by the NAZIs and their anti-semetic dictrines.. Anti-semitism was further fueled by the Grand Mufti and his struggle with the British and Zionist settlers in Palestine. After the First Isreali-Palestinian War (1947-48), Iraqi Jews were rescued as part of Operations Ezra and Nechemia (1949-51). Another 20,000 Jews reached safty through neigboring Iran. Jews remaining in Iraq were the target a series of anti-Jewish measures and attacks.
Ireland
Ireland was not part of the Roman Empire. As a result there is no known record of Jews in Ireland until the post-Roman Christian era. As in most of Europe, few records exist on the early medieval era. The first know Jew to reach Ireland appears to have been merchants from Normandy (1079). Tgere are occassional references to Jews, inclusing a doctor, suggesting that a small number of Jews were living in Ireland (12th century) and references confirming the exitence of a small community, probanly in Dublin (13th century). These Jews presumably were expelled when Englnd expelled its Jews (1290). There is no record of the course of events in Ireland or what happened to the Irish Jews. (Many of the English Jews were murdered in the process of expullsion.) There are no further references to Jews in Ireland until Spain and Porugal expelled their Jews (1492). A small group of Portuguese Jews apparently established a small community along the southern coast (1496). Occasional references to Irish Jews are noted in subsequent centuries. They established links with other Sephardic communities in London. one report indicated there were 40 Jewish families in Dublin (1745). Legally Jews in Ireland and England were outside the law as the royal expullsuion order was still theoretically in force. Some consideration of naturalizing Jews took plave, but not action was taken (18th century). Legal changes did occur (18th century). Small numbers of Russian Jews arrived in Ireland as a result of the Russian pogroms that drove huge numbers of Jews to America. By the early 20th century, the Jewish population reached about 5,000 people, many from Lithuania (a Russian province). An anti-Semitic boycott was organized in Limerick (1900s), but this seems to have been an aberation. Ireland was neutral in World War II. Ireland did not offer refuge to Jewish refugees and was notably silent about NAZI attrocities and the Holocaust. There is today a small Jewish community of about 3,000 people. Some Irish Jews have emigrated to America.
Judiasm has a long history in Italy, a history which predates Christinity. Italy was the first European country where Jews appeared, more than 20 years before the birth of Christ. More Jews were brought as prisioners after te suppression of the Jewish Revolt. Jews were driven from Palestine and were spread throughout the Roman Empire in the Disaspora. After the fall of Rome, Europe splintered into many different political units. Jewish communitites florished in Western Chrisendom, but gradually anti-Semtism developed, especially when the papacy set the crusades in motion. The Papacy reeling under the rising force of the Protestant Reformation was increasingly less willing to accept any form of tolleration. Pope Paul IV issued a Papal Bull requiring that Jews in the Papal States (Rome and central Italy) be confined to ghettos (1555). Restrictions on Italian Jews continued in Italy, especially in the Papal States. The situiation for Jews did not change until the French Revolution and the appearance of Frebch armies undwr MNapoleon in Italy. Napoleon op[ened the ghettoes. Napolean granted Jews civil and commercial rights. An exception was the Jews in the Papal State and Tuscany. After Napoleons defeat, however, the civil and commericial rights were once more stripped away and the ghettoes reestablished. Garabaldi and the House of Savoy began the unification of Italy (1848). Under the new Italian Kingdom granted full commercial and civil rights to the Jews. Unification was completed (1861) and Italy was ruled by a constitutional democracy with parlimentary system. It was no longer necessary for Jews to disguise their religion. Freed from the ghetto, unification began a process of assimilation. Roman Jews, freed of papal restrictions, built the Great synagogue overlooking the Tiber (1904).
Japan
Japan is about as far away from Palestine as Jews could get. Christian powers reached Japan soon after the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope and ooened trade with the East (16th century). To preserve social order, the Shogun evenntually suppressed Japanese Christians and sharply limited trade with the West. Jews did not reach Japan until after American Commodore Perry and the Black Ships forced Japan to open its ports to foreign commerce (1853). This led directly to the Meiji Restoration (1873) and the modernization of the country. It is in that melieu that the first Jews reached Japan. A closed, conservative society was suddenly opened to new ideas and interested in expanding commercial contacts with the rest of the world. The first Jews who entered Japan, as was the case of Jews in many other countries, were were primarily traders (1860s). And as might be expected, the first Jews settled in important ports. Japan had no tradition of anti-Semitism and found the Jews who came to Japan to be knowledgeable about doing business in the West as wel nas many useful commercial contacts throuhout Europe and the United States. This was just the kind of expertise that Japanese merchants and companies needed to do business in the West. There wre about 50 Jewish families from several different countries in Yokohama, the principal port near Tokyo (late-1860s). Another Jewish community developed in Nagsaki (1880s). Nagasaki was the port through which much of the trade with Russia was developed. Perhaps this was the reason that Japan's largest Jewish community grew in Nagasaki. Kobe also developed a small Jewish community. Kobe was one of the first ports opened to Westeners. In these ports, Jewish communities developed religious institutions and a Zionist organizations. Yokohama suffered a massive earhquake (1923). After World War I and the Russian Revolution, trade with the new Soiviet Russia declined. As a result, Jews in both ports began to gravitate toward Kobe. As a result, Kobe now is the location od the oldest surviving Jewish Community of Japan. [Engel] And it was the Kobe Jewish community that watched Japan forge an alliance with NAZI Germany while that country escalated a massive anti-Semetic campaign.
Jordan
We have not yet been able to find information on Jews living in what is now Jordan. The country was part of the Ottoman Empire until World War I. A British offensive aided by an Arab revolt drove the Ottoman Ary out of Palestine and Syria (1917-18). The League of Nations awarded a mandate to Britain. The British divided Palestine into two administrative districts, Palestine and Trans-Jordon (1923). The dividing line was the Jordan River. The British restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine or the district east of the Jordan. Emir Andulanh was installed as the king. Britain helped tran the Jordanian Army known as the Aran Legion. This British armed and equipped force played a major role in the First Isreali-Palesinian War (1947-49). It seized East Jerusalem and the East Bank. Rather than help organize a Palestinian Arab state, Jordon annexed the East Bank and East Jerusalem.
Jordon legally excluded Jews with Civil Law No. 6 (1954). The law stated, "Any man will be a Jordanian subject if he is not Jewish." At the time this included the Jordanian-occpied West Bank. Jordan joined Egypt in the Six Days War, but the Idrealis succeeded in capturing both East Jerusalem and the East Bank. Jordon signed a peace treaty with Israel, the Wadi Araba Treaty (1994). The treaty normalized relations between the two countries. The Treaty followed the peace treaty betweem Israel and Egypt. Jordon was only the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel.
Latvia
German knightly orders ruled Latvia (1201-1561). Policies wee different in neighboring Lithuania which combined with Poland. There a substantial Jewish population developed beginning in the 13th century. The Teutonic Knights banned Jews from even entering Latvia (1306). Only with the fall of the Teutonic Knights did Jewish settlement become possible.
Modern Latvia is composed of four regions (Courland, Latgale, Livonia, and Vidzeme). The history of the Jews in each province varies somewhat because of the varying policies of different rulers. Poland seized Livonia and Latgale (1561), but Courland which neigbored Lithuania became an independent Duchy (1562-1795). Although loosely tied to Poland, there was a strong German influence in Courland. This meant that Courland Jews had closer ties to German Jews than the neigboring Jewish community in Lithuania. The first Jewish settlements in Latvia were reported in Courland (1570s). The Duchy was absordbed by Russia as part of the POlish partitions (1792). It was, however, not part of the Pale of Settlement. The Order in Livonia forbade Jews from persuing commerce or owning farm land. This was widely regarded as prohibiting any Jewish presence. Nobles thus levied a range of restrictions on Jews, including residence restrictions, license fees, and other measures. Livonia passed to Poland (1561), Sweden (1621) and Russia (1710). Restrictive measures were persued by loval authorities throughout this period. A modern Jewish community began to develop (1840s).
Poland seized Latgale (1562). It was subsequently acuired by Russia as part of the First Polish Partition (1772). The Russians include the region in the Pale of Settlement (1804). Latgalia Jews were Yiddish speaking. The Jewish intelligentsia spoke Russian as was the case in Lithuania-Byelorussia.
There have been ties between Lebanon and Jews dating back to Biblical times. Solomon preferred Lebanon's cedars for building the great temple. Jews in what is now Lebanon experienced relative toleration under Ottoman rule. The same continued to be the case under thecFrench mandate (1922-43), except during the Vichy period. After World War II the relative toleration continued, in part because of the importance of Christians in the Lebanese government. At the time that the first Israeli-Palestinian War (1948-49), there were about 6,000 Jews in Beirut. (WE have noted higher numbers in various sources.) Lebanese Jews at the time did not feel endangered. Many led propsperous lives in Lebanon. They enjoyed full legal rights under the Lebanese Constitution. There were anti-Zionist demonstrations, but the country's Jews were not targetted (1947-48). Public attitudes gradually began to change, partivularly among Muslim Lebanese. Muslims began to associate Lebanese Jews with Israeli policies. The main synagogue was bombed (early 1950s). The Lebanese Chamber of Deputies conducted debates on the status of Lebanese Jewish army officers. The Deputies decided unanimously to expel Jews from the Lebanese Army. As a result of the rising anti-Semitism in the Arab world, Lebanese Jews began leaving the country. The Lebanese Government assigned guards to Beirut's Jewish quarter to protect them from therising hostility. Many left after the Six Days War (1967). Lebanese Jews, unlike Jews in many Arab countries, were allowed to freely leave the country with their possessions until 1972.
Civil war broke out between Christians and Muslims (1975). There was a great deal of fighting around the Jewish Quarter in Beirut. Homes, businesses, and synagogues were damaged. Most of the relatively few remainging Jews (about 1,800 people) fled Lebanon and the Syrian presence (1976). Most Lebanese Jews went to Europe (largely France), the United States and Canada. Relatively few went to Israel. Hizballah gunmen kidnapped several prominent Beirut Jews. They were mostly leaders of the small Jewish community. Four were subsequently found murdered. The Khaybar Brigades and the Organization of the Oppressed of the Earth claimed responsibility for actins against Lebanese Jews (1984-87). A few elderly Jews remain in Beirut, but are unable to practice their religion.
Libya's Jewish community traces its origins back to pre-Roman times (3rd century BC). The Jewish community in Libya like that of other Jewish communities in the Mediterreanean expanded during the Roman Empire. Rome while supressing the Jewish Revoly (1st century AD) provided the environment for Jews and other to freely travel and settle throughout the Empire. There were period of repression (73 AD and 115 AD), inspired by Jewish revolts. When the Italians seized Libya before World Wae I (1911), there was a small Jewish population of 21,000 people. It was an almost exclusively urban population. More than half lived in Tripoli. The rise of Italian Fascism did not at first affect Italian Jews, but as Mussolini increasingly became dependent on Hitler, his Axis partner, Italian anti-Semetic laws were passed (1939). And it was Tripoli where Rommel and the Afrika Korps landed to rescue the retreating Italian Army (1941). Many Jews from Tripoli were also sent to forced labor camps. Conditions did not greatly improve following the liberation. During the British occupation, there was a series of Arab pogroms aimed at the Jews, the worst of which resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Jews in Tripoli and other towns and the destruction of five synagogues (1945). With the outbreak of fighting between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, the positionnof Libyan Jews eventually became untenable.
Jews appeared in Lithuania during the late medieval era. Jews are noted during the reign of Grand Duke Gedeyminus, who founded the first Lithuanian state (14th century). Historians note many thriving Jewish communities (late 15th century). Vilnius became the center of Jewish life in Lithuania. Lithuanian Jews developed a vibrant community with a destinct, highly developed culture. Many Lithuanian Jews spke a destinctive dialect of the Yiddish language. We note some separate Jewish schools. Although by the 20th century, Lithuania was only a small Baltic country, the country's Jewish community was one of the most notable in Europe. Some like rabbi Israel Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, saw Lithuanian Jews as the "spiritual leaders of the entire Jewry”. There were many notable Jewish institutions in Lithuania: the Gaon of Vilnius, the famous Lithuanian yeshivas, the YIVO, the Romm publishers, the Strashun library, the Department of Semitic languages at the University of Vytautas the Great in Kaunas. Lithuanian Jews were involved in major schools of Jewish religious thought as well as secular movements like the Jewish workers' movement and Zionism. I am unsure to what extent the Jewish population in Lithuania had assimilated into the larger Lithuanian population. I think that a substantial part of the population lived as a separate community. The country had a pre-World War II population of 0.2 million. One source estimates the Lithuanian Jewish population at about 160,000 people, about 7 percent of the country's total population. After the NAZI and Soviet invasions of Poland (September 1939), refugees fled into still independent Lithuania. The Soviet Union also transferred Vilinus, which Poland had seized in 1938, back to LituniaThia. Lithuania's Jewish population thus swelled the Jewish population to about 240,000 people. Much of Lithuania's Jewish population was concentrated in Vilnius. The city was known as the Jerusalem of the North or the Jerusalem of Diaspora. Jews all over Europe adminred the city's Yiddish-language theaters, libraries, schools and its Talmudic scholars. Jewish Lithuanians referred to themselves as "Litwakes. Abraham Mapu, Abraham Sutzkever, and Eisik Meir Dick were noted Jewish authors. There were also artists and musiscians. Violinist Jascha Heifetz and artist Mark Chagall were among the most famous.
