In 66 CE, the Jews of Judea rose in revolt against Rome, naming their new kingdom "Israel"[55](see also First Jewish Revolt coinage). The events were described by the Jewish historianJosephus, including the desperate defence of Jotapata, the siege of Jerusalem (69–70 CE) and heroic last stand at Gamla where 9,000 died and Massada (72–73 CE) where they killed themselves rather than fall into the hand of their enemies.
The revolt was crushed by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus. The Romans destroyed much of the Temple in Jerusalem and took as punitive tribute the Menorah and other Temple artefacts back to Rome. Josephus writes that 1,100,000 Jews perished during the revolt, while a further 97,000 were taken captive. The Fiscus Judaicus was instituted by the Empire as part of reparations.
It was during this period that the split of early Christianity and Judaism occurred. The Phariseemovement, led by Yochanan ben Zakai, made peace with Rome and survived. Judeans continued to live in their land in significant numbers, and were allowed to practice their religion. An estimated 2/3 of the population in the Galilee and 1/3 of the coastal region were Jewish.
The 2nd century saw two further Jewish revolts against the Roman rule. The Kitos War (115–117) was followed by the more fierce Bar-Kochba revolt (132–136) led by Simon Bar Kokhba. Judea was ravaged while Julius Severus andEmperor Hadrian crushed the rebellion. According to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews were killed, and 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed.
Continued persecution and the economic crisis that affected the Roman empire in the 3rd-century led to further Jewish migration from Palestine to the more tolerant Persian Sassanid Empire, where a prosperous Jewish community existed in the area of Babylon.
Jews probably constituted the majority of the population of Palestine until the 4th-century, when Constantine converted to Christianity.[67]
Jews lived in at least forty-three Jewish communities in Palestine: twelve towns on the coast, in the Negev, and east of the Jordan, and thirty-one villages in Galilee and in the Jordan valley. The persecuted Jews of Palestine revolted twice against their Christian rulers. In the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire collapsed leading to Christian migration into Palestine and development of a Christian majority. Jews numbered 10–15% of the population. Judaism was the only non-Christian religion tolerated, but there were bans on Jews building new places of worship, holding public office or owning slaves. There were also two Samaritan revolts in this period.
In 611, Sassanid Persia invaded the Byzantine Empire. In 613, a Jewish revolt against the Byzantine Empire joined forces with these Persian invaders to capture Jerusalem in 614. The great majority of Christians in Jerusalem were subsequently deported to Persia.[69]
The Jews gained autonomy in Jerusalem, until in 617 when the Persians betrayed agreements and withdrew their forces from the region. With return of the Byzantines in 628, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius promised to restore Jewish rights and received Jewish help in ousting the Persians with the aid of Jewish leader Benjamin of Tiberias. Heraclius later reneged on the agreement after reconquering Palestine by issuing an edict banning Judaism from the Byzantine Empire and thousands of Jewish refugees fled to Egypt, following Byzantine and Ghassanid perpetrated massacres across the Galilee and Jerusalem.
In 638 CE, the Byzantine Empire lost the Levant to the Arab Islamic Empire. According to Moshe Gil, at the time of the Arab conquest in 7th century, the majority of the population was Jewish or Samaritan.[3] According to one estimate, the Jews of Palestine numbered between 300,000 and 400,000 at the time.
In the mid-8th-century, taking advantage of the warring Islamic factions in Palestine, a false messiah named Abu Isa Obadiah of Isfahan inspired and organised a group of 10,000 armed Jews ( adica cca. 100.000 cu tot cu familii plus altii neparticipanti) who hoped to restore the Holy Land to the Jewish nation. Soon after, when Al-Mansur came to power, Abu Isa joined forces with a Persian chieftain who was also conducting a rebellion against the caliph. The rebellion was subdued by the caliph and Abu Isa fell in battle in 755.
In 1099, the Jews were among the rest of the population who tried in vain to defend Jerusalem against the Crusaders. When the city fell, a massacre of 6,000 Jews occurred when the synagogue they were seeking refuge in was set alight. Almost all perished.[91] In Haifa, the Jews and Muslims held out for a whole month, (June–July 1099).
Mass immigration would start after the Turks conquered the region in 1517.[120] Yet in Safed, the situation fared better. Thanks to Joseph Saragossiwho had arrived in the closing years of the 15th century, Safed and its environs had developed into the largest concentration of Jews in Palestine. With the help of the Sephardic immigration from Spain, the Jewish population had increased to 10,000 by the early 16th century.
In 1577, a Hebrewprinting press was established in Safed. The 8,000 or 10,000 Jews in Safed in 1555 grew to 20,000 or 30,000 by the end of the century.
In 1917, the British endorsed a National Home for Jews in Mandate Palestine by passing the Balfour Declaration. The Jewish population in the region increased from 11% of the population in 1922 to 30% by 1940.
