Stories about the countries where the Jews lived

The history of the Jewish people originates from the nomadic Semitic tribes that inhabited the lands of ancient Mesopotamia in the territory of modern Iraq. And I must say that the nomadic spirit will not leave it throughout the thousand-year history. In some cases, travel will be voluntary, and sometimes it will be expulsion or persecution, but always with dignity and nobility this people will go on a journey. In any country where Jews lived, they did not feel safe.

From south to north. A Long Way in Seven Decades

The first pilgrim in the history of the Jewish people was Abraham. The greatest biblical patriarch was born in the south of Mesopotamia, in the ancient city of Ure, but quite quickly the time came when it became unsafe for his family in this country to be. This sad story will be repeated many times - in countries where Jews lived, they will not be protected from persecution.

At this moment, Abraham's father decides to go to the land of Canaan, but it will not reach there, stopping in the city of Harran, which is in the south of modern Turkey. Two cities share more than a thousand kilometers, and even today this distance is not so easy to overcome because of the unstable situation in Iraq and Syria. In biblical times, in countries where Jews used to live, the situation was no less dangerous: robbers and robbers, greedy kings and a military leader threatened every traveler.

However, the family of Abraham reached the north of Mesopotamia and lived there for a long time, gaining wealth and honor, until the Lord turned to Abraham and again called him on the road. Burying his father, Abraham went to the south, into dangerous and uncomfortable lands.

Such different countries where Jews live

The next Jewish pilgrim mentioned in the Bible 82 times, will be Jacob, who, escaping from the danger threatening him in Hebron, will again return to the north, to the city of Harran, where he will find family happiness and two wives.

However, even there the ancestor of the Jews did not stay long, he soon returned to his father to reconcile with him and, having received a blessing, to bury him.

After the death of his father, Jacob went to Egypt, where his son Joseph achieved respect and honor at the court of the pharaoh. So, it becomes known about another country where Jews lived, before establishing their own state.

The First Jewish State

Coming out of Egypt with the help of Moses, the Biblical nation rushes to Canaan, which now becomes the place where Jews live. The country from this moment is called Israel. This state will have a long and rich history, full of wars, intrigues and mysteries still unraveled. However, this country will also end when the Babylonians seize Jerusalem, destroy the Jewish Temple, and bring all the townspeople into slavery or forcibly resettled in unsuitable lands. Everything that will happen from this moment until the return of Jews to their lands, in historiography will be called "Babylonian captivity."

As mentioned above, not all countries where Jews lived were friendly to their subjects, however, in their own state they will not be protected when the conquerors come.

The Roman occupation and the burning of Jerusalem

That the insatiable Roman empire sooner or later reaches the fertile crescent, understood all the rulers of the eastern Mediterranean. Jewish merchants who dealt with the empire knew, of course, what was happening in the West, and later the society of the Jewish kingdom was ready to conquer, ie, reconciled with it in advance, and accepted a new ruler, who from that time began to consider the emperor.

Thus, the sovereign state of the Jews turned into one of many Roman provinces, which was called Judea. However, the peace in the occupied lands did not last long, and soon the population rebelled, but the insurrection was suppressed, the Jerusalem Temple and the city itself were burned to the ground, and the population was relocated again.

The Great Dispersion of the Jews

Fleeing from the punishment of the Roman rulers, the Jews began to disperse to different ends of the empire and find a shelter and a new home there. But soon the empire broke up, and on the debris it appeared many new Christian and barbarian kingdoms.

So, among countries where Jews have ever lived, there are Spain and the Western Roman Empire, which will be replaced by the Visigothic kingdoms and the Papal State.

And, of course, there can be no question of any kind of rest, the Jews are again subjected to harassment by Christian rulers, and centuries later, they are expelled already from Spain, and then from Italy.

To date, Jews are considered one of two peoples who, although they have their own national state, but the diaspora is larger than its population. The second such people were Armenians, who also underwent much persecution from different governments.

The largest Jewish community is in the United States, which became a place of escape from pogroms in the Russian Empire, and later from extermination in Hitler's Germany. In the United States, Jews also left the Soviet Union, where anti-Semitism was widespread both at the state and at the domestic level. The USSR was also a state where Jews live. The country at the same time was considered unfriendly by Jews, and many succeeded in leaving it to Israel or the US on the so-called Jewish quota.