List and timeline of mass departure of Jews, forced or otherwise
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In722 BCE,Samaria, the capital city of the northern Kingdom of Israel, was taken bySargon II,[1] who resettled the Israelites in Halah, Habor, Gozan and in the cities ofMedia (2 Kings 18:11–12). Sargon recorded the capture of that city thus: "Samaria I looked at, I captured; 27,280 men who dwelt in it I carried away" into Assyria. Some people of the northern tribes were spared,[2][3] and it has been suggested that many also fled south to Jerusalem.[4]
Contemporary scholarship confirms that deportations occurred both before and after the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel in 722–720 BCE, with varying impacts acrossGalilee,Transjordan, and Samaria.[5] During the earlier Assyrian invasions, Galilee and Transjordan experienced significant deportations, with entire tribes vanishing.[5][6] In contrast, archaeological findings from Samaria suggest a more mixed picture. While some sites were destroyed or abandoned during the Assyrian invasion, major cities such as Samaria andMegiddo remained largely intact, and other sites show a continuity of occupation.[5][6] Based on changes in material culture,Adam Zertal estimated that only 10% of the Israelite population in Samaria was deported, indicating that most Israelites continued to reside in Samaria.[7][8]
ArchaeologistEric Cline believes only 10–20% of Samaria’s Israelite population (i.e. 40,000 Israelites) were deported to Assyria in 720 BCE. About 80,000 Israelites fled to Judah whilst between 100,000 and 230,000 Israelites remained in Samaria. The latter intermarried with the foreign settlers, thus forming theSamaritans.[9]
When Zedekiah revolted against Babylonian rule, Nebuchadnezzar responded by invading Judah (2 Kings 25:1). In December 589 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar begananother siege of Jerusalem.[11] During the siege, many Jews fled to surroundingMoab,Ammon,Edom and other countries to seek refuge.[12] The city eventually fell after a thirty-month siege, and the Babylonian generalNebuzaradan was sent to complete its destruction.[13] The city was plundered, andSolomon's Temple was destroyed. Most of the members of the elite class were taken into captivity in Babylon. The city was razed. Only a few people were permitted to remain and tend to the land (Jeremiah 52:16).: In 537 BCECyrus the Great, the founding king of theAchaemenid Persian Empire, allowed the Jews toreturn to Judah andrebuild the Temple.[14][15][16]Fall of Jerusalem; Solomon's Temple is on fire
500–1 BCE
139 BCE
Expulsion from the city ofRome under the accusation of aggressiveproselytizing among the Romans.[17]
The Jewish defeat in theFirst Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) resulted in significant loss of life from battle, famine, and disease, extensive city destruction—includingJerusalem—and widespread forced displacement.[21] Many Jews were enslaved or sent into forced labor in locations such asEgypt and theIsthmus of Corinth,[22] while others were dispersed across the Roman Empire. Young men were coerced intogladiatoral combat, and others were sold intobrothels or slavery.[23] As a result, a substantial portion of the Jewish population of Judaea was either expelled or displaced.[21]
TheBar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE) had catastrophic effects on the Jewish population in Judaea, resulting in massive loss of life, extensive forced displacements, and widespread enslavement, which left centralJudea in a state of desolation.[25] Some scholars describe the Roman suppression of the revolt as constituting an act ofgenocide.[26][27] Following the revolt, Jews were expelled from the vicinity of Jerusalem and the districts ofGophna,Herodion, andAqraba.[28][29] The revolt triggered a significant migration of Jews from Judea to coastal cities andGalilee.[30] Jewish captives were sold into slavery and dispersed across various parts of the empire, causing a significant influx of new slaves into the market.[31]
415
After a massacre of Christians by some Jews, Jews were expelled fromAlexandria under the leadership of SaintCyril of Alexandria.[32] Sources differ over whether allAlexandrian Jews were expelled or just the ones involved in the massacre.[33]
418
Jews expelled fromMinorca or asked to convert.[34]
Sixth to tenth centuries
612
Visigothic kingSisebut mandated that every Jew who would refuse for over a year to have himself or his children and servants baptized would be banished from the country and deprived of his possessions.[35]
France. The practice of expelling the Jews accompanied by confiscation of their property, followed by temporary readmissions for ransom, was used to enrich the crown: expulsions fromParis byPhilip Augustus in 1182, from France byLouis IX in 1254, byPhilip IV in 1306, byCharles IV in 1322, byCharles V in 1359, byCharles VI in 1394.
13th century
The influentialphilosopher andlogicianRamon Llull (1232–1315) called for expulsion of all Jews who would refuse conversion to Christianity. Some scholars regard Llull's as the first comprehensive articulation, in the Christian West, of an expulsionist policy regarding Jews.
On June 24 (4th of Tamuz), the Jews of Berne, Switzerland were expelled.[47] "Several Jews were put to death there in consequence of ablood libel", but a deal involving the Jews paying money reverted the expulsion.
Jews expelled fromBern,Switzerland. Although between 1408 and 1427 Jews were again residing in the city, the only Jews to appear in Bern subsequently were transients, chiefly physicians and cattle dealers.
15th century
1420–1421
Duke Albert V orders the imprisonment and forcible conversion to Christianity of all Jews in Austria. Some convert and others leave the country. In 1421 Austrian authorities again arrest and expel Jews and Jews are banned from the capital Vienna.[49]
All remaining Jews expelled from the duchy of Bavaria. Jewish settlement in Bavaria ceased until toward the end of the 17th century, when a small community was founded in Sulzbach by refugees from Vienna.
1569
Pope Pius V expels Jews from the papal states, except for Ancona and Rome.
1593
Pope Clement VIII expels Jews living in all the papal states, except Rome, Avignon and Ancona. Jews are invited to settle inLeghorn, the main port of Tuscany, where they are granted full religious liberty and civil rights, by the Medici family, who want to develop the region into a center of commerce.
Jews expelled from Vienna byLeopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and subsequently forbidden to settle in the Austrian Hereditary Lands. The former Jewish ghetto on the Unterer Werd was renamedLeopoldstadt in honour of the emperor and the expropriated houses and land given to Catholic citizens.[54]
1679–1680
Jews throughoutYemen expelled from their towns and villages and sent to a desert place, in what is known as theMawza Exile.
War of the Spanish Succession. After the war, Jews of Austrian origin were expelled from Bavaria, but some were able to acquire the right to reside in Munich.
TheNazi German persecution started with theNazi boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933, reached a first climax duringKristallnacht in 1938 and culminated inthe Holocaust ofEuropean Jewry. The 1938Evian Conference, the 1943Bermuda Conference and other attempts failed to resolve the problem of Jewish refugees, a fact widely used inNazi propaganda.[note 2] A small number ofGerman andAustrian Jewish refugees from Nazism emigrated to Britain, where attitudes were not necessarily positive.[60] Many of the refugees fought for Britain in the Second World War. Already before the Holocaust, by February 1940, theexpulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany fromoccupied western Poland also targeted some 20,000 Polish Jews.[61] There was a special institution set up in 1939 to coordinate the expulsion, initially named the Special Staff for the Resettlement of Poles and Jews (Sonderstab für die Aussiedlung von Polen und Juden), soon renamed to Office for the Resettlement of Poles and Jews (Amt für Umsiedlung der Polen und Juden), and eventually to Central Bureau for Resettlement (Umwandererzentralstelle).[62] After the war, central and eastern European Holocaust survivors migrated to the westernAllied-controlled part of Europe, as the Jewish society to which most of them belonged did not exist anymore. Often they were lone survivors consumed by the often futile search for other family and friends, and often unwelcome in the towns from which they came. They were known asdisplaced persons (also known asSh'erit ha-Pletah) and placed indisplaced persons camps, most of which were by 1951 closed. The last campFöhrenwald was closed in 1957.
Jews are expelled, their citizenship is stripped from them and they are subjected to pogroms in some Italian cities, including Rome, Verona, Florence, Pisa and Alessandria.[65]
1947–1972
Jewish refugees look out through the portholes of a ship while it is docked in the port city of Haifa.Iraqi Jews displaced 1951.TheExodus bringing in refugees.In the course of the operation "Magic Carpet" (1949–1950), most of the community ofYemenite Jews (called Teimanim, about 49,000) immigrated to Israel.TheJewish exodus from the Muslim world, in which the combined population of the Jewish communities of theMiddle East andNorth Africa (excluding Israel) was reduced from about 900,000 in 1948 to under 8,000 today, and approximately 600,000 of them became citizens of Israel. The history of the exodus is politicized, given its proposed relevance to a final settlement to theIsraeli–Palestinian peace negotiations.[66][67][68][69][70][71] When presenting the history, those who view the Jewish exodus as equivalent to the1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, such as theIsraeli government and NGOs such as JJAC and JIMENA, emphasize "push factors", such as cases of anti-Jewish violence and forced expulsions,[66] and refer to those affected as "refugees".[66] Those who argue that the exodus does not equate to thePalestinian exodus emphasize "pull factors", such as the actions of localJewish Agency for Israel officials aiming to fulfil theOne Million Plan,[68] highlight good relations between the Jewish communities and their country's governments,[70] emphasize the impact of other push factors such as thedecolonization in theMaghreb and theSuez War andLavon Affair inEgypt,[70] and argue that many or all of those who left were not refugees.[66][68]
ThenUNHCR announced in February 1957 and in July 1967, that these Jews who had fled from Arab countries "may be considered prima facie within the mandate of this office," so according them in international law, as bona fide refugees.[72]
1947
Egypt passed the Companies' Law. This law required that no less than 75% of employees of companies in Egypt must be Egyptian citizens. This law strongly affected Jews, as only about 20% of allJews in Egypt wereEgyptian citizens. The rest, although in many cases born in Egypt and living there for generations, did not hold Egyptian citizenship.
1948
State of Israel established.Antisemitism in Egypt strongly intensified. On May 15, 1948, emergency law was declared, and a royal decree forbade Egyptian citizens to leave the country without a special permit. This was applied to Jews. Hundreds of Jews were arrested and many had their property confiscated. In June through August 1948, bombs were planted in Jewish neighborhoods and Jewish businesses looted. About 250 Jews were killed or wounded by the bombs. Roughly 14,000 Jews left Egypt between 1948 and 1950.
1949
Jordan occupies and then annexes theWest Bank – largely allotted by the 1947 UN Partition of Palestine to an Arab state, proposal rejected by the Arab leadership – and conducts large scale discrimination and persecution of all non-Muslim residents – Jewish, Christian (of many denominations), Druze, Circassian, etc. – and forces Arabisation of all public activity, including schools and public administration.[73]
Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt. Nasser immediately arrested many Jews who were tried on various charges, mainly for Zionist and communist activities. Jews were forced to donate large sums of money to the military. Strict supervision of Jewish enterprises was introduced; some were confiscated and others forcibly sold to the government.[better source needed]
1956
Suez Crisis. Roughly 3,000 Egyptian Jews were interned without charge in four detention camps. The government ordered thousands of Jews to leave the country within a few days, and they were not allowed to sell their property, nor to take any capital with them. The deportees were made to sign statements agreeing not to return to Egypt and transferring their property to the administration of the government. TheInternational Red Cross helped about 8,000 stateless Jews to leave the country, taking most of them to Italy and Greece. Most of the Jews of Port Said (about 100) were smuggled to Israel by Israel agents. The system of deportation continued into 1957. Other Jews left voluntarily, after their livelihoods had been taken from them, until only 8,561 were registered in the 1957 census. The Jewish exodus continued until there were about 3,000 Jews left as of in 1967.
1962
Jews fleeAlgeria as result ofFLN violence. The community feared that the proclamation of independence would precipitate a Muslim outburst. By the end of July 1962, 70,000 Jews had left for France and another 5,000 for Israel. It is estimated that some 80% of Algerian Jews settled in France.
1965
Situation ofJews in Algeria rapidly deteriorates. By 1969, fewer than 1,000 Jews remain. By the 1990s, the numbers had dwindled to approximately 70.[better source needed]
1967
Six-Day War. Hundreds of Egyptian Jews arrested, suffering beatings, torture, and abuse. Some were released following intervention by foreign states, especially by Spain, and were permitted to leave the country.Libyan Jews, who numbered approximately 7,000, were subjected topogroms in which 18 were killed, prompting a mass exodus that left fewer than 100 Jews inLibya.
Less than 1,000 Jews still lived in Egypt in 1970. They were given permission to leave but without their possessions. As of 1971, only 400 Jews remained in Egypt. As of 2013, only a few dozen Jews remain in Egypt. As of 2019[update], there were five in Cairo.[79] As of 2022 the total number of known Egyptian Jews permanently residing in Egypt is three.[80][81]
1970–1986
State-sponsored persecution in theSoviet Union prompted hundreds of thousands ofSoviet Jews, known asRefuseniks because they had been denied official permission to leave, to flee; most went to Israel or to the United States as refugees.[82]
^Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2002)The Bible Unearthed : Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, Simon & Schuster,ISBN0-684-86912-8
^abKnoppers 2013, 42–44, chapter The Fall of the Northern Kingdom and the Ten Lost Tribes: A Reevaluation
^Zertal, Adam (1990). "The Pahwah of Samaria (Northern Israel) during the Persian Period: Types of Settlement, Economy, History and New Discoveries".Trans (3):82–83.
^Grabbe, Lester L. (2009).Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?. New York: T&T Clark. p. 125.ISBN978-0-567-03254-6.
^Cline, Eric H. (2008).From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible. National Geographic (US).ISBN978-1426202087.
^The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed. by Michael D Coogan. Published by Oxford University Press, 1999. pg 350
^Knight, Doug and Amy-Jill Levine (2011).The Meaning of the Bible. New York City: HarperOne. p. 31.ISBN9780062067739.
^Malamat, Abraham (1968). "The Last Kings of Judah and the Fall of Jerusalem: An Historical – Chronological Study".Israel Exploration Journal.18 (3):137–156.JSTOR27925138.The discrepancy between the length of the siege according to the regnal years of Zedekiah (years 9–11), on the one hand, and its length according to Jehoiachin's exile (years 9–12), on the other, can be cancelled out only by supposing the former to have been reckoned on a Tishri basis, and the latter on a Nisan basis. The difference of one year between the two is accounted for by the fact that the termination of the siege fell in the summer, between Nisan and Tishri, already in the 12th year according to the reckoning in Ezekiel, but still in Zedekiah's 11th year which was to end only in Tishri.
^Coogan, Michael (2009).A brief introduction to the old testament. Oxford.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Jonathan Stökl, Caroline Waerzegger (2015).Exile and Return: The Babylonian Context. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. pp. 7–11, 30, 226.
^Van Kooten, G. H. (2011). The Jewish War and the Roman Civil War of 68–69 CE: Jewish, Pagan, and Christian Perspectives. InThe Jewish Revolt against Rome (pp. 419–450). Brill.
^Herr, Moshe David (1984). Shtern, Menahem (ed.).The History of Eretz Israel: The Roman Byzantine period: the Roman period from the conquest to the Ben Kozba War (63 B.C.E-135 C.E.). Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi. p. 288.
^Taylor, J. E. (15 November 2012).The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780199554485.These texts, combined with the relics of those who hid in caves along the western side of the Dead Sea, tell us a great deal. What is clear from the evidence of both skeletal remains and artefacts is that the Roman assault on the Jewish population of the Dead Sea was so severe and comprehensive that no one came to retrieve precious legal documents, or bury the dead. Up until this date the Bar Kokhba documents indicate that towns, villages and ports where Jews lived were busy with industry and activity. Afterwards there is an eerie silence, and the archaeological record testifies to little Jewish presence until the Byzantine era, in En Gedi. This picture coheres with what we have already determined in Part I of this study, that the crucial date for what can only be described as genocide, and the devastation of Jews and Judaism within central Judea, was 135 CE and not, as usually assumed, 70 CE, despite the siege of Jerusalem and the Temple's destruction
^Taylor, J. E. (15 November 2012).The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780199554485.Up until this date the Bar Kokhba documents indicate that towns, villages and ports where Jews lived were busy with industry and activity. Afterwards there is an eerie silence, [...] This picture coheres with what we have already determined in Part I of this study, that the crucial date for what can only be described as genocide, and the devastation of Jews and Judaism within central Judea, was 135 CE and not, as usually assumed, 70 CE, despite the siege of Jerusalem and the Temple's destruction
^Bar, Doron (2005)."Rural Monasticism as a Key Element in the Christianization of Byzantine Palestine".The Harvard Theological Review.98 (1):49–65.doi:10.1017/S0017816005000854.ISSN0017-8160.JSTOR4125284.S2CID162644246.The phenomenon was most prominent in Judea, and can be explained by the demographic changes that this region underwent after the second Jewish revolt of 132-135 C.E. The expulsion of Jews from the area of Jerusalem following the suppression of the revolt, in combination with the penetration of pagan populations into the same region, created the conditions for the diffusion of Christians into that area during the fifth and sixth centuries.
^Mor 2016, pp. 483–484: "Land confiscation in Judaea was part of the suppression of the revolt policy of the Romans and punishment for the rebels. [...] There is no doubt that this area (Judea) suffered the severest damage from the suppression of the revolt. Settlements in Judaea, such as Herodion and Bethar, had already been destroyed during the course of the revolt, and Jews were expelled from the districts of Gophna, Herodion, and Aqraba."
^Anderson, James Donald; Levy, Thomas Evan (1995).The Impact of Rome on the Periphery: The Case of Palestina - Roman Period (63 BCE - 324 CE). The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land. p. 449.
^"Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet . Muhammad and Jews of Medina".www.pbs.org. Retrieved14 March 2021.Two of the tribes--the Banu Nadir and the Banu Qaynuqa--were eventually exiled for falling short on their agreed upon commitments and for the consequent danger they posed to the nascent Muslim community.
^Gampel, Benjamin R. (1986). "The Last Jews on Iberian Soil: Navarrese Jewry, 1479–1498".Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research.53:49–69.doi:10.2307/3622608.JSTOR3622608.
^Wardzyńska, Maria (2017).Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z okupowanych ziem polskich włączonych do III Rzeszy w latach 1939-1945 (in Polish). Warszawa:IPN. p. 15.ISBN978-83-8098-174-4.
^Wardzyńska, Maria (2017).Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z okupowanych ziem polskich włączonych do III Rzeszy w latach 1939-1945 (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. p. 35.ISBN978-83-8098-174-4.
^abBoćkowski, Daniel (1999).Czas nadziei. Obywatele Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w ZSRR i opieka nad nimi placówek polskich w latach 1940–1943 (in Polish). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Neriton, Instytut HistoriiPolskiej Akademii Nauk. p. 83.ISBN83-86842-52-0.
^Boćkowski, Daniel (1999).Czas nadziei. Obywatele Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w ZSRR i opieka nad nimi placówek polskich w latach 1940–1943 (in Polish). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Neriton, Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk. p. 85.
^Roth, Cecil (1969).The history of the Jews of Italy. [Westmead, Eng.]: [Gregg International Publishers]. pp. 540–549.ISBN0-576-80117-8.OCLC551115.
Richardson, Henry (1960).English Jewry under Angevin Kings. London: Methuen.OL17927110M.
Kerkeslager, Allen (2006). "The Jews in Egypt and Cyrenaica, 66–c. 235 CE". In Katz, Steven T. (ed.).The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. The Cambridge History of Judaism. Vol. 4th.Cambridge University Press. pp. 61–62.ISBN978-0-521-77248-8.
External links
Ordinary exile, the story of Austrian Jewish refugees in France and in Belgium
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Austria
England
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Lithuania
Milan
Nuremberg
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Yemen
