In the first part of this series, we began an overview of Ashkenazi Jewish history by establishing the strong Israelite heritage of Jews in Yeshua’s day, in both the Land of Israel and the Diaspora. Leaving biblical times, this article will cover the period from the destruction of Jerusalem through the 8th century, focusing specifically on the exiled Jewish communities in Italy.

In the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, Judea was decimated after multiple failed revolts against the rule of the Roman Empire. The First Jewish Revolt had a death toll of 1.1 million, with another 97,000 being carried off as captives (as recorded by Josephus, a Jewish priest and soldier who defected to Rome during the war).¹ This revolt culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 CE. Though the blow was devastating, the province of Judea still retained a primarily Jewish population² until after the Second Jewish Revolt, led by self-proclaimed messiah³ Simon bar Koziba (known as Bar Kokhba) with support from the prominent Rabbi Akiba.⁴ In 135 CE, the Romans under Emperor Hadrian quelled this uprising as well, again laying waste to Jerusalem and building a pagan city in its place (which Jews were forbidden to enter).⁵ Hadrian also enacted strict anti-Jewish measures,⁶ and renamed the province from Judea to Syria Palestina (or “Palestine,” named after the already-extinct Philistines) in order to “obliterate the Jewish character of the Holy Land” and “eliminate all trace of Jewish sovereignty.”⁷ Though a small Jewish community still remained in the Land, it was reduced to a declining minority of the population,⁸ steadily waning in influence and centrality in Jewish history over the following centuries.

The collapse of Judea shifted the Jewish people to a Diasporic existence. As a result of the two wars, hundreds of thousands of Jews were scattered across the Roman Empire and beyond, increasing the populations of Jewish communities previously established throughout the Diaspora. This was particularly the case in Italy,⁹ which experienced a notable influx of Jews—many as prisoners from the Judean wars, and some as voluntary settlers in pursuit of trading opportunities.¹⁰ By the 3rd century and onward, “the Jewish community of Italy began to flourish in an unprecedented way, causing it to become the single most visible and tangible Jewish community of the entire western Diaspora in antiquity.”¹¹ They maintained a strong Jewish identity, as evidenced by archaeological findings of synagogues and Jewish-only burial catacombs, in which can be seen clearly Jewish symbols (such as the menorah), and numerous epitaphs listing the position held by the deceased in the community’s synagogue.¹² Extending into the 4th century, some epitaphs in these catacombs list the deceased as proselytes.¹³ From this, it can be ascertained that while some Gentiles did continue to convert to Judaism, these converts remained somewhat identifiable (as in previous centuries) and did not undermine the concept of ethnic Jewishness. Additionally, based on the small ratio of proselyte graves to other Jewish graves, Samuele Rocca states, “It is clear that the percentage of proselytes is quite minimal.”¹⁴

As the Christianization of the Roman Empire began in the 4th century, the stage was set for Italian Jews to face “increasing pressure from the 380s to 420s,” during which time multiple synagogues were looted and destroyed by Christian mobs.¹⁵ An example of the characteristically anti-Jewish sentiment among Christians of this period can be seen in John Chrysostom, a venerated Church Father who referred to “Jews, the most miserable and wretched of all men,” bluntly professing, “I hate the Jews.”¹⁶ However, it is notable for the purpose of this series that Chrysostom did affirm that the biblical “Jews of old” were the forefathers of “the Jews of today.”¹⁷ Despite growing antisemitism, persecution of Jews was not official Church policy, as demonstrated by Pope Gregory I, who—when he heard Roman Jews’ reports of forced baptisms and synagogue burnings in France and Sicily—sent letters in 591 and 598 CE instructing bishops to uphold the rights of Jews and repay them for lost property.¹⁸

Jews were also hit hard when Barbarians invaded Italy in the 5th century. During the ensuing wars, most Jewish communities in the Italian Peninsula’s northern regions were likely destroyed, and the Jewish community of Rome experienced a significant decline.¹⁹ Yet Jewish communities in the south of Italy—regions less directly impacted by the fighting—continued to “thrive undisturbed,”²⁰ and likely served as a refuge for Jews fleeing from Rome.²¹ Jewish communities and their synagogues remained “a common sight” in Italy during the 6th century,²² with archaeology also confirming the continuous presence of Jews in southern cities during the 7th and 8th centuries.²³

The Jews of Italy quietly carried forward their Israelite heritage, maintaining an unbroken ethnic continuity for hundreds of years as a recognizable community in exile. As we enter the 9th century in the third part of this series, we will see how Jews from Southern Europe began migrating northward, to form the core of what would become Ashkenazi Jewry.

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1. Flavius Josephus, War of the Jews 6.9.3, trans. William Whiston, uchicago.edu ↩︎
2. Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews (New York: Schocken Books, 1961), 111. archive.org ↩︎
3. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 93b.8. sefaria.org ↩︎
4. Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews, 114. archive.org; Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4:5:13. sefaria.org ↩︎
5. Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews, 115. archive.org ↩︎
6. It is debated whether Hadrian’s anti-Jewish measures (including the banning of circumcision) occurred before the Bar Kokhba Revolt—becoming one of the causes of the uprising—or whether it occurred after the Revolt as a reaction. Many of these measures were repealed by the following emperor. Ibid., 115-116. archive.org ↩︎
7. Louis H. Feldman, "Some Observations on the Name of Palestine," Hebrew Union College Annual 61 (1990): 15 and 23. JSTOR ↩︎
8. Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews, 115. archive.org ↩︎
9. Ibid., 136. archive.org ↩︎
10. Ibid., 136-137. archive.org; E. Mary Smallwood, "The Diaspora in the Roman Period Before CE 70," chap. 6 in The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 3, The Early Roman Period, ed. William Horbury, W. D. Davies, and John Sturdy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 173. archive.org ↩︎
11. Leonard V. Rutgers and Scott Bradbury, "The Diaspora, c. 235–638," in The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period, ed. Steven T. Katz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 492. archive.org ↩︎
12. Ibid., 497. archive.org ↩︎
13. Samuele Rocca, "The Jews of Rome in the Late Antonine and Severan Period," 14. academia.edu ↩︎
14. Ibid. ↩︎
15. Leonard V. Rutgers, "The Jews of Italy, c. 235–638," 505. archive.org ↩︎
16. John Chrysostom, Adversus Judaeos, Homily 4, I.1 and VI.11. tertullian.org ↩︎
17. Ibid., IV.9–V.5. ↩︎
18. Pope Gregory I, "Letters on the Treatment of Jews" (591, 598), excerpts, in Jacob R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World, 111–113. ccjr.us ↩︎
19. Samuele Rocca, "The Impact of the Barbarian Invasions on the Jews of Roman Italy: New Perspectives," Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia 14 (2016): 50 and 52. ejournals.eu ↩︎
20. Ibid., 52. ↩︎
21. Ibid., 51. ↩︎
22. Leonard V. Rutgers, "The Jews of Italy, c. 235–638," 506. archive.org ↩︎
23. Samuele Rocca, "The Impact of the Barbarian Invasions on the Jews of Roman Italy: New Perspectives," 53. ejournals.eu ↩︎