The term diaspora is a well-known concept from anthropology and specifically from the history of Judaism. What does diaspora actually mean? What is the origin of this term?
Origin of the term diaspora
From a historical perspective, the term particularly refers to the scattering of the Jewish people outside Palestine, which began after the Babylonian captivity (the galut) & the fall of the kingdom of Judah in 586 BC. The Temple of Jerusalem, built by Solomon, was destroyed.
Brief History of the Diaspora of the Jewish People
The spread of Jews from Palestine and Asia to other parts of the world, started in the 66-70s AD. an impulse, when the Jews revolted against the Romans and the second, rebuilt Temple was destroyed. At that time, a majority of Jews already lived in the diaspora, i.e. outside Palestine. After AD 70, Jews ended up in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey ), as well as Europe and Africa.
A new influx of Jews started in AD 135, when a Jewish revolt – known as the Bar Kokhba Rebellion – against Roman rule failed and was crushed by Julius Severus.
First Jews to America
Shortly after the Middle Ages, in the sixteenth century, the first Jews came to America. It concerned Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal. The first Jew to set foot in the United States was Luis de Carabajal y Cueva, a Spanish conquistador who arrived in present-day Texas in 1570. Furthermore, Joachim Gans – from Bohemia – is considered the…
…first Jewish-born person to set foot on American soil, in 1584.
In the seventeenth century, Jews also came from the Netherlands – via the then Dutch colony in Brazil – to New Amsterdam, later New York. A group of 23 Jews who arrived in New Amsterdam in September 1654 is known.
Until well into the twentieth century, the term diaspora was mainly used to indicate the Jewish scattering. Today, however, the word is also used for other peoples or communities who are forced to live outside their own country. For example, diaspora is now also used in the context of the dispersal of Africans around the world as a result of the global slave trade. Other recent examples include the Armenian and Tibetan diaspora.
