A primer for Gen Z and the rest of us

BY RIVKAH ROTHSCHILD

 

Joshua fought for our land. He won, and then divided the land by lottery into nine and a half areas. Each area belonged to a different tribe and each tribe settled within its borders. The lottery did not include the areas east of the Jordan that were prior allotted to the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe.

It took seven years to conquer the land and seven years to settle it. Keep in mind that while there were originally 12 tribes, the tribe of Levi received no inheritance of land and Ephriam and Menashe each received an inheritance of land because their father, Joseph, replaced Reuven as the firstborn entitled to a double portion. So it went.

A Remnant Remains

Jews lived in our land for 550 years as a sovereign nation, from 1270 BCE until the tribes of the north disappeared into Assyria between 734 and 722 BCE. The southern tribes of Benjamin and Yehudah continued our sovereignty in the land for another 130 years. Then, from 597 to 586 BCE, the Babylonians conquered Israel and carted the inhabitants off in waves to what is present day Iraq, selling the captives as slaves in the metropolis of Babylon.

Post conquest of the land from the various nations named in the Bible — the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, Devarim 7:2— a Jewish nation-state thrived in our homeland at the dawn of history for 685 years.

But even during the exile to Babylonia a remnant of our nation remained in Israel. The estimate of the population after deportation varies widely, some say it was 55,000, others say it was under 10,000. History informs us that Jews remained in the cities of Shechem, Shiloh, and the northern region of Samaria.

And that first exile— Exile 1 — didn’t last long. Although the citizens of Judah were hauled off to Babylonia, their exile lasted a mere 70 years. As foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, with subsequent endorsement from his son King Darius, allowed Jews to return from the vast Persian empire to rebuild their holy Temple in Jerusalem. This occurred in approximately 516 BCE. It is estimated that during the next one hundred years 50,000 Jews returned to our ancestral homeland.

Holy Temple

It is worth noting that during the 685 years from Joshua’s conquest of the land until Exile 1 there was a Holy Temple built by King Solomon and there was a king that ruled from Jerusalem named David. I’m sure you’ve heard of them. David and Solomon ruled for 80 years in the middle of that period of Jewish nation-statehood, from 1010 BCE to 970 BCE for David, and from 970 BCE to 930 BCE for Solomon. Some historians put their reigns some 130 years earlier, but all agree that the Holy Temple was built in the middle of Solomon’s reign and was the heart of Jerusalem for 370 years. It is estimated that more than 2 million Jews were living in Israel when Solomon sat on the throne in Jerusalem.

Tolerance And Bias

Upon return from Exile 1, for the next 184 years, we lived under the tolerant rule of the Persian Empire seated in Persepolis. Israel was repopulated with Jews and had its own institutions, worship, temple, and government. This lasted until the Persian Empire’s hegemony over the Middle East gave way to the Hellenist Greeks when Alexander the Great conquered the area in 332 BCE.

From 332 BCE to 63 BCE we lived under Hellenistic Greek domination. Although the rule of the Hellenists started under Alexander the Great with tolerance and respect for his subjects, things changed dramatically after his death in 323 BCE. From then on, the Hellenists were, with a few interruptions, heavy-handed in their hostility to Judaism and determination to Hellenize the Jewish population. Hellenism was a form of idolatry that worshiped the Greek gods, nature, and physicality in general. In 168 BCE an important Hellenist ruler sacrificed a pig on the altar of the Holy Temple to defile it and teach us how to behave as loyal Hellenist subjects. So blatantly intolerant of our God and His commandments were the Hellenists that a small army of zealots took to the hills to wage a revolt. These were the famous Maccabees who used guerrilla tactics to defeat the well-equipped Greek legions. After routing the Greeks in 165 BCE, the Maccabees set out to put their temple in order by removing the alien statutes and re-lighting its golden menorah. The Maccabees were at the forefront of the double miracle of first defeating the mighty Greek army, then finding ritually pure oil to light the menorah that lasted until a fresh batch could be made.

Roman Rule

The rededication of the temple and the miraculous victory over the dominant world power was established as a moment never to be forgotten in the national psyche — thus, the holiday of Chanukah. And, yes, the Hasmonean Maccabees then ruled for the next 80 years over a sovereign Israel, until Roman General Pompey conquered the area. In 63 BCE, when the Romans occupied Israel, the Jewish population is estimated at between 3 and 4.5 million.

After 80 years of rule by the descendants of Judah the Maccabee, albeit the reign of the Hasmoneans was far from ideal, Israel was once again under the hegemony of a world power that sent governors to enforce the taxes and other edicts from Rome.

The Roman emperors were, for the most part, tolerant of our peculiar way of life. At times, though, they were hostile and cruel, taunting rebellion. For example, in 40 CE the Roman Emperor Caligula used force to have his statue installed in the Holy Temple, causing street protests as far away as Akko and Tiberias. Then, some 10 years later, the Roman governor looted the temple treasury, causing a revolt.

The Roman Empire lasted just over 600 years, from 63 BCE until 538 CE. One hundred plus years into Roman hegemony, a determined and organized Jewish revolt erupted. The governor called for backup and General Titus answered the call with 50,000 troops. Titus laid siege to Jerusalem, which lasted for many years, so many that Titus called for help and was joined by General Vespasian. Together they razed Jerusalem, setting the temple on fire and killing or enslaving the city’s inhabitants. The revolt ended in 70 CE with starvation, death and defeat, with the Holy Temple in ruins and its patrons led in chains to Rome. This is what we’ll call Exile 2.

The Roman legions looted the Temple before setting it on fire, and you can see them carting off the holy golden menorah as depicted on the Arch of Titus that stands to this day in the city of Rome.

Roman rule continued over our land with ever-harsher decrees. In 130 CE a leader named Bar Kochba led yet another rebellion. This revolt ended in 135 CE, ending in death and defeat. In 135 CE, after the Roman massacres, there were an estimated 700,000 Jews in Israel.

National Identity

It is important to note that during the 585 years from our return from exile in Babylonia until Exile 2, we were either an independent nation-state, i.e., for the 80 years when the Hasmoneans ruled, or we were a nation-state under the rule of a foreign conqueror, but with our own institutions.

Most of the time our institutions operated openly, but at times, to circumvent harsh decrees, they went underground. Either way, our existence on our land for 1,340 years, from its conquest by Joshua until 70 CE, with our distinct culture, way-of-life, and national identity, cannot be controverted.

Living Elsewhere

We won’t describe the generous hospitality of our host nations during Exile 2, using our skills to collect taxes and travel dangerous trade routes, to be rewarded with forced conversions, expulsions, massacres, and pogroms. Some time after an expulsion, our host country very often invited us to return because our skills were sorely missed. But all of that need not be detailed here since it digresses from the topic at hand, which is that from the time that Joshua fought for the land, conquered it, and divided it between the 12 tribes, it has been our land. Neither the 70 years of Exile 1, nor the later periods of exile, are enough to erase our ownership, and no one, even our enemies, suggest that.

Historical Facts.

Rather, they — our enemies —are trying to erase our entire 1,270 to 1,340 years of nation-statehood between 1270 BCE to 70 CE, and, unfortunately, many members of Gen Z don’t know enough history to realize that they are being conned by this rewrite of historical facts.

At this point in our outline, we’ve traversed 1,340 years of history, hopping and skipping at a fast pace through the centuries. Let’s keep marching through time while examining our historical connection to our land. Please be forewarned that the journey through the next (almost) 2,000 years is at times even more treacherous than the first 1,340 years. We will see that during these 2,000 years Jews were always living in our land, sometimes as a large populace, sometimes a very small one.

(For context, Exile 2 covers the time period from 70 CE until 1948, when the State of Israel was established by resolution of the League of Nations, a period of 1,880 years. It is important to note that religious doctrine dictates that 1948 is not the end of Exile 2, which will end with the arrival of Moshiach, the righteous redeemer. The goal of this writer is not to contradict this doctrine, but rather to give historical meaning to the concept of ownership of our land by charting our sovereignty from Joshua’s conquest to the present. No one would argue that Israel has not been a sovereign nation since 1948, which is what is meant by stating that 1948 is the bookend of Exile 2, just as no one asserts that 1948 is when Moshiach arrived.)

Next 2,000 Years.

During Exile 2, a prominent historian was Josephus. He wrote that while there were 100,00 Jews taken to Rome as slaves, there were 1 million Jews that stayed in our homeland, existing under the rule of a succession of Roman Emperors from Julius Caesar to Romulus Augustus.

In 395 CE, the Roman Empire split into two: the Western Roman Empire, which included Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, Israel and Northern Egypt, and the Eastern Roman Empire, which included Italy, France, Spain, England and Northern Africa. The Eastern Roman Empire lasted approximately 350 years as a pagan society, after which it was subdued by the Byzantines (745 CE) who gradually converted the populace to Christianity. The Byzantine Empire survived until 1453 CE when Ottoman Turks took control of Constantinople, its capital city, which is present day Istanbul.

After 500 years as a global power, the Western Roman Empire was overrun by Germanic barbarian tribes in 475 CE and ceased to exist.

Islamic Caliphate

In 638 CE the Middle East was conquered by the Islamic Caliphate when the prophet of Islam, Mohammad, appeared. Unlike prophets before and after him, the Islamic prophet conquered Mecca and, following his leadership, his successor caliphs fought and conquered the lands from the Arabian Peninsula to Spain, including the areas of modern-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Egypt and the rest of North Africa. Those successor caliphs created the principle of jihad that was used to wage war against all non-believers, either putting them to the sword or forcing them to convert to Islam.

The Islamic empire, called the Arab Caliphate, lasted from 638 CE to 1099 CE when the Ottoman Turks conquered it. Although the Arab Caliphate and the Ottoman Turks were co-religionists, their differing interpretations of the Koran pit them against each other.

Crusades

Let’s go back to the Byzantine Empire that converted to Christianity and ruled over modern-day Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans for 1,150 years, from 305 CE to 1453 CE. For almost 200 years during the hegemony of the Byzantine Empire, from approximately 1100 to 1300 CE, waves of marauding Christian armies swept through the Middle East, the Baltic region, and Spain, on their way to liberate Jerusalem from Islamic rule while converting or killing Jews and Muslims en masse on the way.

Historians estimate that 10,000 to 12,000 Jews were massacred in the Middle East during the First Crusade, severely decimating the population in Israel, and another 3,000 were massacred in Europe. There were seven additional Crusades before the popularity of this warfare —the appetite for murdering Jews and Muslims — waned.

While the Crusaders did capture Jerusalem during the First Crusade, they couldn’t keep control of it. Following each Crusade to the Middle East most of the Crusader army returned home to Europe, having fulfilled their crusading vows. A small and ineffective force remained behind to defend Jerusalem, which allowed it to be recaptured by a Muslim Sultan named Saladin.

As the Crusaders captured various cities, Jews were expelled from them and fled to the areas of Syria and North Africa that were under Islamic rule. Calls for additional Crusades continued for several centuries after 1291, historians’ end date for the Crusades, but were mostly ignored.

Also, from 1260 CE until 1516 CE, the Mamluks ruled over Egypt, Israel and Syria. The Mamluks were a unified group of Muslim mercenary warriors that overthrew the ruling class in Egypt and ruled in their stead for the next 250 years.

Thus, the land of Israel, for the most part, was under Islamic rule from 638 CE until 1918 when the British established their colonial rule. By 1516 CE the Ottomans had conquered the Mamluks, the Arab Caliphate, and the Byzantines, and its vast empire was ruled by Turkish sultans. During the reign of one of the most progressive Turkish sultans, in the mid 1500s, Jews were allowed to return to Israel. They returned primarily to the city of Tzfat, which became a textile center, growing its population to 10,000. Tzfat also became an intellectual center, influencing the populace to study Hebrew texts and mysticism.

Natural disasters in the 18th Century, such as an earthquake and epidemic, and violence from Arab neighbors, caused significant decline in the Jewish population of Tzfat and the rest of Israel. The land began a rebirth in the later part of the century as immigrants trickled in from Eastern Europe, settling in Hebron, Tiberias and Jerusalem.

Returning Home

Exile is unnatural for Jews, because Jerusalem calls us home in subliminal undercurrents that run deep in our collective psyche. The long and bitter Exile 2, lasting for 1,880 years, was punctuated in the 19th Century by heavy streams of migration to Israel, each known as an aliyah, which means ascent. Even before the waves of aliyahs, from 1808 to 1840, Eastern European Jews from Russia, Romania and Hungary were returning home.

The first aliyah, from 1881 to 1903, upped the Jewish population in Israel to 26,000. The returnees, and the remnant of families that never left, lived in the cities of Tiberias, Tzfat, Hebron, and Jerusalem, as well as in Gaza. These waves of migration were primarily from Eastern Europe, with five significant waves arriving between 1881 and 1939. By 1917 the Jewish population had increased to 60,000, and by 1939 it had soared to 445,000.

The Ottomans fought in WWI on the side of Germany, with the result that after the war the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and the modern-day state of Turkey was established.

In 1918 the British military fighting in the Middle East occupied what they called Palestine, that is, our ancestral homeland. A year earlier, in 1917, the British War Cabinet adopted the famous Balfour Declaration. Once it was approved by the British government and signed by the British foreign secretary its statement that the British government supported the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine became official government policy.

British rule over Palestine ended when the League of Nations approved the creation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. In 1948 an estimated 716,700 Jews were living in the newly formed State of Israel. Today there are an estimated 7.2 million. The call of return continues to reverberate in Jewish hearts, as it has for centuries.

About Gaza, Samaria

It is well documented that Jews lived in Gaza from approximately 140 BCE to 1948, with periodic interruptions, such as after the 1929 Arab riots. In the aftermath of the War of Independence, Gaza was placed under Egyptian rule and Jews had to leave the area. In the Six-Day War, Gaza was retaken and remained a part of the Jewish state until 2005. In 2005, we abandoned it, thinking it was better to do so than submit to the political alternatives that our frenemies, with our enemies, were demanding. But that only lasted until 2023 when we had no choice but to return to Gaza with several battalions to vanquish barbaric Hamas and its affiliate terrorist organizations. Thus, our connection with Gaza as an integral part of our ancestral homeland has existed for 1,850 years.

As far as the areas where the tribes of Ephraim and half of Menashe settled, known today as Samaria, and where the tribe of Judah settled, known today as Judea, we’ve lived in those lands since 1270 BCE. Give or take a few years, that’s 3,300 years of bonding.

Furthermore, did Joshua conquer the lands allotted to Ephraim, half of Menashe, and Judah —Judea and Samaria — in vain? Didn’t he conquer and divide the land to be ours in perpetuity? I don’t think he would be thrilled to know that his great (x ten) grandchildren decided that it wasn’t worth the political fight to reclaim the heartland, even as Israeli soldiers fight our barbaric enemies who wish to claim it as theirs and use it to harm us.

Yes, of course, the land is populated by a couple of million hostile squatters. What would Joshua advise? He would certainly chastise the members of Knesset for wishing to abandon our land due to squatters, even a lot of them. I think he would advise us as follows: “Steel your hearts and be true to your legacy; stand up to the thieves at the UN and claim the land as your inheritance. Tell the residents that they can stay if they behave and if not, they can leave. Stop being afraid to claim the land. I conquered it. I divided it and settled the tribes on it. Tell the world it was, it is, and it will forever be yours.”

Rivkah Rothschild is an attorney in private practice with offices in Manhattan. Rothschild focuses her practice on not for profit and matrimonial law, with expertise in litigation and appeals in NYS Supreme Court. She is a follower of the late Lubavitcher rebbe.