Middle Ages/Early Modern

Middle Ages/Early Modern

Diaspora Jewry never forgot the Land of Israel, their homeland. Jews continuously prayed for an end to exile and a return to Israel under Jewish self-government. Groups of Jews traveled to Israel to visit and to settle there. Saadya Gaon (tenth century), Petachia of Ratisbon and Benjamin of Tudela (twelfth century), and Maimonides and Nachmanides (thirteenth century) were among those who made the perilous journey. Also in the thirteenth century, a group of 300 French and English rabbis moved to the Holy Land.

Among Christians, the Holy Land was also of great importance. In the Byzantine period, many churches were established in Palestine. Among the most famous is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built in the fourth century CE. In that same century, St. Jerome made a pilgrimage to Palestine and Eusebius served as the Bishop of Caesarea. In the fifth century, the Empress Eudocia (wife of the Roman emperor Theodosius II) settled in Jerusalem, where she involved herself in numerous building projects.

Richard the Lionheart, King of England from 1189-1199, spent almost his entire reign in an attempt to re-conquer Palestine from the Muslims. Political leaders such as Napoleon recognized the importance of the Land of Israel for strategic purposes, as a bridge between Africa and Asia.

Starting in the year 1500, the Jewish communities in western Christendom began to grow and expand beyond the population of Jews in Muslim countries. In the early modern period, eastward migrations of Jews from Spain and the German states gave rise to new cultural centers in the Ottoman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, and eventually the Americas.