Cause of Jews Living in Germany

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

                                            Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire in 306

Emperor Constantine (ca A.D. 280– 337) reigned over a major transition in the Roman Empire—and much more. His rulings against Jews, acceptance of Christianity and his establishment of an eastern capital city, which would later bear his name, mark his rule as a significant pivot point between ancient history and the Middle Ages.

 In Rome, Jewish communities thrived economically. Jews became a significant part of the Roman Empire's population in the first century CE, with some estimates as high as 7 million people; however, this estimation has been questioned.

By the year of 321 CE, which was 1,703 years ago, Jews were known to be living in Cologne, Germany.  They had moved there from Rome where they were taken as slaves in the year 70 CE.  In Cologne, they  had  an organized Jewish community with rabbis and elders.  Emperor Constantine, who loved his own religious beliefs in the Roman gods, was encouraged by his mother, Helena, to hold a gathering of leaders where he issued regulations about Judaism.  He and others believed Jews to be competitors of their new religion, Christianity,  a following of Jesus, and the meeting would also decide certain beliefs that they would adhere to.  

This Jewish diaspora had migrated to Rome and to the territories of Roman Europe from the land of Israel, Anatolia, Babylon and Alexandria in response to economic hardship and incessant warfare over the land of Israel between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires from the 4th to the 1st centuries BCE.  This brought in the Romans occupying Jerusalem about a hundred years before 70 CE when they burned the city down, looted and killed after a very long period of starving the Jewish population, then taking them as slaves.  

            Image of Joshua from the 3rd-century wall paintings at the synagogue of Dura-Europos

Constantine also began to claim land in Israel for use by the Christian Church.  During a visit by his mother in 326 to 327, she identified places where key events may have taken place in Jesus’ life; Constantine went on build churches at those locations.

Following an enquiry from Cologne, the Roman Emperor Constantine passed a far-reaching law in AD 321 under which Jews were permitted to hold offices in both the Roman Curia and the city administration. This decree is the earliest surviving documentary evidence of the presence of Jews north of the Alps.  When Constantine the Great came to power in 306, he worked to stop the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. However, this led to a large split in the treatment of Christians and Jews.

Jews living in the Roman Empire were legally obliged to pay the Fiscus Judaicus tax since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE. This tax continued during Constantine's reign and some historians credit the emperor Julian with abolishing this in 362.

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great_and_Judaism

https://miqua.lvr.de/media/miqua/presse/publikationen/321_broschuere/2022-09-23_321-Broschuere_ENGL_BF.pdf

https://miqua.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/321-broschure-english_gesamt.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Roman_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great

A Time Machine Looking Back At Jews and Vikings of Europe

 Nadene Goldfoot                                      

Looking  back in Europe, Rome was the site of emerging Christianity by the 300s CE.  They held a meeting citing Judaism was to be restricted completely as their emerging Christianity developed.  Since Rome felt that Jews were competitors, not only in their religion, as many Romans were converting to Judaism, but in commerce as well.              

The Romans, now called the Byzantine Empire with the capital moved to Constantinople,  was predominant and by 637 had taken over Palestine.  Emperor Justinian in 527 to 565 created elaborate anti-Jewish laws in his Code affecting synagogue services.  The very practice of Judaism was formally forbidden by successive emperors.   In 640 and Jews were being forcibly converted to Christianity.  It continued in 721 and 873 with campaigns and attacks.  Then where did the Jews go?               

The Norman Conquest occurred in 1066, a very important year.  Following William the Conqueror were a handful of Jewish financiers from the Continent of Europe.  The next generation saw cities such as London, York, Canterbury established.  The financiers traded, lent money to the baronage, and advanced funds for current needs on security of the revenue to the Crown who protected them.  The English then were a mixture of Vikings and Anglo-Saxons trying to live together, with some Vikings trying to keep their Norse beliefs, and Jews were then entering the scene, trying to keep to their beliefs.  

What were the Normans? Norman, member of those Vikings, or Norsemen, who settled in northern France (or the Frankish kingdom), together with their descendants. The Normans founded the duchy of Normandy and sent out expeditions of conquest and colonization to southern Italy and Sicily and to England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

Anglo-Saxon writers called them Danes, Norsemen, Northmen, the Great Army, sea rovers, sea wolves, or the heathen. From around 860 CE onwards, Vikings stayed, settled and prospered in Britain, becoming part of the mix of people who today make up the British nation.  Britain was very primitive then, and Vikings were very brutal and powerful. 

William the Conqueror  (1028--9 September 1087), descendant of Rollo who was a Viking who became the first ruler of Normandy, today a region in northern France.  So Willian was also  the former Duke of Normandy. 

The blue shading is the Viking (Danish, Norse land of Britain)

The final Viking invasion of England came in 1066, when Harald Hardrada sailed up the River Humber and marched to Stamford Bridge with his men. His battle banner was called Land-waster. The English king, Harold Godwinson, marched north with his army and defeated Hardrada in a long and bloody battle. The English had repelled the last invasion from Scandinavia.   (William’s army crossed the English Channel on the night of 27–28 September 1066, just as King Harold marched north to fight an invading force led by King Harald Hardrada of Norway (reigned 1046–1066) and  the English Harold Godwinson’s own brother, Tostig.)  What are the odds in 1066 that the 2 incumbents of England and Norway would be both named Harold? Both had Viking genes. Many of the English people today carry Viking genes. The latest news is that only 6% of English carry Viking genes.  This is compared with Sweden who only has 10%.  

In 1290 the Jews were expulsed from England and wouldn't be allowed back in for the next 365 years. until 1655.  

Vikings settled in and raided many places in what is today called Germany, mainly along the Rhein river, the North Sea coast, and the Scandinavian borderlands.  Jews lived in Worms, Germany. 

13th century forced costuming for German Jews below.

       

                       Jewish man in Worms in 16th Century-

A pre-Roman foundation, Worms is one of the oldest cities in northern Europe. It was the capital of the Kingdom of the Burgundians in the early 5th century, hence is the scene of the medieval legends referring to this period.

By the year, 1,000 Worms, Germany became most important to Jews as their center with rabbis meeting together and working on understanding the Torah. 

Worms was a  town in Rhein-Hesse, grand duchy of Hesse, Germany. Like Mayence and Cologne, it has one of the oldest Jewish communities in Germany. A legend relates that the Jews of Worms were descended from the Benjamites who had migrated from Palestine to Germany. It is possible that there was a congregation there in the time of the Romans, but the first historical reference is the statement that Jews from this city visited the fair at Cologne about the year 1000.  The earliest authentic information regarding the community, however, dates back only to 1034. On Jan. 18, 1074, Emperor Henry IV. granted the "Jews and other citizens of Worms" exemption from customs duties in the royal-customs ports of Frankfort, Boppard, Dortmund, Goslar, etc., as a reward for their fidelity.

In 1096 the Christian German Crusade managed to massacre Jews in European Jews on their way to Jerusalem. The massacre at Worms was one of a number of attacks against Jewish communities perpetrated during the First Crusade (1096–1099). Followers of Count Emicho arrived at Worms on May 18, 1096. Soon after his arrival, a rumor spread that the Jews had boiled a Christian alive, and used his corpse to contaminate water to poison the town's wells. The local populace later joined forces with Emicho and launched a savage attack on the town's Jews, who had been given sanctuary in Bishop Adalbert's palace, though others chose to remain outside its walls. They were the first to be massacred.               

3 years later in Jerusalem the Crusaders massacred the Jews who lived there. This was one time when Jews and Arabs were on the same side as the Crusaders couldn't differentiate between the two, and wanted to wipe out both as it was.  

Scandinavian settlements in Eastern Europe actually date back to at least A.D. 750. This is when pre-Viking-Age Scandinavians likely settled the NW Russian town of Staraya Ladoga (or “Old Ladoga”), across Lake Ladoga from what is now Finland. One of the artifacts archaeologists have unearthed from the city is a talisman with the face of Odin, the Norse god of war.

For four centuries, Vikings held sway over parts of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, with the greatest expansion happening under Prince Oleg the Prophet. The historical people known as Vikings, who hailed from Scandinavia in Northern Europe, are well-known today for their exploits in the west. The merchant-warriors also made their way into Eastern Europe, where they helped found a medieval federation in territory now known as Belarus, Ukraine and part of Russia. Their loose federation of principalities called Kievan Rus survived for nearly 400 years, finally collapsing during the 13th-century Mongol invasion.

          By the 12th century, there was a Jewish gate mentioned in Kiev, Russia, so some Jews had gone there to try their hand in trading.  There was even a Jewish Quarter that had been looted in 1113.  However, Russian clauses written with foreign powers  in 1550 in treaties prohibited Jews from visiting the country. Jews must have been allowed in afterwards as they were expelled in 1727, 1738 and 1742.  Then in 1753, no surprise now, 35,000 Jews were driven out of Russia.  Catherine II permitted all aliens to live there except the Jews.  Why?  Our religion was different;  it wasn't Christianity.  This was the situation wherever they tried to live.

Jews were living in France before 70 CE when Jerusalem was burned to the ground by the Romans.  The 8th century was a safe time for Jews who were under the protection of Charle-magne and his house.  By the 9th century, southern France was the main center of the Radanites, international traders.  They were Jewish merchants who traveled between southern France and China. 

In Autumn 845, the Vikings were raiding Bordeaux, France and Saintes. Count Seguin II marched on them but was captured and executed.  Although the port of Bordeaux was a buzzing trade center, the stability and success of the city was threatened by Viking and Norman incursions and political instability. The restoration of the Ramnulfid Dukes of Aquitaine under William IV and his successors (known as the House of Poitiers) brought continuity of government.

A map of Europe showing Viking settlements during the Viking Age. Areas subjected to Viking raids but had no Vikings living there are shown in green.  France and Spain are pictured.  

In 1306 the Christian's religious fever reached France who expulsed their Jews of the land.

  A Norse fleet with its blood red sails landed in Galicia after sacking Bordeaux, and proceeded to plunder the coastal villages until they were halted by the troops of King Ramiro I of Asturias near A Coruña on the northwestern coast of Galicia.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, banishing Jews The earliest Viking raid on Spain took place in the year 844.

Then in 1355, the Christian religious zeal and demands came to Spain and Jews were expulsed from there. They had lived in Spain since the 1st century CE, going there after 70CE's burning of Jerusalem and expulsion of their land.  1492 was the final expulsion date when they fled to Portugal, next door, only to find that door close to them in a few more years. 

 “The forced conversion and deportation of the Jews of Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century were a dramatic shock wave for the Jewish society people, as one of the main Jewish centers was wiped out almost overnight. Many Jews either escaped to other places or converted to Christianity and became new Christians. Some Jews chose to maintain their Jewish identity secretly – those were the “conversos”. 

Christianity wasn't allowing Jews to live anywhere while the Vikings had been invading everywhere.   

Resource:

facts about Israel, Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem

https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/16/six-percent-of-uk-population-have-viking-dna-new-study-finds-13283006/#:~:text='State%20of%20the%20art'%20DNA,compared%20to%2010%25%20in%20Sweden.

https://www.history.org.uk/primary/resource/3867/the-vikings-in-britain-a-brief-history#:~:text=Anglo%2DSaxon%20writers%20called%20them,make%20up%20the%20British%20nation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms,_Germany https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15013-worms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms_massacre_(1096)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror

https://www.bl.uk/people/william-the-conqueror#:~:text=William%2C%20Duke%20of%20Normandy%2C%20conquered%20England%20in%201066.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_raid_on_Seville

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeauxhttps://theconversation.com/spains-little-known-viking-history-is-being-uncovered-165828#:~:text=The%20earliest%20Viking%20raid%20on,the%20northwestern%20coast%20of%20Galicia

https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/16/six-percent-of-uk-population-have-viking-dna-new-study-finds-13283006/#:~:text='State%20of%20the%20art'%20DNA,compared%20to%2010%25%20in%20Sweden.

https://www.anumuseum.org.il/the-expulsion-of-jews-from-spain/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=expulsion+from+spain&utm_campaign=g&device=c&gclid=Cj0KCQjwz7uRBhDRARIsAFqjulmzgvoBs-nzStXInjlRlQJWYmonIWORnB_7juRsnihHh9PyzmNO2t0aArNUEALw_wcB.

https://www.history.com/news/vikings-in-russia-kiev-rus-varangians-prince-oleg#:~:text=Dec%204%2C%202019-,For%20four%20centuries%2C%20Vikings%20held%20sway%20over%20parts%20of%20Russia,their%20exploits%20in%20the%20west.

The Eagle That Ruled Over Eretz Yisrael

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

This map illustrates the Roman Empire at its greatest height.   During the reign of the Five Good Emperors, the Roman Empire was at the height of its power.  The map  shows us that the Romans ruled most of the known world in the 2nd century, when they were at their peak. The most important cities of the ancient world were within the borders of the Roman Empire.                                                                                                               

The eagle was the symbol of the powerful Roman empire, which grew to include Britain, most of Europe, all of North Africa, and the Middle East. 

The governors who were stationed in Judea had other aims.  they were hardened soldiers whose goal was to steal as much as they could from a country before they were transferred to other posts.  One of them even took gold from the Temple treasury for his personal use.  When the Jews protested, thousands were massacred--hung on the crosses. 

                                                 

 Judea went into a rebellion.  The Jewish forces gave the Roman army one of its most difficult challenges.  It was 4 years before the Romans could reach the gates of Jerusalem.  They surrounded the city, and still the Jews held them back for 5 months.                                                                                 

But the Roman army was too powerful to be stopped.  On the 9th day of the month of Av in 70 CE, the Roman battering rams smashed through the walls of Jerusalem.  The 2nd Temple was on fire. 

The rebellion continued. A group of about 1,000 Jews escaped from Jerusalem to a mountain in the desert called Masada.  Its steep sides and flat top made it a natural fortress, and it was built for King Herod.  These Jews, mostly ones called Jewish zealots or Sicarii, Jews that carried knives for defense, remained there for 3 years before the Romans reached the top.  The Sicarii took their own lives rather than have their wives and children face the angry Romans.  The Sicarii (Modern Hebrew: סיקריים siqariyim) were a splinter group of the Jewish Zealots who, in the decades preceding Jerusalem's destruction in 70 CE, strongly opposed the Roman occupation of Judea and attempted to expel them and their sympathizers from the area. 

                             Bar Kokhba/Ben Kosiba, SIMEON.  

The emperors in Rome intended to rule  Judea fairly, but they had to fight the Jewish General Bar Kokhba for 3 years to gain back Jerusalem from 132 to 135, so I really don't think "fair" if the word, even though they were said to be sensitive to the Jewish religion.  Since Judaism forbids sculptures that might be used as idols, the Romans told their soldiers not to bring carvings of the Roman eagle into the holy city of Jerusalem. The revolt may have been from knowing that the Romans were turning Jerusalem into a Roman Colony, plus the prohibition of circumcision. 

   thousands of  Jews hung on crosses on Apian Way

Romans believed in revenge.  More than half a million Jews were killed or sold as slaves.  Anyone who taught Judaism was executed-on the cross.  Jewish villages were destroyed.  Romans changed the name of the state from Judaea to Palaestine, named for the Philistines who were the worst enemy of the Jews before the Romans came along. 

                       

They couldn't win the battle against Judaism, though.  Rabbis risked death to teach the Torah.  Other Jews risked death to study, and to practice their religion. Eventually, Romans had to let them alone.  Jewish schools were built; synagogues were built, leading to the Talmud.                  

At the same time, another group of Jews believed that a rabbi who had been executed on the cross in Jerusalem was in reality the son of G-d.  They called their religion, Christianity.  About 350 years after the death of Jesus Christ, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christians had won over the emperor's mother, Helena.  Constantine, her son, also converted, but rather unwillingly.  Helena had gone to Palestine.   

Now, the rulers of Palestine carried the Christian cross instead of the Roman eagle.  The land of Israel was governed by people whose religion was based on Judaism and whose prophet was a Jew.  This didn't help Jews living in Eretz Yisrael, though. The Christian rulers were still fiercely anti-Jewish.  Life was extremely grim.  The center of Jewish life and learning shifted to Babylonia, where Jews had remained long ago and where all enjoyed great freedom than in Palestine.                      

In about 580 CE, an Arab boy named Muhammad visited Palestine.  His fellow Arabs believed in many gods, and at their religious events, drunkenness and gambling were common, but in Palestine, one-God was worshipped in a quiet way.  Arabs with unwanted infant daughters could bury them alive.  The people of Israel taught, "You shall not murder." Roman Emperors Constantine the Great and Valentinian I decided to ban infanticide across the Roman Empire in the 4th century. The practice ceased in Arabia in the 7th century after the founding of Islam, since the Quran prohibits infanticide.

Years later, Muhammad had visions which guided him to create a religion of Islam, intended to perfect the teachings of Judaism and Christianity.  It taught of one all-powerful G-d who demanded a high moral life, outlawing wine, gambling, and the killing of baby girls.  Arabs became Muslims and followers of Islam. 

                                    

  "Holy War" over Vienna against the Ottoman Empire

A proselytizing movement on behalf of Islam was called a "holy war."  His followers created armies and fought fierce wars.  For 100 years, they moved from victory to victory.  

A century after Muhammad's death, the crescent moon---the symbol of Islam---flew from Spain on the west to India on the east.  Eretz Yisrael was the 1st stop on the Muslim march.  Except for a brief interruption, Muslims ruled the land for nearly 1,300 years.                   

                                   

That brief interruption was caused by the Crusades, launched by the Christians of Europe to try to recapture the land of Jesus from the Muslims. Several Crusader armies never even reached the Holy Land!  As they marched across Europe, they murdered innocent Jewish men, women and children.  After conquering Jerusalem, the Crusaders slaughtered almost every Jew and Muslim in the city.  In time they were driven away.    

Resource:

 A Young Person's History of Israel 2nd edition by David Bamberger

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Masada

The Source by James Michener 

What On Earth Was Going On in 70 CE?

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

     Eretz Yisrael (land of Israel) was not called Palestine until 135 CE.  This didn't take place for 65 years after the destruction of the 2nd Temple by Rome.  

Babylon-Shinar-Kasdim (Chaldees) Cradle of humanity-scene of man's 1st revolt against G-d. Abraham was born here in Ur, Jews had remained here, created Babylonian Talmud, produced works of literary merit (Ezekiel, Daniel, Tobit), became main center of rabbinic studies at beginning of the 3rd century CE. They were affected by 70 CE of fall of Jerusalem.   Academies were founded here, spiritual center for all Jewry.  Persecutions in 5th century led to the Jewish revolt under Mar Zutra II when Talmud was finished.  Jewish position  was difficult until Arab conquest in 7th century.  The ancient city was the capital of the Babylonian empire. It was considered to be a center of commerce, art and learning and is estimated to have been the largest early city in the world being perhaps the first to reach a population above 200,000.  While many Judeans returned to Jerusalem when the Babylonians allowed it after 539 BC, many others stayed and built up a vibrant Jewish community that lasted two millennia.

Assyria was an aggressive kingdom in the 20th century BCE and expanded during the 13th and 10th centuries. Sennacherib was their important general who left attacking the northern 10 tribes of Israel in 721BCE.  He ravaged Jerusalem in 700, later forced to leave because a plague hit his army and they returned home.  Assyria declined rapidly and was succeeded by Babylon.  By 70 CE?   Assyria, also at times called the Assyrian Empire, was a Mesopotamian kingdom and empire of the Ancient Near East that existed as a state from perhaps as early as the 25th century BCE until its collapse.  By 150 BCE, Assyria was largely under the control of the Parthian Empire. The Parthians seem to have exercised only loose control over Assyria, and between the mid 2nd century BCE and 4th century CE a number of Neo-Assyrian states arose; these included the ancient capital of Assur itself, Adiabene with its capital of Arbela (modern Irbil), Beth Nuhadra with its capital of Nohadra (modern Dohuk), Osroene, with its capitals of Edessa and Amid (modern Sanliurfa and Diyarbakir), Hatra, and "ܒܝܬܓܪܡܝ" (Beth Garmai) with its capital at Arrapha (modern Kirkuk). Assyrian Adiabenian rulers converted to Judaism from Ancient Mesopotamian religion in the 1st century. After 115 CE, there are no historic traces of Jewish royalty in Adiabene, and the populace remained followers of Mesopotamian religion or Christianity. (Could it be that some of the Jewish royalty got this far east at the fall of Jerusalem? )

Aram-Ancient Syria: The coastline was settled by Phoenicians, constantly in friction with Israel and Judah until 8th century when overrun by the Assyrians. Syria overrun by Greeks.  The Greek presence in Syria began in the 7th century BCE (600s)  and became more prominent during the Hellenistic period and when the Seleucid Empire was centered there.

Roman Greece:  Ancient Greece was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BCE to the end of classical antiquity, that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and other territories—unified only once, for 13 years, under Alexander the Great's empire (336-323 BCE)   It was in the end of  the Hellenistic period (323–146 BCE), during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East from the death of Alexander until the Roman conquest.  By 70 CE was -Roman Greece which is usually counted from the Roman victory over the Corinthians at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC to the establishment of Byzantium by Constantine as the capital of the Roman Empire in AD 330.

                                                

  70 CE:  Destruction of the Temple  Tisha B'Av (Hebrew: תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב‎ Tīšʿā Bəʾāv; "the ninth of Av") is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Second Temple by the Roman Empire in Jerusalem.

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a principate with Italy as metropole of the provinces and the city of Rome as sole capital (27 BCE – CE 286). Jerusalem was destroyed by fire as well as the Temple by the Roman occupiers.  The Romans built their own Roman temple on the site of the Jewish Temple..  When Moslems entered, they in turn built their Mosque of Omar over the Roman temple.  

Persia-Iran: King Cyrus of Persia in 538 BCE conquered the Babylonian Empire.  Then all Jews in Mesopotamia and in Israel and Judea were under Persian rule.  Cyrus is thought to have been Queen Esther 's son as she was married to King Ahasueros of Persia.  From 4th century BCE onward, Jews lived in Persia in considerable numbers. The future was full of more persecutions.  

India-Ophir:  Hebrews go back with India to the time of Solomon.(I Kings 9:26-8)  Jews didn't enter again till the 6th century CE. A place where Solomon got gold for the Temple: 420 talents which was brought to Solomon.  It was Hiram of Tyre who sent a fleet of ships with his servants, shipmen who knew the sea with Solomon's servants that went to Ophir for the gold. By 70 CE they probably had forgotten about Solomon and his seeking gold.  

North America was not yet discovered by anyone other than the native inhabitants.  The ancestors of living Native Americans arrived in what is now the United States at least 15,000 years ago, possibly much earlier, from Asia via Beringia. A vast variety of peoples, societies and cultures subsequently developed.  The Oshara Tradition people lived from 5500 BCE to 600 CE. They were part of the Southwestern Archaic Tradition centered in north-central New Mexico, the San Juan Basin, the Rio Grande Valley, southern Colorado, and southeastern Utah. The Pueblo people came after them.  

There are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes in the U.S., including 229 in Alaska. These “nations within a nation” are the only tribes that have a formal nation-to-nation relationship with the U.S. and its federal agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).Leif Eriksson Day ( commemorates the Norse explorer (b:951 CE) believed to have led the first European expedition to North America. Nearly 500 years before the birth of Christopher Columbus (b:1451), a band of European sailors left their homeland behind in search of a new world.

                                          
South America was not yet discovered either.  The earliest generally accepted archaeological evidence for human habitation in South America dates to 14,000 years ago, the Monte Verde site in Southern Chile. The descendants of these first inhabitants would become the indigenous populations of South America.Explorer.   Christopher Columbus sets foot on the American mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela. Thinking it an island, he christened it Isla Santa and claimed it for Spain. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451.

                                               

                            Portrait of the boy, Eutyches, a Roman

 The succeeding emperor, Nero, was a connoisseur and patron of the arts. He also extended the frontiers of the empire, but antagonized the upper class and failed to hold the loyalty of the Roman legions. Amid rebellion and civil war, the Julio-Claudian dynasty came to an inglorious end with Nero’s suicide in 68 CE., 2 years before Jerusalem was burned down. 

                                         

                                               

Africa:  Rome's first province in northern Africa was established by the Roman Republic in 146 BCE, following its elimination of Carthage by Scipio Aemilianus in the Third Punic War. Africa Proconsularis or Africa Vetus (Old Africa), was governed by a proconsul. It is possible that the name "Africa" comes from the Berber word "afer", "ifri" or "Aourigha" (whose name would have been pronounced Afarika) that designated a tribe. Some Jews did resettle in northern Africa after 70 CE.                       

Europe: Jews entered after 70 CE when Jews were taken as slaves to Rome.  Alexander the Great brought the mass of the Jewish people into the European orbit.  Jews were in Greece in 2nd century BCE. Jews were in Rome as early as  as 139 BCE.  From 57 BCE, Eretz Yisrael was under roman control.  Jews were scattered throughout the empire from political intercourse, trade, war and captivity.  They were in Spain from time after destruction of 1st temple in 586 BCE , and of 1st century CE and Gaul,  a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, and parts of Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, particularly the west bank of the Rhine. before 70 CE. By the 4th century they were in the Rhineland (Germany's area).Warfare took place between the Romans and various Germanic tribes between 113 BCE and 596 CE. The nature of these wars varied through time between Roman conquest, Germanic uprisings and later Germanic invasions in the Roman Empire that started in the late 2nd century BCE. The series of conflicts was one of many factors which led to the ultimate downfall of the Western Roman Empire.

 As for France, individual Jews lived there before 70 CE, and that organized Jewish communities existed there during  the period of the Roman Empire, being traders.  Their position deteriorated with the triumph of Christianity as the Catholic Church Councils reinforced rules against Jews.  

Finding much anti-Semitism in Europe, even affecting what clothing they were allowed to wear...One of the earliest illustrations of such a hat perched atop the head of a Jew is found in the early 14th-century Codex Manesse. In the image, we see the figure of Süßkind von Trimberg, a Jewish poet and troubadour, wearing just such a hat. In this medieval German poetry anthology, Süßkind is credited as the author of six of the poems inscribed in its pages. He happens to be the first German-Jewish poet whom we know by his full name.

At the height of its fashion in Europe, at the turn of the 12th century, the pointed hat suddenly fell out of favor, around the time of the tragic and violent encounter between West and East during the First Crusade. Before making their way to Constantinople and the Holy Land, some crusaders led pogroms against German Jewish communities. These fueled anti-Jewish sentiment and imagery, which featured negative depictions of Jews wearing the pointed hat. Thus the item began to be associated in the medieval European mindset with the “killers of Christ” and with treachery in general. What self-respecting Christian would want to wear such a hat after that?  That's why they forced Jews to wear this outdated hat.  

Reference:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_South_America#:~:text=The%20earliest%20generally%20accepted%20archaeological,indigenous%20populations%20of%20South%20America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Syria

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_warfare_between_the_Romans_and_Germanic_tribes