Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel"s Birth and Growth

 Nadene Goldfoot                                   

                  College campuses learn to show hatred for Jews as well as for Israel 

CODEPINK, or Code Pink: Women for Peace, is a left-wing organization that supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement that promotes economic sanctions, divestments, and boycotts against Israel.  I note that usually such groups turn nasty, violent.  
            

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) started July 9, 2005 by Omar Barghouti, and Ramy Shaat, Palestinian Arabs and said to be a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. This has only created much anti-Semitism including violence.                                     

Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations under international law,   The problem lies in that Palestinians consider all of Israel as belonging to the Arabs and disregard all legal matters decided after WWI.  Israel offered the sun, moon and stars to the Arabs to gain peace, but they No No No'd from 1967  even before and onward.  Their one goal in mind has been the ones to destroy Israel.  

Their leaders define this  as:                     

            August 18, 2005 when Jews found it hard to leave Gaza after all their work, and because of the government's decision, soldiers had to help them out.  They left their businesses for the Arabs who turned around and destroyed them anyway.  Instead, they learned how to dig tunnels.  

1.  Withdrawal from the occupied territories:  The Occupied Territories, which include Judea/Samaria, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, are subject to the jurisdiction of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), with the division of responsibilities overlapping in much of the territory.  Israel moved out of Gaza and gave it to Palestinians in 2005. By 22 September 2005, Israel's withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip to the 1967 Green Line, and the eviction of the four settlements in Samaria, was completed. In June 2007 Hamas, the terrorists of the PA,  took over the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority by their own election encouraged by Obama.  Jews had created Judea/Samaria and all of Jerusalem.  It's written as such in the Bible for verification.  It's the land they have finally returned to;  and were doing everything for a peaceful Arab-cousin revival, but instead were met with bullets.                                                          

2. Removal of the separation barrier in the West Bank:  The barrier was built by Israel following a wave of Palestinian political violence and incidents of terrorism inside Israel during the Second Intifada, which began in September 2000 and ended in February 2005.   It may be causing inconveniences, but it is saving lives.  

3. Full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and :  Arab citizens of Israel are descendants of Palestinians who remained in the area that became Israel after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. They were automatically granted citizenship and the right to vote. Why were they granted citizenship?   The Israeli government granted citizenship to Palestinians who remained or were not expelled after the 1948 war. Anyone born in Israel to at least one Israeli parent automatically becomes a citizen.  In the early 1980s, Israel granted citizenship eligibility to the Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the Syrian citizens of the Golan Heights by annexing both areas, though they remain internationally recognized as part of the Israeli-occupied territories, which came into being after the Six-Day War of 1967.

4. "respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties".  They left because their leaders told them to do so.  They expected to win the war and all the civilians could take over Jewish homes.  The Jews won the war instead and the Arabs continued to live in refugee camps.  

• Arabs comprise just over 20 percent of Israel’s population. The vast majority are citizens, while those in Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its capital, are considered “permanent residents.”  Israel is the only country created for Jews and by Jews because they have suffered anti-Semitic discrimination ever since they were Hellenized by the Greeks.  Britain held the 30 year mandate and at the end promised to help build the Jewish Homeland.  Instead, they helped more Arabs to enter while keeping Jews out at the time of WWII.  There has never been a country of Palestine; it was renamed as such by the angry Romans, land named after Israel's worst enemy.

Many critics as well as myself  accuse the BDS movement of antisemitism, as I have seen it grow at Portland State U.  It's a charge the movement denies, calling it an attempt to conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism.  Multiple countries and the majority of U.S. states have passed anti-BDS laws.

Resource:

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2025/02/when-portland-state-u-alma-mater-became.html

The Law Of Opposite Attraction: Hellenization, Democracy

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Alexander the Great led Hellenization into the theocracy of King Saul and King David and Solomon's territory, and just about destroyed it.   He was king of Macedonia from 356 to 323 BCE, and swept into Judea with his great personality that made a deep impression on the Jews.  Josephus describes his visit to Jerusalem where as he was invading the country, he made the people feel he was honoring them. First he honored the high priest, Jaddua and praised him with flattery.  He showered the Jews with privileges to all Jews of Judah and the Diaspora.  The cause of Alexander the Great's death is debated by historians. He died in Babylon on June 11, 323 BC at the age of 32.                                                             

Saul (11th century BCE) son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin had been selected for rule by the Prophet, Samuel out of great leader possibilities from the 11 other tribes.  It was at a time the people were being attacked by the Philistines and Ammonites and Saul was an organizer.  He organized a trained army and inflicted defeats on the enemy.  Internally, he carried out a purification of religion by eliminating witchcraft, but he kept arguing with Samuel.  This caused Samuel to go against Saul and he selected David as his successor who was becoming very popular with the people for his army fighting.  Saul became jealous, rightly, of David, and drove David out of the country. 

Then the Philistines launched a united attack and Saul fell with his 3 sons including Jonathan in the battle on Mt. Gilboa.  Saul's death led to a temporary domination of the Philistines, but the groundwork he laid for national unity eventually proved effective in establishing a strong and independent Israelite monarchy.  Solomon was king after his father's death and the line continued for Israel till Hoshea in 730-721 BCE, while Judah  continued to Zedekiah in  597 to 586 BCE.                                              

      Greeks and Minoans and their lives

                                                                       

     Jews during Greek and Roman days not faring well at all unless complying with Hellenization.  But in 332 BCE a young Alexander the Great led a Greek and Macedonian force that swept through the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt and extended east to include Persia and part of India. He died in the process, and as a result his empire splintered into successor kingdoms. Judah, now called Judea, lay at the boundary between two of these Greek successor kingdoms, the Seleucids in Asia Minor and the Ptolemies in Egypt. Fortune favored first one and then the other, and Judea remained a buffer state between them.

How Judea ceased to be the pawn in this imperial struggle and achieve independence is a compelling story, treated in 1, 2, and 4 Maccabees and texts of the Ethiopian Bible, and that kingdom was “comparable in Jewish history only with the kingdom of David.” Under the Persians, religious worship had remained a matter of local custom, generally protected by the benign paternalism of the imperial rulers. But the form of Hellenization in Syrian-ruled areas imposed a new kind of local administration. Greek colonization, coupled with the philosophical ideals of a universal world order, called for a more thorough transformation of local customs.   Greek cities founded colonies or reconstituted older cities by imposing the nomima, laws and customs, of the parent city. These included laws and a constitution, rituals, and a religious calendar. A dēmos, or roll of citizens, was established; a boulē or city council of aristocratic leaders was appointed; and a gymnasium and ephēbeum were constructed for the education of elite boys. A universal Greek education would ensure the inculcation of Greek values, and even native texts became increasingly modeled on Greek literature.

Greek or Macadamia and Judah civilization were opposites with opposing goals, yet wherever Alexander went, he charmed the population and his Greek culture was diffused over the Mediterranean and the Middle East after the end of the 4th century BCE as a result of his conquests.  It was about at that time that Judea (for it was not called Palestine until after 135 CE) fell under Greek rule and Judea was surrounded by a ring of hellenized cities.  At the same time, the Jewish Diaspora was expanding rapidly in Egypt, Cyrenaica, Syria and Asia Minor, which were all in process of hellenization.  By the 3rd century BCE, the Jews of Egypt had adopted Greek and the Septuagint translation of the Tanakh (Bible)  had been completed.                                                    

                                                Antiochus IV Epiphanes

There was antagonism between the traditional and hellenizing Jews in Jerusalem that brought on Antiochus IV Epiphanes' attempt to suppress Judaism and the Hasmonean revolt.                                                       

                                                        The Emperor, Herod

Though John Hyrcanus and Alexander Yannai broke the power of the Greek cities in Eretz Yisrael, later these were restored and strengthened as a result of Roman intervention aided by Emperor Herod and his descendants.  

By the Mishnaic Period, (70 to 200 CE) (legal codification of the Oral Law  done by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi;  Jewish material life in Eretz was mainly Hellenistic even though it had ended to be the political program of any Jewish faction.  Both the Mishnah and Talmud contain hundreds of Greek words that were absorbed into Hebrew and Aramaic and tomb inscriptions were in Greek, so that must have been the spoken language of the Period.  The Mishnaic period generally refers to the time period spanning from the late first century CE to the early third century CE, during which the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish oral laws, was compiled by rabbis known as Tannaim; essentially encompassing the period where the Mishnah was being assembled and the related rabbinic traditions were being codified.

                                             King Henry VIII of England

England was also ruled by Kings and was undemocratic.  Since the office of Prime Minister evolved rather than being instantly created, it may not be totally clear-cut who the first prime minister was. However, this appellation is traditionally given to Sir Robert Walpole, who became First Lord of the Treasury of Great Britain in 1721.  

The religious group of Pilgrims   left Holland, who had been Englishmen, for America on the ship, the Mayflower, seeking a democratic life in 1620.  The Mayflower carried 102 passengers in 1620, including Pilgrims, servants, contracted workers, and English families. The pilgrims who risked their lives to settle in a strange land were more – and less – than folklore heroes. They were extreme Puritans, that is to say they disapproved of several of the rituals and practices of the Church of England that had been established by parliament at the beginning of Elizabeth I's reign.  They had no say in the matter if they stayed in England, so they up and left for better lives.                    

                        " You don't need Fema! " The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities.

Now we're almost back to a kind of kingship again with our President Trump, who is acting like one.  He's trying to overthrow the 14th article in our constitution saying that a baby born in the USA is automatically a USA citizen.  This is being used to eliminate Mexican Nationals who entered the US illegally, and he's sending them all back.  

Yet, talk about opposing values, he has been the first president to treat Israel righteously, and they were at the point of needing some understanding badly.  Sadly, there was a problem with Obama and his background, though he tried to be fair and square, his prejudice came through.  It's my opinion that Trump's son -in law, Jerad Kushner, is the guide of Trump's understandings, as Trump is not known to be a reader or historian, but relies on his listening techniques to others, and then his gut opinions.  Trump, in his first few days, has kept all his promises made when running for the office, so people should not be shocked. This part of history, Israel helped by the man least interested, though his daughter had married a Jewish man, would stand by Israel when criticized so much by his own country, defies all reason.   

Hellenization became the fad, the favorite of a religious group, undoing much of their understanding and practice to "fit in" with others.  Trump won the president's seat over people of much better character;  in fact his was one of the worst.  The Republicans and Democrats were almost divided 50-50.  In both cases, people turned around and did  a 180 which was astonishing!  

Even in sex, opposites have been attracting each other.  It may have started with Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens.  In my own DNA, I carry 2.9% of Neanderthal genes.  We've had soap operas of Abie's Irish Rose, and copy-cat versions since then-the Jewish and Catholic love stories.  

I feel the whole theory of opposite attraction is to stir up the pot.  Get opposing ideas.  G-d must adore real debates;  not the kind held during election time but real ones practiced in high schools and colleges.  It's all to get us to see 2 sides of an issue, and the possible outcomes;  trying to stretch our brains a little.  Things adored and fought for must be worthy enough.  Otherwise, why bother?  Israel's history is full of being saved at the last minute in miraculous situations, and Trump is a part of that.  

Rome's EDICT OF CARACALLA in Year 212 CE and How It Affected Jews

Nadene Goldfoot                               
                                                                             

 The first record of Jews in Rome is in 161 b.c.e., when Jason b. Eleazar and Eupolemus b. Johanan are said to have gone there as envoys from Judah Maccabee. The Roman Jews are said to have been conspicuous in the mourning for Julius Caesar in 44 b.c.e. on the death of Herod in 4 b.c.e. 8,000 native Roman Jews are reported to have escorted the Jewish delegates from Judea who came to request the senate to abolish the Herodian monarchy. Two synagogues were seemingly founded by "freedmen" who had been slaves of Augustus (d. 14 c.e.) and Agrippa (d. 12 b.c.e.) respectively and bore their names. 

In the year 212 in Rome, The Constitutio Antoniniana (Latin for: "Constitution [or Edict] of Antoninus") (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution) was an edict issued in 212 CE, by the Roman 
Emperor Caracalla declaring that all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given full Roman citizenship and that all free women ...in the Empire were to be given the same rights as Roman women.  This included the Jews to a certain degree.  This was 1,808 years ago when Jews might have a lot of rights.  Then the world backslid and Jews were not an emancipated people until Emperor Napoleon came along.                                             

Emperor Caracalla (4 April 188-8 April 217)
AKA Antonius, born as Lucius Septimius Bassianus of the Severan Dynasty.
This is the period of the Christian Byzantium

The trick was to be able to be declared a free person in order to have citizenship which gave more rights.  People were either citizens or free people or slaves.  
                                                             

Emperor Herod's Days Before Caracalla was Emperor 

The main reason Caracalla passed the law was to increase the number of people available to tax. In the words of Cassius Dio: "This was the reason why he made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honoring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuch as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes." However, few of those that gained citizenship were wealthy, and while it is true that Rome was in a difficult financial situation, it is thought that this could not have been the sole purpose of the edict. Cassius Dio generally saw Caracalla as a bad, contemptible emperor.  Cassius was born in 163,  as Lucius Cassius Dio or Dio Cassius who was a Roman statesman and historian of Greek and Roman origin. He published 80 volumes of history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy.  
                                                       

Citizens of the Roman Empire
Roman citizenship was acquired by birth if both parents were Roman citizens (cives), although one of them, usually the mother, might be a peregrinus (“alien”) with connubium (the right to contract a Roman marriage). Otherwise, citizenship could be granted by the people, later by generals and emperors.

Another goal may have been to increase the number of men able to serve in the legions, as only full citizens could serve as legionaries in the Roman Army. In scholarly interpretations that agree with a model of moral degeneration as the reason for the fall of the Roman Empire, most famously the model followed by British historian Edward Gibbon, the edict came at the cost to the auxiliaries, which primarily consisted of non-citizen men.

Evidently there were Jews who were free men, traders and such.  Being Jewish anyway they came under certain restrictions.  They were affected as polygamy was ended for them this way.  They were excluded from the army.  They could not serve in public office from the 5th century onward because they were Jews.  They  couldn't offer evidence against any Christian  in the courts of law.  Roman minorities were also under their laws and were restricted people.  

Additionally, before the edict, one of the main ways to acquire Roman citizenship was to enlist in the Roman Army, the completion of service in which would give the citizenship to the discharged soldier. The edict may have made enlistment in the army less attractive to most, and perhaps the recruiting difficulties of the Roman army by the end of the 3rd century were related to this.

In the analyses of more recent scholars, the Constitutio Antoniniana marks a major milestone in the provincialisation of Roman law, meaning that the gap between private law in the provinces and private law in Italy narrowed. This is because, in granting citizenship to all men in the provinces, much private law had to be re-written to conform with the law that applied to Roman citizens in Rome. To these scholars, it therefore also marks the beginning of a process by which imperial constitutions became the primary source of Roman law.

• A male Roman citizen enjoyed a wide range of privileges and protections defined in detail by the Roman state. A citizen could, under certain exceptional circumstances, be deprived of his citizenship.
• Roman women had a limited form of citizenship. They were not allowed to vote or stand for civil or public office. The rich might participate in public life by funding building projects or sponsoring religious ceremonies and other events. Women had the right to own property, to engage in business, and to obtain a divorce, but their legal rights varied over time. Marriages were an important form of political alliance during the Republic.
• Client state citizens and allies (socii) of Rome could receive a limited form of Roman citizenship such as the Latin Right. Such citizens could not vote or be elected in Roman elections.
• Freedmen were former slaves who had gained their freedom. They were not automatically given citizenship and lacked some privileges such as running for executive magistracies. The children of freedmen and women were born as free citizens; for example, the father of the poet Horace was a freedman.
• Slaves were considered property and lacked legal personhood. Over time, they acquired a few protections under Roman law. Some slaves were freed by manumission for services rendered, or through a testamentary provision when their master died. Once free, they faced few barriers, beyond normal social snobbery, to participating in Roman society. The principle that a person could become a citizen by law rather than birth was enshrined in Roman mythology; when Romulus defeated the Sabines in battle, he promised the war captives that were in Rome they could become citizens.

The ancient sources portray Caracalla as a tyrant and as a cruel leader, an image that has survived into modernity. Dio Cassius (c. 155 – c. 235) and Herodian (c. 170 – c. 240) present Caracalla as a soldier first and an emperor second. Modern works continue to portray Caracalla as an evil ruler, painting him as one of the most tyrannical of all Roman emperors.

This Edict of Caracalla  granted Jews legal equality to all other citizens, and formed the foundation of their legal status in Byzantium following the founding of Constantinople in 330. Indeed, Jews enjoyed the right to practice their faith under the rule of the Byzantines, as long as they paid the Fiscus Judaicus. 

For example, circumcision, which was considered mutilation and therefore punishable by death if performed on a non-Jewish child, and by exile if performed on a non-Jewish adult, was legally permitted within Jewish religious practices. Byzantine law recognized synagogues as places of worship, which could not be arbitrarily molested, Jewish courts had the force of law in civil cases, and Jews could not be forced to violate Shabbat and their festivals.
                                                     

Roman (Byzantine) Empire 271 CE

In addition to the matter of holding public office, Jews were also unequal to Christians with respect to the ownership of slaves. Restrictions on the ownership of Christian slaves by Jews were in place through the reign of many emperors, under the fear that Jews would use conversion of slaves as a means to increase their number. Additionally, this was designed to provide an incentive for non-Christian slaves to convert into Christianity, and an economic restriction on the Jews. Restrictions on slave-owning could not, however, be excessively burdensome, because slaves, although numerous, were between 10-15% of the population. Under the Theodosian Code, therefore, ownership of Christian slaves by Jews was not prohibited, although their purchase was. Thus, one who gained possession of a slave by means such as inheritance would remain his or her owner. Purchase of slaves was usually penalized by compelled sale at the original purchase price.

The third important restriction on Judaism—in addition to the limitations on public service and slave ownership—was that the Jewish religion, though allowed to survive, was not allowed to thrive. Theologically, the victory of Christianity could be successfully asserted by maintaining a small contingent of Jews within the empire, although allowing them to become too sizable a minority would threaten the theological monopoly of Orthodox Christianity within the Empire.

One important ramification of this policy was the prohibition on the construction of new synagogues within the Empire, though the repair of old synagogues was permitted. This prohibition was difficult to enforce, as archaeological evidence in Israel indicates that illegal synagogue construction continued throughout the sixth century. The synagogue did continue to be respected as an inviolable place of worship until the reign of Justinian.

Beginning at this time, most legislation regarding the Jews—even laws which expanded the rights which they were afforded—were "prefaced by unambiguous expressions of hatred and contempt for Judaism."

                                                      

Since the year 390 nearly all of the territory of present-day Israel came under Byzantine suzerainty. The area was divided into the following provinces: Palestina Prima, Palestina Secunda and Palestina Tertia. These provinces were part of the Diocese of the East.  Palæstina Secunda or Palaestina II was a Byzantine province from 390, until its conquest by the Muslim armies in 634–636. Palaestina Secunda, a part of the Diocese of the East, roughly comprised the Galilee, Yizrael Valley, Bet Shean Valley and southern part of the Golan plateau, with its capital in Scythopolis (Bet Shean). The province experienced the rise of Christianity under the Byzantines, but was also a thriving center of Judaism, after the Jews had been driven out of Judea by the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
                                                          

In 70 CE Rome destroyed Jerusalem while burning down the 2nd Temple.  Jews if captured, were taken as slaves.  It didn't seem to matter that there were Jews living in Rome at the same time as Roman Citizens.  They were used in all the usual manners of Roman slaves, fighting off lions in the stadiums, etc, even as army slaves.  

Resource
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutio_Antoniniana#:~:text=The%20Constitutio%20Antoniniana%20(Latin%20for,and%20that%20all%20free%20women
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracalla
Book:  Religous Roots of Contemporary European Identity by Bloomsburg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Byzantine_Empire 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_citizenship

The Census It's History and Adding Info on Citizenship

Nadene Goldfoot 
                                                       

King Tut or Tutankhamun c1341-1323 BCE

was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th  dynasty.

Egypt may have been the first civilization to have a census of their population.

Can you imagine?  They existed so far back that they also lived in the year of 2040 and we are existing in 2019 but they were so far back, over 4,000 years ago. 

"Censuses in Egypt first appeared in the late Middle Kingdom (2040 BCE-1782 BCE)  and developed in the New Kingdom Pharaoh Amasis, according to Herodotus, required every Egyptian to declare annually to the nomarch, "whence he gained his living". Under the Ptolemies and the Romans several censuses were conducted in Egypt by government officials."

c. 1802 BCE - c. 1800 BCE

Reign of Sobekhotep I, first king of the 13th Dynasty, in Egypt. The Middle Kingdom declines after him."

Ancient Egyptian culture flourished between c. 5500 BCE with the rise of technology (as evidenced in the glass-work of faience) and 30 BCE with the death of Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt. 

Moses was adopted by a daughter of a pharoah and raised as his son so was highly educated in the ways of Egypt.  He was already 80 years old when he set out from his home to talk the present pharoah into letting the Israelite slaves leave which would have been in about 1311 BCE.  

Egyptian music and dancing 

                                                    

Amenhotep II (sometimes called Amenophis II and meaning 'Amun is Satisfied') was the seventh Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few military campaigns in Syria; however, he fought much less than his father, and his reign saw the effective cessation of hostilities between Egypt and Mitanni, the major kingdoms vying for power in Syria. His reign is usually dated from 1427 to 1401 BC.  He's probably the Pharaoh before
Moses was accidentally rescued by the Egyptian princess from death by an Egyptian decree of killing all baby boys.
 

After Thutmose III died, his son Amonhotep II (named after his great-grandfather) came to the throne (after 2-year period of co-reign with his father).
• He was also an astute warrior and leader, but even more brutal than his father.
• He also held the position of High Priest of Ptah in Memphis.
• He ruled for 25-years and led numerous campaigns that solidified Egypt as the most powerful nation in the region, for example putting down the Syrian revolts after Thutmose died.
• His reign is relatively event free and he died after 25 years on the throne and his son, Thutmose IV came to power.
• Thutmose IV changed some religious beliefs and slowed temple building but his greatest change was that of foreign policy.

Israel                                 

Moses lived from 1391 BCE to the age of 120 by 1271 BCE.  He took his people out of Egypt who were in bondage the past 400 years to lead them back to where Abraham and Jacob had lived in Canaan.  Who the pharaoh was at the time of Moses is not known as he was not named in our Tanakh.  The dates of Gentile researchers do not always agree with our Jewish references, either.  According to these records, King Tut was a good candidate as the pharaoh, but he as known more as a boy king.   No matter, I figure that Moses was already familiar with the concept of the census from living in Egypt and was part of the royal family.  

"Censuses are mentioned in the Bible". 

Moses took a census as told in Numbers Chapter 1 and had a total of 603,550 people as they started after leaving Egypt.  At the end, as told in Numbers 26, they had a total of 601,730.  They had a loss after 40 years of traveling of 1,820 from some of their 12 tribes.  The tribes that had lost population were Reuben, Simeon, Naphtali, Gad, and Ephraim.  The others had gained population with Manasseh gaining the most with a 20,500 increase.  Out of the 12 tribes on the Exodus, Judah had gained 1,900.  This is the tribe that we Jews came from along with some of Benjamin who gained 10,200.  

God commands a per capita tax to be paid with the census in Exodus 30:11-16 for the upkeep of the Tabernacle. The Book of Numbers is named after the counting of the Israelite population (in Numbers 1-4)  according to the house of the Fathers after the exodus from Egypt. A second census was taken while the Israelites were camped in the plains of Moab, in Numbers 26. 

King David (1010-970 BCE) performed a census that produced disastrous results (in 2 Samuel 24. and 1 Chronicles 21.  Here, he had been enticed to do so.  It was not a requirement from Hashem like Moses had received.   In Chronicles 21, it says "A Satan, an evil impulse enticed David to count Israel." His son, King Solomon, had all of the foreigners in Israel counted in 2nd Chronicles 2:17. 

"Counting the population is improper, even sinful, because it is likely to be motivated by a vain desire to know the exact strategic potency of the nation, which in turn leads the people to believe that their salvation is in strength of numbers and not in G0d's desire for their well-being.  Consequently, such a counting of the population is likely to bode ill for the people involved, which is  why Joab tried to convince David not to do it.  To dispel the notion that salvation is in numbers, the Torah in Exodus 30:12-16 commands that a census always be done in such a way that there is another reason for it, that is like the raising of funds. "                                       

When the Romans took over Judea in 6 ce 

the legate Publius Sulpicius Quirinius organised a census for tax purposes. The Gospel of Luke links the birth of Jesus to this event.  Luke 2. "

Today in the USA the question has come up of including whether or not people were US citizens and most were appalled at such a question, yet it has been in many censuses since 1920, I believe.  AL is one of the initials used to show if they were or not or were naturalized.                     

On my paternal grandmother's census information of January 8, 1920, I recorded that it said she was PA, meaning she had filed her 1st paper of Declaration of Intent.  By then she was a widow with 4 children to support.  She was also on the 1910 census but they had not asked that question then.  She had immigrated from Suwalki, Lithuania/Poland in 1903  but listed only as Russia on this 1910 census.  She could not speak English, only Yiddish, but the census takers listed her as Addie when her name was Zlata.  After many confabs with family members we discovered that she was born and raised in Lazdijai, Suwalki, Lithuania which had been taken over by Poland.  All her records come from Poland.  

Other people might be listed as AL or something else.  The 1900 to 1940 Census Records tell whether a person was naturalized. Year of Naturalization is given in the 1920 Census.

Abbreviations used in the Citizenship column of census records: AL=Alien; NA=Naturalized; NR=Not Reported; PA=First Papers Filed (declaration of intention); AM CIT=American Citizen Born Abroad (used in the 1940 census).

PA=Declarations of Intention (also called "First Papers")
The record by which an applicant for United States citizenship declared their intent to become a citizen and renounced their allegiance to a foreign government. Early records of this type (before September 27, 1906) usually will have: name, country of birth or allegiance (but not town), date of the application and signature. Some (but very few) show the date and port of arrival in the United States. After September 26, 1906 much more detailed information is given including place of birth and port and date of arrival.

Beginning with 1795 a person could declare their intent to become a citizen at any time after they arrived in the United States. A few people did this almost immediately upon arrival.

The Declaration of Intention requirement ended in 1952 (although immigrants can still file a declaration if they want to; it is optional).

An Act of 17 July 1862, stated: "any alien, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who has enlisted, or may enlist in the armies of the United States, either the regulars or volunteer forces, and has been, or may be hereafter, honorably discharged, shall be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, upon his petition, without any previous declaration of intention to become such; and he shall not be required to prove more than one year's residence." (Act of July 17, 1862, 12 Stat. 597, section 21) 

Basically this allowed an honorably discharged Civil War veteran (who fought for the Union) to apply for citizenship without filing a declaration of intention and without the usual 5 year residency requirement. It did not grant him automatic citizenship - he still had to apply, but the naturalization process was expedited.

This legislation was enacted to encourage aliens (non-citizens) to enlist during the Civil War, and it also applied to later wars.

I might add that census information is vital for genealogy.  We would know nothing had it not been for census information that every country keeps in some form or another.  The USA takes it every 10 years and some states take it every 5 years or did so.  It wasn't until 1850 that women were named on the census.  Up until then the method was done in tally style.  Finally we had husbands and wives listed with the names of their children, year born, and in 1900 the month was included!  Oh, we all look forward now to the time when the 1950 census will be available for the public.  I remember going crazy with glee over the 1940 census.  It included streets they lived on.  Someday those illegal people in our country will be happy that they were on the census and had such information.  It's a part of their family history and a way they are not forgotten people.  Maybe they will have to use an IL for illegal status.  Who knows?  It's all a part of living here.  We have to know things; first for the nation and second for genealogy.  

Resource:

Tanach (Old Testament) The Stone Edition

https://www.ancient.eu/timeline/Middle_Kingdom_of_Egypt/

https://quizlet.com/au/280891031/ancient-egypt-18th-26th-dynasties-flash-cards/

https://www.genealogybranches.com/naturalization.html

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