How long has the Jewish diaspora existed?

Answer 1

The total destruction of the Southern Kingdom in 587/6 BC can be considered as the start of the diaspora. The Northern Kingdom had already been scattered in 720 but we cannot be certain how many of these survived as recognisable Hebrews. Some communities in various parts of the world may be descended from them. DNA may yet provide answers.

The seventy year exile in Babylon for the Southern Kingdom began to form Judaism as we know it today. Not all Jews returned to Israel. Many remained in what is now Iran/Iraq. These events, together with Jewish traders travelling around meant that by Roman times there was a recognised diaspora. The New Testament calls these Jews Hellenists.

In 70 AD the Romans crushed a Jewish rebellion and levelled Jerusalem and the Temple. They scattered salt on the levelled city because the siege had led to starvation and cannibalism. Even so, some Jews remained in Israel. The Romans renamed the Land 'Palestine' after the long-extinct Philistines. The Philistines belonged to the same cultural and racial grouping as the Greeks, Romans and Trojans. They were not Arabs.

The Land became desolate and sparsely inhabited. Jews were always the greatest number, but only of a small population. From Roman times until the British Mandate, the Land was ruled by various empire, the British being the last. Palestine was never a nation only an administrative unit in someone else's empire.

The greater population of Jews scattered all over the world.

In 1948, Britain 'fulfilled' the Mandate given it by the League of Nations and ratified by the UN. Jews had been returning to Israel, with some British support since the end of the 19th Century. We gave the greater part of Palestine to the Arabs, most of whom were economic migrants from the beginning of the 20th Century. This state is now called Jordan. We also carved up the Middle East and created the borders of most of the Modern Arab states.

Jordan seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1948. Israel retook them in 1967. The Gaza strip, which corresponds to the original (non-Arab) Philistia, was seized by Egypt in 1948, recovered in 1967 and ceded to the Arabs more recently.

Jews have been returning to Israel ever since 1948, but not always staying. There are still millions of Jews in the diaspora.

The diaspora has been going on in some form since 720 BC, and recognisably Jewish since 586 BC and it isn't over yet. 2595 years and counting...