# data[].attributes.body
Due to the threat of the Spanish Inquisition in the 13-14th century, many Ashkenazi Jews also moved to Poland and Russia in Eastern Europe. Even though Jews only made up about 5% of the population in Russia, they were forced to live in the “Pale of Settlement'' during Catherine the Great’s reign in 1791, which unfortunately made them an easier target. She was attempting to prevent permanent Jewish settlement to “protect” Russian middle class from the business competition. Russian Anti-semitism peaked after 1881 with the addition of new laws that banned Jews from having property rights and also led to a trend of pogroms-- large-scale mob attacks on Jewish communities. Pogroms drove out Jews as they involuntarily moved towards the Austro-Hungarian empire, Germany, and the United States. Eastern Europe is a crucial place for the Jewish diaspora because it contained 75% of the world's Jews around 1880 and is remembered to be a very re-established traditional and rich community from Jewish history.

# data[].attributes.body
Egypt was a very important place in regards to the early migrations of the Jewish people. During a great famine in Canaan, Jacob led his family to the northeast African region to reunite with Joseph and be supported by Egypt’s surplus of food. Unfortunately, when there was a new Pharaoh, he discriminated against and enslaved the Jewish people, including throwing firstborn sons into the Nile. Luckily, there was one child, Moses, who was rescued and raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter. After the 10 plagues and Pharaoh finally allowing the Jewish people to leave, they escaped slavery in Egypt but were trapped in the desert for 40 years. They were looked out for with manna and Moses even retrieved the 10 commandments upon Mount Sinai until they eventually ‘returned’ to Israel. Skipping to the time of the first and second temple, some Jews also fled to Egypt along with Babylon.  Egypt is important because it was a reinventive turning point for the Jewish people where one of the major holidays is remembered every year. Events throughout the region have led to multiple holidays being established to remember the hard times and triumphs throughout the land.

# data[].attributes.body
India has been a home for Bene Israel and Cochin Jews which can be traced back to the 2nd century or King Soloman times. Bene Israel Jews (“Sons of Israel”) is the largest group (24,000) who settled in the city of Bombay, which is also where Bollywood took off. Bene Israel Jews observed the sabbath, taught Jewish education, translated prayer books into the Marathi language, and engaged in the community despite being separated by the rigid Indian caste system. Also in 1920-1948 many became zionists and moved to Israel when it became an official state in 1948--which was also because India was gaining its independence around the same time. The other main group was Jews of Cochin who lived in Kerala, the largest city on the southwest Indian coast. There were only about 2,500 of them and were divided into 3 main groups: “White Jews” (Sephardic foreigners), “Black Jews”, and “Freedman” (integrated into “Blacks”). They could date back to biblical times from Israel, Portugal, and Holland. Many Cochin Jews also moved to Israel when it became a state.

With the emergence of Bollywood, Jews were more progressive for women’s rights so Jewish women were predominantly cast in Indian cinema, however, they only played Muslim and Hindu parts. It is also important to note that Indian Jews had more eurocentric features and paralleled with the “Hollywood” look. This also unfortunately is a result of colorism because more light-skinned women were portrayed as more ‘desirable’ than darker skin women. Furthermore, they were either cast as the innocent heroine or the seductive vamp. It is also interesting that once Muslim and Hindu women were allowed to act, the majority of Jewish women (including trailblazers like Nadira and Pramila) were stuck to being typecast as the antagonist vamp role. This was also around the same time India was gaining Independence, so the film industry reflected their new beliefs by portraying stories with the more traditionally Indian-looking women as the heroine, and the lighter-skinned women with more eurocentric features as the westernized antagonist vamps. Throughout Jewish women's acting careers, they typically changed their names to appear more Hindi in an attempt to assimilate because they believed they would be more successful and popular if they hide their Jewishness. Overall, India is a commonly overlooked part of the Jewish diaspora but it is just as important for Jewish life, especially re-inventing Hollywood-inspired trends in the front and behind-the-scenes in the Bollywood industry.

# data[].attributes.body
Numerous Polish Jews immigrated from Eastern Europe to the densely populated city of New York. New York is located around the mid-Atlantic region in the US. A certain Yiddish newspaper, Bialystoker Stimme, associated itself with was seen as an additional ‘promised land’, similar to Israel Zionism. Ashkenazi Jews in America who mourned for Poland can be compared to Sephardic Jews’ mourning for Spain as their temporary homeland. One of the reasons why immigrant Jews didn’t like New York was because they saw the United States as greedy, materialistic, and secular compared to their homeland in Bialystok with their rich culture and traditions which were difficult to fully observe in their daily life in their new country. This led to the dislocation and dispersal of Jews in the US who were impacted by the more secular and capitalist culture.

On the other hand, there were other newspapers, like Forverts, which emphasized americanization and assimilation which reflected a more positive US-centered view and was catered to a larger, global audience--which makes sense why it's a more popular perspective today. Also, similar to Yiddish being gendered, Bialystok was seen as a mother city, like Israel. The feminine connotations also appear when the city is compared to “a widow” in mourning as Jews were forced to leave the nurturing, safe place which was now weaker and lacked power. Additionally, the immigrant Jews came from there, like their origin or descent, which is also known as a ‘birth’ place. This also matches up with the notion that Judaism passes from a mother to a child genetically, ethnically, and spiritually. New York’s population of early 20th-century immigrant Jews makes it an important part of the Jewish diaspora because the newspaper at the time combatted and re-invented the assimilated or stereotypical ‘diaspora jew’ because they still longed to return to their homeland rather than assimilate to a new place they involuntarily moved to.

# data[].attributes.body
A vast majority of Ashkenazi Jews came from Israel to Germany (Rhineland), also known as Ashkenazim in Hebrew. They also moved to Italy, France, Central, and Eastern Europe. In the central European region, Yiddish developed from a combination of Hebrew, Slavic, and a German dialect. Yiddish was seen as a more everyday kind of language compared to German which was associated with higher statuses, modernity, and prosperity, and Hebrew which was seen as more biblical and formal. The languages were also gendered with Yiddish being seen as more feminine and Hebrew as masculine. Yiddish was often more spoken, secular, and informal and considered the “mother-tongue”, while Hebrew is more holy, serious, and studied. Yiddish was used across western to eastern Europe and often adapted new words and acted as a middle-ground language where Jews could communicate with non-Jews, but also exclude them for safety or privacy. Germany is important because there was a significant amount of Jews in Rhineland as the original homeland of Yiddish and connected to several other countries as Yiddish has re-established itself as an adaptive language time and time again to this day.

# data[].attributes.body
West Africa was also a place where Sephardic Jews moved to in the 14th-15th century. One of the most primary distinctions in this place is how they viewed race. Although Spain saw racial identity as one’s inheritance and genetics rather than appearance, West African people viewed race in a more fluid way based on who they associate with, which language(s) they speak, or their occupation. It made being mixed-race have a very different meaning than today. Rather than race mainly being by appearance, it was more class and language-based. For example, if someone were ‘Portuguese’, they were most likely a person with European ancestry and were around 2nd-3rd generation in West Africa, or simply being assimilated enough to the environment.

So when it came to Jewish identities, they co-existed as well. Many Jews lived there and connected with other Sephardic Jews in Europe through trading and family networks--or sometimes as enslaved individuals. Most Jews were able to practice Judaism, but mainly for servants or families who were in long-term marriages (or a part of the alliance) were persuaded to convert for safety reasons before the inquisitors could force them to convert.

One very interesting exception in West Africa is Jewish inheritance. Typically, it is passed by the mother, but because more men would travel to and from West Africa to Portugal while mothers stayed in Portugal, Jews altered the law briefly so Judaism could be passed down from the Father.

Overall, similar to Portugal and other countries in the Mediterranean region, West African Sephardic Jews rarely get mentioned when referring to the Jewish diaspora, and the way they viewed and experienced their racial/ethnic identity is re-established here in this important and distinct time period and place.

# data[].attributes.body
In the 15th and 16th centuries, after Jews were kicked out of Spain, they dispersed to many countries surrounding the Mediterranean world. Within the Iberian peninsula, Sephardic Jews settled in Portugal, the Netherlands, West Africa, and the Americas. Jewish people used the family to create and maintain economic and social networks in medieval Europe. They had limited jobs due to their religion and mainly worked as merchants or arbiters. There was some trouble with ketubah because rabbis wanted to follow Jewish wedding traditions but families were weary of the Spanish Inquisition finding them out. Although Jews settled into these other countries away from Spain, there was still some tension and paranoia that the Inquisitors would find them out so they had to try and lay low. Regardless, Jewish families connected with others in different countries and often pushed girls to marry (or at least betroth) when they’re young to establish strong alliances. I wanted to include this place because Sephardic Jews often get ignored although they suffered and dealt with a major threat during the 1400-1500s, while also re-establishing family traditions and alliances which are still fairly followed by Jewish people today.

# data[].attributes.body
Spain is connected to the Sephardic Jewish community in more than the name (with ‘Sephardim’ being the Hebrew word for Spain). After the destruction of the second temple, some Jews were distraught and moved to the Iberian Peninsula located in western Europe. The most infamous Anti-Semitic event that happened was the Spanish Inquisition in 1481. Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism or would be killed. Although many converted, known as New Christians and Judaizers, they were still marked as ‘other’ and subjected to discrimination and persecution until around 1492 when Spain expelled Jews who then fled to Portugal, Western Africa, and the Ottoman empire. Spain is important because it was a notable place where being Jewish was re-invented as an ethnicity or ‘other’ rather than solely a religion and Jews once again gathered and fled during major persecution in their history.

# data[].attributes.body
Babylonia was the first main country where Jews were forced to move to after the destruction of the first temple. When Babylonians took over, many wealthy Jewish people living in Judah and Jerusalem were carried off into captivity (aka the Babylonian exile). When Jews were dispersed to Babylon, around present-day Iraq, they formed their own communities to avoid assimilation and believed they would return and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. This experience was solely documented by educated and wealthy Jews such as in the book of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Ezra in the 5-6th century. They wrote how they were allowed religious autonomy, to serve in the king’s court, and lived a generally comfortable life. However, it wasn’t perfect for everyone. Due to Jews being forced to leave Israel, this even began the idea of “galut” associated with alienation, isolation, and exile. Eventually, most of them returned to Jerusalem although some assimilated to Babylonian life. This is a major turning point because if the majority of Jews, rich and poor, were all forced to live in Babylonia and had a comfortable life it’s more likely that they would’ve completely assimilated and not maintained traditional Judaism for as long as they have. Babylonia was one of the first involuntary migration chapters in the Jewish diaspora and helped to re-establish most Jewish people’s continuous connection to their homeland regardless if some assimilate to new regions.

# data[].attributes.body
Israel has always been the main physical homeland of the Jewish people. From the early days in Canaan (Eretz Israel), the land is located at the west edge of the middle east region. One may ask why Jews have always wanted to settle in Israel; This is because after we escaped Egypt we were promised to return to the land of Israel, also known as Zionism as a spiritual and political movement. Not only is Israel the prominent physical and spiritual homeland for the Jewish people, but Israel has also been the main hotspot connected to practically every other land or country of the Jewish diaspora. There have been many important turning points in Israel: the destruction of the first and second temple, the establishment of synagogues, different experiences of Jewish people under several rulers (and often conflicts with other religious leaders), sages, and rabbis creating Halakhah, and even more. Often Jewish people were discriminated against or persecuted by several empires and countries so they kept migrating and sometimes attempted to blend in with their new environments. Luckily, Israel has always served as a homeland and reached out to Jews from across the world, welcoming them to the seemingly ‘safe space’ for the Jewish people to live and pray in peace (to an extent). Israel has been the cornerstone of Jewish adoption and reinvention that affects every way a Jewish community lives, eats, and prays. Israel, from a Jewish perspective, has been a resilient homeland from having survived wars, battles, exilement, and endless conflicts because the Jewish people have always persevered, adapted, and continuously connected with the Jewish diasporas from around the whole world.