Hebron is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies 930 metres (3,050 ft) above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank, and the third-largest in the Palestinian territories, it had a population of 201,063 Palestinians in 2017, and seven hundred Jewish settlers concentrated on the outskirts of its Old City. It includes the Cave of the Patriarchs, which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions all designate as the burial site of three key patriarchal/matriarchal couples. The city is often considered one of the four holy cities in Judaism as well as in Islam.
The Cave of the Patriarchs or Tomb of the Patriarchs, known to Jews by its Biblical name Cave of Machpelah and to Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham, is a series of caves situated 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jerusalem in the heart of the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank. According to the Abrahamic religions, the cave and adjoining field were purchased by Abraham as a burial plot, although most historians believe the Abraham-Isaac-Jacob narrative to be primarily mythological. The site is considered a holy place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Tiberias is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed. In 2022, it had a population of 48,472.
This is a list of notable events in the development of Jewish history. All dates are given according to the Common Era, not the Hebrew calendar.
The Holy Land is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. Today, the term "Holy Land" usually refers to a territory roughly corresponding to the modern states of Israel and Palestine. Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Bahá'ís regard it as holy.
The Sanhedrin was a legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 71 elders, existing at both a local and central level in the ancient Land of Israel.
The city of Jerusalem is sacred to many religious traditions, including the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam which consider it a holy city. Some of the most sacred places for each of these religions are found in Jerusalem, most prominently, the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif.
Palestinian Jews or Jewish Palestinians were the Jewish inhabitants of the Palestine region prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
The halukka, also spelled haluka, halukkah or chalukah was an organized collection and distribution of charity funds for Jewish residents of the Land of Israel.
The perushim were Jewish disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, who left Lithuania at the beginning of the 19th century to settle in the Land of Israel, which was then part of Ottoman Syria. They were from the section of the community known as misnagdim in Lithuania.
Modern attempts to revive the Sanhedrin are the efforts from 1538 until the present day to renew the Sanhedrin, which was the high court and legislative authority for Jews in ancient times. The Sanhedrin was originally dissolved in 358 by the edict of the Roman emperor Constantius II.
Judah he-Hasid Segal ha-Levi was a Jewish preacher who led the largest organized group of Jewish immigrants to the Land of Israel in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The history of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel begins in the 2nd millennium BCE, when Israelites emerged as an outgrowth of southern Canaanites. During biblical times, a postulated United Kingdom of Israel existed but then split into two Israelite kingdoms occupying the highland zone: the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Judah by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Initially exiled to Babylon, upon the defeat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great, many of the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem, building the Second Temple.
Since the 10th century BCE, Jerusalem has been the holiest city, focus and spiritual center of the Jews. Jerusalem has long been embedded into Jewish religious consciousness and Jews have always studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his desire to build the Holy Temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Many of King David's yearnings about Jerusalem have been adapted into popular prayers and songs. Jews believe that in the future the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem will become the center of worship and instruction for all mankind and consequently Jerusalem will become the spiritual center of the world.
Hastening Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel is a history of nineteenth century Jewish immigration to Palestine published in 1985 by Israeli historian Arie Morgenstern. Publication of the book led to a scholarly reconsideration of the followers of the Vilna Gaon, who were not previously thought of as messianic in outlook. According to Morgenstern, the messianic impulse that motivated Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and the belief in the centrality of Eretz Yisrael were critical components in Jewish spiritual life that predated the Zionist era. He bases his findings on documentation made available by the opening of archives in the former Soviet Union and archival discoveries in Western and Central Europe.
The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. In the late 19th century, the Old Yishuv comprised 0.3% of the world's Jews, representing 2–5% of the population of the Palestine region.
The history of Palestinian rabbis encompasses the Israelites from the Anshi Knesses HaGedola period up until modern times, but most significantly refers to the early Jewish sages who dwelled in the Holy Land and compiled the Mishna and its later commentary, the Jerusalem Talmud. During the Talmudic and later Geonim period, Palestinian rabbis exerted influence over Syria and Egypt, whilst the authorities in Babylonia had held sway over the Jews of Iraq and Iran. While the Jerusalem Talmud was not to become authoritative against the Babylonian Talmud, the liturgy developed by Palestinian rabbis was later destined to form the foundation of the minhag Ashkenaz that was used by nearly all Ashkenazi communities across Europe before Hasidic Judaism.
The history of the Jews in Hebron refers to the residence of Jews in Hebron almost continuously, from Biblical times until today. According to the Bible, Abraham settled in Hebron and purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs as a burial place for his wife Sarah. The biblical tradition asserts that the cave is the final resting site for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives—Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. Hebron is also mentioned as David's first capital, where he was anointed king of Israel. Archaeological findings from Hezekiah's time indicate Hebron's importance in the Kingdom of Judah. During the Second Temple period, Hebron, initially Edomite, underwent a significant shift as its population embraced Judaism under Hasmonean rule. The city was destroyed during the Jewish–Roman wars.
