One of the most powerful myths in political and historical discourse today is the notion that the Jewish people disappeared from the Land of Israel after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and that their modern return represents a purely “modern” colonization rather than a continuation of ancient heritage.

This claim, however, has no basis in fact.

Historical records, archaeological discoveries, and continuous community traditions prove that Jews never ceased to live in the Land of Israel, including its holiest cities—Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias. While periods of exile, persecution, and dispersion certainly weakened the Jewish population, there was never a time—over more than 3,000 years—when Jews were completely absent from the land that the Bible calls Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel).

This enduring presence forms not just a matter of faith but of documented history, supported by ancient sources, medieval travelers, and modern archaeology.

To understand this continuity, we must trace the Jewish presence from biblical antiquity through Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, Ottoman, and modern periods.

I. The Ancient Foundations of Jewish Presence

1. Biblical and Historical Roots

From Abraham’s covenant (Genesis 15:18–21) through the reigns of Kings David and Solomon, the Jewish identity has been inseparable from the Land of Israel. The Kingdom of Israel (Northern Kingdom) and the Kingdom of Judah (Southern Kingdom) both had their centers in this land—Samaria and Jerusalem respectively.

Even after the Babylonian conquest in 586 BCE, when the First Temple was destroyed and much of the population was exiled, many Jews remained behind in the land. The Book of Jeremiah (40:6–10) and later archaeological findings at Mizpah and Lachish confirm that a remnant Jewish population continued to live and worship there.

After the Persian conquest of Babylon (539 BCE), Jews returned under Zerubbabel and Ezra, rebuilding the Temple and reestablishing Jewish self-rule in what became known as the Second Temple period (516 BCE–70 CE). By the time of Jesus, the Jewish population numbered hundreds of thousands, spread across Jerusalem, Galilee, Judea, and Samaria.

2. Roman Conquest and the Jewish Revolts

The Roman conquest (63 BCE) eventually led to Jewish revolts, culminating in the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE). After these uprisings, the Romans renamed Judea “Syria Palaestina” in an attempt to erase the Jewish identity of the land. Jerusalem was refounded as a pagan city named Aelia Capitolina.

Yet even then, the Jewish presence did not vanish.

• Jewish farmers and communities remained in Galilee, the coastal plain, and the Judean hills.

• Archaeological finds—synagogues at Capernaum, Beit Alfa, and Bar’am—show thriving Jewish life from the 3rd–6th centuries CE.

• The Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud, compiled between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, were produced in the Land of Israel—especially in Tiberias and Sepphoris.

Thus, far from being an empty land, Israel remained a center of Jewish religious and cultural scholarship even under Roman and Byzantine rule.

II. The Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods (4th–11th Centuries)

During the Byzantine period (324–638 CE), the Roman Empire’s Christianization led to restrictions on Jewish worship, including bans on entering Jerusalem except during specific holy days. Yet Jews still lived across the land. Records from church fathers and Christian pilgrims mention Jewish villages in Galilee, the Negev, and near Hebron.

When Muslim Arab armies conquered the region in 638 CE, the Jewish population actually grew. The new rulers, under the Caliph Umar, allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem for the first time in centuries. Jewish scholars settled in Tiberias and Ramla, and by the 10th century, the Karaite Jewish movement was flourishing in Jerusalem. Documents from the Cairo Geniza (a treasure trove of medieval Jewish manuscripts) describe active Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Gaza during the early Islamic caliphates.

The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela (12th century) records Jewish communities numbering several hundred in Jerusalem, hundreds in Hebron, and thousands across Galilee and the coastal towns. His accounts, confirmed by Islamic and Christian sources, dispel the myth of total absence.

III. The Crusader and Mamluk Periods (11th–15th Centuries)

The Crusader conquest (1099 CE) brought immense suffering to Jews and Muslims alike. During the Crusaders’ capture of Jerusalem, the Jewish quarter was destroyed, and many Jews were massacred or sold into slavery. However, even this catastrophe did not erase the Jewish presence from the land.

• Small Jewish communities persisted in Ashkelon, Tiberias, and Acco (Acre).

• When Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187, Jews were permitted to resettle there.

• By the 13th and 14th centuries, letters and accounts by Jewish travelers—like Rabbi Isaac Chelo and Rabbi Estori Ha-Parchi—mention functioning synagogues in Jerusalem and Hebron.

During the Mamluk rule (1260–1517), Jewish life stabilized further. Despite heavy taxation and social restrictions, communities continued in Jerusalem, Hebron, Gaza, Safed, and Tiberias.

IV. The Ottoman Era (1517–1917): Renewal and Growth

The Ottoman conquest (1517) under Sultan Selim I ushered in an era of Jewish revival. The 16th century, under the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent, was particularly significant:

• The walls of Jerusalem’s Old City were rebuilt.

• Safed became a global center of Jewish mysticism and scholarship, home to Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari) and Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch.

• Hebron and Tiberias had growing Jewish populations, including Sephardi Jews who had fled the Spanish expulsion of 1492.

Throughout the 17th–19th centuries, the Jewish presence waxed and waned due to economic hardship, earthquakes, and political instability. Yet it never ceased:

• Jewish pilgrims continued to settle in Jerusalem and Hebron.

• European Jews—especially from Poland and Yemen—arrived in waves, motivated by faith and messianic hope.

• British, French, and Ottoman records describe functioning Jewish quarters, synagogues, and communities in all four “holy cities of Israel”: Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed.

By the 19th century, Jews constituted a majority of Jerusalem’s population. The 1844 Ottoman census recorded approximately 7,000 Jews out of 15,000 residents; by 1876, Jews made up nearly half the city, and by 1896 they were the clear majority.

V. The Modern Era and British Mandate (1917–1948)

When the British captured Jerusalem in 1917, they found a thriving Jewish community. The Balfour Declaration that same year and the subsequent League of Nations Mandate (1922) legally recognized the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land.

During the British Mandate, Jewish communities flourished not only in the new agricultural settlements but also in ancient cities:

• Jerusalem: Jewish neighborhoods expanded beyond the Old City walls.

• Hebron: Jews lived there continuously until the 1929 Hebron massacre, when Arab rioters killed 67 Jews and expelled the survivors. Still, a small number later returned.

• Safed and Tiberias: Continued to be important religious centers.

By 1948, on the eve of Israel’s independence, there were thriving Jewish populations throughout the land—descendants of centuries-old communities and immigrants united by faith and heritage.

VI. Post-1948 to the Present: Restoration and Return

During Israel’s War of Independence (1948), Jewish communities in Jerusalem’s Old City and Hebron were attacked or expelled by Arab forces. For 19 years (1948–1967), Jordanian authorities banned Jews from the Old City, destroyed synagogues, and desecrated cemeteries. Yet even then, Jews lived in the western part of Jerusalem and in other regions of Israel.

When Israel reunified Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews returned to their ancient quarters, restored synagogues, and resumed prayers at the Western Wall—the last remnant of the Second Temple.

In Hebron, a small Jewish community was reestablished in 1968, reviving an ancient presence stretching back to Abraham’s time. Today, Jews live and worship once again near the Cave of the Patriarchs (Ma’arat HaMachpelah), the burial site of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives.

From north to south—from Tiberias to Beersheba, Hebron to Jerusalem—Jewish life thrives again where it never truly ceased. The modern State of Israel is not a new creation on empty soil; it is the rebirth of an ancient nation in its eternal home.

VII. Archaeological and Historical Evidence of Continuous Presence

Archaeology further corroborates this unbroken continuity:

• Hebron: Ancient mikvaot (ritual baths), pottery, and tomb inscriptions reveal Jewish habitation through the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic eras.

• Jerusalem: Layers of Jewish occupation span every historical period—from the First Temple to modern times.

• Galilee: Synagogue ruins from Beit Alfa, Hamat Tiberias, and Katzrin bear Hebrew inscriptions dated between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE.

• Coins and seals inscribed with Hebrew script—“For the freedom of Zion,” “Year Two of the Redemption of Israel”—testify to a continuous national consciousness, not a forgotten exile.

These findings echo the testimony of travelers like Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi Ovadiah of Bertinoro, and Christian pilgrims, who consistently recorded Jewish inhabitants in the Holy Land.

VIII. The Spiritual Dimension: Continuity in Prayer and Hope

Even during times when the population dwindled, Jewish spiritual connection to the land never waned. Daily prayers, the Passover Seder, and the Yom Kippur liturgy all contain the plea: “Next year in Jerusalem.”

This prayer was not poetic nostalgia—it was a declaration of faith in return. It kept the Land of Israel at the heart of Jewish identity, ensuring that each generation remembered its covenantal home. When Jews finally began returning in large numbers in the 19th and 20th centuries, they were fulfilling—not inventing—history.

Conclusion

Throughout more than three millennia of recorded history, there has never been a time when Jews were completely absent from the Land of Israel. From biblical times through Roman oppression, Byzantine persecution, Islamic tolerance, Crusader devastation, Ottoman revival, and British Mandate reorganization, a remnant always remained—tilling the soil, studying Torah, or guarding holy sites.

Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed—the four eternal cities—stand as living witnesses to this unbroken continuity. Archaeology confirms it, history records it, and faith has preserved it.

Thus, when Jews returned in modern times, they were not “colonizing” a foreign land—they were coming home to the only homeland they had ever known, reuniting with their ancestral soil after centuries of dispersion.

The story of the Jewish people and the Land of Israel is not one of disappearance and return—it is one of endurance, faith, and eternal presence, fulfilling the ancient words of the Prophet Amos:

“I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God.” (Amos 9:15)