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JewishHistoryעברית

Ban on Jews entering Jerusalem

Date
135 CE
Location
Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina)Israel
Then part of
Roman province of Judaea
Perpetrators
  • Roman imperial government of Hadrian (State)
Killed (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Expelled (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Category
Expulsion, Persecution
Confidence
DisputedEusebius, as given by Livius, bars the whole nation from the district around Jerusalem, including a view of it from a distance, after Bethar in the eighteenth year of Hadrian. Livius's introduction dates the revolt to 132-135. The Jewish Encyclopedia dates the suppression to 134 and describes a prohibition on entering the city. Citing the Bordeaux Pilgrim (333), Jerome, and rabbinic texts, it states that a yearly visit was later allowed.

Summary

Livius dates Bar Kokhba's leadership to 132-135. Eusebius, in the translation on that page, places the height of the war at Bethar in the eighteenth year of Hadrian, and states that Hadrian then decreed that the whole Jewish nation was barred from the district around Jerusalem and might not look on its ancestral land from a distance; the city was settled by others and renamed Aelia Capitolina. The Jewish Encyclopedia dates the suppression to 134 and states that Jews were prohibited from entering the city, a decree of Hadrian still cited as in force in the time of Eusebius (312). It adds that the edict was not strictly kept: the Bordeaux Pilgrim in 333 says Jews were allowed a yearly visit to the pierced stone, which they anointed and where they mourned, a practice Jerome and rabbinic writings also record.

Sources

  1. Eusebius of Caesarea (translation by K. Lake), Eusebius on Bar Kochba. Livius.org
  2. Jerusalem. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 3,800,000 – 4,000,000[7]c. 100 CEBotticini and Eckstein Table 3 (ca. 100 C.E.) put world Jewry at about 3.8–4 million, after about 4.5–5 million around 65 C.E.
  • Roman province of Judaea: 600,000 – 2,500,000[4]c. 70 CEDellaPergola concurs with 600,000–1 million in the Land of Israel (Avi-Yonah, Albright, Broshi). Higher figures put roughly half of a 4–6 million Mediterranean total in the land; Botticini and Eckstein tabulate 2.5 million in Palestine circa 65 CE.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
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  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
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  29. Robin R. Mundill, The Jews under Edward I (PhD thesis). University of St Andrews
  30. Stéphane Mechoulan, The Expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306: a modern fiscal analysis. University of Toronto Department of Economics working paper (2004)
  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
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  43. Bulgaria. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  47. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  52. German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939–1945. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
  60. Leon Shapiro, World Jewish Population. American Jewish Year Book 1981 (estimates for 1979), via Berman Jewish DataBank (1981)
  61. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2020. American Jewish Year Book 2020, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2022)
  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
  65. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the Uzbek SSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)