Old Yishuv - Background

Background

Jewish communities of southern Levant under Byzantine rule fell into a final decline by the mid 7th century. With the Jewish revolt against Heraclius, the Jewish population had recently seen a decline in their numbers. The Jewish communities of southern Bilad al-Sham (Eretz Yisrael), living under Muslim protection status, were dispersed among the key cities of the military districts of Jund Filastin and Jund al-Urdunn, with numerous poor Jewish villages existing in the Galilee and Judea.

The Crusader period marked the most serious decline, lasting through the 12th century. Maimonides traveled from Spain to Morocco and Egypt, and stayed in the Holy Land, probably sometime between 1165-1167, before settling in Egypt. He had then become a personal physician of Saladin, escorting him throughout his war campaigns against the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Following the Crusaders' defeat and the conquest of Jerusalem, he urged Saladin to allow the resettlement of the Jews in the city, and several hundred of the long-existing Jewish community of Ashkelon resettled Jerusalem. Small Jewish communities were also existent at the time in Gaza and in desolate villages throughout upper and lower Galilee.

The immigration of a group of 300 Jews headed by the Tosafists from England and France in 1211 struggled very hard upon arrival in Eretz Israel, as they had no financial support and no prospect of making a living. The vast majority of the settlers were wiped out by the Crusaders, who arrived in 1219, and the few survivors were allowed to live only in Acre. Their descendants blended with the original Jewish residents, called Mustarabim or Maghrebim, but more precisely Mashriqes (Murishkes).

The Mamluk period saw an increase in the Jewish population, especially in the Galilee, but the black death epidemics had cut the country's demographics by at least one third. In 1260, Rabbi Yechiel of Paris arrived in Eretz Israel, at the time part of Mamluk Empire, along with his son and a large group of followers, settling in Acre. There he established the Talmudic academy Midrash haGadol d'Paris. He is believed to have died there between 1265 and 1268, and is buried near Haifa, at Mount Carmel. Nahmanides arrived in 1267 and settled in Acre as well.

In 1488, when Rabbi Ovadiya from Bertinoro arrived in Mamluk domain of Syria and sent back letters regularly to his father in Italy, many in the diaspora came to regard living in Mamluk Syria as feasible.