DIASPORA

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καὶ διασπερῶ ὑμᾶς εἰς τὰ ἔθνη καὶ ἐξαναλώσει ὑμᾶς ἐπιπορευομένη ἡ μάχαιρα

καὶ ἔσται ἡ γῆ ὑμῶν ἔρημος καὶ αἱ πόλεις ὑμῶν ἔσονται ἔρημοι

καὶ διασπερεῖ κύριος ὑμᾶς ἐν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν καὶ καταλειφθήσεσθε

ὀλίγοι ἀριθμῷ ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν εἰς οὓς εἰσάξει κύριος ὑμᾶς ἐκεῖ

καὶ διασπερεῖ σε κύριος ὁ θεός σου εἰς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἀπ᾽ ἄκρου τῆς γῆς

ἕως ἄκρου τῆς γῆς καὶ δουλεύσεις ἐκεῖ θεοῖς ἑτέροις ξύλοις καὶ λίθοις οὓς οὐκ ἠπίστω σὺ

καὶ οἱ πατέρες σου

οἰκοδομῶν Ιερουσαλημ ὁ κύριος καὶ τὰς διασπορὰς τοῦ Ισραηλ ἐπισυνάξει

For Concordance of the use of Diaspora in the Septuagint see Strongs Concordance here.

τρεῖς οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Νωε ἀπὸ τούτων διεσπάρησαν ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν

αὗται αἱ φυλαὶ υἱῶν Νωε κατὰ γενέσεις αὐτῶν κατὰ τὰ ἔθνη αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τούτων

διεσπάρησαν νῆσοι τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς μετὰ τὸν κατακλυσμόν

πρὸ τοῦ διασπαρῆναι ἐπὶ προσώπου πάσης τῆς γῆς

καὶ διέσπειρεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ἐκεῖθεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ

ἐπαύσαντο οἰκοδομοῦντες τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸν πύργον

διὰ τοῦτο ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτῆς Σύγχυσις ὅτι ἐκεῖ συνέχεεν κύριος τὰ χείλη πάσης τῆς γῆς

καὶ ἐκεῖθεν διέσπειρεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς

ἐπικατάρατος ὁ θυμὸς αὐτῶν ὅτι αὐθάδης καὶ ἡ μῆνις αὐτῶν ὅτι ἐσκληρύνθη

διαμεριῶ αὐτοὺς ἐν Ιακωβ καὶ διασπερῶ αὐτοὺς ἐν Ισραηλ

The term "diaspora" is derived from the Greek verb διασπείρω (diaspeirō), "I scatter", "I spread about" which in turn is composed of διά (dia), "between, through, across" and the verb σπείρω (speirō), "I sow, I scatter". The term διασπορά (diaspora) hence meant "scattering".

The first recorded use of the word "diaspora" is found in the Septuagint,

The term became more widely assimilated into English by the mid 1950s, with long-term expatriates in significant numbers from other particular countries or regions also being referred to as a diaspora. An academic field, diaspora studies, has become established relating to this sense of the word.

William Safran in an article published in 1991, set out six rules to distinguish diasporas from migrant communities. These included criteria that the group maintains a myth or collective memory of their homeland; they regard their ancestral homeland as their true home, to which they will eventually return; being committed to the restoration or maintenance of that homeland, and they relate "personally or vicariously" to the homeland to a point where it shapes their identity. Safran's definitions were influenced by the idea of the Jewish diaspora. Safran also included a criterion of having been forced into exile by political or economic factors, followed by a long period of settlement in the new host culture. In 1997, Robin Cohen argued that a diasporic group could leave its homeland voluntarily, and assimilate deeply into host cultures.

Notable diasporic populations include the Jewish diaspora formed after the Babylonian exile;^[8] Assyrian–Chaldean–Syriac diaspora following the Assyrian genocide;^[9][10] Greeks that fled or were displaced following the fall of Constantinople^[11] and the later Greek genocide^[12] as well as the Istanbul pogroms;^[13] the emigration of Anglo-Saxons (primarily to the Byzantine Empire) after the Norman Conquest of England;^[14] the southern Chinese and Indians who left their homelands during the 19th and 20th centuries;^[15] the Irish diaspora after the Great Famine;^[16] the Scottish diaspora that developed on a large scale after the Highland and Lowland Clearances;^[17] Romani from the Indian subcontinent;^[18] the Italian diaspora and the Mexican diaspora; Circassians in the aftermath of the Circassian genocide; the Palestinian diaspora due to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict;^[19] the Armenian diaspora following the Armenian genocide;^[20][21] the Lebanese diaspora due to the Lebanese civil war;^[22] and Syrians due to the Syrian civil war;^[23] The Iranian diaspora, which grew from half a million to 3.8 million between the 1979 revolution and 2019, mostly live in United States, Canada and Turkey.^[24]

According to a 2019 United Nations report, the Indian diaspora is the world's largest diaspora, with a population of 17.5 million, followed by the Mexican diaspora, with a population of 11.8 million, and the Chinese diaspora, with a population of 10.7 million.^[25]

^{See: Wikipedia Diaspora}

The most important of such themes, the kernels of which could be discerned to some extent during the Second Temple period and became more fully articulated and incorporated into the Jewish tradition, were the metaphysical and ideological evaluation of Eretz Israel, the ideology of galut and Eretz Israel, the fuller articulation of messianic visions, and of the solidarity of the Jewish people.

Dispersion was not unique to the Jews - many peoples in antiquity and later on experienced it - although its scope and continuity probably were. What was unique was the tendency to conflate dispersion with Exile, and to endow the combined experience of dispersion and Exile with a strong metaphysical and religious negative evaluation of galut. Explaining the fact of galut became a major concern of many, if not most, Jewish philosophers and scholars, and a central concern of Jewish religious discourse. In most cases galut was seen as basically negative, explained in terms of sin and punishment. Life in galut was defined as a partial, suspended existence, but at the same time it had to be nurtured in order to guarantee the survival of the Jewish people until the Redemption.

This negative evaluation of galut focused on two closely connected but sometimes antithetical themes: the lack of political sovereignty (shi’abud malkhuyot), and the partial and distorted spiritual or religious existence that was seen as the negative metaphysical evaluation of galut. These two themes were often combined, but different scholars or groups emphasized them in different degrees.

The political and the metaphysical or redemptive themes were also central in the attitude toward Eretz Israel and in the articulation of messianic visions. The growing metaphysical relationship to Eretz Israel, in a sense, was the counterpoint to that toward galut, often enunciated by the same thinkers, but with some difference. Eretz Israel was defined in both primordial and political terms - possibly more than it was so conceived in the period of the Second Temple; but - and this constituted a great innovation, even if built on earlier foundations there was also a growing metaphysical relationship to it.

These attitudes toward galut and Eretz Israel converged around the third theme, which in a sense subsumed them: the messianic and eschatological one. Rooted in the early Second Temple period, possi- bly even in the period of Babylonian exile, it found expression in the various sects of the Second Temple period as well as in Christianity. The proper interpretation of the Messiah who would come at the end of Time became the central focus of controversy between Judaism and Christianity. The salience of this point was intensified by the loss of political independence, dispersion and expulsion, and the contours of the messianic vision became much more elaborated around the basic motifs of political and religious redemption.

See:

Jizchak Fritz Baer, Galut (Berlin, 1936); (New York, 1947). See also the new French edition, Paris 2000, with a critical introduction byJ.H. Yerushalmi.

Haim Hillel Ben Sasson, "Galut be Israel" [Diaspora in Israel], in Rezef u-Temu- rah [Continuity and Change], op. cit.; Moshe Hallamish and Aviezer Ravitzky (eds.), Eretz Israel Behagut ha-lehudit Bimei ha-Benaim [The Land of Israel in Medieval Jewish Thought] Jerusalem, 1991); Eliezer Schweid, Moledet Ve-eretz leuda (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1979) [Motherland and Land of Destiny].

Israel J. Yuval, "HaNekam vehaKlala, haDam vehaAlila MeAlilot Kdoshim leAlilot Dam" (Hebrew), Zion 58 (1993), pp. 33-99 [Vengeance and the Curse, Blood and Libel From Martyrology to Blood Libels]; see also the various articles in Zion 59 (1994), N. 2-3, which take up critically various aspects of Yuval’s thesis.

See: Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt Explorations in Jewish Historical Experience: The Civilizational Dimension, BRILL, 2004 pp.60-61

It is only by keeping their ties to the Diaspora that the Zionists will be forced to keep their eyes on the goal, which [is] to remain nomads, even over there’ (Rosenzweig in Mosès, 1997, page 207)

The Jewish state and the diaspora - Pew Research Center - REPORT MARCH 8, 2016

ISRAEL’S RELIGIOUSLY DIVIDED SOCIETY

Jews were asked, in two separate questions, whether a Jewish state and a thriving Jewish diaspora are each necessary for the long-term survival of the Jewish people. Although more say a Jewish state is necessary (91%), a solid majority (69%) also say a strong Jewish diaspora is vital to the long-term survival of Jews.

Haredim are less likely than other Jews to say a Jewish state is necessary for the long-term survival of the Jewish people, perhaps in part because of some Haredi Jews’ opposition to the formal creation of a Jewish state before the arrival of the Messiah. Nevertheless, about two-thirds of Haredim (65%) say a Jewish state is necessary.

Yiddish-speaking Jews, however, stand out on this question. Only 29% of the Yiddish-speaking Israeli Jews surveyed – all of whom are Haredi – say a Jewish state is necessary for the long-term survival of Jews. Far more (64%) say a thriving Jewish diaspora is necessary.

Overall, Haredim are closer to other Jewish subgroups on the question of whether a thriving diaspora is necessary for the long-term survival of the Jewish people. Majorities across the religious spectrum say it is necessary.

If we investigate ancient Jewish times and perhaps even its earliest history we shall discover these two tendencies-on the one hand the desire to expand from the center and, on the other, to contract toward it and cleave to it. No nation strives to be swallowed up in other groups as much as the Jews and, at the same time, to remain an entity-an entity whose least particle is still recognizably Jewish: a nation which builds a ghetto for itself in its place of dispersion and adjusts its life to an alien environment and, in a time of national emergency, permits itself to be killed over a minuscule change in its religion; a group which adapts itself to the ways of life of a whole world but nevertheless remains "a people dwelling apart, not reckoned among nations." These things are well known..

After wandering for thousands of years and after endless changes and re-evaluations .. after influencing the whole world and being influenced by it, we are now, for the third or fourth time, once again returning to our land.

And here we are destined to fashion a culture sevenfold greater and richer than any we have heretofore created or absorbed. And who knows! Perhaps after hundreds of years we will be emboldened to make another exodus which will lead to the spreading of our spirit over the world and an assiduous striving toward glory.

Jewish Dualism in Revealment And Concealment : Five Essays Paperback – January 20, 2000 by Haim Bialik