How Did Judaism Spread Around the World?
The Jewish ideology spread along with the physical scattering of Jewish people due to several instances of historical exile, including a diaspora, or scattering, at the hands of the Romans in 70 C.E. and a conflict with Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. In addition to the physical spread of the Jewish worldview along with the physical scattering of Jewish people at various points throughout history, Judaism has spread through proselytizing, or the preaching of one’s religion with the aim of conversion. However, while proselytizing is not outright banned by the Jewish faith, historical hostility and intolerance of Jewish people by dominant religions has led to a lack of emphasis on this practice compared to some other religions.
Though historical record indicates that Jewish people were once a unified community of people living in the Fertile Crescent in an area referred to as Canaan, by 597 B.C.E., there were distinct and separate groups of Jewish people living in Babylon, Judea and Egypt. This separation into recognizable and distinct communities is recognized as the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora, the dispersal or scattering of Jewish people, who largely brought their religious and cultural ideology with them, into separate communities in different parts of the world.
