On Sat, 20 Nov 1999, alessandro coricelli wrote:
> Another piece of information is that around 70 a.d.(still during the
> "imperial era", or before the "christian era" of it) the jews of the
> diaspora already outnumbered the ones living in Israel (geographically
> intended). We're talking about "numbers" in the millions (5 m to be
> precise, at the time). I find this very unique. Don't you ?
How so? The Hebrews were not the first, and certainly not the last, small people to be conquered and partially assimilated by an empire. And the result, that the resulting "nation" has a defining tension between its diaspora and its homeland, is the standard result of the break-up of empires. Every state in central Europe and the causacus has such a defining tension, in large part as a result of the relatively recent break-up of the Romanov and Ottoman empires.
The Jews might be unique in the length of time that they've maintained their national identiy in a diaspora. But that's mainly a function of starting first. The Kurds haven't done badly.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com