The destruction of Second Temple was done by the Roman army under Vespasian, after a failed Jewish Uprising against their Roman conquerors.
Alexander the Great arrived in Israel after his conquest of Persia. Thanks to the teachings of Aristotle Alexander was favorably disposed towards the Jewish people and treated them justly. He allowed them to remain autonomous as a people until his death in 323 BC. The successive rulers attempted to exercise greater control over the region, leading some Jews to migrate to Europe.
Persian king Cyrus the Great granted permission to the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of their city. In celebration the Jewish people rebuilt the temple.
The First Temple was totally destroyed by the Babylonians when they sacked the city of Jerusalem.
Charlemagne was the first recognised emperor in Western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. He adopted a moderate policy towards the Jews, having several in his court, including his physician, and allowed them general commercial freedom. However, they were barred in several areas legally with statuettes preventing them from such things as engaging christian workmen on Sundays, requiring more Jewish witnesses as opposed to Christians, and barred from marrying Christians until dowry was provided.
Kingdom of Judah emerged from the split of the Kingdom of Israel into the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, with their capital of Jerusalem. The split was caused by the northern tribes' rejection of King Solomon's son Rehoboam as their king. Judah was composed of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah.
The First Crusade began in 1095, when armies of Christians from Western Europe responded to Pope Urban II’s plea to go to war against Muslim forces and regain control of the Holy Land. The Pope's call to arm was in response to Byzantine Emperor Alexius I's request for troops to aid them in their ongoing war with the Seljuk Turks. Four armies of Crusaders were formed made up of Christians from different parts of Western European, led by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Godfrey of Bouillon, Hugh of Vermandois and Bohemond of Taranto (with his nephew Tancred). Another group of Crusaders, led by the notorious Count Emicho, carried out a series of massacres of Jews in various towns in the Rhineland in 1096, drawing widespread outrage and causing a major crisis in Jewish-Christian relations. The Four main arimes arrived in Constantinople lin early 1097, and in May the Crusaders and their Byzantine allies attacked Nicea (now Iznik, Turkey), the Seljuk capital in Anatolia; the city surrendered in late June. Despite deteriorating relations between the Crusaders and Byzantine leaders, the combined force continued its march through Anatolia, capturing the great Syrian city of Antioch in June 1098. The Crusaders then marched on to Jerusalem in June of 1099, after an extended siege the city surrendered to the Crusaders in mid-July.
Moses Maimonides was a preeminent medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher and astronomer and became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages.
“blood libel” was a false charge that Jews murder Christians (especially Christian children) to use their blood in their ceremonies, such as an ingredient in the baking of Passover matzah (unleavened bread). The first recorded accusation occurred In England in 1144, when the Jews of Norwich were accused of ritual murder after a boy, William of Norwich, was found dead from stab wounds in the woods.
