The Jews in Europe - E-book - Multi-format

This deals with the story of Jews in Europe. The fortunes of the Jewish people make, perhaps, the most impressive drama in the history of the world. ... Before the destruction of their capital and national sanctuary, the Jews were the most wide-spread of all peoples, and, when Strabo said that there could not be found one place in the world which did not harbor Jews, he spoke of a world comprising all the lands about the Mediterranean, and extending, in Asia, as far as into the Perso-Parthian Empire.
By reason of transportations en masse, of half free, half-compulsory colonization, of wars, and commerce in slaves, and gradually also because their spirit of enterprise took the direction more and more of commercial pursuits, they had become a diaspora, which, while numerous particularly in the sea-towns, using for the most part the Greek language, and influenced on many sides by Greek culture, still everywhere held firmly together, and preserved its existence as a distinct community...