[Avodah] ancient western galut

[Eli Turkel]

http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search_eng.pl?mesge1171276403326
88760  on the divide, in the era of the churban, of the jews of the East and
the West. theorizes that the lack of access to Rabbinic halachic judaism led
to the eventual disappearance of Europe's first jews...>>

I find their claim that the visit of various of Taanaim to Rome was
merely political.
In fact it is clear from various gemarot that they had connections with some of
Roamn Jewry. How extensive is hard to tell.

OTOH I have always found it amazing that there is almost no mention in the
gemara about Alexandrian Jewry (minor exceptions like waving the flag in
the shul in Alexandria). It seems quite clear that the ties to Bavel were much
stronger than to Egypt.
One thing I have never understood is the sending of "shlichim" for announcing
Rosh Hashana and even the earlier fires - they all seem to be geared to
Bavel with Alexandria completely ignored

-- 
Eli Turkel