[Avodah] babylonian Jewry and Chanukah

[Eli Turkel]

>There was a large Jewish population living in Babylonia during the
 >time that the events of Chanukah played out. Yet, I have never seen
 >any mention of the Jews living in Bavel coming to the assistance of
 >the Jews in EY during their struggle with the Syrian-Greeks. Why is
 >this? Surely at least some of the news of what was transpiring in EY
 >must have reached the Jews in Bavel.  Why didn't they either come to
 >help or at least send assistance?

A similar question occurs at the time of the Churban. I am not aware of
any help from either Babylonia or Alexandria. It gets even worse with
the Bar Kochba revolt. A short time earlier there where riots in Alexandria
and much of the Jewish community there was destroyed.
(The Jewish community of Alexandria was virtually wiped out by Trajan's 's
army
 during a revolt in 115-117 CE., and Josephus
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Egypt#cite_note-11>puts
the figure for those
 slaughtered in the vast pogrom at 50,000.- Wikipedia)
Had there been any cooperation between the Alexandrian Jews and the Bar
Kochba
group the two revolts could have been combined greatly raising the chances
of victory
for both communities. There was 15 years between the two revolts and hard to
believe
that things were all quiet in EY during the riots in Alexandria.

-- 
Eli Turkel
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