[Avodah] Longevity of Minhag haMakom

[Ben Bradley]

Rabbi wrote:
'When was there no Jewish community in Israel? I was under the impression
that while the Sanhedrin ceased, and Yeshivas presumably ceased, there
was always a Jewish community there. Especially by the early Gaonim,
Israel was no longer under Roman rule anyways.'

Agreed. Yerushalayim didn't have continuity as we know via the Ramban finding less than a minyan there when he arrived, but Chevron AFAIK had continuity from Chazal to 1929. I think Teverya  did too.  The museum of the old yishuv in the Old City refers to the 'mustarvim' as one of the communities in 19th century Jlem, those who were culturally pretty Arab and claimed descent from the pre-crusades community.
For more info this wikipaedia page: History_of_the_Jews_and_Judaism_in_the_Land_of_Israel  is well footnoted.
So if there's well documented continuous Jewish presence and even communities in EY throughout, how did the SA set minhagim in EY such that  ROY held they were obligatory on new arrivals? What happened to pre-existing customs?
Or is it that the disruption and wax and wane of communities over EY with continuous small scale aliya meant there was no such such thing as minhag hamakom?

Further question: minhag hamakom seems to be a function of cities not countries. Yet recent poskim, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi, seem to assume such thing as 'minhag EY'. When was such a concept first discussed?

Ben




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