REVIEW: The Creation of Diaspora

In reviewing Malka Z. Simkovich’s Letters from Home: The Creation of Diaspora in Jewish Antiquity (Eisenbrauns), Lawrence H. Schiffman observes that the author studies the relationship of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael to those who lived in the Hellenistic Diaspora, using the Jews of Egypt as a prime example. Along the way, Simkovich explains the origin and early history of the term Diaspora, and the review explains that she has uncovered a dialogue between the Jews of Eretz Yisrael and the Egyptian Jewish community. She shows that documents sent from Jerusalem to the Jews in Alexandria assumed Judean leadership and emphasized the centrality of Jerusalem to Jewish life. In contrast, works that stemmed from Alexandria portrayed religious life in Egypt as equally valid as that in Eretz Yisrael, sustained by Torah study and Jewish ritual. The reviewer shows that this very debate has been replicated in modern times with the rise of the State of Israel, so that Simkovich’s volume demonstrates that issues of the Second Temple period still resonate today.

Lawrence H. Schiffman is Global Distinguished Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University.

 Read the review from TRADITION (Summer 2025), now open access.