History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel

The history of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel begins with the Hebrew people (later known as the Israelites) in the 2nd millennium BCE. After emerging from among the Canaanites, the Twelve Tribes of Israel are said to have established the postulated "United Monarchy" that traditionally—but possibly ahistorically—marks the beginning of ancient Israel and Judah. According to Hebrew scripture, the United Monarchy split into two separate kingdoms occupying Canaan's highland zone: the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 722 BCE, resulting in the Ten Lost Tribes and the Assyrian captivity; while Judah was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire around 587 BCE, resulting in the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the Babylonian captivity. By around 538 BCE, Babylon was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire of Cyrus the Great, who emancipated Judah's exiled population and facilitated their construction of the Second Temple inside the new Achaemenid province of Judah.

In 332 BCE the Kingdom of Macedonia under Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire. This event started a long religious struggle that split the Jewish population into traditional and Hellenized components. After the religion-driven Maccabean Revolt, the independent Hasmonean Kingdom was established in 165 BCE. In 64 BCE, the Roman Republic conquered Judea, first subjugating it as a client state before ultimately converting it into a Roman province in 6 CE. Although coming under the sway of various empires and home to a variety of ethnicities, the area of ancient Israel was predominantly Jewish until the Jewish–Roman wars of 66–136 CE. The wars commenced a long period of violence, enslavement, expulsion, displacement, forced conversion, and forced migration against the local Jewish population by the Roman Empire (and successor Byzantine State), beginning the Jewish diaspora.

After this time, Jews became a minority in most regions, except Galilee. After the 3rd century, the area became increasingly Christianized, although the proportions of Christians and Jews are unknown, the former perhaps coming to predominate in urban areas, the latter remaining in rural areas. By the time of the Muslim conquest of the Levant, the number of Jewish population centers had declined from over 160 to around 50 settlements.