The Bar Kokhba Revolt

Just when you think it’s over . . .

How many times have the Jewish people thought that? This is it. We can’t survive this… Yet from the ashes, a small flame still burns.

After the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Jewish people must have thought it was over. Their city was leveled, families scattered.  But not everyone.

After the destruction of Jerusalem, Jewish life continued in parts of the land. Several decades later, aspirations to restore independence took shape. Under the leadership of Simon Bar Kokhba, a large-scale revolt was launched against the Roman Empire.

For three brief years, the light flickered. Coins were struck bearing the words “For the freedom of Jerusalem.” Freedom songs filled hidden valleys. Farmers became soldiers, and caves became fortresses. The earth was laced with secret tunnels, and hope pushed against the iron weight of the Roman Empire.

But in 132 CE, Emperor Hadrian had enough.  He banned Jewish faith practices, expelled Jews from Judea, and began building a Roman city, Aelia Capitolina, over Jerusalem, including a temple to Jupiter where the Temple once stood. Of course, this sparked a revolt among the Jewish communities.

But Rome sent massive armies to crush the rebellion. After fierce and relentless fighting, they retook Jerusalem.

• Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed or taken as slaves.

• Jews were forbidden to live in Jerusalem and forced or ran into exile across the Mediterranean and beyond.

• Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina to erase Jewish identity from the map. Later it became known simply as Palestine, after the Philistine people who lived along the coast (yes, those Philistines, Israel’s enemy for generations.)  Rome wanted to break Israel’s connection to their land.

Now for centuries, the Bar Kokhba revolt has stood for Jewish courage and tragedy—the last stand for independence until modern times when the State of Israel was founded in 1948.

The flame continues to burn.