DWBI: Judaism survives?

So I recently found out that my mom's family is descended from one of the last known Jewish communities. This, naturally, got me thinking: could Judaism have survived to the present day? As in, could there be Jews today that still follow the practices of their ancestors (I'm not counting Reconstructionism)? They made it a thousand years past the destruction of the Temple, could they make it another thousand?
 
OOC: Are you referring to the destruction of Herod's Temple, during the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)? So that means the Jews TTL were still around in the 11th Century, but died out sometime after that? If so, I'm guessing Christianity didn't become the official religion of the West TTL? It's certainly plausible, even if we assume the PoD is after the Jewish Uprising (say in the second century).
 
So I recently found out that my mom's family is descended from one of the last known Jewish communities. This, naturally, got me thinking: could Judaism have survived to the present day? As in, could there be Jews today that still follow the practices of their ancestors (I'm not counting Reconstructionism)? They made it a thousand years past the destruction of the Temple, could they make it another thousand?

I understand that wonder. As a Vinlander and a Godi I can relate to how close a faith can come to being wiped out. In fact, I read somewhere that our survival may have something to do with Jewish merchants who worked around the Catholic trade boycott of Iceland in the eleventh century. So if you are indeed descended from Jews, may Thor bless you.

But that is beside the point. It seems Jews needed a refuge, like Vinland, where they were in the majority and their culture could floorish. Without that, I think they were always living on borrowed time and were lucky to last as long as they did, especially as Europe became more Christian up until the Renaissance.
 
OOC: I'm assuming that history is mostly the same, only Judaism died out in the Middle Ages.
OOC: Kind of tricky, seeing as official Church policy made actually wiping out Judaism within Christian nations pretty much impossible (even if they also entailed making their lives incredibly miserable to varying degrees).
 
OOC: Pretty sure it is ridiculously unlikely that the Chinese and Indian communities will be gone by 11th Century. There is very little reason for local communities to become so hostile in that timeframe, without another Abrahamic faith providing the impetus.

IC: Maybe you'd need the Roman-Sassanian War of 602-626 to go the other way. Persians were doing alright till they had to face Heraclius, who basically smashed all the Persian armies in Mesopotamia, integrated it into the Empire and then went on a bloody purge against Jews since some had apparently helped Persians sneak into Palestine and sack Aelia Capitolina (OOC: Jerusalem). Heraclius's policies definitely shaped the way the rest of Christendom treated Jewish people (even in places as newly converted as Khazaria), so just getting rid of him/his dynasty (or making them less successful in restoring control over the Med) would help a lot. Apparently some Emperor in the 9th Century went as far as to ban the religion itself and the law is still in the code within the Empire, which is funny as I have definitely met Reconstructionists in Alexandria and Constantinople and they did not seem to be aware of that.... Hope they don't run into trouble with the law, since I can see some vindictive fundie being willing to use that.
 
OOC: Kind of tricky, seeing as official Church policy made actually wiping out Judaism within Christian nations pretty much impossible (even if they also entailed making their lives incredibly miserable to varying degrees).

OOC: I'm imagining some changes to these policies plus a lot of bad luck. The communities weren't wiped out, they converted.

I understand that wonder. As a Vinlander and a Godi I can relate to how close a faith can come to being wiped out. In fact, I read somewhere that our survival may have something to do with Jewish merchants who worked around the Catholic trade boycott of Iceland in the eleventh century. So if you are indeed descended from Jews, may Thor bless you.

But that is beside the point. It seems Jews needed a refuge, like Vinland, where they were in the majority and their culture could floorish. Without that, I think they were always living on borrowed time and were lucky to last as long as they did, especially as Europe became more Christian up until the Renaissance.

Probably. According to the book my mom found, it seems as if Crimea was very nearly that, until the Mongols showed up. The Mongols weren't targeting the Jews, but that didn't stop them from destroying what were apparently thriving communities. My ancestors were presumably among the survivors who eventually adopted Islam.

Gotta go now. Time for prayers.
 
OOC: I'm imagining some changes to these policies plus a lot of bad luck. The communities weren't wiped out, they converted.
OOC: Meh, fair enough; I think it's on the unlikely side that Judaism would disappear once Christianity was established as the main religion in the west, and maybe impossible once Islam rises as a major religion... but I won't say it couldn't make for an interesting TL or scenario.
 
What about the Samaritans? I know they don't like to be called jews and are a tiny minority but aren't they related to the jews?
 
What about the Samaritans? I know they don't like to be called jews and are a tiny minority but aren't they related to the jews?
Samaritans are the descendants of the people Assyria moved into northern Israel (the old Kingdom of Israel, distinct from the Kingdom of Judah) after expelling the local Jewish population. In those days you worshiped the local gods (or one G-d in this case) where ever you moved, because gods were prime in their local area. They intermarried those Jews left behind and the only reason they don't like the word "Jew" is because it is derived from Judah, the tribe that was not part of the ten tribes included in the Kingdom of Israel, and the Kingdom of Judah was a major rival. They still consider themselves Hebrews or Bene Yisrael, which even the rabbis made a distinction of "Jew" and Bene Yisrael (children of Israel, as people who are genetically Jews, but don't practice rabbinical Judaism).
 
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