Changes

Hadrian was a cultured man and very cosmopolitan in outlook. However, he shared many of the same prejudices against the Jews as other members of the elite. It seems that Hadrian was determined to ensure that the Jews no longer were able to militarily oppose Rome.<ref> Faulkner, Neil. Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome (Stroud, Gloucestershire, Tempus Publishing, 2004), p 114</ref>. Moreover, they had to assimilate like other groups and tribes to the expected norms, especially when it came to religion. Hadrian provoked a revolt and his repression of it could be termed a genocide. Hundreds of thousands died and many more were enslaved. In the wake of the defeat of Simon Bar Kochba’s rebellion, the Jews no longer threatened Roman rule.  Hadrian in the aftermath of the defeat of the Second Jewish Revolt prohibited the Torah and Jews could not enter the re-named Jerusalem except on one day of the year. These measures and the desolation of Judea led to a decline in the Jewish community in and around its traditional homeland. More Jews left to live elsewhere in the Empire and so many left that some historians date the history of the Jewish Diaspora from the end of the Second Jewish Revolt. The movement of Jews out of Judea was to lead to dramatic religious changes. Judaism became a transportable religion with a focus on local synagogues and the Bible, rather than the Temple in Jerusalem. Hadrian’s policies were to decisively change the history of the Jews.