ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the idea of diaspora from the point of view of the Jewish experience. This is not because I want to take the Jewish diaspora as in some way typical. Indeed, quite the reverse is the case. I want to argue for a historical understanding of diaspora. One that recognises that the changes in the historical context of what we generally call diasporas affect the meaning and experience of being in diaspora. Distinguishing the variety of western Jewish diasporic experience from that of other groups of people who experience themselves as diasporic will help us to theorise the meaning of ‘diaspora’ as it is more generally applied.
