page_title: History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel
section_title: Middle Ages (636–1517)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel / Middle Ages (636–1517)
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruins of the ancient synagogue in Kibbutz Bar'am in Northern Israel. The ruins are located within the site of the ancient village of Kfar Bar'am, about three kilometers from the Lebanese border. Suomi: Muinaisen synagogan rauniot pohjoisisraelilaisessa Bar'amin kibbutzissa. Rauniot sijaitsevat Kfar Bar'amin muinaiskylän alueen sisällä noin kolmen kilometrin päässä Libanonin-vastaisesta rajasta. עברית: שרידים של בית הכנסת העתיק בקיבוץ ברעם בצפון הארץ. ההריסות ממוקמים בתוך האתר העתיק של הכפר כפר ברעם, כשלושה ק"מ מן הגבול הלבנוני.
context_page_description: The history of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel is about the history and religion of the Jewish people who originated in the Land of Israel, and have maintained physical, cultural, and religious ties to it ever since. First emerging in the later part of the 2nd millennium BCE as an outgrowth of southern Canaanites, the Hebrew Bible claims that a United Israelite monarchy existed starting in the 10th century BCE. The first appearance of the name "Israel" in the non-Biblical historic record is the Egyptian Merneptah Stele, circa 1200 BCE. During the biblical period, two kingdoms occupied the highland zone, the Kingdom of Israel in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Judah by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Initially exiled to Babylon, upon the defeat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great, many of the Jewish elite returned to Jerusalem, building the Second Temple.
caption: The ruins of the synagogue at Kfar Bar'am, an ancient Jewish village abandoned by its Jewish inhabitants sometime between the 7th and 13th centuries.
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