In 70 CE, the Roman general Titus captured Jerusalem after months of siege, and the Second Temple was destroyed. The defeat was commemorated on coins bearing the inscription “Judea Capta” (Judea Captured). This war between Rome and Judea left a lasting mark on the relationship between imperial power and Jewish communities, which in the following centuries dispersed throughout various regions of the Mediterranean and Europe.

During Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the spread of Christianity transformed the religious perception of Judaism. Sermons by figures such as John Chrysostom and various imperial decrees contributed to consolidating legal and social restrictions. In the Byzantine Empire, civil and religious rights were limited, while in Western Europe, Jewish communities experienced alternating periods of protection, expulsions, and migrations to regions such as Eastern Europe.

In the Middle Ages, the Crusades and health crises such as the Black Death intensified episodes of violence against Jewish communities in several European cities. In subsequent centuries, expulsions such as that from the Iberian Peninsula and new migrations shaped the Jewish diaspora, while the Enlightenment and the French Revolution introduced processes of legal emancipation.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, racial theories emerged that redefined antisemitism in biological terms. Under the Third Reich, the German state implemented a systematic policy against the European Jewish population, culminating in the Holocaust. After World War II, the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 opened a new historical chapter in the Middle East marked by regional conflicts and international debates.