Medieval antisemitism
Prior to his conversion, Constantine placed the religion of the Jews on a footing of legal equality with those of other subjects. After his conversion the Jews were oppressed with new restrictions and exactions, and the Christians were forbidden to associate with them. Constantine banished the rabbis (AD 337), and made the marriage between a Christian woman and a Jew a capital crime.
The condition of the Palestinian Jews (AD 359) sank so low, and their communication with other Jewish communities was so difficult, that their patriarch Hillel II resigned their right to determine for all Jews the dates of the Jewish festivals, and issued computation of these dates, a calendar that remains among the Jews of the world to this day.
From these afflictions were saved for a moment by the accession of Julian. He reduced their taxes, revoked discriminating laws, lauded Hebrew, and acknowledged Yahweh has "a great god." Julian was gracious to Hillel, whom he honored on a number of occasions.
In an autograph letter to him, Julian assured him of his friendship and promised to ameliorate further the condition of the Jews. Before setting out for the war with Persia, Julian addressed to the Jewish congregations a circular letter in which he informed them that he had "committed the Jewish tax-rolls to the flames," and that, "desiring to show them still greater favors, he has advised his brother, the venerable patriarch "Julos", to abolish what was called the 'send-tax'.
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He asked Jewish leaders why they abandoned animal sacrifice; when they replied that their law did not permit except at the temple of Jerusalem, he ordered that the temple should be rebuilt with state funds. Upon Julian's sudden death; state funds were withdrawn; the old restrictive laws were re-enacted and made more severe, and the Jews, again excluded from Jerusalem, returned to their villages, their poverty, and their prayers. In 425 Theodosius II abolished the Palestinian patriarchate. Greek Christian churches replaced the synagogues and schools, and after a brief outburst in 614, Palestine surrendered its leadership of the Jewish world.
The Jews could hardly be blamed if they hoped to fare better in less Christian lands. Some moved east into Mesopotamia and Persia, and reinvigorated that Babylon Jewry which had never ceased since the Babylonian Captivity of 597 BC. In Persia Jews were excluded from state office, but all Persians except the nobility were likewise excluded, there was less offense in the restriction.
