What caused the jews to rebel against syrian rule?

Answer 1

The Syrian-Greeks (Seleucids), at the instigation of their Hellenizing (assimilated) Jewish lackeys, attempted to forcibly assimilate all of the Jews into Greek culture and separate them from their Torah-practices.

Answer 2

Answer

Historically, the Jews and their Israelite Ancestors have had numerous problems with the Syrians, but there was never really anything like a rebellion by the Jews against the Syrians. If perhaps you are thinking about the story of Hanukkah, wherein there was a Jewish uprising against the Seleucid Empire, oftentimes called the "Syrian Greeks", this was caused by primarily by Jewish Zealots (the Maccabees and their allies) reacting to how the Jewish Temple was profaned by the Seleucid Rulers by placing idols within the sanctuary and anger from the Zealots concerning the increasing assimilation of the Jewish population to Greek norms of behavior.

On Jewish-Syrian Conflitcs

The conflicts between the Jews/Israelites and the Syrians are as follows.

Ancient and Biblical Times
Probably the earliest problems between them were regional. In the later period of the Divided Monarchy (Israel and Judea) one of the strongest enemies of the Israelite monarchies was the Kingdom of Aram, which was a Secondary Power just as the Israelite monarchies were. (The Primary Powers were Egypt and the Mesopotamian Kingdoms - Assyria and Babylon.) The Bible records the story of Naaman, an Aramean general, who is healed by the Prophet Elisha. While the Biblical story does not mean that this actually happened, the way that the King of Israel reacts to Naaman's peaceful entry into Israel reflects the enmity between the Israelite monarchies and the Arameans. Most of their disputes were territorial and dealt with the areas in the eastern Galilee and the Quneitra region. These territorial disputes were directly related to the amount of power that each could exert over smaller regional allies such as the Phoenician States in Lebanon or the transjordanian kingdoms.

The next major conflict between the Syrians and the Jews was the Assyrian-Judean Wars in the 700s-600s BCE. In these wars, the Assyrians sent a large army to Judah with the intent to conquer the Judean territory and its people. According to both the Bible and Assyrian King Senacherib's Records, the Judean city of Lachish (the second largest Judean city after Jerusalem) was razed to the ground. Judean soldiers resisted, but they were no match for Assyrian numbers, strength, brutality, and strategy. According to the Bible, Judah was saved from defeat when a plague destroyed much of Assyrian army. According to King Senacherib's Records, there is no mention of what happened after the razing of Lachish or why the war terminated at all.

Syrian Jews as a Minority in Syria
Jews became part of the Syrian population during the Persian and Roman Period as some Jews en route to southern Levant from Mesopotamia ended up staying in Syria and when some Syrians converted to Judaism. The Syrian Jewish community survived and continued under the Byzantine Empire and the various Arab Caliphates with occasional pogroms, but no serious repression. The only major act of Syrian violence towards the Jews came from the Damascus Affair in 1840, when eight Damascus Jews were accused of ritualistic murder of a Syrian Christian Monk without any actual evidence. The Jews were imprisoned, tortured, and in one case, forcibly converted to Islam. While this was occurring, the hysterical Damascene population pillaged the Jewish neighborhood of Jobar, attacked Jews on the streets, and destroyed Torah scrolls in the local synagogue. This violence was motivated by the prevalence and accepted nature of Jewish Blood Libels. Unfortunately, there are still individuals in the Arab World who fault the Jews for the assassination of this Christian Monk.

As Arab Nationalism was becoming more prevalent in Syria, there was a divide in the Syrian Jewish community as to whether Jews could consider themselves "Syrian Arabs" or whether their Judaism made it impossible for them to be Arab. The Muslim Syrians also debated this question, but quickly came to the result that part of being an Arab in the cultural sense meant following Islamic customs. This exclusion of Jews from being a part of Syrian Arab entity only became stronger as Nazism began to exert a strong influence on the development of Arab Nationalism and injected it with a strong Anti-Semitic current. By the time of Syrian Independence in 1943, Anti-Semitic laws were passed. Jews suffered through disorganized pogroms, riots, and other generally Anti-Semitic measures. From 1948-1952 almost the entire population of Syrian Jews fled to France, Israel, or Lebanon, leaving Syria almost devoid of Jews.

Arab-Israeli Conflict
Syria was among the Arab States that went to war with Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973. In the 1948 War, Syria's mission was to prevent the Zionist State from existing. In that regard, it was an utter failure, with its army being pushed out of nearly every location near to the Syrian border, with the small exception of around five kilometers square on the eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee.

In the 1967 and 1973 Wars, conflicts between Israelis and Syrians have been over the Israeli-Syrian border and control of the Golan Heights.

Answer 3

MAIN ANSWER

Historically, the Jews and their Israelite Ancestors have had numerous problems with the Syrians, but there was never really anything like a rebellion by the Jews against the Syrians. If perhaps you are thinking about the story of Hanukkah, wherein there was a Jewish uprising against the Seleucid Empire, oftentimes called the "Syrian Greeks", this was caused by primarily by Jewish Zealots (the Maccabees and their allies) reacting to how the Jewish Temple was profaned by the Seleucid Rulers by placing idols within the sanctuary and anger from the Zealots concerning the increasing assimilation of the Jewish population to Greek norms of behavior.

On Jewish-Syrian Conflitcs

The conflicts between the Jews/Israelites and the Syrians are as follows.

Ancient and Biblical Times
Probably the earliest problems between them were regional. In the later period of the Divided Monarchy (Israel and Judea) one of the strongest enemies of the Israelite monarchies was the Kingdom of Aram, which was a Secondary Power just as the Israelite monarchies were. (The Primary Powers were Egypt and the Mesopotamian Kingdoms - Assyria and Babylon.) The Bible records the story of Naaman, an Aramean general, who is healed by the Prophet Elisha. While the Biblical story does not mean that this actually happened, the way that the King of Israel reacts to Naaman's peaceful entry into Israel reflects the enmity between the Israelite monarchies and the Arameans. Most of their disputes were territorial and dealt with the areas in the eastern Galilee and the Quneitra region. These territorial disputes were directly related to the amount of power that each could exert over smaller regional allies such as the Phoenician States in Lebanon or the transjordanian kingdoms.

The next major conflict between the Syrians and the Jews was the Assyrian-Judean Wars in the 700s-600s BCE. In these wars, the Assyrians sent a large army to Judah with the intent to conquer the Judean territory and its people. According to both the Bible and Assyrian King Senacherib's Records, the Judean city of Lachish (the second largest Judean city after Jerusalem) was razed to the ground. Judean soldiers resisted, but they were no match for Assyrian numbers, strength, brutality, and strategy. According to the Bible, Judah was saved from defeat when a plague destroyed much of Assyrian army. According to King Senacherib's Records, there is no mention of what happened after the razing of Lachish or why the war terminated at all.

Syrian Jews as a Minority in Syria
Jews became part of the Syrian population during the Persian and Roman Period as some Jews en route to southern Levant from Mesopotamia ended up staying in Syria and when some Syrians converted to Judaism. The Syrian Jewish community survived and continued under the Byzantine Empire and the various Arab Caliphates with occasional pogroms, but no serious repression. The only major act of Syrian violence towards the Jews came from the Damascus Affair in 1840, when eight Damascus Jews were accused of ritualistic murder of a Syrian Christian Monk without any actual evidence. The Jews were imprisoned, tortured, and in one case, forcibly converted to Islam. While this was occurring, the hysterical Damascene population pillaged the Jewish neighborhood of Jobar, attacked Jews on the streets, and destroyed Torah scrolls in the local synagogue. This violence was motivated by the prevalence and accepted nature of Jewish Blood Libels. Unfortunately, there are still individuals in the Arab World who fault the Jews for the assassination of this Christian Monk.

As Arab Nationalism was becoming more prevalent in Syria, there was a divide in the Syrian Jewish community as to whether Jews could consider themselves "Syrian Arabs" or whether their Judaism made it impossible for them to be Arab. The Muslim Syrians also debated this question, but quickly came to the result that part of being an Arab in the cultural sense meant following Islamic customs. This exclusion of Jews from being a part of Syrian Arab entity only became stronger as Nazism began to exert a strong influence on the development of Arab Nationalism and injected it with a strong Anti-Semitic current. By the time of Syrian Independence in 1943, Anti-Semitic laws were passed. Jews suffered through disorganized pogroms, riots, and other generally Anti-Semitic measures. From 1948-1952 almost the entire population of Syrian Jews fled to France, Israel, or Lebanon, leaving Syria almost devoid of Jews.

Arab-Israeli Conflict
Syria was among the Arab States that went to war with Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973. In the 1948 War, Syria's mission was to prevent the Zionist State from existing. In that regard, it was an utter failure, with its army being pushed out of nearly every location near to the Syrian border, with the small exception of around five kilometers square on the eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee.

In the 1967 and 1973 Wars, conflicts between Israelis and Syrians have been over the Israeli-Syrian border and control of the Golan Heights.

Answer 4

There was a Jewish uprising against the Seleucid Empire, oftentimes called the "Syrian Greeks", which is canonized in Judaism as the Hanukkah celebration. The revolt was caused by primarily by Jewish Zealots (the Maccabees and their allies) reacting to how the Jewish Temple was profaned by the Seleucid Rulers by placing idols within the sanctuary and anger from the Zealots concerning the increasing assimilation of the Jewish population to Greek norms of behavior.

Answer 5

The Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks) under Antiochus Epiphanes (2nd century BCE), at the instigation of the Hellenizers, had forbidden various Torah-practices such as Sabbath-observance and circumcision, rededicated the Jewish Temple to a Greek idol, and pressed the Jews to offer up sacrifices to the idol. One of the leading elder Jewish sages called upon the people to keep observing the Torah anyway; and if necessary, to use force in resisting the decrees.When a Hellenized Jew offered a sacrifice to the Greek idols in a nearby village, the sage killed him as well as the Greek overseer. This brought a violent reaction from the Greeks; and the loyal Jews, led by the Hasmonean family, were forced to retreat from their towns and strike out at the Greeks in an attempt to oust them from the Holy Land and to enable the people to once again observe the Torah. The Torah-Jews were heavily outnumbered by the attacking Greek armies, but God gave them miraculous victories again and again.

After three years of struggle, the Greek armies retreated from Jerusalem, and the Hasmoneans (also called Maccabees) entered the Holy Temple which the Greeks had defiled, reconsecrated it to God, and began the Temple service once more.
Among other things, they wanted to relight the olive oil candelabrum (Exodus ch.25), but could only find one day's supply of undefiled oil - and it would take eight days to make and bring some more. Miraculously, the menorah stayed lit for eight days (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), allowing enough time for new oil to be prepared and brought.

The significance of the miracle is that it demonstrated that God's presence was still there. The Torah-community was overjoyed, because God's presence meant everything to them. This is what Hanukkah represents: the closeness to God; and the avoidance of Hellenization (assimilation).

The Torah-Sages instituted the festival of Hanukkah at that time (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), to publicize the miracle (Rashi commentary, ibid). This is why we light our Hanukkah-menorahs. (The Hanukkah-menorah, or hanukkiyah, is a special form of the original seven-branched menorah. Our Hanukkah-menorahs have eight spaces for oil, or candles, to mark each of the eight days for which the oil lasted, and a ninth to hold the shamash, a candle used to light the others.)

The Al-Hanisim prayer which we recite during Hanukkah centers around the Hasmoneans' victory and rededication of the Temple, while the candle-lighting commemorates the miracle of the oil. Though the military victory is prominently mentioned in the prayers, it wouldn't have been celebrated if not for the miracle of the oil.

It should also be noted that the main goal for which the Maccabees fought was not political independence. They fought to enable the people to observe the Torah's commandments; as we say in the Al Hanisim prayer: "The Greeks sought to cause us to forget Your Torah and leave Your statutes."

See also:

Jewish history timeline

More about the Hellenized Jews