After Rehoboam reigned three years, the kingdom was divided in two – the northern kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam, with its capital, first in Shechem, then Tirzah, and finally Samaria, and ruled by a series of dynasties beginning with Jeroboam; and the southern kingdom of Judah with its capital still at Jerusalem and still ruled by the House of David. The following list contains the kings of Judah with the kings of Israel in the summaries. See also: the dynasties of the northern kingdom of Israel.
King Zedekiah – son of Josiah, last king to rule over, and in, Judah. Overthrown by Babylonia and exiled, along with most of the rest of the population, to that kingdom, where his 10 sons were executed in front of him, then he was blinded and imprisoned.
Gedaliah son of Ahikam advisor to King Josiah; he became governor over the remnant of Judah in their homeland and was assassinated the next year
Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel. In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, successor to Darius, the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland. Zerubbabel led the first group of returnees and ruled in Judea for two years. The date is generally thought to have been between 538 and 520 BC. The House of David had survived, but struggled to reclaim its place as the ruling House of Israel.
Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in 445 as governor of Judah, appointed by Artaxerxes.
The Maccabees founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 168 BCE – 37 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion and expanding the boundaries of the Land of Israel by conquest. In the post-Maccabean period the high priest was looked upon as exercising in all things, political, legal, and sacerdotal, the supreme authority.
Simon – succeeded his brother Jonathan as high priest and was also installed as ethnarch and commander-in-chief. Under his reign, Judea gained its independence.
Hyrcanus II – succeeded Alexander as high priest beginning with the rule of Salome.
Aristobulus II – succeeded as high priest. During his reign, Judea lost its independence and passed under the rule of Rome who overthrew him and reinstalled:
After Archelaus and during the intervening period, the Sanhedrin, founded by Ezra, became the sole rulers of the Jewish people in Judea in conjunction with the High Priest. The heads, or nesiim, of the Sanhedrin beginning in 20 BCE, was Hillel the Elder, his son Shimon, and his son Gamaliel I whose rule extended into the reign of:
King Agrippa II. In 66 CE, the great revolt began against Rome, resulting in the Zealot Temple Siege and culminating in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the abolition of the High Priesthood, and the final defeat at Massada in 73. Agrippa II was exiled to Rome during the revolt where he died.
Great Sanhedrin 80–429 CE
The Patriarchate was the governing legalistic body of Judean and Galilean Jewry after the destruction of the Second Temple until about 429 CE. Being a member of the house of Hillel and thus a descendant of King David, the Patriarch, known in Hebrew as the Nasi, had almost royal authority.
Judah IV – in 395, the Roman Empire split into east and west and Palestine passed under the eastern Byzantine Empire.
Gamaliel VI – on 17 October 415, an edict issued by the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius II deposed Gamaliel VI as nasi. Theodosius did not allow the appointment of a successor and in 429 terminated the Jewish patriarchate.
''Hacham Bashi'' (1842–1918)
is the Ottoman Turkish name for the Chief Rabbi of the nation's Jewish community.
Nissim Danon 1915–1918 – In 1917, Palestine was conquered by the British. Danon was succeeded as chief rabbi after World War I by Haim Moshe Eliashar who assumed the title of Acting Chief Rabbi 1918–1921. They controlled religious affairs while:
The Jewish National Council controlled civil affairs, as defined by a British Mandatory Ordinance. The following list contains the elected chairmen of the Jewish National Council.
Yaacov Thon 1917–1920 – head of a provisional council which preceded the actual formation of the Vaad Leumi in 1920.
Yitzhak Ben Zvi – elected as chairman in the 1931 elections, held the office until independence in 1948. In 1939, Pinhas Rutenberg was, once again, appointed chairman of the Va'ad while Ben Zvi became President. He held that position until his death in 1942. In the 1944 elections, *David Remez, was elected as chairman while ben Zvi continued with the title of President.
