GARY A. RENDSBURG - Jews In Arabia

On 15 September 2020, Professor Gary Rendsburg of the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University gave a fascinating online lecture exploring how textual evidence can cast light on the lesser-known Jewish communities living in the Arabian peninsula, in the period from 70 CE to the rise of Islam in the 7th century.
Jews lived in oases in northern Arabia, as Jewish tribes in and around Medina, and even formed the basis of a Jewish kingdom in Yemen - while the wealthiest among them arranged for their burials back in the land of Israel, despite the great distances involved.
This narrative reminds us how time and again the historian of Judaism needs to have the broadest cultural and geographical horizons.