Israelite

Communities of the Israelite traditions faced upheaval in different lands. Spain expelled its Jews in 1492, while Jews were readmitted to England in 1655. In revolutionary France, legal restrictions on Jews were abolished in 1791.

Samaritans maintained a separate tradition centered on Mount Gerizim near Nablus. Ottoman records counted communities in Nablus and Gaza in 1525–1526; by the seventeenth century, persecution and conversion had reduced their numbers. In 1624 the Samaritan high priestly line changed, and access to the mountain's summit was forbidden.