Wow, consice and informative, thanks.       Jews had some very successful rebellions against Rome. That is were it started with the writings of Cassius Dio. Not sure that Bar Kokhba could have pulled his rebellion off anyways. Rome was in its heyday at the time. No way the state could have stayed independent against that tide.  Antisemitism has its roots in those times. Bar Kokhba was the subject of much political debate in many of the forums of the time. Very likely his name was weilded by some for their own political gain.  Eventually the Jews were brought in as slaves to the Roman empire.  They were persecuted for the next 2000 years for the most part. Even when they were not persecuted they were segregated under protection of one king or another, adding to the hatred by the average Joe.  The hatred was always there. After the fall of the Roman empire and the rise of Islam. Jews were used as convinient third party traders between Europe and the Moslem world, up until just before the Crusades. Eventually Jews were barred from most trades. Being only allowed to be bankers and traders.  There were always conspiracies and theories about Jews. Poisoning wells, Witches masses, Killing Jesus (how someone can kill an omnipotent God is beyond me). But the real conspiracy theories came out in full force in recent history after Henry Ford wrote his book about the Elder's of Zion. The book was written mainly in response to a very rich Jewish financier Jacob Schiff who decided to take revenge on Russia for a pogrom they committed, by providing aid to Japan in its war effort against Russia.