Simon bar Kokhba

Simon bar Kokhba was a Jewish military leader who led Bar Kokhba's revolt against the Romans in 132 CE. He subsequently established an independent state of Israel which he ruled for three years as Nasi ("prince," or "president"). His state was conquered by the Romans in 135 CE following a two-year war. Originally named Simon Bar Koziba, he was given the name Bar Kokhba (Aramaic for "Son of a Star") by the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva, who contemplated the possibility that Bar Kochba would be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.

Due to the failure of the earlier Great Jewish Revolt in the eastern Roman provinces, Bar Kokhba's support was mostly limited to the Roman province of Judea. Despite some initial successes, his revolt was brutally crushed by Emperor Hadrian: Bar Kokhba and his followers were killed in a dramatic last stand at the fortress of Betar, southwest of Jerusalem. Many of his supporters were executed, among them Rabbi Akiva. Nevertheless, it was a costly victory for Rome, and the generals, when reporting to the Senate, did not begin with the customary greeting: "I and my troops are well." After Bar Kokhba's defeat, Jerusalem was razed, Jews were forbidden to live there, and a new Roman city, Aelia Capitolina, was built in its place.

Over the past few decades, much new information about the revolt has come to light, thanks mainly to the discovery of several collections of letters, some possibly by Bar Kokhba himself, in the caves overlooking the Dead Sea. These letters can now be seen at the Israel Museum.

Bar Kokhba in the arts

Bar Kokhba was the subject of an operetta, Bar Kokhba, written by Abraham Goldfaden some time between 1883 and 1885. It was written in the wake of the pogroms following the 1881 assassination of Czar Alexander II of Russia as the tide turned against Jewish emancipation.