Julian’s Letter to the Jews

To the community of the Jews

In times past, by far the most burdensome thing in the yoke of your slavery has been the fact that you were subjected to unauthorized ordinances and had to contribute an untold amount of money to the accounts of the treasury. I used to see many instances of this with my own eyes, and I have learned of more by finding the records that are preserved against you. Furthermore, when a tax was about to be levied on you again, I prevented it and put a stop to such impious abuses. I threw the records against you that were stored in my desks into the fire, so that it is no longer possible for anyone to aim such an impious reproach at you. My brother Constantius, of honored memory, was not as responsible for these wrongs against you as were the men who used to dine at his table, barbarians in mind, godless in soul. I seized them with my own hands and put them to death by thrusting them into the pit, so that not even a memory of their destruction would linger among us. And since I wish you to prosper even more, I have admonished my brother Iulus, your most venerable patriarch, that the tax that is said to exist among you should be prohibited and that no one any longer have the power to oppress the masses of your people by such extortion, so that you may have security of mind everywhere during my reign and may enjoy a peace that will allow you to offer more fervent prayers for my reign to the Most High God, the Creator, who has deigned to crown me with his own immaculate right hand. For it is natural that men who are troubled and anxious will be dampened in spirit and not have the confidence to raise their hands to pray, but that those who are free from care in all respects will rejoice with their whole hearts and offer their prayers on behalf of my imperial office to Mighty God, even to him who is able to direct my reign to the noblest ends, according to my purpose. This you should do, so that, when I have successfully concluded the war with Persia, I may undertake to rebuild the sacred city of Jerusalem, which you have longed to see inhabited for so many years, and bring settlers there and, together with you, glorify the Most High God.