Jews from Eleutheropolis - Cosmopolitan Life in Late-Roman Oxyrhynchus

Oxyrhynchos is undoubtedly one of the best documented cities in Late-Roman and Byzantine Egypt. Among the thousands of papyri that were found in the ancient garbage dumps of the city there are quite a few texts attesting to Jews. It was already clear from the papyri collected in the third volume of Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum that a Jewish community re-emerged in Oxyrhynchos in the third century CE after the great losses caused by the revolt of 115-7 CE. The newly published papyri give a more nuanced picture and provide interesting information about Jewish life in this flourishing Egyptian city. Some documents mention Jews who are residents of Eleutheropolis, the Palestinian city in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and who are temporarily in Oxyrhynchos for some reason. This information is important, especially in light of the fact that very little traffic with areas outside Egypt is attested in the papyri. The aim of this paper is to analyze these texts and to outline the possible nature of the relationship between Jews in Oxyrhynchos and Eleutheropolis.