“Diaspora: Exile or dispersion used with reference to the exile of the Jewish people from the land of Israel, though also now by analogy to other groups. Diaspora may also be used to refer not only to the state of being in exile, but also to the place of exile, the communities in exile, and to a state of mind that results from living in exile. The Hebrew term galut (also golus, galuth) expresses the feeling of living as a member of a relatively defenseless minority, subject to injustice if not to outright persecution in an unredeemed—though not unredeemable—world.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
