This paper discusses how little is known about Jewish
life under Persian rule. While Babylon had one of the highest populations
of Jewish communities in the world during this
time, the significance of Jerusalem resulted, as it always would, because of the Temple. It explains that, during the period 450 BCE, however, a glimpse of the state of Jewish life within Jerusalem and the
surrounding area and the reformational atmosphere experienced during that time is given by the events surrounding the return of Ezra.