how, in 538 BCE Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and issued a proclamation granting the people of Judah their freedom. 50,000 Judeans, led by Zerubbabel returned. A second group of 5000, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to Judea in 456 BCE. Precursors The 613 Jewish revolt against Heraclius is considered the last serious Jewish attempt for gaining autonomy in Palestine in antiquity. In 1160 David Alroy led a Jewish uprising in Upper Mesopotamia that aimed to reconquer the promised land. In 1648 Sabbatai Zevi from modern Turkey claimed he would lead the Jews back to Palestine. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Perushim, disciples of the Vilna Gaon, left Lithuania to settle in the Land of Israel in anticipation of the return of the Messiah in 1840. A dispatch from the British Consulate in Jerusalem in 1839 reported that "the Jews of Algiers and its dependencies, are numerous in Palestine..." There was also significant migration from Central Asia (Bukharan Jews). In 1868 Judah ben Shalom led a large movement of Yemenite Jews to Palestine. In addition to Messianic movements, the population of the Holy Land was slowly bolstered by Jews fleeing Christian persecution, especially after the so-called Reconquista of Al-Andalus (the Arabic name for the Iberian Peninsula). Safed became an important center of Kabbalah. Jerusalem, Hebron, and Tiberias also had significant Jewish populations. Aliyah and the ingathering of the exiles Among Jews in the Diaspora, Eretz Israel was revered in a cultural, national, ethnic, historical, and religious sense. They thought of a return to it in a future messianic age. Return remained a recurring theme among generations, particularly in Passover and Yom Kippur prayers, which traditionally concluded with "Next year in Jerusalem", and in the thrice-daily Amidah (Standing prayer). Jewish daily prayers include many references to "your people Israel", "your return to Jerusalem" and associate salvation with a restored presence in the Land of Israel, the Land of Zion and Jerusalem (usually accompanied by a Messiah); for example the prayer Uva Letzion (Isaiah 59:20): "And a redeemer shall come to Zion..." Aliyah (return to Israel) has always been considered a praiseworthy act for Jews according to Jewish law and some Rabbis consider it one of the core 613 commandments in Judaism. From the Middle Ages and onwards, some famous rabbis (and often their followers) made aliyah to the Land of Israel. These included Nahmanides, Yechiel