Final answer:
The Persian Empire, led by Cyrus the Great, liberated the Jewish people from their captivity in the sixth century BCE, enabling their return to Judah and the start of the Jewish diaspora.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the sixth century BCE, the Persian Empire, under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, liberated the Jewish people from their captivity after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian empire. The event ended the period known as the Babylonian Captivity, allowing Jews to return to Judah, where they rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem.
This liberation marked the beginning of the Jewish diaspora, as many Jews chose to remain in Babylon and other cities of the Persian Empire, maintaining their cultural and religious identity. Even though they were free to return to their homeland, the Jewish people continued to live under various empires, such as the Greek and the Roman, before the diaspora intensified following the Jewish uprisings against Rome in the first and second centuries CE, dispersing the Jewish population further across the Roman Empire.