In the year 38 AD there was a massive pogrom in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, directed against the Jewish residents of the city. People were killed, synagogues were burnt and Jewish leaders were tortured in front of the masses in the theatre. While the Jews enjoyed several civic privileges which were given to them by the Romans, many other Alexandrians rejected the idea that they were equal and loyal citizens. The Jews refused to participate in the worship of the urban deities and the emperor because of their own religious laws. While the Jews were living side by side with their fellow Alexandrians in public life, their abstention from the Alexandrian religious life caused them to be seen as strangers who were not fully loyal to the interests of the city in which they had lived for decades.