I just finished reading Philip Freeman's "Julius Caesar" where he wrote of Caesar's ban on "all clubs and guilds unless specifically sanctioned by his government." Freeman went on to write "...like most Romans he was deeply suspicious of foreign religious organizations. Under his decree, however, Caesar was careful to exclude Jews from any ban."
I had also just finished reading "Zealot" by Reza Aslan where it seems time and time again the Romans made special exceptions for the Jews and Judea specifically. Even with persistent antagonizing actions by the Jews the Romans seemed to be very tolerant of their actions.
Given the fact that Jews made up such a small portion of the Roman Empire and that Jerusalem itself was not a very important city to the Romans, why did they put up with so much disobedience from the Jews? And not only put up with it, but seemingly make special exceptions for them? Were there other groups that were given such treatment?
If there was one thing that Romans respected, it was tradition. The Jewish line that their rituals and practices predated the city of Rome, let alone the Empire, was a pretty powerful justification to the Romans. Josephus dwelled on it extensively in The Antiquities of the Jews. The Romans might have found it rude or odd when Jews said that they wouldn't eat what Romans ate or wouldn't worship at local shrines, but when that Jew said "My great-great-X-great grandfather signed a perpetual covenant with our god to follow these customs," that Jew was speaking language that a Roman could grasp.
Christianity had no such advantages. It was a new faith and most Christians were recent converts from the Roman cultural world who were abandoning the customs of their forefathers to take up this new faith that was changing how they lived. A Jew could claim to be honoring his ancestral contract with his God, a Christian who had been scarificing to Saturn a month ago didn't have that out.