Persecution of Jews - Timeline of Jewish history

 Persecution of Jews 

Persecution of Jewish people has occurred on many occasions and in widely different geographical locations. Persecution has been a major part of Jewish history, and it has affected the history and social development of the countries and societies in which the persecution occurred. Europe and the Middle East have been the chief areas of persecution throughout the ages while South Asia usually provided a refuge as in the case of the Baghdadi Jews.

Seleucids

When Judea fell under the authority of the Seleucid Empire, the process of Hellenization was enforced by law.[1] This effectively meant requiring pagan religious practice.[2] In 167 BCE Jewish sacrifice was forbidden, sabbaths and feasts were banned and circumcision was outlawed. Altars to Greek gods were set up and animals prohibited to Jews were sacrificed on them. The Olympian Zeus was placed on the altar of the Temple. Possession of Jewish scriptures was made a capital offence.

Western and Christian antisemitism

In the Middle Ages Antisemitism in Europe was religious. Though not part of Roman Catholic dogma, many Christians, including members of the clergy, have held the Jewish people collectively responsible for killing Jesus. As stated in the Boston College Guide to Passion Plays, "Over the course of time, Christians began to accept … that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for killing Jesus. According to this interpretation, both the Jews present at Jesus Christ's death and the Jewish people collectively and for all time, have committed the sin of deicide, or "god-killing". For 1900 years of Christian-Jewish history, the charge of deicide has led to hatred, violence against and murder of Jews in Europe and America."[3]

During the High Middle Ages in Europe there was full-scale persecution in many places, with blood libels, expulsions, forced conversions and massacres. An underlying source of prejudice against Jews in Europe was religious. Jews were frequently massacred and exiled from various European countries. The persecution hit its first peak during the Crusades. In the First Crusade (1096) flourishing communities on the Rhine and the Danube were utterly destroyed, a prime example being the Rhineland massacres. In the Second Crusade (1147) the Jews in France were subject to frequent massacres. The Jews were also subjected to attacks by the Shepherds' Crusades of 1251 and 1320. The Crusades were followed by expulsions, including in 1290, the banishing of all English Jews; in 1396, 100,000 Jews were expelled from France; and, in 1421 thousands were expelled from Austria. Many of the expelled Jews fled to Poland.[4]

As the Black Death epidemics devastated Europe in the mid-14th century, annihilating more than a half of the population, Jews were taken as scapegoats. Rumors spread that they caused the disease by deliberately poisoning wells. Hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed by violence in the Black Death persecutions. Although Pope Clement VI tried to protect them by the July 6, 1348papal bull and another 1348 bull, several months later, 900 Jews were burnt alive inStrasbourg, where the plague hadn't yet affected the city.[5]

One study finds that Jewish persecutions and expulsions increased with negative economic shocks and climactic variations in Europe over the period 1100-1600.[6]The authors of the study argue that this stems from people blaming Jews for misfortunes and weak rulers going after Jewish wealth in times of fiscal crisis. The authors propose several explanations for why Jewish persecutions significantly declined after 1600:

• (1) there were simply fewer Jewish communities to persecute by the 17th century;
• (2) improved agricultural productivity, or, better integrated markets may have reduced vulnerability to temperature shocks;
• (3) the rise of stronger states may have led to more robust protection for religious and ethnic minorities;
• (4) there were fewer negative temperature shocks.
• (5) the impact of the Reformation and the Enlightenment may have reduced antisemitic attitudes.[6]

In the Papal States, which existed until 1870, Jews were required to live only in specified neighborhoods called ghettos. Until the 1840s, they were required to regularly attend sermons urging their conversion to Christianity. Only Jews were taxed to support state boarding schools for Jewish converts to Christianity. It was illegal to convert from Christianity to Judaism. Sometimes Jews were baptized involuntarily, and, even when such baptisms were illegal, forced to practice the Christian religion. In many such cases the state separated them from their families, of which the Edgardo Mortara account is one of the most widely publicized instances of acrimony between Catholics and Jews in the Papal States in the second half of the 19th century.

Middle East and Arab antisemitism

According to Mark R. Cohen, during the rise of Islam, the first encounters betweenMuslims and Jews resulted in friendship when the Jews of Medina gave Muhammadrefuge. Conflict arose when Muhammad expelled certain Jewish tribes after they refused to swear their allegiance to him and aided the Meccan Pagans. He adds that this encounter was an exception rather than a rule.[7]

Traditionally Jews living in Muslim lands, known as dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religion and to administer their internal affairs but were subject to certain conditions.[8] They had to pay the jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to Muslims.[9] Dhimmis had an inferior status under Islamic rule. They had several social and legal disabilities such as prohibitions against bearing arms or giving testimony in courts in cases involving Muslims.[10] Contrary to popular belief, the Qur'an did not allow Muslims to force Jews to wear distinctive clothing. Obadiah the Proselyte reported in 1100 AD, that the Caliph had created this rule himself.[11]

In Moorish Spain, ibn Hazm and Abu Ishaq focused their anti-Jewish writings on the latter allegation. This was also the chief motivation behind the 1066 Granada massacre, when "[m]ore than 1,500 Jewish families, numbering 4,000 persons, fell in one day",[12] and in Fez in 1033, when 6,000 Jews were killed.[13] There were further massacres in Fez in 1276 and 1465.[14]

In the Zaydi imamate of Yemen, Jews were also singled out for discrimination in the 17th century, which culminated in the general expulsion of all Jews from places in Yemen to the arid coastal plain of Tihamah and which became known as the Mawza Exile.[15]

The Damascus affair occurred in 1840, when a French monk and his servant disappeared in Damascus. Immediately following, a charge of ritual murder was brought against a large number of Jews in the city including children who were tortured. The consuls of England, France and Germany as well as Ottomanauthorities, Christians, Muslims and Jews all played a great role in this affair.[16]Following the Damascus affair, Pogroms spread through the Middle East and North Africa. Pogroms occurred in: Aleppo (1850, 1875), Damascus (1840, 1848, 1890), Beirut (1862, 1874), Dayr al-Qamar (1847), Jerusalem (1847), Cairo (1844, 1890, 1901–02), Mansura (1877), Alexandria (1870, 1882, 1901–07), Port Said (1903, 1908), Damanhur (1871, 1873, 1877, 1891), Istanbul (1870, 1874), Buyukdere (1864), Kuzguncuk (1866), Eyub (1868), Edirne (1872), Izmir (1872, 1874).[17] There was a massacre of Jews in Baghdad in 1828.[13] There was another massacre in Barfurush in 1867.[13]

In 1839, in the eastern Persian city of Meshed, a mob burst into the Jewish Quarter, burned the synagogue, and destroyed the Torah scrolls. This is known as theAllahdad incident. It was only by forcible conversion that a massacre was averted.[18]

In Palestine there were riots and pogroms against Jews in 1920 and 1921. Tensions over the Western Wall in Jerusalem led to the 1929 Palestine riots,[19] whose main victims were the ancient Jewish community at Hebron which came to an end.

In 1941, following Rashid Ali's pro-Axis coup, riots known as the Farhud broke out inBaghdad in which approximately 180 Jews were killed and about 240 were wounded, 586 Jewish-owned businesses were looted and 99 Jewish houses were destroyed.[20]

During the Holocaust, the Middle East was in turmoil. Britain prohibited Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine. In Cairo the Jewish Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang) assassinated Lord Moyne in 1944 fighting as part of its campaign against British closure of Palestine to Jewish immigration, complicating British-Arab-Jewish relations. While the Allies and the Axis were fighting for the oil-rich region, the Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husayni staged a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq and organized the Farhud pogrom which marked the turning point for about 150,000 Iraqi Jews who, following this event and the hostilities generated by the war with Israel in 1948, were targeted for violence, persecution, boycotts, confiscations, and near complete expulsion in 1951. The coup failed and the mufti fled to Berlin, where he actively supported Hitler. In Egypt, with a Jewish population of about 75,000, young Anwar Sadat was imprisoned for conspiring with the Nazis and promised them that "no British soldier would leave Egypt alive" (see Military history of Egypt during World War II) leaving the Jews of that region defenseless. In the French Vichyterritories of Algeria and Syria plans had been drawn up for the liquidation of their Jewish populations were the Axis powers to triumph.

The tensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict were also a factor in the rise of animosity to Jews all over the Middle East, as hundreds of thousands of Jews fled as refugees, the main waves being soon after the 1948 and 1956 wars. In reaction to the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Egyptian government expelled almost 25,000 Egyptian Jews and confiscated their property, and sent approximately 1,000 more Jews to prisons and detention camps. The population of Jewish communities of Muslim Middle East and North Africa was reduced from about 900,000 in 1948 to less than 8,000 today.

On March 2, 1974, the bodies of four Syrian Jewish girls were discovered by border police in a cave in the Zabdani Mountains northwest of Damascus. Fara Zeibak 24, her sisters Lulu Zeibak 23, Mazal Zeibak 22 and their cousin Eva Saad 18, had contracted with a band of smugglers to flee from Syria to Lebanon and eventually to Israel. The girl’s bodies were found raped, murdered and mutilated. The police also found the remains of two Jewish boys, Natan Shaya 18 and Kassem Abadi 20, victims of an earlier massacre.[21] Syrian authorities deposited the bodies of all six in sacks before the homes of their parents in the Jewish ghetto in Damascus.[22]

Nazism

Persecution of Jews reached its most destructive form in the policies of Nazi Germany, which made the destruction of the Jews a priority, culminating in the killing of approximately 6,000,000 Jews during the Holocaust from 1941 to 1945.[23]Originally, the Nazis used death squads, the Einsatzgruppen, to conduct massive open-air killings of Jews in territory they conquered. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the Final Solution, the genocide of the Jews of Europe, and to increase the pace of the Holocaust by establishing extermination camps specifically to kill Jews as well as other undesirables such as people who openly opposed Hitler.[24] [25]

This was an industrial method of genocide. Millions of Jews who had been confined to diseased and massively overcrowded ghettos were transported (often by train) todeath camps, where some were herded into a specific location (often a gas chamber), then killed with either gassing or shooting. Other prisoners simply committed suicide, unable to go on after witnessing the horrors of camp life. Afterwards, their bodies were often searched for any valuable or useful materials, such as gold fillings or hair, and their remains were then buried in mass graves or burned. Others were interned in the camps where they were given little food and disease was common.[26]

Escapes from the camps were few, but not unknown. The few Auschwitz escapes that succeeded were made possible by the Polish underground inside the camp and local people outside.[27] In 1940, the Auschwitz commandant reported that "the local population is fanatically Polish and … prepared to take any action against the hated SS camp personnel. Every prisoner who managed to escape can count on help the moment he reaches the wall of a first Polish farmstead."[28]

Russia and the Soviet Union

Czarist Russia

For much of the 19th century, Imperial Russia, which included much of Poland, contained the world's largest Jewish population. From Alexander III's reign until the end of Tsarist rule in Russia, many Jews were often restricted to the Jewish Pale of Settlement, and banned from many jobs and locations. They were subject to racist laws, like the May Laws, and were targeted in hundreds of violent anti-Jewish riots, called pogroms, that had unofficial state support. It was during this period that a hoax document alleging a global Jewish conspiracy, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", was created.

The Czarist government implemented programs that ensured the Jews remained isolated. However, the government tolerated their religious and national institutions and right to emigrate. The restrictions and discriminatory laws drove many Russian Jews to embrace liberal and socialist causes. However, following the Russian Revolution many politically active Jews forfeited their Jewish identity.[29] According to Leon Trotsky,

[Jews] considered themselves neither Jews nor Russians but socialists. To them, Jews were not a nation but a class of exploiters whose fate it was to dissolve and assimilate.

In the aftermath of Czarist Russia, Jews found themselves in a tragic predicament. Conservative Russians saw them as a disloyal and subversive element and the radicals viewed the Jews as a doomed social class.[30]

Soviet Union

Even though many of the Old Bolsheviks were ethnically Jewish, they sought to uproot Judaism and Zionism and established the Yevsektsiya to achieve this goal. By the end of the 1940s the Communist leadership of the former USSR had liquidated almost all Jewish organizations, with the exception of a few tokensynagogues. These synagogues were then placed under police surveillance, both openly and through the use of informants.

The campaign of 1948–1953 against so-called "rootless cosmopolitans," the alleged "Doctors' plot," the rise of "Zionology" and subsequent activities of official organizations such as the Anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public were officially carried out under the banner of "anti-Zionism,", and by the mid-1950s the state persecution of Soviet Jews emerged as a major human rights issue in the West as well as domestically.

Apartheid South Africa

During the thirties many Nationalist Party leaders and wide sections of the Afrikaner people came strongly under the influence of the Nazi movement which dominated Germany from 1933. There were many reasons for this. Germany was the traditional enemy of Britain, and whoever opposed Britain was seen as a friend of the Nationalists. Many Nationalists, moreover, believed that the opportunity to re-establish their lost republic would come with the defeat of the British Empire in the international arena. The more belligerent Hitler became, the higher hopes rose that a new era of Afrikanerdom was about to dawn.[31]

The National Party of D F Malan closely associated itself with the policies of the Nazis. Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe was controlled under the Aliens Act and came to an end during this period. Although Jews were accorded status as Europeans, they were not accepted into white society. The Kelvin Grove sports club for example had an exclusive Europeans Only and No Jews policy until recent times. Some 11 such sports clubs had similar policies. Many Jews lived in mixed race areas such as District Six, from where they were forcibly removed to make way for a whites-only development. The architect of grand apartheid Hendrick Verwoerdstudied in Germany where he obtained a degree in psychology. Controversy developed over whether South Africa's academics drew inspiration from Nazism when a box of glass eyes, owned by the German Nazi Eugen Fischer and used to classify differences among human beings, was discovered in Stellenbosch University.[32] Dan Newling wrote that "Fischer tools were used to teach volkekunde, an Afrikaans variant of cultural anthropology."[32]

In 1936, Verwoerd joined a deputation of six professors who were protesting against the admission to South Africa of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany."Following these demands of the Nationalist Party, Eric Louw, later Foreign Minister, introduced another anti-Semitic bill that strongly resembled Nazi legislation - the Aliens Amendment and Immigration Bill of 1939. His bill was a means of suppressing all Jews. This bill suggested that Jews threatened to overpower Protestants in the business world and were innately cunning and manipulative and that Jews were a danger to society. To support his claim, Louw maintained that Jews were involved in the Bolshevik Revolution and therefore intended to spread Communism worldwide. This bill defined Jews as anyone with parents who were at least partly Jewish regardless of actual religious faith or practices." [33]

Another organization with which the Nationalists found much in common during the thirties was the ' South African Gentile National Socialist Movement', headed byJohannes von Strauss von Moltke, whose object was to combat and destroy the alleged 'perversive influence of the Jews in economics, culture, religion, ethics, and statecraft and to re-establish European Aryan control in South Africa for the welfare of the Christian peoples of South Africa'.[31]

During the 1960s, Oswald Mosley, the British fascist leader, was a frequent visitor to South Africa, where he was received by the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet. At one time Mosley had two functioning branches of his organization in South Africa, and one of his supporters, Derek Alexander, was stationed in Johannesburg as his main agent.

Upon Verwoerd's assassination in 1966, BJ Vorster was elected by the National Party to replace him. Vorster had been a supporter of Hitler during WWII, his policy towards Jews in his own country however can best be described as ambivalent.

The 1980s saw the rise of far-right neo-Nazi groups such as the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging under Eugene Terreblanche. The AWB modeled itself after Hitler's National Socialist Party replete with fascist regalia and an emblem resembling the swastika.

There were numerous similarities between the laws passed by the Nazis against German Jews and the laws passed by the Afrikaner Nationalists against the Blacks. The scholar, Mzimela Sipo Elijah, observed similarities in theology between the 'role of the Deutsche Christen and the Dutch Reformed Church, on the one hand, and that of the Confessing Church and the English-speaking Churches on the other." This is known as the "apartheid heresy" controversy which became important in the struggle against institutional racism in South Africa.[34]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Religious persecution.

1. VanderKam, James C. (2001). An Introduction to Early Judaism. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans. pp. 18–24. ISBN 0-8028-4641-6.
2. [1][2]
3. Paley, Susan and Koesters, Adrian Gibbons, eds. "A Viewer's Guide to Contemporary Passion Plays", accessed March 12, 2006.
4. "Why the Jews? – Black Death". Holocaustcenterpgh.net. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
5. See Stéphane Barry and Norbert Gualde, La plus grande épidémie de l'histoire ("The greatest epidemics in history"), in L'Histoire magazine, n°310, June 2006, p.47 (French)
6. Anderson, Robert Warren; Johnson, Noel D.; Koyama, Mark (2015-09-01). "Jewish Persecutions and Weather Shocks: 1100-1800". The Economic Journal: n/a–n/a.doi:10.1111/ecoj.12331. ISSN 1468-0297.
7. Cohen, Mark R. Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages,Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 163. ISBN 0-691-01082-X
8. Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN 0-691-00807-8 pp.10,20
9. Lewis (1984), pp.10,20
10. Lewis (1987), p. 9, 27
11. Scheiber, A. "The Origins of Obadyah, the Norman Proselyte" Journal of Jewish Studies (Oxford), Vol. 5, 1954, p. 37.
12. Granada by Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling, Jewish Encyclopedia. 1906 ed.
13. Morris, Benny. Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–2001. Vintage Books, 2001, pp. 10–11.
14. Gerber (1986), p. 84
15. Yosef Qafiḥ, Ketavim (Collected Papers), Vol. 2, Jerusalem 1989, pp. 714-ff. (Hebrew)
16. Frankel, Jonathan: The Damascus Affair: 'Ritual Murder', Politics, and the Jews in 1840 (Cambridge University Press, 1997) ISBN 0-521-48396-4 p.1
17. Yossef Bodansky. "Islamic Anti-Semitism as a Political Instrument" Co-Produced by The Ariel Center for Policy Research and The Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, 1999. ISBN 0-9671391-0-4, ISBN 978-0-9671391-0-4
18. Patai, Raphael (1997). Jadid al-Islam: The Jewish "New Muslims" of Meshhed. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2652-8.
19. Ovendale, Ritchie (2004). "The "Wailing Wall" Riots". The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Wars. Pearson Education. pp. g.71. ISBN 0-58282320-X. The Mufti tried to establish Muslim rights and the Jews were deliberately antagonised by building works and noise.
20. Levin, Itamar (2001). Locked Doors: The Seizure of Jewish Property in Arab Countries. (Praeger/Greenwood) ISBN 0-275-97134-1, p. 6.
21. Friedman, Saul S. (1989). Without Future: The Plight of Syrian Jewry. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0-275-93313-5
22. Le Figaro, March 9, 1974, “Quatre femmes juives assassiness a Damas,” (Paris: International Conference for Deliverance of Jews in the Middle East, 1974), p. 33.
23. Dawidowicz, Lucy. The War Against the Jews, Bantam, 1986.p. 403
24. Manvell, Roger Goering New York:1972 Ballantine Books – War Leader Book #8 Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century
25. "Ukrainian mass Jewish grave found". BBC News. 2007-06-05. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
26. Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know," United States Holocaust Museum, 2006, p. 103.
27. Linn, Ruth. Escaping Auschwitz. A culture of forgetting, Cornell University Press, 2004, p. 20.
28. Swiebocki, Henryk. "Prisoner Escapes," in Berenbaum, Michael & Gutman, Yisrael (eds). Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994, p. 505.
29. "The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917, by Nora Levin; The Jews of the Soviet Union, by Benjamin Pinkus". Commentarymagazine.com. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
30. The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917, Nora Levin
31. Rise of the South African Reich, Brian Bunting http://web.archive.org/web/20070715031456/http://www.anc.org.za/books/reich4.html
32. ‘We look our past in the eye; similarly our future’Dan Newling in South Africa reports on the debate over university discovery of Nazi’s ‘race index’ tools http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/tablet/BD3EB841/2008502.shared
33. Elisabeth Lee Jamison, The Nazi Influence in the Formation of Apartheid in South Africa, Concord Review
34. Nazism and apartheid Mzimela Sipo Elijahhttp://digital.unam.na/handle/11070.1/4288

 Timeline of Jewish history 

This is a timeline of the development of Jews and Judaism. All dates are given according to the Common Era, not the Hebrew calendar.

See also Jewish history which includes links to individual country histories. For the history of persecution of Jews, see Antisemitism, History of antisemitism and Timeline of antisemitism.

Biblical period

c. 1440 BCE(?*)

c. 1250 BCE–c. 1025 BCE

Biblical Judges lead the people

c. 1025 BCE–c. 1010 BCE

King Saul

c. 1010 BCE–c. 970 BCE

King David

c. 970 BCE–c. 931 BCE

King Solomon

c. 1000 BCE–c. 900 BCE

Khirbet Qeiyafa inscription is discovered, demonstrating the historicity of an ancient Israelite religion and also giving evidence to figures as early as King David as being real and not mythological.[1] Further evidence of King David's existence was found at the excavation of the Tel Dan Stele.

c. 960 BCE

Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem completed

c. 931 BCE

Split between Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and Kingdom of Judah

c. 931 BCE–c. 913 BCE

King Rehoboam of Judah

c. 931 BCE–c. 910 BCE

King Jeroboam of Israel

c. 900 BCE

According to the documentary hypothesis, J Source of the Torah is written[2]

840 BCE

Mesha inscription describes Moabite victory over a son of King Omri of Israel.

c. 800 BCE

According to the documentary hypothesis, E Source of the Torah is written[2]

c. 740 BCE–c. 700 BCE

prophesy of Isaiah

c. 740 BCE–c. 722 BCE

Kingdom of Israel falls to Neo-Assyrian Empire

c. 725 BCE–c. 650 BCE

Ketef Hinnom scrolls containing the text of the Priestly blessing[3]

c. 715 BCE–c. 687 BCE

King Hezekiah of Judah

c. 690 BCE

According to the documentary hypothesis, P Source of the Torah is written[2]

c. 649 BCE–c. 609 BCE

King Josiah of Judah institutes major reforms.

c. 626 BCЕ – c. 587 BCE

prophecy of Jeremiah

c. 620 BCE

According to the documentary hypothesis, D Source of the Torah is written.[2]Joshua, Judges, Samuel I and II, Kings I and II are also written, presumably by the same authors[4]

597 BCE

first deportation to Babylon

586 BCE

Jerusalem falls to Nebuchadnezzar and Solomon's Temple destroyed

539 BCE

Jews allowed to return to Jerusalem, by permission of Cyrus

Model of the Second Temple of Jerusalem

520 BCE

Prophecy of Zechariah

516 BCE

Second Temple of Jerusalem consecrated

c. 475 BCE

Often associated with Xerxes I of Persia, Queen Esther revealed her identity to the king and began to plead for her people, pointing to Haman as the evil schemer plotting to destroy them.

c. 460 BCE

Seeing anarchy breaking out in Judea, Xerxes' successor Persian King Artaxerxes sent Ezra to restore order.

c. 450 BCE

Documentary hypothesis suggests that the five books were created by combining the four originally independent sources[5]

* Date unknown: Traditionally, slavery in Egypt is given as Jewish years 2332 to 2448 ;[6] This date would compute to 1428 BCE to 1312 BCE. 1 Kings 6:1 states that the Exodus occurred 480 years before the construction of Solomon's Temple; i.e., 1440 BCE (960 BCE – 480 years); see: The Exodus and Moses.

Post-Biblical history

332 BCE

Alexander the Great conquers Phoenicia and Gaza, probably passing by Judea without entering the Jewish dominated hill country on his way into Egypt.

200 BCE–100 CE

At some point during this era the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is canonized. Jewish religious works that were explicitly written after the time of Ezra were not canonized, although many became popular among many groups of Jews. Those works that made it into the Greek translation of the Bible (the Septuagint) became known as the deuterocanonical books.

167–161 BCE

The Maccabees (Hasmoneans) revolt against the Hellenistic Empire of Seleucids, led by Judah Maccabee, resulting in victory and installation of the Hanukkahholiday.

157–129 BCE

Hasmonean dynasty establishes its royal dominance in Judea during renewed war with Seleucid Empire.

63 BCE

Pompey the Great lay siege to and entered the Temple, Judea became a client kingdom of Rome.

40 BCE–4 BCE

Herod the Great, appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate.

1st century CE

6 CE

Province of Roman Judaea created by merging Judea proper, Samaria andIdumea.

10 CE

Hillel the Elder, considered the greatest Torah sage, dies, leading to the dominance of Shammai till 30, see also Hillel and Shammai.

26–36 CE

Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus killed by the Romans.

30 CE

Helena of Adiabene, a vassal Parthian kingdom in Mesopotamia, converts to Israelite religion. Significant numbers of Adiabene population follow her, later also providing limited support for Jews during Jewish-Roman wars. In the following centuries the community mostly converts to Christianity.

30–70 CE

Schism within Judaism during the Second Temple era. A sect within Hellenised Jewish society starts Jewish Christianity, see also Rejection of Jesus.

Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans (1850 painting by David Roberts)

66–70

The Great Jewish Revolt against Roman occupation ended with destruction of theSecond Temple and the fall of Jerusalem. 1,100,000 people are killed by the Romans during the siege, and 97,000 captured and enslaved.[7] The Sanhedrin was relocated toYavne by Yochanan ben Zakai, see also Council of Jamnia. Fiscus Judaicus levied on all Jews of the Roman Empire whether they aided the revolt or not.

70–200

Period of the Tannaim, rabbis who organized and elucidated the Jewish oral law. The decisions of the Tannaim are contained in the Mishnah, Beraita, Tosefta, and various Midrash compilations.[8]

73

Final events of the Great Jewish Revolt – the fall of Masada. Christianity starts off as a Jewish sect and then develops its own texts and ideology and branches off from Judaism to become a distinct religion.

2nd century

115–117

Kitos War (Revolt against Trajan) – a second Jewish-Roman War initiated in large Jewish communities of Cyprus, Cyrene (modern Libya), Aegipta (modern Egypt) and Mesopotamia (modern Syria and Iraq). It led to mutual killing of hundreds of thousands Jews, Greeks and Romans, ending with a total defeat of Jewish rebels and complete extermination of Jews in Cyprus and Cyrene by the newly installedEmperor Hadrian.

131–136

The Roman emperor Hadrian, among other provocations, renames Jerusalem"Aelia Capitolina" and prohibits circumcision. Bar Kokhba (Bar Kosiba) leads a largeJewish revolt against Rome in response to Hadrian's actions. In the aftermath, most Jewish population is annihilated (about 580,000 killed) and Hadrian renames the province of Judea to Syria Palaestina, and attempts to root out Judaism.

136

Rabbi Akiva is martyred.

138

With Emperor Hadrian's death, the persecution of Jews within the Roman Empire is eased and Jews are allowed to visit Jerusalem on Tisha B'av. In the following centuries the Jewish center moves to Galilee.

3rd century

200

The Mishnah, the standardization of the Jewish oral law as it stands today, is redacted by Judah haNasi in the land of Israel.

220–500

Period of the amoraim, the rabbis of the Talmud.

4th century

315–337

Roman Emperor Constantine I enacts new restrictive legislation. Conversion of Christians to Judaism is outlawed, congregations for religious services are curtailed, but Jews are also allowed to enter Jerusalem on the anniversary of the Temple's destruction.

351–352

Jewish revolt, directed against Constantius Gallus, is put down.

358

Because of the increasing danger of Roman persecution, Hillel II creates amathematical calendar for calculating the Jewish month. After adopting the calendar, the Sanhedrin in Tiberias is dissolved.

361–363

The last pagan Roman Emperor, Julian, allows the Jews to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt" and to rebuild the Second Temple. Shortly after, the Emperor is assassinated, and the plan is dissolved.

363

Galilee earthquake of 363

379

In India, the Hindu king Sira Primal, also known as Iru Brahman, issued what was engraved on a tablet of brass, his permission to Jews to live freely, buildsynagogue, own property without conditions attached and as long as the world and moon exist.[9] [10]

5th century

438

The Empress Eudocia removes the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site and the heads of the Community in Galilee issue a call "to the great and mighty people of the Jews": "Know that the end of the exile of our people has come"!

450

Redaction of Talmud Yerushalmi (Talmud of Jerusalem)

6th century

500–523

Yosef Dhu Nuwas, King of Himyarite Kingdom (Modern Yemen) converting to Judaism, upgrading existing Yemenese Jewish center. His kingdom falls in a war against Axum and the Christians.

550

The main redaction of Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) is completed under Rabbis Ravina and Ashi. To a lesser degree, the text continues to be modified for the next 200 years.

550–700

Period of the savoraim, the sages in Persia who put the Talmud in its final form.

555–572

The Fourth Samaritan Revolt against Byzantium results in great reduction of theSamaritan community, their Israelite faith is outlawed. Neighbouring Jews, who mostly reside in Galilee, are also affected by the oppressive rule of the Byzantines.

7th century

610–628

Jews of Galilee led by Benjamin of Tiberias gain autonomy in Jerusalem afterrevolting against Heraclius as a joint military campaign with ally Sassanid Empireunder Khosrau II and Jewish militias from Persia, but are subsequently massacred.

7th century

The rise and domination of Islam among largely pagan Arabs in the Arabian peninsula results in the almost complete removal and conversion of the ancient Jewish communities there, and sack of Levant from the hands of Byzantines.

8th century

700–1250

Period of the Gaonim (the Gaonic era). Jews in southern Europe and Asia Minor lived under the often intolerant rule of Christian Kings and clerics. Most Jews lived in the Muslim Arab realm (Andalusia, North Africa, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen). Despite sporadic periods of persecution, Jewish communal and cultural life flowered in this period. The universally recognized centers of Jewish life were inJerusalem and Tiberias (Syria), Sura and Pumbeditha (Iraq). The heads of these law schools were the Gaonim, who were consulted on matters of law by Jews throughout the world. During this time, the Niqqud is invented in Tiberias.

711

Muslim armies invade and occupy most of Spain (At this time Jews made up about 8% of Spain's population). Under Christian rule, Jews had been subject to frequent and intense persecution, which was formalized under Muslim rule due to thedhimmi rules in Islam. Jews and Christians had to pay the jizya. Some sources mark this as the beginning of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, though most mention 912.

740

The Khazar (a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia) King and members of the upper class adopt Judaism. The Khazarate lasts until 10th century, being overrun by Russians, and finally conquered by Russian and Byzantian forces in 1016.

760

The Karaites reject the authority of the oral law, and split off from rabbinic Judaism.

9th century

807

Abbassid Caliph Harun al-Rashid orders all Jews in the Caliphate to wear a yellow belt, with Christians to wear a blue one.

846

In Sura, Iraq, Rav Amram Gaon compiles his siddur (Jewish prayer book.)

850

al-Mutawakkil made a decree ordering dhimmi Jews and Christians to wear garments distinguishing them from Muslims, their places of worship to be destroyed, and allowing them little involvement in government or official matters.

871

An incomplete marriage contract dated to October 6 of this year is the earliest dated document found in the papers of the Cairo Geniza.

10th century

912–1013

The Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. Abd-ar-Rahman III becomes Caliph ofSpain in 912, ushering in the height of tolerance. Muslims granted Jews and Christians exemptions from military service, the right to their own courts of law, and a guarantee of safety of their property. Jewish poets, scholars, scientists, statesmen and philosophers flourished in and were an integral part of the extensive Arab civilization. This period ended with the Cordoba massacre in 1013.

940

In Iraq, Saadia Gaon compiles his siddur (Jewish prayer book).

11th century

1008–1013

Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ("the Mad") issues severe restrictions against Jews in the Fatimid Empire. All Jews are forced to wear a heavy wooden "golden calf"around their necks. Christians had to wear a large wooden cross and members of both groups had to wear black hats.

1013

During the fall of the city, Sulayman's troops looted Córdoba and massacred citizens of the city, including many Jews. Prominent Jews in Córdoba, such as Samuel ibn Naghrela were forced to flee to the city in 1013.Siege of Cordoba

1013–1073

Rabbi Yitchaki Alfassi (from Morocco, later Spain) writes the Rif, an important work of Jewish law.

1016

The Jewish community of Kairouan, Tunisia is forced to choose between conversion and expulsion.[11]

1033

Following their conquest of the city from the Maghrawa tribe, the forces of Tamim, chief of the Zenata Berber Banu Ifran tribe, perpetrated a massacre of Jews in Fez.Fez massacre

1040–1105

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi) writes important commentaries on almost the entireTanakh (Hebrew Bible) and Talmud.

1066 December 30

Granada massacre: Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in Granada, crucifiedJewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacred most of the Jewish population of the city. "More than 1,500 Jewish families, numbering 4,000 persons, fell in one day."[12]

1090

Granada was captured by Iban Iashufin, King of the Almoravides. The Jewish community, believed to have sided with the Christians, was destroyed. Many fled, penniless, to Christian Toledo.[13]

1095–1291

Christian Crusades begin, sparking warfare with Islam in Palestine. Crusaders temporarily capture Jerusalem in 1099. Tens of thousands of Jews are killed by European crusaders throughout Europe and in the Middle East.

12th century

1100–1275

Time of the tosafot, Talmudic commentators who carried on Rashi's work. They include some of his descendants.

1107

Moroccan Almoravid ruler Yoseph Ibn Tashfin expels Moroccan Jews who do not convert to Islam.

1135–1204

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, aka Maimonides or the Rambam is the leading rabbi ofSephardic Jewry. Among his many accomplishments, he writes an influential code of law (The Mishneh Torah) as well as, in Arabic, the most influential philosophical work (Guide for the Perplexed) in Jewish history.

1141

Yehuda Halevi issues a call to the Jews to emigrate to Palestine. He is buried in Jerusalem.

1148

Berbers oblige Jews to convert in Cordoba. Maimonides leaves Cordoba

1187

Upon the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin summons the Jews and permits them to resettle in the city.[14] In particular, the residents of Ashkelon, a large Jewish settlement, respond to his request.[15]

13th century

1250–1300

The life of Moses de Leon, of Spain. He publishes to the public the Zohar the 2nd century CE esoteric interpretations of the Torah by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his disciples. This begins the modern form of Kabbalah (esoteric Jewish mysticism).

1250–1550

Period of the Rishonim, the medieval rabbinic sages. Most Jews at this time lived in lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea or in Western Europe under feudal systems. With the decline of Muslim and Jewish centers of power in Iraq, there was no single place in the world which was a recognized authority for deciding matters of Jewish law and practice. Consequently, the rabbis recognized the need for writing commentaries on the Torah and Talmud and for writing law codes that would allow Jews anywhere in the world to be able to continue living in the Jewish tradition.

1267

Nahmanides (Ramban) settles in Jerusalem and builds the Ramban Synagogue.

1270–1343

Rabbi Jacob ben Asher of Spain writes the Arba'ah Turim (Four Rows of Jewish Law).

1276

Massacre in Fez to kill all Jews stopped by intervention of the Emir.[16]

1290

Jews are expelled from England by Edward I after the banning of usury in the 1275Statute of Jewry.

14th century

Pottery in the museum of the synagogue of Sopron, Hungary, built around 1300.

1300

Rabbi Levi ben Gershom, aka Gersonides. A 14th-century French Jewish philosopher best known for his Sefer Milhamot Adonai ("The Book of the Wars of the Lord") as well as for his philosophical commentaries.

1306–1394

Jews are repeatedly expelled from France and readmitted, for a price.

1343

Jews persecuted in Western Europe are invited to Poland by Casimir the Great.

1346–1353

Jews scapegoated as the cause of the growing Black Death. See also Medieval antisemitism

1348

Pope Clement VI issued two papal bulls in 1348 (6 July and 26 September), the latter named Quamvis Perfidiam, which condemned the violence and said those who blamed the plague on the Jews had been "seduced by that liar, the Devil."[17]He urged clergy to take action to protect Jews as he had done.

1349

The Strasbourg massacre

1350s

Genetic testing conducted on Ashkenazi Jews have pointed to a bottleneck that was created in the 1300s amongst the Jewish population where it dwindled down to as few as 250–420 people.[18]

15th century

1478

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain institute the Spanish Inquisition.

1486

First Jewish prayer book published in Italy.

1488–1575

Rabbi Yosef Karo spends 20 years compiling the Beit Yosef, an enormous guide to Jewish law. He then writes a more concise guide, the Shulkhan Arukh, that becomes the standard law guide for the next 400 years. Born in Spain, Yosef Karo lives and dies in Safed.

1488

Obadiah ben Abraham, commentator on the Mishnah, arrives in Jerusalem and marks a new epoch for the Jewish community.

1492

The Alhambra Decree: Approximately 200,000 Jews are expelled from Spain, The expelled Jews relocate to the Netherlands, Turkey, Arab lands, and Judea; some eventually go to South and Central America. However, most emigrate to Poland. In later centuries, more than 50% of Jewish world population lived in Poland. Many Jews remain in Spain after publicly converting to Christianity, becoming Crypto-Jews.

1492

Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire issued a formal invitation to the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal and sent out ships to safely bring Jews to his empire.

1493

Jews expelled from Sicily. As many as 137,000 exiled.

1496

Jews expelled from Portugal and from many German cities.

16th century

1501

King Alexander of Poland readmits Jews to Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

1516

Ghetto of Venice established, the first Jewish ghetto in Europe. Many others follow.

1525–1572

Rabbi Moshe Isserles (The Rema) of Kraków writes an extensive gloss to theShulkhan Arukh called the Mappah, extending its application to Ashkenazi Jewry.

1534

King Sigismund I of Poland abolishes the law that required Jews to wear special clothes.

1534

First Yiddish book published, in Poland.

1534–1572

Isaac Luria ("the Arizal") teaches Kabbalah in Jerusalem and (mainly) Safed to select disciples. Some of those, such as Ibn Tebul, Israel Sarug and mostly Chaim Vital, put his teachings into writing. While the Sarugian versions are published shortly afterwards in Italy and Holland, the Vitalian texts remain in manuscripti for as long as three centuries.

1547

First Hebrew Jewish printing house in Lublin.

1550

Jews expelled from Genoa, Italy.

1550

Moses ben Jacob Cordovero founds a Kabbalah academy in Safed.

1567

First Jewish university Jeshiva was founded in Poland.

1577

A Hebrew printing press is established in Safed, the first press in Palestine and the first in Asia.

1580–1764

First session of the Council of Four Lands (Va'ad Arba' Aratzot) in Lublin, Poland. 70 delegates from local Jewish kehillot meet to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community.

17th century

1621–1630

Shelah HaKadosh writes his most famous work after emigrating to the Land of Israel.

1623

First time separate (Va'ad) Jewish Sejm for Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

1626–1676

False Messiah Sabbatai Zevi.

1633

Jews of Poznań granted a privilege of forbidding Christians to enter into their city.

1648

Jewish population of Poland reached 450,000 (i.e. 4% of the 11000000 population of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is Jewish), Bohemia 40,000 and Moravia 25,000. Worldwide population of Jewry is estimated at 750,000.

1648–1655

The Ukrainian Cossack Bohdan Chmielnicki leads a massacre of Polish gentry and Jewry that leaves an estimated 65,000 Jews dead and a similar number of gentry. The total decrease in the number of Jews is estimated at 100,000. [11]

1655

Jews readmitted to England by Oliver Cromwell.

1660

1660 destruction of Safed.[19]

1679

Jews of Yemen expelled to Mawza

18th century

1700–1760

Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, founds Hasidic Judaism, a way to approach God through meditation and fervent joy. He and his disciples attract many followers, and establish numerous Hasidic sects. The European Jewish opponents of Hasidim (known as Mitnagdim) argue that one should follow a more scholarly approach to Judaism. Some of the more well-known Hasidic sects today include Bobover, Breslover, Gerer, Lubavitch (Chabad) and Satmar Hasidim.

1700

Rabbi Judah HeHasid makes aliyah to Palestine accompanied by hundreds of his followers. A few days after his arrival, Rabbi Yehuda dies suddenly.

1700

Sir Solomon de Medina is knighted by William III, making him the first Jew in England to receive that honour.

1720

Unpaid Arab creditors burn the synagogue unfinished by immigrants of Rabbi Yehuda and expel all Ashkenazi Jews from Jerusalem. See also Hurva Synagogue

1720–1797

Rabbi Elijah of Vilna, the Vilna Gaon.

1729–1786

Moses Mendelssohn and the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement. He strove to bring an end to the isolation of the Jews so that they would be able to embrace the culture of the Western world, and in turn be embraced by gentiles as equals. The Haskalah opened the door for the development of all the modern Jewish denominations and the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, but it also paved the way for many who, wishing to be fully accepted into Christian society, converted to Christianity or chose to assimilate to emulate it.

1740

Parliament of Great Britain passes a general act permitting Jews to be naturalized in the American colonies. Previously, several colonies had also permitted Jews to be naturalized without taking the standard oath "upon the true faith of a Christian."

1740

Ottoman authorities invite Rabbi Haim Abulafia (1660–1744), renowned Kabbalist and Rabbi of Izmir, to come to the Holy Land. Rabbi Abulafia is to rebuild the city of Tiberias, which has lain desolate for some 70 years. The city's revival is seen by many as a sign of the coming of the Messiah.[20]

1740–1750

Thousands immigrate to Palestine under the influence of Messianic predictions. The large immigration greatly increases the size and strength of the Jewish Settlement in Palestine.[20]

1747

Rabbi Abraham Gershon of Kitov (d. 1761) is the first immigrant of the Hasidic Aliyah. He is a respected Talmudic scholar, mystic, and brother-in-law of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (founder of the Hasidic movement). Rabbi Abraham first settles in Hebron. Later, he relocates to Jerusalem at the behest of its residents.[21]

1759

Followers of Jacob Frank joined ranks of Polish szlachta (gentry) of Jewish origins.

1772–1795

Partitions of Poland between Russia, Kingdom of Prussia and Austria. Main bulk of World Jewry lives now in those 3 countries. Old privileges of Jewish communities are denounced.

1775–1781

American Revolution; guaranteed the freedom of religion.[22]

1775

Mob violence against the Jews of Hebron.[23]

1789

The French Revolution. In 1791 France grants full right to Jews and allows them to become citizens, under certain conditions.[24]

1790

In the USA, President George Washington sends a letter to the Jewish community in Rhode Island. He writes that he envisions a country "which gives bigotry no sanction...persecution no assistance". Despite the fact that the US was a predominantly Protestant country, theoretically Jews are given full rights. In addition, the mentality of Jewish immigrants shaped by their role as merchants in Eastern Europe meant they were well-prepared to compete in American society.

1791

Russia creates the Pale of Settlement that includes land acquired from Poland with a huge Jewish population and in the same year Crimea. The Jewish population of the Pale was 750,000. 450,000 Jews lived in the Prussian and Austrian parts of Poland.[25]

1798

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov travels to Palestine.

1799

While French troops were in Palestine besieging the city of Acre, Napoleon prepared a Proclamation requesting Asian and African Jews to help him conquer Jerusalem, but his unsuccessful attempt to capture Acre prevented it from being issued.

1799

Mob violence on Jews in Safed.[23]

19th century

Banner from the first issue of the Jidische Folkschtime (Yiddish People's Voice), published in Stockholm, 12 January 1917.

1800–1900

The Golden Age of Yiddish literature, the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, and the revival of Hebrew literature.[26]

1808–1840

Large-scale aliyah in hope of Hastening Redemption in anticipation of the arrival of the Messiah in 1840.[27]

1820–1860

The development of Orthodox Judaism, a set of traditionalist movements that resisted the influences of modernization that arose in response to the European emancipation and Enlightenment movements; characterized by continued strict adherence to Halakha.

1830

Greece grants citizenship to Jews.

1831

Jewish militias take part in the defense of Warsaw against Russians.

1834–1835

Muslims, Druze attack Jews in Safed, Hebron & in Jerusalem.[28] [29] [30] [31] [32] (See related: Safed plunder).

1837

Moses Haim Montefiore is knighted by Queen Victoria

1837

Galilee earthquake of 1837 devastates Jewish communities of Safed and Tiberias.

1838–1933

Rabbi Yisroel Meir ha-Kohen (Chofetz Chaim) opens an important yeshiva. He writes an authoritative Halakhic work, Mishnah Berurah.

Mid-19th century

Beginning of the rise of classical Reform Judaism.

Mid-19th century

Rabbi Israel Salanter develops the Mussar Movement. While teaching that Jewish law is binding, he dismisses current philosophical debate and advocates the ethical teachings as the essence of Judaism.

Mid-19th century

Positive-Historical Judaism, later known as Conservative Judaism, is developed.

1841

David Levy Yulee of Florida is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first Jew elected to Congress.

1851

Norway allows Jews to enter the country. They are not emancipated until 1891.

1858

Jews emancipated in England.

1860

Alliance Israelite Universelle, an international Jewish organization is founded inParis with the goal to protect Jewish rights as citizens.

1860–1875

Moshe Montefiori builds Jewish neighbourhoods outside the Old City of Jerusalem starting with Mishkenot Sha'ananim.

1860–1864

Jews are taking part in Polish national movement, that was followed by January rising.

1860–1943

Henrietta Szold: educator, author, social worker and founder of Hadassah.

1861

The Zion Society is formed in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

1862

Jews are given equal rights in Russian-controlled Congress Poland. The privileges of some towns regarding prohibition of Jewish settlement are revoked. In Leipzig,Moses Hess publishes the book Rome and Jerusalem, the first book to call for the establishment of a Jewish socialist commonwealth in Palestine. The book is also notable for giving the impetus for the Labor Zionist movement.

1867

Jews emancipated in Hungary.

1868

Benjamin Disraeli becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Though converted to Christianity as a child, he is the first person of Jewish descent to become a leader of government in Europe.

1870–1890

Russian Zionist group Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) and Bilu (est. 1882) set up a series of Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel, financially aided by BaronEdmond James de Rothschild. In Rishon LeZion Eliezer ben Yehuda revivesHebrew as spoken modern language.

1870

Jews emancipated in Italy.

1871

Jews emancipated in Germany.

1875

Reform Judaism's Hebrew Union College is founded in Cincinnati. Its founder was Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the architect of American Reform Judaism.[33]

1877

New Hampshire becomes the last state to give Jews equal political rights.

1878

Petah Tikva is founded by religious pioneers from Jerusalem, led by Yehoshua Stampfer.

1880

World Jewish population around 7.7 million, 90% in Europe, mostly Eastern Europe; around 3.5 million in the former Polish provinces.

1881–1884, 1903–1906, 1918–1920

Three major waves of pogroms kill tens of thousands of Jews in Russia and Ukraine. More than two million Russian Jews emigrate in the period 1881–1920.

1881

On December 30–31, the First Congress of all Zionist Unions for the colonization of Palestine was held at Focşani, Romania.

1882–1903

The First Aliyah, a major wave of Jewish immigrants to build a homeland inPalestine.[34]

1886

Rabbi Sabato Morais and Alexander Kohut begin to champion the Conservative Jewish reaction to American Reform, and establish The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as a school of 'enlightened Orthodoxy'.

1890

The term "Zionism" is coined by an Austrian Jewish publicist Nathan Birnbaum in his journal Self Emancipation and was defined as the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.

1895

First published book by Sigmund Freud.

1897

In response to the Dreyfus affair, Theodore Herzl writes Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), advocating the creation of a free and independent Jewish state in Israel.

1897

The Bund (General Jewish Labour Bund) is formed in Russia.

1897

First Russian Empire Census: 5,200,000 of Jews, 4,900,000 in the Pale. The lands of former Poland have 1,300,000 Jews or 14% of population.

1897

The First Zionist Congress was held at Basel, which brought the World Zionist Organization (WZO) into being.

20th century

1902

Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schechter reorganizes the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and makes it into the flagship institution of Conservative Judaism.

1903

St. Petersburg's Znamya newspaper publishes a literary hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Kishinev Pogrom caused by accusations that Jews practice cannibalism.

1905

1905 Russian Revolution accompanied by pogroms.

1915

Yeshiva College (later University) and its Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Rabbinical Seminary is established in New York for training in a Modern Orthodox milieu.

1916

Louis Brandeis, on the first of June, is confirmed as the United States' first JewishSupreme Court justice. Brandeis was nominated by American President Woodrow Wilson.

The Balfour Declaration which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and protected the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities.

1917

The British defeat the Turks and gain control of Palestine. The British issue the Balfour Declaration which gives official British support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". Many Jews interpret this to mean that all of Palestine was to become a Jewish state.[35]

1917 February

The Pale of Settlement is abolished, and Jews get equal rights. The Russian civil war leads to over 2000 pogroms with tens of thousands murdered and hundreds of thousand made homeless.

1918–1939

The period between the two World Wars is often referred to as the "golden age" ofhazzanut (cantors). Some of the great Jewish cantors of this era include Abraham Davis, Moshe Koussevitzky, Zavel Kwartin (1874–1953), Jan Peerce, Josef "Yossele" Rosenblatt (1882–1933), Gershon Sirota (1874–1943), and Laibale Waldman.

1919

February 15: Over 1,200 Jews killed in Khmelnitsky pogrom.

March 25: Around 4,000 Jews killed by Cossack troops in Tetiev.

June 17: 800 Jews decapitated in assembly-line fashion in Dubovo.

1920

At the San Remo conference Britain receives the League of Nations' British Mandate of Palestine.

April 4–7: Five Jews killed and 216 wounded in the Jerusalem riots

1920s–present

A variety of Jewish authors, including Gertrude Stein, Allen Ginsberg, Saul Bellow,Adrienne Rich and Philip Roth, sometimes drawing on Jewish culture and history, flourish and become highly influential on the Anglophone literary scene.

1921

British military administration of the Mandate is replaced by civilian rule.

1921

Britain proclaims that all of Palestine east of the Jordan River is forever closed to Jewish settlement, but not to Arab settlement.

1921

Polish-Soviet peace treaty in Riga. Citizens of both sides are given rights to choose the country. Hundred thousands of Jews, especially small businesses forbidden in the Soviets, move to Poland.

1922

Reform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise established the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. (It merged with Hebrew Union College in 1950.)

1923

Britain gives the Golan Heights to the French Mandate of Syria. Arab immigration is allowed; Jewish immigration is not.

1924

2,989,000 Jews according to religion poll in Poland (10.5% of total). Jewish youth consisted 23% of students of high schools and 26% of students of universities.

1926

Prior to World War I, there were few Hasidic yeshivas in Europe. On Lag BaOmer1926, Rabbi Shlomo Chanoch Hacohen Rabinowicz, the fourth Radomsker Rebbe, declared, "The time has come to found yeshivas where the younger generation will be able to learn and toil in Torah", leading to the founding of the Keser Torahnetwork of 36 yeshivas in pre-war Poland.[36]

1929

A long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalates into the 1929 Palestine riots. The riots took the form in the most part of attacks by Arabs on Jews resulting in the 1929 Hebron massacre, the 1929 Safed pogrom and violence against Jews in Jerusalem.

1930

World Jewry: 15,000,000. Main countries USA(4,000,000), Poland (3,500,000 11% of total), Soviet Union (2,700,000 2% of total), Romania (1,000,000 6% of total). Palestine 175,000 or 17% of total 1,036,000.

1933

Hitler takes over Germany; his anti-Semitic sentiments are well-known, prompting numerous Jews to emigrate.

1935

Regina Jonas became the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi.[37]

1937

Adin Steinsaltz born, author of the first comprehensive Babylonian Talmudcommentary since Rashi in the 11th century.

1939

The British government issues the 'White Paper'. The paper proposed a limit of 10,000 Jewish immigrants for each year between 1940–1944, plus 25,000 refugees for any emergency arising during that period.

1938–1945

The Holocaust (Ha Shoah), resulting in the methodical extermination of nearly 6 million Jews across Europe.

1940s–present

Various Jewish filmmakers, including Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and the Coen Brothers, frequently draw on Jewish philosophy and humor, and become some of the most artistically and popularly successful in the history of the medium.

1945–1948

Post-Holocaust refugee crisis. British attempts to detain Jews attempting to enter Palestine illegally.

1946–1948

The violent struggle for the creation of a Jewish state in the British mandate of Palestine is intensified by Jewish defense groups: Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi (group).

November 29, 1947

The United Nations approves the creation of a Jewish State and an Arab State in the British mandate of Palestine.

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israeli independence on May 14, 1948, below a portrait of Theodor Herzl

May 14, 1948

The State of Israel declares itself as an independent Jewish state hours before the British Mandate is due to expire. Within eleven minutes, it is de facto recognized by the United States. Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Union's UN ambassador, calls for the UN to accept Israel as a member state. The UN approves.

May 15, 1948

1948 Arab-Israeli War: Syria, Iraq, Transjordan,Lebanon and Egypt invade Israel hours after its creation. The attack is repulsed, and Israel conquers more territory. A Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim lands results, as up to a million Jews flee or are expelled from Arab and Muslim nations. Most settle in Israel. See also 1949 Armistice Agreements.

1948–1949

Almost 250,000 Holocaust survivors make their way to Israel. "Operation Magic Carpet" brings thousands of Yemenite Jews to Israel.

1956

The 1956 Suez War Egypt blockades the Gulf of Aqaba, and closes the Suez canal to Israeli shipping. Egypt's President Nasser calls for the destruction of Israel. Israel, England, and France go to war and force Egypt to end the blockade of Aqaba, and open the canal to all nations.

1964

Jewish-Christian relations are revolutionized by the Roman Catholic Church'sVatican II.

1966

Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888–1970) becomes the first Hebrew writer to win theNobel Prize in literature.

May 16, 1967

Egyptian President Nasser demands that the UN dismantle the UN Emergency Force I (UNEF I) between Israel and Egypt. The UN complies and the last UN peacekeeper is out of Sinai and Gaza by May 19.

1967 May

Egyptian PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser closes the strategic Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and states that Egypt is in a state of war with Israel. Egyptian troops begin massing in the Sinai.

June 5–10, 1967

The Six-Day War. Israel launches a pre-emptive strike against Egypt, Jordan, andSyria. Israeli aircraft destroy the bulk of the Arab air forces on the ground in asurprise attack, followed by Israeli ground offensives which see Israel decisively defeat the Arab forces and capture the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and theGolan Heights.

September 1, 1967

The Arab Leaders meet in Khartoum, Sudan. The Three No's of Khartoum: No recognition of Israel. No negotiations with Israel. No peace with Israel.

1968

Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan formally creates a separate Reconstructionist Judaismmovement by setting up the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.[38] [39]

1969

First group of African Hebrew Israelites begin to migrate to Israel under the leadership of Ben Ammi Ben Israel.

Mid-1970s to present

Growing revival of Klezmer music (The folk music of European Jews).[12], [13]

1972

Sally Priesand became the first female rabbi ordained in America, and is believed to be only the second woman ever to be formally ordained in the history of Judaism.[40]

1972

Mark Spitz sets the record for most gold medals won in a single Olympic Games(seven) in the 1972 Summer Olympics. The Munich massacre occurs when Israeli athletes are taken hostage by Black September terrorists. The hostages are killed during a failed rescue attempt.

October 6–24, 1973

The Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria, backed up by expeditionary forces from other Arab nations, launch a surprise attack against Israel on Yom Kippur. After absorbing the initial attacks, Israel recaptures lost ground and then pushes into Egypt and Syria. Subsequently, OPEC reduces oil production, driving up oil prices and triggering a global economic crisis.

1975

President Gerald Ford signs legislation including the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which ties U.S. trade benefits to the Soviet Union to freedom of emigration for Jews.

1975

United Nations adopts resolution equating Zionism with racism. Rescinded in 1991.

1976

Israel rescues hostages taken to Entebbe, Uganda.

September 18, 1978

At Camp David, near Washington D.C., Israel and Egypt sign a comprehensive peace treaty, The Camp David Accord, which included the withdrawal of Israel from the Sinai.

1978

Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer receives Nobel Prize

1979

Prime Minister Menachem Begin and President Anwar Sadat are awarded Nobel Peace Prize.

1979–1983

Operation Elijah: Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry.

1982 June–December

The Lebanon War. Israel invades Southern Lebanon to drive out the PLO.

1983

American Reform Jews formally accept patrilineal descent, creating a new definition of who is a Jew.

1984–1985

Operations Moses, Joshua: Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry by Israel.[41]

1986

Elie Wiesel wins the Nobel Peace Prize

1986

Nathan Sharansky, Soviet Jewish dissident, is freed from prison.

1987

Beginning of the First Intifada against Israel.

1989

Fall of the Berlin Wall between East and West Germany, collapse of the communist East German government, and the beginning of Germany's reunification (which formally began in October 1990).

1990

The Soviet Union opens its borders for the three million Soviet Jews who had been held as virtual prisoners within their own country. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews choose to leave the Soviet Union and move to Israel.

1990–1991

Iraq invades Kuwait, triggering a war between Iraq and Allied United Nations forces. Israel is hit by 39 Scud missiles from Iraq.

1991

Operation Solomon: Rescue of the remainder of Ethiopian Jewry in a twenty-four-hour airlift.

October 30, 1991

The Madrid Peace Conference opens in Spain, sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union.

April 22, 1993

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated.

Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands at the signing of the Oslo Accords, with Bill Clinton behind them, 1993

September 13, 1993

Israel and PLO sign the Oslo Accords.

1994

The Lubavitcher (Chabad) Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, dies.

October 26, 1994

Israel and Jordan sign an official peace treaty. Israel cedes a small amount of contested land to Jordan, and the countries open official diplomatic relations, with open borders and free trade.

December 10, 1994

Arafat, Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres share the Nobel Peace Prize.[42]

November 4, 1995

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated.

1996

Peres loses election to Benyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu (Likud party).

1999

Ehud Barak elected Prime Minister of Israel.

21st century

May 24, 2000

Israel unilaterally withdraws its remaining forces from its security zone in southern Lebanon to the international border, fully complying with the UN Security Council Res. 425.

2000 July

Camp David Summit.[43]

2000, Summer

Senator Joseph Lieberman becomes the first Jewish-American to be nominated for a national office (Vice President of the United States) by a major political party (the Democratic Party).

September 29, 2000

The al-Aqsa Intifada begins.

2001

Election of Ariel Sharon as Israel's Prime Minister.

2001

Jewish Museum of Turkey is founded by Turkish Jewry

2004

Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast builds its first synagogue, Birobidzhan Synagogue, in accordance with halakha. [14]. Uriyahu Butler became the first member of the African Hebrew Israelite community to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

March 31, 2005

The Government of Israel officially recognizes the Bnei Menashe people of North-East India as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, opening the door for thousands of people to immigrate to Israel.

2005 August

The Government of Israel withdraws its military forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip.

2005 December

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon falls into a coma; Deputy Premier Ehud Olmert takes over as Acting Prime Minister

2006 March

Ehud Olmert leads the Kadima party to victory in Israeli elections, becomes Prime Minister of Israel.

2006 July–August

A military conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel started on July 12, after aHezbollah cross-border raid into Israel. The war ended with the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 after 34 days of fighting. About 2,000 Lebanese and 159 Israelis were killed, and civilian infrastructure on both sides heavily damaged.

2008 December

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launches Operation Cast Lead (מבצע עופרת יצוקה) against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

2009 March

Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Prime Minister of Israel (also, continues as the Chairman of the Likud Party).

2014 January

Ariel Sharon dies, after undergoing a sudden decline in health, having suffered renal failure and other complications, after spending 8 years in a deep coma due to his January 2006 stroke, on January 11, 2014.

Years in the State of Israel

This is a timeline of events in the State of Israel since 1948.

• 1940s: 1948 – 1949
• 1950s: 1950 – 1951 – 1952 – 1953 – 1954 – 1955 – 1956 – 1957 – 1958 – 1959
• 1960s: 1960 – 1961 – 1962 – 1963 – 1964 – 1965 – 1966 – 1967 – 1968 – 1969
• 1970s: 1970 – 1971 – 1972 – 1973 – 1974 – 1975 – 1976 – 1977 – 1978 – 1979
• 1980s: 1980 – 1981 – 1982 – 1983 – 1984 – 1985 – 1986 – 1987 – 1988 – 1989
• 1990s: 1990 – 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 – 1997 – 1998 – 1999
• 2000s: 2000 – 2001 – 2002 – 2003 – 2004 – 2005 – 2006 – 2007 – 2008 – 2009
• 2010s: 2010

See also

• List of artifacts significant to the Bible
• Jewish history
• Judaism
• History of Jerusalem, Timeline of Jerusalem
• Zionism, Timeline of Zionism
• Timeline of Israeli history
• Timeline of women hazzans in America
• Timeline of women hazzans worldwide
• Timeline of women rabbis in America
• Timeline of women rabbis worldwide
• Antisemitism, History of antisemitism, Timeline of antisemitism
• Years in Israel

References

1. Daily Mail (Ancient relics are the first definite sign of the Bible's King David, 2012)
2. Wellhausen, Julius (1899). Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels. Berlin: Druck und verlag von G. Reimer.
3. Waaler, Erik, "A revised date for Pentateuchal texts? Evidence from Ketef Hinnom", 2002, Tyndale Bulletin 53 issue 1 pp 29–50
4. Friedman, Richard Elliott. Who wrote the Bible?. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1987
5. 'Jewish Virtual Library'
6. 'Miraculous journey: a complete history of the Jewish people ...'; Yosef Eisen [1]
7. Popovi?, Mladen (2011-01-01). The Jewish Revolt Against Rome: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. BRILL. ISBN 9004216685.
8. Torah (Shamash.org)
9. Three years in America, 1859–1862 (p. 59–60) by Israel Joseph Benjamin
10. Roots of Dalit history, Christianity, theology, and spirituality(p.28) By James Massey, I.S.P.C.K.
11. Islam at War: A History; George F. Nafziger, Mark W. Walton; p 230
12. Granada by Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling, Jewish Encyclopedia. 1906 ed.
13. http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1090&endyear=1099
14. Scharfstein and Gelabert, 1997, p. 145.
15. Rossoff, 2001, p. 6.
16. https://books.google.com/books?id=1eqtODKlq1cC&pg=459#v=onepage&q&f=false
17. Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael. Encyclopaedia Judaica: Ba-Blo. Granite Hill Publishers. p. 733. ISBN 9780028659312. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
18. Gitig, Diana (23 September 2014). "Ashkenazi Jewish population has distinctive, yet similar genomes". ARS Technia.
19. From time immemorial: the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine, Joan Peters, JKAP Publications, 1985, p 178 [2]
20. Morgenstern, Arie. "Dispersion and Longing for Zion, 1240–1840". Azure. [3]
21. Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 9, pp. 514. Gershon of Kitov
22. Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents
23. Holy war for the promised land: Israel's struggle to survive David P. Dolan, p. 60[4]
24. [5]
25. The Pale of Settlement
26. [6]
27. Hastening Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel, Arie Morgenstern, Oxford University Press, 2007
28. Changes in the Position of the Jewish Communities of Palestine and Syria in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, by Moshe Maoz, Studies on Palestine During the Ottoman Period, Jerusalem, Israel, 1975, pp. 147–148
29. http://www.brainyhistory.com/topics/p/palestine.html
30. http://www.historyorb.com/countries/palestine
31. A descriptive geography and brief historical sketch of Palestine by Joseph Schwarz, translated by Isaac Leeser, published by A. Hart, 1850, p. 399 [7][8]
32. http://www.jewish-history.com/palestine/hebron.html
33. Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion
34. Aliyah
35. Balfour Declaration
36. Tannenbaum, Rabbi Gershon (7 April 2009). "Radomsker Rebbe's Yahrzeit". The Jewish Press. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
37. Klapheck, Elisa. "Regina Jonas 1902–1944". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
38. [9]
39. Jewish Reconstructionist Federation | JRF
40. Blau, Eleanor. "1st Woman Rabbi in U.S. Ordained; She May Be Only the Second in History of Judaism", The New York Times, June 4, 1972. Retrieved September 17, 2009. "Sally J. Priesand was ordained at the Isaac M. Wise Temple here today, becoming the first woman rabbi in this country and it is believed, the second in the history of Judaism."
41. The Zionist Century | Concepts | Aliyah
42. [10]
43. The 2000 Camp David Summit

External links

• Interactive, searchable, filterable Jewish history timeline from the Gannopedia
• Timelines for Jewish History. The Dinur Center & The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• http://www.timelineofjewishhistory.com/ – Timeline from Abraham to the end of the Talmud i.e. 500 CE.
• Timeline for the History of Judaism
• The History of the Jewish People The Jewish Agency
• The Avalon Project at Yale Law School The Middle East 1916 – 2001: A Documentary Record
• Historical Maps and Atlases at Dinur Center
• Crash Course in Jewish History (Aish)
• The Year by Year History of the Jewish People – by Eli Birnbaum
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs. History page
• Jewish History Timeline. The Dept. of Jewish Zionist Education
• The History Channel
• The Time Machine at World Zionist Organization
• Jewish Intellectual Timeline, a parallel history of intellectual contributions and advances by Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers
• Patheos Interactive Tree Lens – Judaism
• Jewish Timeline – 6,000 years of Jewish history & legacy at a glance
• The Historyscoper