Chronology of Jewish History - Part 2
1400 - 1889
Chronology of Jewish History - Parts 1-9
Chronology of Jews in Denmark
15th Century
1401
Two Jews are burned to death for an alleged host desecration in Glogau.
1404
Many members of the Jewish community of Salzburg and Hallein are burned alive on charged of host desecration.
1407
Blood libel accusations against the Jews of Kraków led by a fanatic priest result in anti-Jewish riots.
1411
Oppressive legislation against Jews in Spain as an outcome of the preaching of the Dominican friar Vicente Ferrer.
1413
Disputation of Tortosa, Spain, staged by the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, is followed by forced mass conversions by Jews.
1415
Due to continuing attacks against them in Spain, around 50,000 Jews convert to Catholicism.
1418
All Jews living in Trier are expelled.
1420
All Jews are expelled from Lyons.
1421
Persecutions of Jews in Vienna, known as Wiener Gesera (Vienna Edict), confiscation of their possessions, and forced conversion of Jewish children. 270 Jews burned at stake. All Viennese Jews are then expelled.
1422
Pope Martin V issues a Bull reminding Christians that Christianity was derived from Judaism and warns the friars not to incite against the Jews. The Bull was withdrawn the following year on allegations that the Jews of Rome attained it by fraud.
1424
The Jewish population of Zurich is exiled.
1424
Jews are expelled and banned from Cologne.
1426
Jews are expelled from Iglau after they are accused of being in league with the Hussites.
1427
All Jews living in Bern are expelled and their property is seized.
1428
Jews are expelled from Fribourg.
1430
Pogrom in Aix-en-Provence breaks out in which 9 Jews are killed, many more are injured and 74 are forcibly converted.
1434
Council of Basel, Sessio XIX: Jews are forbidden to obtain academic degrees and to act as agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians.
1435
Massacre and forced conversion of Majorcan Jews.
1435
Jews are expelled from Speyer "forever."
1436
Jews of Zurich are expelled.
1438
Jewish inhabitants of Augsburg and Düsseldorf are expelled.
1438
Establishment of mellahs (ghettos) in Morocco.
1442
Synagogues and other Jewish buildings are destroyed by a riot of Glogau.
1442
Jews are expelled from Upper Bavaria.
1444
Jewish population of Utrecht are expelled.
1447
Casimir IV renews all the rights of Jews of Poland and makes his charter one of the most liberal in Europe. He revokes it in 1454 at the insistence of Bishop Zbigniew.
1449
The Statute of Toledo introduces the rule of purity of blood discriminating Conversos. Pope Nicholas V condemns it.
1450
Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria expels all Jews who reject baptism.
1453
Around 40 Jews in Breslau are burned at the stake on charges of host desecration, while the head Rabbi hung himself to avoid the torture. Jewish children under 7 were stolen and forcibly baptized. The few Jews remaining were banished from Breslau.
1454
1454 anti-Jewish riots in Bohemia's ethnically German Wrocław and other Silesian cities, Jews are banned from Lower Silesia.
The Nieszawa Statutes are a set of laws enacted in the Kingdom of Poland which, among other things, abolished the ancient privileges of the Jews "as contrary to divine right and the law of the land."
1456
Casimir IV the Jagiellonian (1447–1492), issues a document announcing that he could not deprive the Jews of his benevolence on the basis of "the principle of tolerance which in conformity with God's laws obliged him to protect them".
1456
Pope Caliextus III issues a papal bull which prohibits Jews from testifying against Christians, but permits Christians to testify against a Jew.
1458
The city council of Erfurt, Germany votes to expel the Jews.
1460 or 1470
Rabbi Jacob Pollak (Yaakov Pollack) is born. He is the son of Rabbi Joseph, is the founder of the Polish method of halakhic (religious laws) and Talmudic (central text of Rabbinic Judaism) study known as the Pilpul (‘sharp analysis’).
1463
Pope Nicholas V authorizes the establishment of the Inquisition to investigate heresy among the Marranos.
1465
The Moroccan revolt against the Marinid dynasty, accusations against one Jewish Vizier lead to a massacre of the entire Jewish population of Fes.
1465
More than 30 Jews in Cracow are killed by an angry mob.
1468
Many Jewish homes and robbed and a number are killed during anti-Jewish in Posen.
1468
Sultan Qaitbay forces Jews of Cairo to pay 75,000 gold pieces or be expelled. This severely impoverishes the local Jewish community.
1470
The Jewish community of Bavaria are expelled, many migrate into Bulgaria.
1473
Massacres of Marranos of Valladolid, Cordova, Segovia, Ciudad Real, Spain.
1474
On Assumption day 15 August 1474, Christians wreaked havoc on the Jewish dwellers of the Cartellone area of Modica. It was the first and most horrible massacre of Sicilian Jews. During the evening a number of Christians slaughtered about 360 Jews causing a total and fierce devastation in La Giudecca. They ran through the streets chanting: "Hurrah for Mary! Death to the Jews!" (Viva Maria! Morte ai Giudei!).
1475
A student of the preacher Giovanni da Capistrano, Franciscan Bernardine of Feltre, accuses the Jews in murdering an infant, Simon. The entire community is arrested, 15 leaders are burned at the stake, the rest are expelled. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V confirmed Simon's cultus. Saint Simon was considered a martyr and patron of kidnap and torture victims for almost 500 years. In 1965, Pope Paul VI declared the episode a fraud, and decanonized Simon's sainthood.
1478
Jews of Passau are expelled.
1478
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition known as the Spanish Inquisition is established by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. It is intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. It is the most substantive of the three different actions of the wider Catholic Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. Thousands are executed. The edict was formally and symbolically revoked in December 1968, following the Second Vatican Council.
1484
Pogrom against the Jewish section of Arles. A number of Jews are killed and 50 men are forced to convert.
1486
First Jewish prayer book published in Italy.
1487–1504
Bishop Gennady exposes the heresy of Zhidovstvuyushchiye (Judaizers) in Eastern Orthodoxy of Muscovy.
1488
Commentator on the Mishnah Obadiah ben Abraham arrives in Jerusalem and marks a new era for the Jewish community.
1490
Tomás de Torquemada burns 6,000 volumes of Jewish manuscripts in Salamanca.
1490
Jews are expelled from Geneva and not allowed to return for over 300 years.
1491
The blood libel in La Guardia, Spain, where the alleged victim Holy Child of La Guardia became revered as a saint.
1491
Muhammad al-Maghili orders the expulsion and murder of the Jewish community in Tlemcen.
March 31, 1492
The Spanish Inquisition continues. In the Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from Spain: approx. 200,000.) Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, declare that all Jews in their territories should either convert to Christianity or leave the country. More than half of Spain’s Jews convert, many others left for Portugal, France, Italy (including the Papal States), Netherlands, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, and North Africa. Some return to the Land of Israel. As many localities and entire countries expel their Jewish citizens (after robbing them), and others deny them entrance, the legend of the Wandering Jew, a condemned harbinger of calamity, gains popularity.
1492
The Jewish population of Tuat is massacred in a pogrom inspired by the preacher al-Maghili.
1492
Jews of Mecklenburg, Germany are accused of stabbing a consecrated wafer. 27 Jews are burned, including two women. The spot is still called the Judenberg. All the Jews are expelled from the Duchy.
1492
Askia Mohammad I decrees that all Jews must convert to Islam, leave or be killed. Judaism becomes illegal in Mali. This was based on the advice of Muhammad al-Maghili. The region of Timbuktu had previously been tolerant of other religions before Askia got into power.
1492
Bayezid II (ruled 1481-1512) Sultan of the Ottoman Empire issues a formal invitation to the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal and sent out ships to safely bring Jews to his Empire.
1492
Kingdom of Poland becomes more tolerant as the Jews are expelled from Spain. Poland emerges as a haven for exiles from Western Europe; and Polish Jewry make it the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish people.
1493
More than 137,000 Jews are expelled and exiled from Sicily.
1494
16 Jews are burned at the stake after a blood libel in Trnava.
1494-1495
After a fire destroys the Jewish quarter of Krakow, the Polish king Jan I Olbracht transfers the Jews to Kazimierz, which would become the first Polish ghetto. Jews were confined to the ghetto until 1868.
Alexander the Jagiellonian (1501–1506) when he is the Grand Duke of Lithuania, expels Jews from Lithuania. For several years they take refuge in Poland.
1495
Jews in Lithuania are expelled, and their property is seized. They were allowed to return 8 years later.
1495
The Jews of Lecce are massacred, and the Jewish quarter is burned to the ground.
1495
The French conquer Naples and persecute the local Jews.
1496
Jews expelled from Portugal and from many German cities.
1496
Jews living in Styria are expelled and all their property is confiscated.
1497
Many of Jews who had fled to Portugal from Spain are expelled by King Manuel I or leave to avoid forced conversion and further persecution. All Jews must convert or leave Portugal without their children.
1498
Prince Alexander of Lithuania forces most of the Jews to forfeit their property or convert. The main motivation is to cancel the debts the nobles owe to the Jews. Within a short time trade grinds to a halt and the Prince invites the Jews back in.
1498
French Jews are expelled from most of France.
1499
Jews of Nuremberg are expelled.
1499
Jews are banished from Verona. The Jews who were money lenders were replaced with Christian usurers who oppressed the poor so bad that the Jews were very shortly called to return.
1499
All New Christians are prohibited from leaving Portugal, even those who were forcibly baptized.
16th Century
1500
Shalom Shachna (c. 1500–1558), a pupil of Jacob Pollak, is among the prominent pioneers of Talmudic learning in Poland. He lived and died in Lublin, where he was the head of the yeshivah which produced the rabbinical scholars the following century.
1501
French Jews living in Provence are expelled.
1503
After becoming King of Poland Alexander Jagiellon allows Jews to return to Grand Dutchy of Lithuania. In 1504 he issues a proclamation in which he states that a policy of tolerance befits "kings and rulers".
1504
Jews living in Pilsen are expelled on charges of host desecration.
1504
Several Jewish scholars are burned at the stake for proselytizing in Moscow.
1505
Ten České Budějovice Jews are tortured and executed after being accused of killing a Christian girl; later, on his deathbed, a shepherd confesses to fabricating the accusation.
1506
A Marrano expresses his doubts about miracle visions at St. Dominic’s Church in Lisbon, Portugal. The crowd, led by Dominican friars, kills him, then ransacks Jewish houses and slaughters any Jew they could find. The countrymen hear about the massacre and join in. Over 2,000 marranos killed in three days.
1509
A converted Jew Johannes Pfefferkorn receives authority of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor to destroy the Talmud and other Jewish religious books, except the Hebrew Bible, in Frankfurt.
1510
Forty Jews are executed in Brandenburg, Germany for allegedly desecrating the host; remainder expelled. 23 November. Less-wealthy Jews expelled from Naples; remainder heavily taxed. 38 Jews burned at the stake in Berlin.
1510
Spanish gain control of Calabria and expel all Jews and New Christians.
1510
Spain gains control of Naples and expels the Jewish population.
1511
The officials of Conegliano try to expel the Jewish population but are unsuccessful.
1511
Eight Roman Catholic converts from Judaism burned at the stake for allegedly reverting.
1511
Most Apulian Jews are either expelled or are tortured to death. Jewish property is seized, and Synagogues are replaced with Catholic Churches.
1511
Printing of Jewish books by mechanical printing press began by Daniel Bomberg.
1514
The Jewish population of Mittelberg is accused of host desecration.
1515
Jews are expelled from Laibach.
1515
Jews are expelled from the city of Genoa, but are allowed back in a year later.
1515
Emperor Maximillian expels Jews from Ljubljana.
March 29, 1516
Venetian Ghetto established by the Venetian Republic. It is the first Jewish ghetto in Europe. Many others follow.
1517
1517 Hebron attacks: Jews are beaten, raped, and killed in Hebron, as their homes and businesses are looted and pillaged.
1517
1517 Safed attacks: The Jews of Safed is attacked by Mamluk forces and local Arabs. Many Jews are killed, and their homes are plundered.
1519
The Jewish community of Ratisbon is expelled. The synagogue is destroyed and replaced with a chapel. Thousands of Jewish gravestones are taken and used for buildings.
1519
Martin Luther leads Protestant Reformation and challenges the doctrine of Servitus Judaeorum "... to deal kindly with the Jews and to instruct them to come over to us". 21 February. All Jews expelled from Ratisbon/Regensburg.
1520
Pope Leo X allows the Jews to print the Talmud in Venice.
1520
Moses Isserles (known as the ReMA) (1520–1572) is the co-author of the Shulkhan Arukh, (the "Code of Jewish Law").
1523
The conquest of Cranganore by the Portuguese leads to the complete destruction of the local Jewish community. Most refugees fled to Cochin.
1523
Mexico bans immigration from those who can't prove four generations of Catholic ancestry.
1526
Jews are expelled from Hungary, Croatia, and Slovakia following the Battle of Mohács.
1527
Jews are ordered to leave Florence, but the edict is soon rescinded.
1528
Three judaizers are burned at the stake in Mexico City's first auto da fe.
1529
30 Jewish men, women, and children are burned at the stake in Pezinok.
1530
A Hebrew Pentateuch (Torah) was printed in Kraków.
Mordecai ben Avraham Yoffe (or Jaffe or Joffe) (c. 1530 – 7 March 1612; Rabbi, (religious teacher) Rosh (Dean-head) yeshiva (religious school) and posek. (legal scholar). He is known as author of Levush Malkhus, a ten-volume codification of Jewish law that particularly stressed the customs of the Jews of Eastern Europe.
1506-1548
The most prosperous period for Polish Jews begins following a new influx of Jews with the reign of Sigismund I the Old. Many Jews leave Bohemia and go to Poland, founding a community in Kraków.
1525-1572
Rabbi Moshe Isserles (The Rema) of Kraków writes an extensive commentary to the Shulkhan Arukh called the Mappah, extending its application to Ashkenazi Jewry.
1532
Solomon Molcho is burned at the stake for refusing to return to Catholicism after reverting to Judaism.
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 Italian texts remain in manuscript for as long as three centuries.
1535
After Spanish troops capture Tunis all the local Jews are sold into slavery.
1539
Jews are expelled from Nauheim.
1539
Katarzyna Weiglowa, a Roman Catholic woman from the Kingdom of Poland who converted to Judaism is burned at the stake in Kraków under the charge of apostasy for refusing to call Jesus Christ the Son of God. She is regarded by Jews (among others) as a martyr.
1540
All Jews are banished from Prague.
1542
Moses Fishel of Cracow is accused of proselytizing and dies a martyr.
1543
On the Jews and Their Lies is a 65,000-word anti-Judaic and antisemitic treatise written in by German Reformation leader Martin Luther (1483–1546). Luther advocates an eight-point plan to get rid of the Jews as a distinct group either by religious conversion or by expulsion:
"...set fire to their synagogues or schools..."
"...their houses also be razed and destroyed..."
"...their prayer books and Talmudic writings... be taken from them..."
"...their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb..."
"...safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews..."
"...usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them..." and "Such money should now be used in ... the following [way]... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed [certain amount]..."
"...young, strong Jews and Jewesses [should]... earn their bread in the sweat of their brow..."
"If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs."
Luther "got the Jews expelled from Saxony in 1537, and in the 1540s he drove them from many German towns; he tried unsuccessfully to get the elector to expel them from Brandenburg in 1543. His followers continued to agitate against the Jews there: they sacked the Berlin synagogue in 1572 and the following year finally got their way, the Jews being banned from the entire country."
1543
Jews are exiled from Basel.
1543
Jeronimo Diaz, a New Christian physician, is burned at the stake for holding heretical opinions in Goa, India.
1546
Martin Luther's sermon Admonition against the Jews contains accusations of ritual murder, black magic, and poisoning of wells. Luther recognizes no obligation to protect the Jews.
1547
Ivan the Terrible becomes ruler of Russia and refuses to allow Jews to live in or even enter his kingdom because they "bring about great evil" (quoting his response to request by Polish king Sigismund II).
1547
10 out of the 30 Jews living in Asolo are killed and their houses are robbed.
1547
First Hebrew Jewish printing house is established in Lublin.
1548-1572
Sigismund II Augustus (1548–1572), follows his father's tolerant policy and also granted communal-administration autonomy to the Jews and lays the foundation for the power of the Qahal, or autonomous Jewish community. This period led to the creation of a proverb about Poland being a "heaven for the Jews". [Wikipedia]
1550
Jews are expelled from Genoa, Italy.
1550
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero founds a Kabbalah academy in Safed.
1553
Pope Julius III forbids Talmud printing and orders burning of any copy found. Rome's Inquisitor-General, Cardinal Carafa (later Pope Paul IV) has Talmud publicly burnt in Rome on Rosh Hashanah, starting a wave of Talmud burning throughout Italy. About 12,000 copies were destroyed.
1554
Cornelio da Montalcino, a Franciscan Friar who converted to Judaism, is burned alive in Rome.
July 14, 1555
Pope Paul IV issued papal bull which revoked all the rights of the Jewish community and placed religious and economic restrictions on Jews in the Papal States. In Cum nimis absurdum, Pope Paul IV writes: "It appears utterly absurd and impermissible that the Jews, whom God has condemned to eternal slavery for their guilt, should enjoy our Christian love." He renews anti-Jewish legislation and installs a locked nightly ghetto in Rome. The Bull also forces Jewish males to wear a yellow hat, females – yellow kerchief. Owning real estate or practicing medicine on Christians is forbidden. It also limits Jewish communities to only one synagogue.
1555
The Martyrs of 1555. 25 Jews in Ancona are hung or burned at the stake for refusing to convert to Christianity as a result of Pope Paul IV's Bull of 1555.
1556
A rumor is sent around that a poor woman in Sokhachev named Dorothy sold Jews the holy wafer received by her during communion, and that it was stabbed until it bled. The Bishop of Khelm accuses the local Jews, and eventually three Jews along with Dorothy Lazhentzka are arrested, put on the rack, and sentenced to death on charges of host desecration. They were burned at the stake. Before their death, the martyred Jews made a declaration:
"We have never stabbed the host, because we do not believe that the host is the Divine body, knowing that God has no body nor blood. We believe, as did our forefathers, that the Messiah is not God, but His messenger. We also know from experience that there can be no blood in flour."
1557
Jews are temporarily banished from Prague.
1558
Recanati, Italy: a baptized Jew Joseph Paul More enters synagogue on Yom Kippur under the protection of Pope Paul IV and tries to preach a conversion sermon. The congregation evicts him. Soon after, the Jews are expelled from Recanati.
1559
Pope Pius IV allows Talmud on conditions that it is printed by a Christian and the text is censored.
1560
The Goa Inquisition begins.
1561
Ferdinand I takes an oath to expel the Jews. Mordechai Zemach runs to Rome and convinces Pope Pius IV to cancel the decree.
1561
Joel ben Samuel Sirkis (born 1561 - March 14, 1640) also known as the Bach (an abbreviation of his magnum opus Bayi CHadash), is a prominent Ashkenazi posek (“decisor”) and halakhist, (authority on Jewish religious law).
1563
Russian troops take Polotsk from Lithuania, Jews are given ultimatum: embrace Russian Orthodox Church or die. Around 300 Jewish men, women and children were thrown into ice holes of Dvina river.
1564
Brest-Litovsk: the son of a wealthy Jewish tax collector is accused of killing the family's Christian servant for ritual purposes. He is tortured and executed in line with the law. King Sigismund II of Poland forbids future charges of ritual murder, calling them groundless.
1565
Jews are temporarily banished from Prague.
1566
Antonio Ghislieri elected and, as Pope Pius V, reinstates the harsh anti-Jewish laws of Pope Paul IV. In 1569 he expels Jews dwelling outside of the ghettos of Rome, Ancona, and Avignon from the Papal States, thus ensuring that they remain city-dwellers.
1567
Jews are allowed to live in France.
1567
First Jewish university Yeshiva is founded in Poland.
1569
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is founded. Poland is the most tolerant country in Europe. Historians called it paradisus iudaeorum (Latin for "Paradise of the Jews"). Poland becomes a shelter for Jews persecuted and expelled from various European countries. It is home to the world's largest Jewish community at the time. About three-quarters of the world's Jews live in Poland by the middle of the 16th century. With the weakening of the Commonwealth and growing religious conflict (due to the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation), Poland's traditional tolerance begins to lessen from the 17th century. [Wikipedia]
July 1, 1569
The Union of Lublin was signed in Lublin, Poland. It creates a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest countries in Europe at the time. It replaced the personal union of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an elective monarchy. [Wikipedia]
1569
Pope Pius V expels all the Jews of Bologna. He then gave their cemetery away and commended all Jewish gravestones to be destroyed.
1569
Pope Pius V issues the Bull Hebraeorum gens sola which orders the expulsion of all Jews who refuse to convert.
1571
Jews in Berlin are forced to leave, and their property is confiscated.
1571
The Mexican Inquisition begins.
1573
Polish and Lithuanian nobles gather at Warsaw in 1573 and sign a document in which representatives of all major religions pledge mutual support and tolerance.
As a result, there is a golden age of Jewish life. Jewish academies were established in Lublin, Kraków, Brześć (Brisk), Lwów, Ostróg and other towns. Poland-Lithuania is the only country in Europe where the Jews cultivate their own farmer's fields. The central autonomous body that regulated Jewish life in Poland from the middle of the 16th to mid-18th century was known as the Council of Four Lands. [Wikipedia]
1574
First auto-da-fé in Mexico.
1577
A Hebrew printing press is established in Safed, the first press in Palestine and the first in Asia.
1581
Pope Gregory XIII issues a Bull which prohibits the use of Jewish doctors.
1583
Three Portuguese conversos are burned at the stake in Rome.
1586
Pope Sixtus V forbids printing of the Talmud.
1590
Jewish quarter of Mikulov (Nikolsburg) burns to ground and 15 people die while Christians watch or pillage. King Philip II of Spain orders expulsion of Jews from Lombardy. His order is ignored by local authorities until 1597, when 72 Jewish families are forced into exile.
1591
Philip II, King of Spain, banished all Jews from the duchy of Milan.
1592
A Jewish woman, Esther Chiera is executed with one of her sons by the Sultan Murad III's calvary.
1593
Pope Clement VIII confirms the Papal bull of Paul III that expels Jews from Papal states except ghettos in Rome and Ancona and issues Caeca et obdurata ("Blind Obstinacy"): "All the world suffers from the usury of the Jews, their monopolies and deceit. ... Then as now Jews have to be reminded intermittently anew that they were enjoying rights in any country since they left Palestine and the Arabian desert, and subsequently their ethical and moral doctrines as well as their deeds rightly deserve to be exposed to criticism in whatever country they happen to live."
1593
At least 900 Jews are expelled from Bologna.
1595
10 people are accused of practicing Judaism in Lima, Peru. Four of them are released and one named Francisco Rodríguez, is burned alive.
1596
Francisca Nuñez de Carabajal was a Marrana (Jewish convert to Christianity) in New Spain executed by the Inquisition for "judaizing" in 1596. One of her children, Isabel, in her twenties at the time, was tortured until she implicated the whole of the Carabajal family. The whole family was forced to confess and abjure at a public auto-da-fé, celebrated on Saturday, 24 February 1590. Luis de Carabajal the younger (one of Francisca's sons), along with Francisca and four of her daughters, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and another one of Francisca's sons, Baltasar, who had fled upon the first warning of danger, was, along with his deceased father Francisco Rodriguez de Matos, burnt in effigy. In January 1595, Francisca and her children were accused of a relapse into Judaism and convicted. During their imprisonment they were tempted to communicate with one another on Spanish pear seeds, on which they wrote touching messages of encouragement to remain true to their faith. At the resulting auto-da-fé, Francisca and her children Isabel, Catalina, Leonor, and Luis, died at the stake, together with Manuel Diaz, Beatriz Enriquez, Diego Enriquez, and Manuel de Lucena. Of her other children, Mariana, who lost her reason for a time, was tried and put to death at an auto-da-fé held in Mexico City on 25 March 1601; Anica, the youngest child, being "reconciled" at the same time.
1598
3 Jews in Lublin are brutally tortured and executed by quartering, after a Christian boy is found in a nearby swamp.
17th Century
1600
14 Judaizers are punished in Lima, Peru.
1603
Frei Diogo da Assumpcão, a partly Jewish friar who embraced Judaism, burned alive in Lisbon.
1605
16 Judaizers are arrested in Lima, Peru.
1608
The Jesuit order forbids admission to anyone descended from Jews to the fifth generation, a restriction lifted in the 20th century. Three years later Pope Paul V applies the rule throughout the Church, but his successor revokes it.
1612
The Hamburg Senate decides to officially allow Jews to live in Hamburg on the condition there is no public worship.
1614
Vincent Fettmilch, who called himself the "new Haman of the Jews", leads a raid on Frankfurt synagogue that turned into an attack which destroyed the whole community.
1615
King Louis XIII of France decrees that all Jews must leave the country within one month on pain of death.
1615
The Guild led by Dr. Chemnitz, "non-violently" forced the Jews from Worms.
1616
Jesuits arrive in Grodno and accuse the Jews of host desecration and blood libel.
1618
Anti-semitic pamphlet Mirror of the Polish Crown is published by Professor Sebastian Miczyński. It accuses the Jews of murder, sacrileges, witchcraft, and urges their expulsion. It would go on to inspire anti-Jewish riots across Poland.
1619
Shah Abbasi of the Persian Sufi Dynasty increases persecution against the Jews, forcing many to outwardly practice Islam. Many keep practicing Judaism in secret.
1621–1630
Shelah HaKadosh writes his most famous work after emigrating to the Land of Israel.
1622
King Christian IV invites Jews to come and live in Denmark.
1623
First time separate (Va'ad) Jewish Sejm for Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
1622
King Christian IV invites Jews to come and live in Denmark.
1624
Jewish Ghetto is established in Ferrara, Italy.
1624
Christian theologian Antonio Homem is burned at the stake for pursuing Judaism.
1625
Jews of Vienna forced to live in a ghetto in Leopoldstadt.
August 1, 1626
Sabbatai Zevi (August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), a Sephardic ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). A kabbalist of Romaniote origin, Zevi, is active throughout the Ottoman Empire, claims to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He is the founder of the Sabbatean movement, whose followers subsequently are known as Dönmeh "converts" or crypto-Jews. [Wikipedia]
1627
Kingdom of Beta Israel in what is now modern-day Ethiopia collapses and loses autonomy.
1628
Roman Jewish mistress of the son of the duke of Parma is burned alive.
1630
Jewish merchant Moses the Braider is burned alive after being accused of host desecration.
1631
Due to bad conditions in the Jewish Ghetto of Padua, 421 out of the 721 Jews living in the ghetto perish.
1632
King Ladislaus IV of Poland forbids antisemitic books and printings.
1632
Shortly after Miguel Rodriguez is discovered holding onto Jewish rites, an Auto-da-fé is held in the presence of the King and Queen. Miguel and his wife Isabel Alvarez, and 5 others are burned alive publicly.
April 20, 1632
Jewish-convert and martyr Nicolas Antoine is burned at the stake for heresy.
1633
Jews of Poznań granted a privilege of forbidding Christians to enter into their city.
1633
Jews are banned from Radom.
1635
Anti-Jewish riots take place in Vilna.
1637
Four Jews are publicly tortured and executed in Kraków.
1639
Over 60 Judaizers are burned at the stake at an Auto-da-fé in Lima, Peru. Among those martyred was physician Francisco Maldonado de Silva.
1639
Two Roman Jewish children are forcibly baptized by Pope Urban VIII.
1639
Jews of Lenchitza are accused of ritual murder after a young child is found dead in the woods. The blame falls on the Jews after a local gentile named Foma confesses to the crime then says he had been coerced into doing it by the Jews. Despite the lack of evidence, two Jewish elders named Meyer and Lazar are arrested and tortured, and eventually quartered publicly.
1644
Jewish martyr Judah the Believer is burned at the stake as he recites prayers in Hebrew.
1647
Jewish martyr Isaac de Castro Tartas is burned at the stake while he recites the Shema along with 6 other Jews.
1648
Jewish population of Poland reached 450,000 (i.e., 4% of the 1,1000,000 population of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is Jewish), Bohemia 40,000 and Moravia 25,000. Worldwide population of Jewry is estimated at 750,000.
1648
The multi-ethnic Commonwealth of Poland is devastated by several major conflicts, in which the country lost over a third of its population (over three million people). The Jewish losses were counted in the hundreds of thousands. The first of these large-scale massacres were the Khmelnytsky Uprising, in which Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Ukrainian Cossacks massacred tens of thousands of Jews and Catholic Poles in the eastern and southern areas of Polish-occupied Ukraine. The Jewish community also suffered greatly during the 1648 Ukrainian Cossack uprising which had been directed primarily against the Polish nobility and landlords. The Jews, perceived as allies of the Poles, are also victims of the revolt, during which about 20% are murdered. It 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. [Wikipedia]
1648–1655
The Ukrainian Cossacks led by Bohdan Chmielnicki massacre about 100,000 Jews and similar number of Polish nobles, 300 Jewish communities destroyed.
1649
Largest Auto-da-fé in the New World. 109 victims, 13 were burned alive and 57 in effigy.
1655
Commonwealth of Poland is invaded by the Swedish Empire in what becomes known as the Deluge. Charles X of Sweden, at the head of his army, captures and plunders Kraków and Warsaw.
1655
Jews are readmitted to England by Oliver Cromwell.
1656
All Jews are expelled from Isfahan because of the common belief of their impurity. The ones who don't are forced to convert to Islam.
1657
The Polish general Stefan Czarniecki defeats the Swedish Army at the battle of Magierów. This results in the Peace of Oliwa.
1657–1662
Jews throughout Iran (including 7,000 in Kashan alone) are forced to convert to Islam as a result of persecutions by Abbas II of Persia.
1660
1660 destruction of City of Safed.
1661
Sephardic poet Antonio Enríquez Gómez is publicly burned in effigy in Seville.
1663
Two Christian Janissaries accuse the Jews of Istanbul of killing a child who had actually been killed by his own father. After killing his own son, he threw his body onto the Jewish quarter in order to implicate the Jews in the crime. Once the Grand Vizier learned the facts of the case from his spies stationed in the Greek quarter, he informed the Sultan, and the Janissaries were put to death. 20 Jews were killed in total by the Greek mobs.
May 1664
Jews of Lemberg (now Lvov) ghetto organize self-defense against impending assault by students of Jesuit seminary and Cathedral school. The militia sent by the officials to restore order, instead joined the attackers. About 100 Jews killed.
1669
The majority of Jews in Oran are expelled.
1670
Jews expelled from Vienna.
1670
Raphael Levy is burned at the stake over blood libel. After being offered a chance to convert and live, he declared that he had lived a Jew and would die a Jew.
1679
The Exile of Mawza. It is considered the single most traumatic event experienced collectively by the Jews of Yemen. All Jews living in nearly all cities and towns throughout Yemen were banished by decree of the king, Imām al-Mahdi Ahmad, and sent to a dry and barren region of the country named Mawza to withstand their fate or to die. Only a few communities who lived in the far eastern quarters of Yemen were spared this fate by virtue of their Arab patrons who refused to obey the King's orders. Many would die along the route and while confined to the hot and arid conditions of this forbidding terrain.
1679
Jews of Yemen expelled to Mawza.
1680
Auto-da-fé in Madrid.
1681
Mob attacks against Jews in Vilna. It was condemned by King John Sobieski, who ordered the punishment of the guilty.
1682
Largest trial against alleged Judaizers in Lisbon, Portugal. 117 were tried in 3 days.
1683
Hungarian rebels known as Kuruc rushes into the town of Uherský Brod, massacring the majority of its Jewish inhabitants. Most of the victims were recent refugees who were expelled from Vienna in 1670. One of the Hebrews killed by the mob was Jewish historian Nathan ben Moses Hannover, who was a survivor of the Chmielnicki massacres. Most of the survivors fled to Upper Hungary.
1684
Attack on the Jewish ghetto of Buda.
1686
Only 500 Jews survive after Austrian sieged the city of Buda. Half of them are sold into slavery.
1689
Worms is invaded by the French and the Jewish quarter is reduced to ashes.
1689
The Jewish Ghetto of Prague is destroyed by French troops. After it was over 318 houses, 11 synagogues, and 150 Jews were dead.
1691
219 people are convicted of being Jewish in Palma, Majorca. 37 of them are burned to death. Among those martyred is Raphael and his sister Catalina Benito, who although declaring she wanted to live, jumped right into the flames rather than to be baptized.
1696
A number of Converso Jews are burned alive in Évora, Portugal.
1698
A female child is found dead at a church in Sandomierz. The mother of the child first said she placed her body in the church because she could not afford a burial, but after torture accused the Jewish leader Aaron Berek of the local community of murdering her daughter. The mother and Berek were sentenced the death.
1698
Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or BeShT, (1698–1760), a Jewish mystic and healer from Poland, who is regarded as the founder of Hasidic (“Pietist-Piety”) Judaism. He has a profound effect on the Jews of Eastern Europe and Poland in particular. His disciples teach and encourage a new fervent brand of Judaism based on Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) known as Hasidism. The rise of Hasidic Judaism within Poland's borders and beyond had a great influence on the rise of Haredi Judaism all over the world, with a continuous influence through its many Hasidic dynasties including those of Chabad-Lubavitch, Aleksander, Bobov, Ger, Nadvorna, among others. (As of 2016, there were over 130,000 Hasidic households worldwide, about 5% of the global Jewish population). [Wikipedia]
1699
A mob attacks the Jewish Quarter of Bamberg but runs away after one Jew stops them by pouring baskets of ripe plums on the attackers. The event is still commemorated on the 29th of Nisan as the Zwetschgen-Ta’anit (Prune-Fest).
18th Century
The Age of Enlightenment also Age of Reason or the Enlightenment is an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominates the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century. The Enlightenment includes a range of ideas centered on the pursuit of happiness, ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermines the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. [Wikipedia]
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 Misnagdim) 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. [Wikipedia]
1700
Rabbi Judah HeHasid makes aliyah to Palestine accompanied by hundreds of his followers. A few days after his arrival, Rabbi Yehuda dies suddenly.
Sir Solomon de Medina is knighted by William III, making him the first Jew in England to receive that honor.
1703
The Aleinu prayer is prohibited in most of Germany.
1706
After a plague hits Algeria which pushes the Jewish community into poverty, the local ruler decides the plague was caused by the Jews and orders their expulsion. Property is confiscated, synagogues are destroyed, until a sum is paid which further impoverishes the Jews of Algiers.
1711
Johann Andreas Eisenmenger writes his Entdecktes Judenthum ("Judaism Unmasked"), a work denouncing Judaism, and which had a formative influence on modern antisemitic polemics.
1712
Blood libel in Sandomierz and expulsion of the town's Jews.
1715
Elector Max Emanuel orders the deportation of all Jews living in Bavaria.
September 1, 1715
Death of Louis XIV of France. Known as the Sun King, his reign is emblematic of the age of absolutism in Europe.
1717
All Jews living in Gibraltar are expelled.
1718
The last Jews of Carniola, Styria and Carinthia are expelled.
1718
The last Jews of Carniola, Styria and Carinthia are expelled.
1720
Unpaid Arab creditors burn the synagogue unfinished by immigrants of Rabbi Yehuda and expel all Ashkenazi Jews from Jerusalem.
1720–1797
Life of Rabbi Elijah of Vilna, known as the Vilna Gaon.
1721
Maria Barbara Carillo was burned at the stake for heresy during the Spanish Inquisition. She was executed at the age of 95 or 96 and is the oldest person known to have been executed at the instigation of the Inquisition. Carillo was sentenced to death for heresy for returning to her faith in Judaism.
1724
Jews of Radom are exiled.
1726
Jacob Joseph Frank born Jakub Lejbowicz; 1726 – December 10, 1791) is an 18th-century Polish-Jewish religious leader who claims to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) and also of the biblical patriarch Jacob. The Jewish authorities in Poland excommunicate Frank and his followers due to his heretical doctrines. [Wikipedia]
1727
Edict of Catherine I of Russia: "The Jews... who are found in Ukraine and in other Russian provinces are to be expelled at once beyond the frontiers of Russia."
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. [Wikipedia]
1734
1736: The Haidamaks, paramilitary bands in Polish Ukraine, attack Jews.
1736
María Francisca Ana de Castro, called La bella toledana, a Spanish immigrant to Peru, was arrested in 1726, accused of "judaizing" (being a practicing Jew). She was burned at the stake after an auto de fe in 1736. This event was a major spectacle in Lima, but it raised questions about possible irregular procedures and corruption within the Inquisition.
1737
Blood libel in Jarosław leads to Jews being tortured and others being put to death.
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." [Wikipedia]
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. [Wikipedia]
1740–1750
Thousands of Jews immigrate to Palestine due to recent Messianic aspirations. The large immigration greatly increases the size and strength of the Jewish Settlement in Palestine.
1742
Elizabeth of Russia issues a decree of expulsion of all the Jews out of Russian Empire. Her resolution to the Senate's appeal regarding harm to the trade: "I don't desire any profits from the enemies of Christ". One of the deportees is Antonio Ribera Sanchez, her own personal physician, and the head of army's medical department.
1742
Most of Silesia is lost to Prussia.
1743
The Russians gain control of Riga and all local Jews are expelled.
1744
Frederick II The Great (a "heroic genius", according to Hitler) limits Breslau to ten "protected" Jewish families, on the grounds that otherwise they will "transform it into complete Jerusalem". He encourages this practice in other Prussian cities. In 1750 he issues Revidiertes General Privilegium und Reglement vor die Judenschaft: "protected" Jews had an alternative to "either abstain from marriage or leave Berlin" (Simon Dubnow).
1744
Archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa orders: "... no Jew is to be tolerated in our inherited duchy of Bohemia" by the end of Feb. 1745. In December 1748 she reverses her position, on condition that Jews pay for readmission every ten years. This extortion was known as malke-geld (queen's money). In 1752 she introduces the law limiting each Jewish family to one son.
1746
The city of Radom bans Jews from entering.
1747
Rabbi Abraham Gershon of Kitov (Kuty) (1701–1761) 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. [Wikipedia]
1753
The Jewish community of Kaunas is expelled.
1755
Jeronimo Jose Ramos, a merchant from Bragança, Portugal, is burned at the stake for being secretly Jewish.
1759
Jewish followers of Jacob Frank become members of Polish szlachta (gentry) of Jewish origins.
1761
The Jews of Kaunas are expelled after anti-Jewish riots.
1762
Rhode Island refuses to grant Jews citizenship stating "no person who is not of the Christian religion can be admitted free to this colony."
1764
In Poland the accession to the throne of Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski
There are about 750,000 Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The worldwide Jewish population is estimated at 1.2 million.
1766
All but 6 Jews are expelled from Toruń.
1768
Koliyivshchyna rebellion west of the Dnieper river in Volhynia causes the murders of Polish noblemen, Catholic priests, and thousands of Jews by the Ukrainian Haidamaka Cossacks.
1760-1820, 1840
The Industrial Revolution. The transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States, in the period from between 1760 to 1820 and 1840. This transition included from hand production methods to machines, and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power and water power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the mechanized factory system. The Industrial Revolution also led to an unprecedented rise in the rate of population growth. [Wikipedia]
1772
The military Partitions of Poland begins between Russia, Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria. The Commonwealth loses 30% of its land during the annexations of 1772, and even more of its peoples. Jews are most numerous in the territories that fall under the military control of Austria and Russia. Main population of World Jewry lives now in these 3 countries. Old rights and privileges of Jewish communities are continually revoked. [Wikipedia]
1770’s
The Haskalah, Jewish Enlightenment literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), is an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with certain influence on those in Western Europe and the Muslim world. It arose as a defined ideological worldview during the 1770s, and its last stage ended around 1881, with the rise of Jewish nationalism. The Haskalah promotes rationalism, liberalism, freedom of thought and enquiry, and is largely perceived as the Jewish variant of the general Age of Enlightenment. [Wikipedia]
1775–1781
American Revolution; guarantees the freedom of religion.
1775
Mob violence perpetrated against the Jews of Hebron in Palestine.
1775
Pope Pius VI issues a severe Editto sopra gli ebrei (Edict concerning the Jews). Previously lifted restrictions are reimposed, Judaism is suppressed.
1776
The Jewish community of Basra is massacred.
1782
Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II abolishes most of persecution practices in Toleranzpatent on condition that Yiddish and Hebrew are eliminated from public records and judicial autonomy is annulled. Judaism is branded "quintessence of foolishness and nonsense". Moses Mendelssohn writes: "Such a tolerance... is even more dangerous play in tolerance than open persecution".
1783
The Sultan expels the Moroccan Jews for failing to pay an exorbitant ransom.
1783
The Sultan expels the Moroccan Jews for failing to pay an exorbitant ransom.
1785
Ali Burzi Pasha murders hundreds of Libyan Jews.
1786
Jews are expelled from Jeddah, most of them flee to Yemen.
1789
National Constituent Assembly during the French Revolution adopts The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789). It is states in Article 10: "No-one shall be interfered with for his opinions, even religious ones, provided that their practice does not disturb public order as established by the law."
1790
Yazid becomes the Sultan of Morocco and immediately orders troops to massacre and plunder the Jewish quarter of Tétouan.
1790
The Touro Synagogue's warden, Moses Seixas, wrote to George Washington, expressing his support for Washington's administration and good wishes for him. Washington sent a letter in response, which read in part:
"... the Government of the United States ... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. ... May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy."
— Letter of George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island
Washington 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.
There is an annual event reading Washington's letter, and speakers at the annual event have included Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan; and Brown University Presidents Ruth Simmons and Christina Paxson.
May 20, 1790
Eleazer Solomon is quartered for the alleged murder of a Christian girl in Grodno.
1790–1792
Destruction of most of the Jewish communities of Morocco.
September 28, 1791
Revolutionary France becomes the second country in Europe, after Poland 500 years earlier, to emancipate its Jews. 40,000 Jews living in France at the time experience newfound freedom. France grants full right to Jews and allows them to become citizens, under certain conditions. This becomes a model for other European Jewish communities. [Wikipedia]
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. Catherine II of Russia confines Jews to the Pale of Settlement and imposes them with double taxes.
December 15, 1791
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, is ratified along with the rest of the Bill of Rights. It states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
April 27, 1792
The Targowica Confederation a confederation established by Polish and Lithuanian magnates. The confederation opposed the Constitution of May 3, 1791, and fought in the Polish–Russian War of 1792, which led to the Second and Third Partitions of Poland. [Wikipedia]
July 17, 1793
The second partition of Poland.
1794
The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794 and the Second Polish War. An uprising against the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Prussian partition. [Wikipedia]
1795
After the Partition of Poland in 1795 and the destruction of Poland as a sovereign state, Polish Jews become subject to the laws of the partitioning powers, including the increasingly antisemitic Russian Empire, as well as Austria-Hungary and Kingdom of Prussia (later a part of the German Empire). Following the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century, Poland ceases to exist as an independent state for 123 years. [Wikipedia]
May 12, 1797
The French Army of Italy, commanded by General Napoleon Bonaparte, occupies Venice, and forces the Venetian Republic to dissolve. On July 11 the Jewish ghetto's separation from the city is ended.
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 against Jews living in Safed.
19th Century
1800’s
1800–1900
The Golden Age of Yiddish literature, the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, and the revival of Hebrew literature.
1804
Alexander I of Russia issues a "Statute Concerning Jews", meant to accelerate the process of assimilation of the Empire's new Jewish population. The Polish Jews are allowed to establish schools with Russian, German, or Polish curricula. They could own land in the territories annexed from Poland. However, they are also restricted from leasing property, teaching in Yiddish, and from entering Russia. The harshest measures designed to compel Jews to merge into society at large call for their expulsion from small villages, forcing them to move into towns. Thousands of Jews lose their only source of income. Their living conditions in the Pale began to dramatically worsen. [Wikipedia]
June 29, 1805
200-500 Algerian Jews are massacred.
1806
Napoleon passes a number of measures enhancing the position of the Jewish community in the French Empire.
1807
Napoleon creates the Duchy of Warsaw also known as Napoleonic Poland, as a client state of the French Empire.
In conquered countries, Napoleon abolishes laws restricting Jews to living in ghettos. He designated Judaism as one of the official religions of France, along with Roman Catholicism
1808
In 1808 Napoleon voids a number of reforms (under the so-called décret infâme, or Infamous Decree, of 17 March 1808), declaring all debts with Jews to be annulled, reduced or postponed.
1808–1840
Large-scale aliyah to Palestine in hope of “Hastening Redemption” in anticipation of the advent of the Jewish Messiah in 1840.
1810’s
1811
Head of the Jewish community of Algiers David ben Joseph Coen Bakri is decapitated by the Dey Hadj Ali.
1815
The Congress of Vienna creates the Kingdom of Poland, ruled by Russia. It is a semi-autonomous Polish state and successor to Napoleon's short-lived Duchy of Warsaw. It is established in the Russian sector after Poland is partitioned by the Habsburg Monarchy, Russia, and Prussia. [Wikipedia]
1815
Pope Pius VII reestablishes the ghetto in Rome after the defeat of Napoleon.
1816
Jewish population in the area of former Congress of Poland increases sevenfold between 1816 and 1921, from around 213,000 to about 1,500,000.
1818
Turks from Algiers attack Constantine, massacre and pillage Jewish homes, and abduct 17 young Jewish girls whom they bring to their commander.
1819
A series of anti-Jewish riots in Germany that spread to several neighboring countries: Denmark, Latvia and Bohemia known as Hep-Hep riots, from the derogatory rallying cry against the Jews in Germany.
1820’s
1820–1860
The development of Orthodox Judaism, a set of traditionalist movements that resists the influences of modernization that arose in response to the European emancipation and Enlightenment movements. It is characterized by continued strict adherence to Halakha (Jewish law).
1827
Decree by Nicolas – while lifting the traditional double taxation on Jews in lieu of army service – made Jews subject to general military recruitment laws that require Jewish communities to provide 7 recruits per each 1000 "souls" every 4 years. Unlike the general population that have to provide recruits between the ages of 18 and 35, Jews have to provide recruits between the ages of 12 and 25. Between 1827 and 1857 more than 30,000 children are placed in the Canonists schools, where they are pressured to convert. "Many children are smuggled to Poland, where the conscription of Jews did not take effect until 1844." [Wikipedia]
May 24, 1829
Tzar Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland in Warsaw.
1829
The law in Canada requiring the oath "on my faith as a Christian" was amended in 1829 to provide for Jews to not take the oath.
1830’s
1830
Greece grants citizenship to its Jews.
1830
The Persian Jewish population of Tabriz, Iran is attacked by a mob, resulting in most of the Jewish community either being killed or fleeing.
1830
The Jews of Shiraz are forced to convert to Islam.
November 29, 1830
The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. After it is put down Russian Emperor Nicholas I decrees that henceforth Russian-occupied Poland will lose its autonomy and become an integral part of the Russian Empire. Jews take part in the uprising. [Wikipedia]
1831
Jewish militias take part in the defense of Warsaw against Russians.
1831
The prominent French-Canadian politician Louis-Joseph Papineau sponsored a law which granted full equivalent political rights to Jews in Lower Canada, twenty-seven years before anywhere else in the British Empire.
1832
Partly because of the work of Ezekiel Hart, a law was passed that guaranteed Jews the same political rights and freedoms as Christians in Canada.
1833
Clemens Brentano published The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich. The "Dolorous Passion" is claimed to reveal a "clear antisemitic strain throughout", with Brentano writing that Emmerich believed that "Jews ... strangled Christian children and used their blood for all sorts of suspicious and diabolical practices."
1834
The Spanish Inquisition is officially abolished during the reign of Isabella II, after a period of Spain’s declining international influence in the preceding century.
1834
The 1834 looting of Safed was a month-long attack on the Jewish population of Safed by local Arab and Druze villagers. It was full of large scale looting, as well as the killing and raping of Jews and the destruction of many homes and synagogues. Before the attacks Jews made up over 50% of the population, but a lot of them fled to nearby cities which reduced their presence drastically.
1834
Jewish heroine Sol Hachuel is publicly decapitated at 17 years old in Fez, Morocco. She is executed for refusing to convert to Islam.
1834–1835
Muslims, Druze attack Jews in Safed, Hebron & in Jerusalem.
1835
Oppressive constitution for the Jews issued by Czar Nicholas I of Russia.
1837
Moses Haim Montefiore is knighted by Queen Victoria of England.
1837
Galilee earthquake of 1837 devastates Jewish communities of Safed and Tiberias.
1838
The 1838 Druze attack on Safed was a plunder of the Jewish community of Safed by the local Druze during the Druze revolt
1839
40+ Persian Jews are killed, and the entire Jewish community of Mashhad is forced to convert to Islam in the Allahdad. A lot of them practiced Judaism in secret, which led to the Mashhadi Jews, whom today number in the thousands.
Mid-19th Century
Mid-19th Century
Beginning of the rise of classical Reform Judaism.
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.
Positive-Historical Judaism, later known as Conservative Judaism, is developed.
1840’s
1840
The Damascus affair: false blood libel accusations cause arrests and atrocities, culminating in the seizure of sixty-three Jewish children and attacks on Jewish communities throughout the Middle East.
1841
In Florida, David Levy Yulee is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first Jew elected to Congress.
1844
Karl Marx publishes his work On the Jewish Question: "What is the worldly cult of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly god? Money... Money is the jealous God of Israel, besides which no other god may exist... The god of the Jews has been secularized and has become the god of this world", "In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism."
1848
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It is essentially democratic and liberal in nature, with the aim of removing the old monarchies and creating independent nation-states. More than 50 countries are affected. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history.
1850’s
1850
Das Judenthum in der Musik (German for "Jewishness in Music", but normally translated Judaism in Music; spelled after its first publications, according to modern German spelling practice, as ‘Judentum’), is an essay by Richard Wagner which attacks Jews in general and the composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn in particular. It was published under a pseudonym in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (NZM) of Leipzig in September 1850 and was reissued in a greatly expanded version under Wagner's name in 1869. It is regarded by some as an important landmark in the history of German antisemitism.
1851
Norway allows Jews to enter the country. They are not emancipated until 1891.
1853
Blood libels in Saratov and throughout Russia.
March 1855
Tzar Alexander II (April 29, 1818 – March 13, 1881) is Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination.
1858
Jews emancipated in England.
1860’s
1860
The Jews of Hamadan are accused of mocking the Ta'zieh ceremonies for Imam Husain, several of them are fined and some have their ears and noses cut off as punishment.
1860
Alliance Israelite Universelle, an international Jewish organization is founded in Paris with the goal to protect Jewish rights as citizens.
1860–1875
Moshe Montefiori builds Jewish neighborhoods 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
Life of Henrietta Szold: educator, author, social worker and founder of Hadassah.
1861
The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia, also known as the Edict of Emancipation of Russia, ("peasants' reform of 1861") is the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform abolishes serfdom throughout the Russian Empire. Jews are accorded slightly more rights with the reform, but they are still restricted to the Pale of Settlement and subject to restrictions on ownership and profession. The privileges of some towns regarding prohibition of Jewish settlement are revoked. [Wikipedia]
1861
The Zion Society is formed in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
1862
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.
1862
During the American Civil War General Grant issues General Order № 11 (1862), ordering all Jews out of his military district, suspecting them of pro-Confederate sympathy. President Lincoln directs him to rescind the order. Polish Jews are given equal rights. Old privileges forbidding Jews to settle in some Polish cities are abolished.
1863
A Jew in Hamadan is lynched by a Muslim mob, and many others are severely injured after being accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad.
1864
At least 500 Moroccan Jews are massacred in Marrakech and Fez.
1866
The Jews of Barforush are forcibly converted to Islam. When they are allowed to revert to Judaism thanks to French and British ambassadors, a Muslim mob kills 18 Jews, burning two of them alive.
April 4, 1866
Attempted assassination of Tzar Alexander II.
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. [Wikipedia]
1868
Samuel Bierfield [?-15 August 1868] is believed to be the first Jew lynched in the United States. Bierfield and his African American clerk, Lawrence Bowman, were apprehended in Bierfield's store in Franklin, Tennessee and fatally shot by a group of masked men believed to belong to the Ku Klux Klan, on 15 August 1868. No one was ever convicted of the crime, however.
1869
18 Tunisian Jews are killed in a pogrom and an Arab mob loots Jewish homes and stores, burns synagogues, on Jerba Island.
1870’s
1870
The 35,000 Jews living in Algeria are granted French citizenship as a result of the Crémieux Decree. This leads to a rise of anti-Semitism in Algeria and across the Middle East.
1870
Jews are emancipated in the Kingdom of Italy.
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 Baron Edmond James de Rothschild. In Rishon LeZion Eliezer ben Yehuda revives Hebrew as spoken modern language. [Wikipedia]
1870-1914
The Second Industrial Revolution. Also known as the Technological Revolution, is a phase of rapid standardization and industrialization from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. The enormous expansion of rail and telegraph lines after 1870 allowed unprecedented movement of people and ideas, which culminated in a new wave of globalization. [Wikipedia]
1871
Jews are emancipated in Germany.
1871
Speech of Pope Pius IX in regard to Jews: "of these dogs, there are too many of them at present in Rome, and we hear them howling in the streets, and they are disturbing us in all places."
1873
The Southern Baptist Convention passed a "Resolution On Anti-Semitism" stating, "RESOLVED, That we do gratefully remember this day our unspeakable indebtedness to the seed of Abraham, and devoutly recognize their peculiar claims upon the sympathies and prayers of all Gentile Christians, and we hereby record our earnest desire to partake in the glorious work of hastening the day when the superscription of the Cross shall be the confession of all Israel 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews'."
1875
20 Jews are killed by a Muslim mob in Demnat, Morocco.
1875
Reform Judaism's Hebrew Union College is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its founder is Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the architect of the American Reform Judaism movement.
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.
1878
Adolf Stoecker, German antisemitic preacher and politician, founds the Christian Social Party, which marks the beginning of the political antisemitic movement in Germany.
1879
Heinrich von Treitschke, German historian and politician, justifies the antisemitic campaigns in Germany, bringing antisemitism into learned circles.
1879
Wilhelm Marr (November 16, 1819 – July 17, 1904) Germen agitator and publicist becomes the first proponent of racial anti-Semitism, blaming Jews for the failure of the German revolutions of 1848–49. Marr popularized the term "antisemitism" (1881).
1879
Nine Jews in Kutaisi are accused of ritual murder, and eventually are tried and found not guilty.
1880’s
1880
World Jewish population is estimated to be around 7.7 million, 90% in Europe, mostly Eastern Europe; around 3.5 million in the former Polish provinces.
1881
In Russia newly enacted repressive anti-Jewish laws are passed and remain in effect until 1917. Along with violent pogroms they provide the motivation for mass Jewish emigration from Russia. In the period from 1881 to 1920, over two million Jews leave. Most Russian Jewish emigrants go to the United States or Argentina, though some go to Palestine.
1881
The German Reichstag receives and rejects a petition with more than 250,000 signatures, and supported by the Kaiser's personal chaplain, Adolf Stoecker, calling for the removal of Jews from public life.
1881
Georg Ritter von Schönerer, a pan-German Austrian leader and anti-Semite styles himself as "Führer" and he and his followers use the greeting "Heil!"
1881
Pogrom against the Jews in Tlemcen, Algeria.
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 this period of 1881–1924, many of them to the United States (until the National Origins Quota of 1924 and Immigration Act of 1924 largely halted immigration to the U.S. from Eastern Europe and Russia). The Russian word "pogrom" becomes international.
March 13, 1881
Tzar Alexander II of Russia is assassinated in Saint Petersburg. The assassination triggered major suppression of civil liberties in Russia, A series of anti-Jewish pogroms and antisemitic legislation, the May Laws, are instituted.
Jews flee the Russian Empire.
May 15, 1882
Temporary regulations regarding the Jews (also known as May Laws) are proposed by the minister of internal affairs and enacted on 15 May 1882, by Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Originally, regulations of May 1882 are intended only as temporary measures until a future revision of the laws concerning the Jews but remain in effect for more than thirty years. [Wikipedia]
1882–1903
The First Aliyah, a major wave of Jewish immigrants to establish a homeland in Palestine.
1882
Jewish population of Algiers is attacked by a Muslim mob.
1882
The Tiszaeszlár blood libel in Hungary arouses public opinion throughout Europe.
1882
The International Anti-Jewish Congress, led by Adolph Stoeker, convenes at Dresden, Germany; it appeals to "the Government and Peoples of Christian Nations Threatened by Judaism" to expel "the Semitic race of Jews" from Europe.
March 30, 1882
Adolf Henryk Silberschein, (1882 – 1951) also known as Abraham Silberschein is born in Lwów, Austria-Hungary, today Ukraine, He is a Polish-Jewish lawyer, activist of the World Jewish Congress, Zionist, member of the Polish Sejm (1922–27). During the Holocaust he was a member of the Ładoś Group also called as the Bernese Group, an informal cooperation of Jewish organizations and Polish diplomats who fabricated and smuggled illegal Latin American passports to occupied Poland, saving their holders and their families from immediate deportation to German Nazi death camps. [Wikipedia]
1884
In response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire 36 Jewish Zionist delegates met in Katowice, forming the Hovevei Zion-Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement. Their goal is to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine, and continue Jewish settlement there, particularly agricultural. [Wikipedia]
November 11, 1884
Filippo Bernardini (1884 – 1954) is born He was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He spent almost his entire career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See and was given the rank of archbishop in 1933. He was Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland where he served from 1935 to 1953. During World War II, he was active in the Catholic resistance to Nazism and aided Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.
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'. [Wikipedia]
1887
Russia introduces measures to limit Jew’s access to education, known as the quota.
Return to Chronology of Jewish History - Parts 1-9
Updated November 23, 2021