Timeline Israel and the Jews thru 1960
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Israel is about the same size as New Jersey.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
What we call ancient Israel was a federation of 12 tribes, 12 different groups that did not even speak the same language. The Jews did not become ethnic until the time of Nehemiah, when he tried to force the Jews to divorce their non-Jewish mates.
(MT, Spg. '97, p.12)
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the Jewish year. The steps to atonement are precisely defined: 1) God directly forgives sins only against God. 2) Only the victim of a sin may forgive. 3) To obtain forgiveness one must repent. 4) A sinner must acknowledge that he has sinned. 5) A sin must be acknowledged precisely. 6) The penitent must resolve not to commit the sin again. 7) The person who wishes to make amends must acknowledge that he deserves punishment.
(WSJ, 9/25/98, p.W11)
The Bible listed 613 laws given to the Jews.
(SFC, 9/22/03, p.B4)
95Mil BC The 3-foot-long snake, Pachyrhachis problematicus, lived in a shallow sea over Israel about this time. It had short, well-developed hind limbs and may have been related to mosasaurs, giant swimming reptiles.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.C14)
400000 BC In 2010 a Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found in Israel. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half as old. The prehistoric Qesem cave was discovered in 2000, and excavations began in 2004.
(AP, 12/28/10)
4500BC-3500BC The Galgal Refaim, or the "wheel of ghosts," first noticed by scholars in 1968, was built during this period. It consists of four circles, the outermost more than 500 feet across, made up of an estimated 42,000 tons of basalt stone, the remains of massive walls that experts believe once rose as much as high as 30 feet. The enormous feat of construction was carried out by a society about which little is known. Scholars tended to agree that a tomb in the center of the site was added a millennia or two after the circles were erected in the Chalcolithic period. In 2011 a scholar suggested that Galgal Refaim was an excarnation facility.
(AP, 11/3/11)
c21000BC Plant remains from this time were found at the Ohalo II site on the shore of the Sea of Galilee indicating use of barley and perhaps other grains in the human diet.
(SFC, 6/22/04, p.A3)(SFC, 8/16/04, p.A6)(Econ, 8/7/04, p.65)
10000BC In 2008 archeologists in northern Israel found a female skeleton in a grave containing 50 tortoise shells, a leopard pelvis, a cow tail and part of an eagle wing and believed they were the remains of a witch doctor from the Natufian culture.
(AP, 11/18/08)
8000BC Tel Sultan, an archaeological dig, indicated that Jericho was first settled about this time.
(AP, 10/1/10)
7000BC Stone masks, dating to about this time, were later discovered in the Judean desert and hills near Jerusalem. In 2014 eleven stone masks were put on exhibit and offered a rare glimpse at some of civilization's first communal rituals.
(AP, 3/11/14)
6000BC In 2010 Israeli archaeologists uncovered the remains of an 8,000-year-old prehistoric building as well as ancient flint tools in the modern city of Tel Aviv.
(AP, 1/11/10)
53000BC In 2008 a human cranium dating to about this time was found in the Manot Cave in Israel. Anthropologists later said the cranium was a missing connection between African and European populations.
(SFC, 1/29/15, p.A7)
3800BC-3700BC In 2010 archeologists in Israel uncovered two fragments of a clay tablet with writing that resembled portions of the Code of Hammurabi of the 18th century BC. The fragments referred to issues of personal injury law relating to slaves and masters.
(SFC, 7/27/10, p.A2)
c3761BCE The first year of the Jewish calendar, lunar based, that begins with Rosh Hashana. [Sep 6, 2002 ended year 5762]
(SFC, 10/1/97, p.A16)(WUD, 1994, p.767)
3000BC-2800BC The Burckle Crater, an undersea crater, formed during this period by a very large scale comet or meteorite impact event. It is located to the east of Madagascar and west of Western Australia in the southern Indian ocean and is estimated to be about 30 km (18 mi) in diameter. In 2006 the Holocene Impact Working Group believed that it was created when a comet impacted in the ocean, and that enormous megatsunamis created the dune formations which later allowed the crater to be pin-pointed. As not only the Bible, but other ancient writings from various cultures make reference to a 'great flood', it is hypothesized that these legends are associated with this event.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burckle_Crater)
2000BC-1600BC In Mesopotamia the Old Babylonian period began after the collapse of Sumer, probably due to an increase in the salt content of the soil that made farming difficult. Weakened by poor crops and lack of surplus goods, the Sumerians were conquered by the Amorites, situated in Babylon. The center of civility shifted north. The Amorites preserved much of the Sumerian culture but introduced their own Semitic language, an early ancestor to Hebrew, into the region.
(eawc, p.2)
1900BC-1500BC During this period a Semitic group of nomads migrated from Sumer to Canaan and then on to Egypt. They were led by a caravan trader, the Patriarch Abraham, who became the father of the nation of Israel. Ishmael was a son of Abraham had by Hagar. Isaac was a son of Abraham by Sarah. Hebrews trace their lineage through Isaac, Arabs through Ishmael.
(eawc, p.3)(NW, 11/02, p.55)
1800BC About this time Abraham buried his wife, Sarah, in a cave in Hebron. The area later became known to the Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
1800BC In 2016 the Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled a "unique" 3,800-year-old figurine showing a seated person, apparently deep in thought. It was discovered recently in excavations at Yehud, east of Tel Aviv.
(AFP, 11/23/16)
1700BC Canaanites, before the Hebrew conquest, built a massive wall about this time when Jerusalem was a small, fortified enclave. Archeologists first discovered the 26-foot-high wall in 1909 and later believed it to have been part of a protected passage built from a hilltop fortress to a nearby spring that was the city's only water source and vulnerable to marauders.
(AP, 9/3/09)
1700BC A Canaanite palace stored wine in large ceramic jars. In 2013 archeologists exploring the site in northern Israel, known as Tel Kabri, announced the discovery of a storage room holding the broken remains of the jars.
(SFC, 11/23/13, p.A5)
1600BC A curved wall in Shekhem city was built by skilled engineers around this time. The king of Shekhem, Labaya, is mentioned in the cuneiform tablets of the Pharaonic archive found at Tel al-Amarna in Egypt, which are dated to the 14th century BC. The king had rebelled against Egyptian domination, and soldiers were dispatched north to subdue him, but failed. Romans later abandoned the original site and built a new city to the west, calling it Flavius Neapolis. The Greek name Neapolis, or "new city," later became enshrined in Arabic as Nablus.
(AP, 7/22/11)
c1500BCE Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and established a calendar with Egyptian features but based on a seven day week. The later 8-day Sukkot festival commemorates the fall harvest and the wandering of the Hebrews in the Sinai desert after the Exodus. In 1998 Jonathan Kirsch authored "Moses: A Life." Miriam was the sister of Moses and led the celebration following the crossing of the Red Sea.
(K.I.-365D, p.58)(SFEC,10/19/97, p.A26)(SFEC, 12/13/98, BR p.5)(WSJ, 4/7/00, p.W17)
c1500BCE Linguistic evidence shows that the Canaanites (now more commonly known as the Phoenicians) were non-Jewish Semites whose language was almost identical with Hebrew.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.12)
1500-1400 The Canaanite "Poem of Aqhat," a work of seasonal writing, dates to this time.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, BR p.9)
1500-1200BCE The Late Bronze Age. The Amorites in the time of Moses came from northeast Syria. The languages of northeast Syria and Palestine appear to have been 1/3 Semitic, 1/3 Indo-European and 1/3 Hurrian.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.11)
1490-1436BCE Tuthmosis III, ruled as Pharaoh of Egypt. In the 15th cent. BCE Thutmose III led his army from Egypt to Megiddo and outflanked the chariots of the Canaanite forces that had revolted against him.
(L.C.-W.P.p.87-89)(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)
1470BCE The volcano Thera, or Santorini, erupted in the Mediterranean. It may correspond to the ninth plague of Egypt recorded in Exodus as the "darkness over Egypt." [see 1645BCE and 1500BCE for alternate date]
(NOHY, 3/90, p.129)
1400BC-1300BC In 2010 Israeli archaeologists said a newly discovered clay fragment from the 14th century BC is the oldest example of writing ever found in antiquity-rich Jerusalem. Dig director Eilat Mazar of Hebrew University said the 2-centimeter-long fragment bears an ancient form of writing known as Akkadian wedge script.
(AP, 7/12/10)
c1300-1200BCE Moses: Neither can we be certain even when Moses lived, except that it was obviously before the Jews settled in Palestine, when they were still wanderers. The general opinion seems to be that it was at some time within the period of Ramesses and his son. The father-in-law of Moses was a Midianite. Moses reportedly died at Mount Nebo.
(L.C.-W.P.p.123)(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.11)(WSJ, 5/11/00, p.A24)
1290-1279 In Egypt the period of the 19th Dynasty under Seti I, the father of Ramses II. Seti overran Palestine, made peace with the Hittites in Syria, opened mines and quarries, and enlarged the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. His tomb was discovered in 1817.
(NG, 9/98, p.17,19)
1250BCE Under the directions of Moses, the Israelites left Egypt and headed for the "promised land."
(eawc, p.5)
1250-1200BCE The Hebrew people returned to Canaan from Egypt after wandering for several years in the Sinai desert and began the conquest of Canaan. The conquest took some hundred years and after victory they parceled the land of Canaan into tribal territories under a government known as an amphictyony.
(eawc, p.5)
1200BC The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece about this time. They went on to rule major ports at Ashkelon and Ashdod, now cities in Israel, and at Gaza, now part of the Palestinian territory known as the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/8/11)
1200-1020BCE The Israelites were ruled by the Judges in a period of relative stability until a Philistine invasion in 1050.
(eawc, p.5)
1200-1000BCE The archeological evidence later confirmed that a collection of small settlements appeared in the eastern parts of the highlands of Palestine later known as the West Bank.
(AM, 9/01, p.30)
1100BC In 2010 Israeli archeologists found a trove of gold jewelry in a jug near Megiddo dating to about this time. The jewelry was said to have belonged to a Canaanite family.
(AP, 5/25/12)
1050BCE The Philistines invaded Israel from the North. Facing annihilation the Israelites instituted governmental reform and asked Samuel, the last of the Judges, to select a king. In 2000 Robert Alter authored "The David Story," a new translation of the 2 Books of Samuel.
(eawc, p.5)(SFEC, 3/12/00, Par p.8)
1020BCE Samuel selected Saul to be king and unified the tribes into a nation. Saul faced many losses against the Philistines and eventually committed suicide. David in his campaigns against the Philistines proved victorious.
(eawc, p.6)
1020 BC - 980 BC Radiocarbon dating on burnt olive pits found in the ancient city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, 19 miles (30km) southwest of Jerusalem, indicate it existed between during this period, before being violently destroyed. In 2012 archaeologists reported the discovery of shrines from the fortified city, providing the earliest evidence of a Biblical cult.
(http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/)(http://tinyurl.com/7hxg4qx)
1005BCE King David's conquest of Jerusalem. In 1995 Israel launched a 17 month celebration of the event.
(WSJ, 9/25/95, P. A-1)
1004BC David became the king of Israel. He ruled from Hebron before moving his capital to Jerusalem. He began to build a centralized government based in Jerusalem and implemented forced labor, a census and a mechanism for collecting taxes. In 2000 Jonathan Kirsch authored "King David: The Real Life of the Man Who ruled Israel." According to the Bible the census under David was followed by a plague that left some 70,000 Israelites dead.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A4)(SFC, 12/31/00, BR p.8)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.97)(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
1004BC-1000BC Absalom, the third son of King David, led a major rebellion which temporarily dethroned his father in the late eleventh century BC. Absalom died when his long hair became entangled in an oak tree and he was slain by David's general, Joab.
(http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Absalom)
1000BC Israel became a kingdom.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
1000BC A clay tablet, described as an Akkadian-language letter, dating to about this time was placed on display in 2011 in Jerusalem. The letter was from the Canaanite King Abdi-Heba to the king of Egypt. It was found in excavations of a site from the First Temple period.
(SFC, 6/21/11, p.A6)
c1000BCE A major earthquake struck along the Carmel-Gilboa fault system about this time. The Hebrew city of Har Megiddo, located at the strategic Nahal Iron Pass - the only route where chariots could speed between Egypt and Syria, was destroyed in the quake. This event is likely one described by John of Patmos in the Book of Revelations, where a great quake takes place at Armageddon.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)
c1000BCE The Samaritans broke away from the mainstream of Judaism about this time. They believed that God chose Mount Gerizim as the site for the Jews to build their temple.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A21)
c1000BCE A Pashtun legend later held that about this time King Saul’s son, Jeremiah, had a daughter named Afghana whose descendants made their way to Central Asia.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A10)
c1000BCE Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem on Mar 13, 1935, confirming biblical history.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1000BC-975BC In 2008 Israeli archeologists found a Hebrew inscription in proto-Canaanite script on a pottery fragment at a site believed to the biblical city of Sha’arayim (Two Gates). The city was located on a hill above the Valley of Elah, where the bible says David slew Goliath.
(SFC, 11/17/08, p.A10)
1000BC-900BC Archeologists in 2005 reported that 2 lines of an alphabet had been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C. The stone was found in July, on the final day of a five-week dig at Tel Zayit, about 30 miles south of Tel Aviv.
(AP, 11/10/05)
970BCE King David of Israel died about this time. In 2000 Robert Alter authored "The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel." In 2005 Robert Pinsky authored “The Life of David."
(WUD, 1994, p.369)(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.10)(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.M1)
965BCE Solomon, the son of David, became king of Israel. He was intent on completing the plans of David to make Jerusalem stand out and to affirm the religious commitment of the people. He undertook expensive building projects that included the building of the temple in Jerusalem and raised taxes with increased forced labor to his ends.
(eawc, p.6)
955-587 The Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest built by Moses containing the Ten Commandments, disappeared from Jerusalem during this period. Legend in Ethiopia holds that the Ark was stolen by Menelik I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and taken to Aksum where Orthodox Christian monks have watched over it ever since. The 1992 book "The Sign and the Seal" by Graham Hancock presents evidence that it was taken to Ethiopia some 800 years after it disappeared.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
c950BCE The Queen of Sheba lived about this time. Local legends name her Makeda and claim that she was from Ethiopia. Archeologists have found inscriptions from the ancient Sabean kingdom but no mention of Makeda or Bilqis, the local name for Sheba in Yemen. The Koran claims she ruled from Yemen.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A1)
c950BCE The Kebra Negast, a 14th cent. Ethiopian text, claims that the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to see Solomon and that he tricked her into sleeping with him and bearing him a son.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A6)
c938BC Israel’s King Solomon died about this time. The northerners, unwilling to subsidize the financial difficulties of Jerusalem and the national court, separated from the southern people. This created Israel to the north with its capital in Samaria, and Judah to the south with its capital in Jerusalem. Solomon’s son Rehoboam ruled in the south. Only the tribes of Juda and Benjamin remaining faithful to Rehoboam. Jeroboam, the son of Nathan an Ephraimite, ruled 10 tribes in the north.
(eawc, p.6)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/08340a.htm)
930BC Sheshonq I, ruler of Egypt, campaigned in Palestine about this time laying tribute upon the king of Judah.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
925BCE The Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak (Shoshenq) destroyed many Israelite cities, including Rehov, Megiddo and Hazor.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A4)(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A9)
c900-800 Ahab was king of Israel. Pottery, a 4-entry gate at Megiddo, and other structures at Hazor and Gezer are similar to others in the time of Ahab. This kind of data has prompted "the Finkelstein correction," which pushes archeological evidence attributed to David and Solomon more to the time of Ahab and Jezebel, his wife from Phoenicia. In 2000 Janet Howe Gaines authored "Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages."
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A4)(SFEC, 3/12/00, Par p.8)
c900-800BCE Joash was King of Judah in the 9th century. Joash and Ashyahu are common variations of the same name. The temple priest Zechariah was a contemporary to Joash and was put to death by Joash after a dispute. In 1997 a 13 word pottery fragment was dated to this time with the words: "Pursuant to the order to you of Ashyahu the King to give by the hand of Zecharyahu silver of Tarshish to the House of Yahweh. Three shekels."
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A8)
c900BC-800BC Sebastia, located just outside the modern city of Nablus, served as the capital of the biblical Kingdom of Israel under the name of Samaria in the 8th and 9th centuries B.C.
(AP, 6/2/13)
830BC The Philistine city of Gath was razed. It appears to have been the work of the Aramean king Hazael, an incident mentioned in the Book of Kings.
(AP, 7/8/11)
c800BCE The Jewish city of Sepphoris was founded about this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.64)
742BCE The time of the Hebrew prophet Isaiah.
(MofB, A&E TV, 9/7/96)
722BC Hoshea, the king of Israel, sent messengers to Osorkon in Egypt. He was requesting help against Assyria’s Shalmaneser V. No help was sent. Samaria was captured and the Israelites were taken away to Assyria. The Assyrians conquered Israel and left nothing behind. The Hebrew kingdom of Judah managed to survive. Descendants of the Israelites not exiled by the Assyrians were later known as the Samaritans.
(eawc, p.7)(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.W15)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
721BC About this time as the northern Israelite kingdom failed, Hebron remained the capital of the southern Israelite kingdom of Judah.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
c720BCE Some Jewish tribes went missing after being sent into exile by the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pilesar III. In 2002 Hillel Halkin authored "Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel," an account of the search for the lost tribes that included the Gadites, Reubenites and tribe of Manasseh (Menashe) and its possible relationship to the Kuki-Chin-Mizo people of Burma.
(WSJ, 8/8/02, p.D10)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.M2)
715-642 Judah absorbed refugees from the Assyrian conquest an achieved the attributes of a state.
(AM, 9/01, p.32)
705-681BCE At the same time the Ekronites had revolted against the Assyrian. Their king, Padi, had remained a loyal vassal to his overlord, but his turbulent subjects had put him in fetters and sent him to Hezekiah, king of Judah, who cast him into prison. The Ekronites summoned assistance from North Arabia and Egypt, and met Sennacherib at El-Tekeh. Here they were defeated, and Sennacherib marched against Ekron, slaying and impaling the chief officers. Padi was rescued from Jerusalem... Sennacherib then cut of some of the territory of Judah and divided it among his vassals.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
701BCE The Assyrian King Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.16)
700BC King Hezekiah, about this time, constructed a 1,750-foot tunnel to bring water into Jerusalem. Archeologists in 2003 dated plant fragments in the tunnel's plaster to this time +/- 100 years. In 1880 a tablet known as the Siloam inscription was found in the tunnel. It had been installed to celebrate the moment the two construction teams met underground. The tablet was taken by the Holy Land's Ottoman rulers to Istanbul. It was later placed in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. In 2007 Jerusalem's mayor asked the Turkish government to return the tablet.
(SFC, 9/11/03, p.A6)(AP, 7/13/07)
700BC – 600BC In 2016 Israeli archaeologists made public a fragment of an ancient text which they say is the earliest Hebrew reference to Jerusalem outside the Bible. The piece of papyrus was dated by the Israel Antiquities Authority to the 7th century B.C.
(Reuters, 10/26/16)
700-600BCE The search for the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were dispersed in the tenth century BCE when the Assyrians conquered part of the Holy Land, is depicted on a CD titled The Myth of the 10 Lost Tribes, by Creative Multimedia Corp.
(New Media, 2/95, p.84)
639BC-609BC King Josiah reigned in Israel. The biblical account of Israel's origin was possibly drafted during this time. The leadership reinstituted the exclusive worship of the god of the Israelites centered on the Temple in Jerusalem.
(AM, 9/01, p.30,31)
609BC The biblical king Josiah of Judah was slain on Har (Mt.) Megiddo (root of Armageddon) about this time when he was betrayed by Pharaoh Necho, whom he had approached to stop from going to war on the side of the Assyrians against the Babylonians.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.180)(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
606BCE In Cairo the Ben Ezra Synagogue was established.
(WSJ, 3/15/00, p.A1)
604BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and put the Philistines' cities to the sword. There is no remnant of them after that.
(AP, 7/8/11)
587BCE King Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
c587BCE Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah, the Persian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, arrived from Babylon.
(SFC, 9/6/04, p.A4)
586BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ruler of Mesopotamia, destroyed Jerusalem and recorded his deeds at the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River) cliff face between Beirut and Byblos. He destroyed the first Temple, built by Solomon and took the Jewish people into captivity.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A11)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.26)
586BC Ezekial, in exile at Babylon, described Tyre as it was before Nebuchadnezzar's attack in the Bible: (Ezekial 27:1-25). This time is known as the "Babylonian Captivity."
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.162)(eawc, p.8)
c586BC The Menashe tribe was lost following the Jewish exile in this year. Jews dispersed across Europe and North Africa. In the 1990s members of Shinglung community from the province of Mizuru in India claimed to be the children of Menashe and began returning to Israel.
(SFC, 1/12/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A13)
586BC The Jewish Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, was later said to date to about this time. The first Jews who arrived were said to have brought a stone from the ancient temple of Jerusalem that was destroyed by the Babylonians.
(AP, 4/27/13)
539BCE Babylon, under Chaldean rule since 612BCE, fell to the Persians. Cyrus the Persian captured Babylon after the New Babylonian leader, Belshazaar, failed to read "the handwriting on the wall." The Persian Empire under Cyrus lasted to 331BCE, when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Cyrus returned some of the exiled Jews to Palestine, while other Jews preferred to stay and establish a 2nd Jewish center, the first being in Jerusalem.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(eawc, p.8,9)
520BC-519BC Darius of Persia authorized the Jews to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, in accordance with an earlier decree of Cyrus. The Hebrew’s began to rebuild Solomon’s Temple destroyed in the sack of 586BCE. The Second Temple in Jerusalem was begun. It was remodeled many times and destroyed in 70CE.
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)(eawc, p.10)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
515BCE Mar 10, The building of the great Jewish temple in Jerusalem was completed.
(HN, 3/10/98)
500-400BCE A Byzantine shopping mall was uncovered in 1998 in Jerusalem at the site of a new mall. One inscription read "For the victory of the Blues" in Greek. It was a reference to the competing factions of Blues and Greens at horse races.
(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A8)
500BC-400BC Mordechai, a Jew, became the prime minister of Persia during this period.
(SFC, 10/21/00, p.C1)
500BC-400BC Haman is described as the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. In the Biblical story, Haman and his wife Zeresh instigate a plot to kill all of the Jews of ancient Persia. Haman attempts to convince Ahasuerus to order the killing of Mordecai and all the Jews of the lands he ruled. The plot is foiled by Queen Esther, the king's recent wife, who is herself a Jew. Haman is hanged from the gallows that had originally been built to hang Mordecai. Court councilor Haman warned Persia’s King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) against strangers whose laws are diverse from all people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Esther)(SFC, 5/29/15, p.D4)
486BC-465BC Xerxes the Great, king of Persia, ruled Egypt as the 3rd king of the 27th Dynasty. His rule extended from India to the lands below the Caspian and Black seas, to the east coast of the Mediterranean including Egypt and Thrace. Persia’s great cities Sardis, Ninevah, Babylon, and Susa were joined by the Royal Road. East of Susa was Persopolis, a vast religious monument. To the north of Persia were the Scythians.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(eawc, p.11)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
332BC-63BC The Hellenistic period in Israel.
(AM, 9/01, p.32)
300BC-68BC The Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran, Jordan, date to this period. The scrolls are usually identified with the Jewish-monkish cult, the Essenes, know for their pathological aversion to stool. In 2004 Chicago Prof. Norman Golb authored “Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls." In 2009 Israeli scholar Rachel Elior theorized that the Essenes, did not exist. She suggested they were really the renegade sons of Zadok, a priestly caste banished from the Temple of Jerusalem by intriguing Greek rulers in 2nd century BC. When they left, they took the source of their wisdom - their scrolls - with them.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.74)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(SFC, 9/6/04, p.A4)(TIME, 3/17/09)
300BC-68BC The Dead Sea Scrolls dating to this period were discovered by Bedouin at the caves of Qumran in Jordan in 1947. The scrolls predated the Christian gospels, but contained many similarities. They also contained some differences from the traditional (Masoretic) text of the Hebrew Bible. In 1955 Edmund Wilson published "The Scrolls from the Dead Sea." In 1998 Hershel Shank published "The Mystery and meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls." From 1978-1998 over 6,000 books were written about the scrolls. The discovery date was later contested as were many of the historic circumstances surrounding the scrolls [see Jordan 1947].
(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)
190BC-180BC The “Wisdom of Sirach" was written about this time in Hebrew. Its apocalyptic tone reflects the shock of the Jewish religious establishment at the encounter with Hellenic culture.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.91)(www.updated.org/sirach.shtml)
170BC The rebel Maccabees were able to gain victory in Jerusalem occupied by Antiochus II. During the re-dedication of the temple they stretched a days worth of oil out to 8 days for which the holiday of Hanukkah is celebrated.
(SFC, 11/27/96, zz1 p.F1)
168BC Syria’s Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes ruled over Israel and tried to outlaw Judaism. He tried to Hellenize the Jews by erecting idols. The Jews resisted and began the Maccabean revolt. The Maccabees were successful until internal dissension tore them apart.
(eawc, p.15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.27)
167BC Antiochus IV, the Hellenistic tyrant of the what later became called the Middle East, began to increase religious persecution against the Jews in Palestine and outlawed observance of the Torah. This included the circumcision of males, dietary restrictions and observance of the Sabbath. He installed a cult of Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish priest Mattathias of Modin defied Antiochus, escaped outside Lydda with his 5 sons and began a revolt.
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.W15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.27)
165BC Jerusalem and sacred temple of Judah were recaptured by the Maccabees. They used guerrilla tactics and elephants as tanks to throw off the tyranny of the Greco-Syrian oppressors. During the cleanup they found one container of the sacred oil used to light the temple’s candelabra known as a menorah. They gathered to light the oil which was expected to last only a day, but lasted eight nights. The event was memorialized in the celebration of Hanukkah (rededication), the Feast of Lights. [see 164BCE]
(SFC,12/10/97, Z1 p.4)(SFC,12/23/97, p.A13)(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.W8)
164BC The Temple of Jerusalem was recaptured by forces under Judah Maccabee, religious traditionalists from the countryside. [see 165BCE] The restoration of Jewish law was also a victory over Jewish factions who wanted to turn Jerusalem to a city modeled after the Greek pagan city-states.
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.W15)
155BC-213AD Some evidence has it that the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia about this time. The 1992 book "The Sign and the Seal" by Graham Hancock presents the evidence.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
140BC The first Jews arrived at Salonika, Greece, from Alexandria.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.3)
63BC The Romans conquered the Jews The Jews appealed to Pompey to settle internal dissention. The Romans intervened and began their occupation of Palestine.
(V.D.-H.K.p.102)(eawc, p.15)
37BC King Herod (d.4BCE) reigned over Judea. During his reign underground support structures were built for an expansion of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Wall of King Herod’s Second Temple is the famed "Wailing Wall."
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.D1)(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A13)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A10)
31BC An earthquake occurred at the Qumran caves by the Dead Sea when Herod ruled in Jerusalem. This was the site where fragments of scrolls from the books of Psalms and Numbers were later found, as well as a human skeleton beneath boulders from the earthquake.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
15BC King Herod of Judea built the coastal settlement of Caesarea. It was razed to the ground in 1265.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.83)
6BC Apr 17, Jupiter was in a rare alignment with the constellation Aries and marked an important date for ancient astrologers. Jesus was believed to have been born in this year.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.C1)
~4BC The Second Temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt a few years before the birth of Jesus. Jerusalem at this time had a population of about 100,000 people.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)
4BC King Herod the Great died. He governed Judea from 37BCE.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A12)
4BC-40AD Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, tetrarch of Galilee for this period. He examined Jesus at the request of Pilate. He executed John the Baptist. Pontius Pilate served as governor of the island of Ponza before he was made procurator of Judea.
(AHD, 1971, p.618, 706)(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T12)
2BC The Maccabeans built an aqueduct in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A10)
1CE Dec 25, The celebrated birth of Christ in Bethlehem. The birth of Jesus is celebrated on Dec. 25th because the Romans needed to replace the pagan holiday called the Feast of the Unconquered Sun. In Ethiopia Jan 7 is the day that Christmas is celebrated. According to the gospel of Matthew Joseph soon fled with his family to Egypt following a decree by Herod that ordered all boys of Bethlehem under age 2 to be put to death. The gospels of Luke and Matthew are inconsistent on historical facts. Christ’s birth on this day was officially set by the Roman Church in 336AD. [see 6-2BCE]
(SFC, 12/4/94, p. S-4)(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A10)(Econ, 1/1/05, p.38)
1CE The three wise men that reportedly visited the baby Jesus were said to be from Arabia and Nubia, Godolia and Tarsus.
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.30)
6CE The Romans named Caesarea as their regional capital.
(SFC, 6/18/02, p.A2)
10CE Hillel the Elder, Jewish religious leader, died in Jerusalem. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud. "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_the_Elder)
30 Apr 30, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified [see 33AD]. Christ died on hill of Golgotha, Jerusalem. His path along the Via Dolorosa was later disputed as to whether he was tried by Pontius Pilate at the palace of Herod or at the Roman fortress of Antonia. His death was at an abandoned quarry, the site of today’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1998 Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar published "The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus." The group had published an earlier work "The Five Gospels," in which the sayings of Jesus were examined. In 1999 Thomas Cahill authored "Desire of the Everlasting Hills," a book about Jesus and his effect on the world. In 2010 Paul Johnson authored “Jesus: A Biography From a Believer." Also in 2010 Philip Pullman authored “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ," in which he proposes that Jesus and Christ were twin brothers.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.C2)(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.8)(HN, 4/30/98)(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.W12)(Econ, 4/3/10, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus)
33 Apr 3, Christ was crucified (according to astronomers Humphreys and Waddington). The date is highly debated. See April 30, 30AD.
(Econ, 4/23/11, p.64)
c37-100 Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian and general.
(WUD, 1994, p.771)
c62-63 James, the "brother" of Jesus, was stoned to death for teaching the divinity of Christ. He had led the church in Jerusalem for the 3 decades following the death of Jesus. In 2002 a stone ossuary, looted from a Jerusalem cave, was found with an Aramaic inscription that read "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." In 1997 Robert Eisenman authored "James, the Brother of Jesus." In 2003 Hershel Shanks and Ben Witherington III co-authored "The Brother of Jesus: The Dramatic Story & Meaning of the First Archeological Link to Jesus & His Family." In 2003 the stone ossuary was declared a fake.
(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A12)(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.E2)(AP, 6/18/03)
65 Jun 8, Jews revolted against Rome, capturing the fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem.
(MC, 6/8/02)
66 Jewish Zealots called sicarii (from the Latin word for dagger) murdered Roman officials and high-ranking Jews whom they considered as enemies to Israel’s war of independence.
(NG, 11/04, p.76)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.33)
66-70 The Jews during this period laid in supplies and prepared to hide during their revolt against the Romans. In 2006 archeologists in northern Israel reported the discovery of chambers, linked by short tunnels, that would have served as a concealed subterranean home.
(AP, 3/14/06)
66-73 Roman general Vespasian's army assaulted the forces of Jewish rebel Joseph ben Matthias at Jotapata in Galilee. During the Jewish revolt of 66-73 CE, Emperor Nero chose Titus Flavius Vespasianus (Vespasian) to subdue Judea. Vespasian was eminently qualified for this martial task. He was fresh from crushing a German rebellion, and as commander of Legio II, he had played a significant role in the conquest of Britannia (Britain) by Nero‘s predecessor. Joseph, meanwhile had assembled his own army from the rebel bands of Galilee and trained them in the Roman model. He also fortified many towns, the strongest being Jotapata, a natural fortress perched on a rock outcrop. It was surrounded on three sides by steep valleys that made attack virtually impossible. The only approach to the city was from a hilltop to the north, and that was blocked by a dry moat fronting a sturdy wall.
(HNQ, 12/4/00)
67 Some 37,000 Jewish prisoners were held at the Roman stadium in Tiberias after they lost a naval battle on the Sea of Galilee.
(SFC, 6/18/02, p.A2)
69 Sep 1, Traditional date for the destruction of Jerusalem. [see Aug 29 70CE]
(MC, 9/1/02)
70 May 31, Rome captured the 1st wall of the city of Jerusalem.
(MC, 5/31/02)
70 Jun 5, Titus & his Roman legions breached the middle wall of Jerusalem.
(MC, 6/5/02)
70 Jul 1, Roman Emperor Titus assaulted the walls of Jerusalem with battering rams.
(MC, 7/1/02)
70 Aug 8, Tower of Antonia was destroyed by the Romans.
(MC, 8/8/02)
70 Aug 29, The Temple of Jerusalem burned after a nine-month Roman siege. The Second Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome’s 10th Legion and the Jews there were exiled. In the Jewish War the Israelites tried unsuccessfully to revolt against Roman rule. The destruction buried the shops that lined the main street. Archeologists in 1996 found numerous artifacts that included bronze coins called prutot. Carpenters from Israel’s Antiquities Authority used manuscripts of the Roman master builder Vitruvius to reconstruct contraptions used in the construction of the temple. In 2007 Martin Goodman authored “Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations."
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)(HN, 8/29/98)(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T11)(Econ, 1/20/07, p.90)
70 Sep 7, The Roman army under Titus occupied and plundered Jerusalem.
(MC, 9/7/01)
70 Sep 27, The walls of upper city of Jerusalem were battered down by Romans.
(MC, 9/27/01)
70 The Jerusalem mansion of Queen Helene, who came from a royal clan that ruled Adiabene (northern Iraq), was destroyed along with the rest of Jerusalem. In 2007 archeologists uncovered remains of the structure. Helene converted along with her family to Judaism when they came to Jerusalem in the first half of the first century AD.
(AP, 12/7/07)
70 Josephus recorded that Vespasian and his son Titus plundered 50 tons of gold and silver during the Roman conquest of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
71 Vespasian and his son Titus paraded the treasure plundered from Jerusalem in triumph through the streets of Rome. They used the 50 tons of gold and silver to help finance the building of the Colosseum.
(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
73 Jewish zealots on Mount Masada chose to perish by their own hands rather than surrender to slavery under the Romans.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T5)
73 When the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule was crushed, many Jewish refugees fled in all direction. Those who fled to Europe became known as Ashkenazim.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.75)
75 The treasure plundered from Jerusalem in 70AD by the Romans under Vespasian and his son, Titus, was put on public display in the Temple of Peace in the Roman Forum and stayed there into the early 5th century.
(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
c100 Raban Gamliel in the first century is credited with arranging the Amidah, considered by many to be the most important prayer in the Jewish liturgy. Raban Gamliel was the most influential Rabbi in the period following the destruction of the Temple. This was a time when many different rabbis each had their own individual domains.
(www.kolshalom.com/divrei/dvarilana1.html)
129 Roman Emp. Hadrian visited Jerusalem. In 2014 archeologists discovered a large stone with Latin engravings bearing the name of Hadrian and the year of his visit.
(SFC, 10/22/14, p.A3)
132-135 Jewish rebels occupied the mountain ridge of Hebron during the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans. The remains of an ancient synagogue and mikveh are visible.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, p.T2)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.94)
135 Roman Emperor Hadrian sent 12 divisions under Julius Severus to quell the Jewish rebellion led by Simon Bar Kokhba, who was killed at Bethar. An estimated 600,000 Jews were killed. Hadrian ordered Jerusalem plowed under and Aelia Capitolina was built on the site. He barred Jews from returning and survivors dispersed across the empire. Judea was renamed Syria Palestine.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.C16)(PBS, Nova, 11/23/04)(PC, 1992 ed, p.41)
c200 The Mishna, a section of the Talmud consisting of a collection of oral laws, was edited by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi in the city of Sepphoris.
(WUD, 1994, p.916)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.64)
211-217 The reign of the Roman emperor Caracalla (188-217). Coins were minted at the Jewish city of Sepphoris during the reign of Caracalla.
(WUD, 1994, p.221)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.64)
325 Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena reportedly announced the discovery of Christ’s tomb. The site became the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.81)
326 The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was begun by the Roman emperor Constantine.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B2)
335 Oct 21, Constantinople emperor (Constantine the Great) enacted rules against Jews.
(MC, 10/21/01)
335 Byzantine Emperor Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on the hill of Golgotha, where his mother claimed to have found the remains of the True Cross. It was raised by the Persians in 614, reconstructed and again destroyed by Caliph Hakim of Egypt in 1009. It was rebuilt by the Crusaders.
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
337 Constantine died after having made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. He had the Chapel of the Burning Bush built in the Sinai Desert at the site where Moses was believed to have witnessed the Miracle of the Burning Bush.
(V.D.-H.K.p.92)
c350 The “Codex Sinaiticus," the world’s oldest Bible, was created about this time. For most of its history it resided at St. Catherine’s Monastery built (527-565) on Mt. Sinai.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.80)
c400-500 In Ashkalon the bones of some 100 infants were discovered in 1988 in the debris of a sewer adjacent to a bath house of this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.12)
418 Mar 10, Jews were excluded from public office in the Roman Empire.
(MC, 3/10/02)
500 The second component of the Talmud, the Gemara, was compiled about this time in Babylon (later Iraq). It is a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh. The first component, the Mishnah, the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law, dated to around 200.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud)
527-565 Emperor Justinian built the St. Catherine monastery in the Sinai Desert to house the bones of St. Catherine of Alexandria, who was tortured to death for converting to Christianity. The site was thought to be the place where Moses saw the Miracle of the Burning Bush.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T6)(http://interoz.com/egypt/Catherines.htm)
549 Jerusalem held to a Jan 6 date for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus until this year. In the end the West added the Epiphany and the East added the Dec 25 nativity to their liturgical calendars.
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.W15)
560 Emperor Justinian about this time returned the treasure of Jerusalem, plundered by the Romans in 70AD, to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
600 A synagogue at Ein Gedi on the shores of the Dead Sea was destroyed about this time by fire. It had stood there from about 800BC. In 1970 archeologists digging at the site discovered a trove of scrolls. Technology in 2016 determined the scrolls to be of Leviticus, one of the first five books of the Bible, which dated to 200AD-300AD.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.77)
614 Christian Palestine was invaded by the Persians. The 5th century monastery of St. Theodosius east of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem was destroyed by the Persians. The Jews of Jerusalem allied with the Persians during the invasion and entered into the cave beneath the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, p.T3)(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.W12)(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
624-628 Several Jewish clans in the Arabian peninsula joined forces with an Arab tribe, the Quraysh, to make war on a renegade Qurayshi named Mohammad, who claimed he was a prophet of God.
(Econ, 8/14/10, p.68)
632-661 The Rashidun Caliphate, also known as the Rightly Guided Caliphate, comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia in the east. It was the one of the largest empires in history up until that time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate)
633 In Spain the 4th Synod of Toledo took on the right to confirm elected kings. Jews were obliged to be baptized. The vernacular language, of Latin origin, prevailed over that of the Visigoths.
(www.sispain.org/english/history/visigoth.html)
634 Sophronius (74), Christian monk, was elected patriarch and political ruler of Jerusalem.
(ON, 7/03, p.3)
636 Summer, A Byzantine army arrived in the region of Jerusalem and was defeated by a much smaller Muslim army at the Yarmuk River. With Muslims at the gate Sophronius, head of Jerusalem, requested a meeting with Caliph Omar.
(ON, 7/03, p.5)
638 cJan, Sophronius met with Caliph Omar and obtained a set of guarantees and regulations that came to be known as "the Covenant of Omar."
(ON, 7/03, p.3)
638 Mar 11, Sophronius of Jerusalem, saint, patriarch of Jerusalem, died.
(MC, 3/12/02)
638 Arabs conquered the city of Hebron. They allowed the Jews to build a synagogue near Abraham’s burial site.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
691 The Dome of the Rock mosque was built in Jerusalem. It contained inscriptions that later were held as the 1st evidence of the Koran.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A15)
694 Nov 9, Spanish King Egica accused Jews of aiding Moslems and sentenced them to slavery.
(MC, 11/9/01)
749 An earthquake cause great damage in the area of the Sea of Galilee.
(SFC, 6/18/02, p.A2)
861 The Khazar kings converted to Judaism. A Jewish dynasty of kings presided over the Khazar kingdom until the 960s. In 2008 Dmitry Vasilyev, a Russian professor at Astrakhan State University, said his nine-year excavation near the Caspian Sea has finally unearthed the foundations of a triangular fortress of flamed brick, along with modest yurt-shaped dwellings, and he believes these are part of what was once Itil, the Khazar capital.
(TJOK, chap. 6)(AP, 9/20/08)
930 The Aleppo Codex was written on parchment in the Holy Land town of Tiberias by the scribe Shlomo Ben Boya'a about this time. Its completion marked the end of a centuries-long process that created final text of the Hebrew Bible.
(AP, 9/27/08)
942 May 16, Saadiah Gaon, head of Talmudic Academy of Sura, died.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1009 In Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was burned by Muslims under Caliph Hakim of Egypt.
(WSJ, 5/7/01, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
1033 An enormous pilgrimage to Jerusalem marked the 1000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A3)
1035 In Spain 66 Jews were killed in Castrojeriz near Burgos. Others were expelled and settled on a nearby hill that was named Castrillo Motajudios (Jew’s Hill). Records from 1627 show the name was changed to Castrillo Matajudios, meaning "Kill Jews." In 2014 the 56 town residents planned a May 25 vote on changing the name back to Castrillo Motajudios.
(AP, 4/22/14)(http://tinyurl.com/pzmhvqh)
1065 Apr 12, Pilgrims under bishop Gunther of Bamberg reached Jerusalem.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1080 The Knights of St. John (the Hospitallers) were founded in Jerusalem about this time to care for the sick.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller)
1099 Jun 5, Knights and their families on the First Crusade witnessed an eclipse of the moon and interpreted it as a sign from God that they would recapture Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1099 Jun 12, Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/12/99)
1099 Jul 13, The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.
(HN, 7/13/99)
1099 Jul 15, Jerusalem fell to the crusaders following a 7 week siege. A massacre of the city's Muslim and Jewish population followed with the dead numbered at about 3,000.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(HN, 7/15/98)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.E3)
1099 Jul 16, Crusaders herded the Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue and set it afire.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1099 Aug 12, At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, routed an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem. The Norman Godfrey, elected King of Jerusalem, had assumed the title Defender of the Holy Sepulcher. Disease starvation by this time reduced the Crusaders to 60,000, down from an initial 300,000, and most of the survivors left for home.
(HN, 8/12/99)(PC, 1992, p.88)
1099 The Aleppo Codex, owned by Jewish community in Jerusalem, was seized by Crusaders who sacked the city. It was then ransomed and made its way to Cairo, Egypt.
(AP, 9/28/08)
1096 May 18, Crusaders massacred the Jews of Worms. Before embarking on the First Crusade to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim Turks, Count Emich von Leiningen and his army swept through their own German homeland, murdering thousands of Jews, whom they had declared "murderers of Christ." When Emich arrived in the town of Worms in May, the town's Roman Catholic Bishop tried to protect the Jewish population, but the Crusaders overran his palace and slaughtered some 500 people who had taken shelter there. Another 300 were killed over the next two days. The graves of the massacre victims can still be seen at the Jewish Cemetery at Worms.
(HNPD, 5/12/99)(SC, 5/18/02)
1096 Jun 25, The 1st Crusaders slaughtered the Jews of Werelinghofen, Germany.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1096 Oct 21, Seljuk Turks at Chivitot slaughtered thousands of German crusaders.
(HN, 10/21/99)
c1096 The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in Jerusalem on the traditional site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1997 renovation was completed with a new 115-foot dome, designed by Fresno architect Ara Normart.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A18)
1099 Jun 5, Knights and their families on the First Crusade witnessed an eclipse of the moon and interpreted it as a sign from God that they would recapture Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1099 Jun 12, Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/12/99)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1099 Jul 13, The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.
(HN, 7/13/99)
1099 Jul 15, Jerusalem fell to the crusaders following a 7 week siege. A massacre of the city's Muslim and Jewish population followed with the dead numbered at about 3,000.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(HN, 7/15/98)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.E3)
1099 Jul 16, Crusaders herded the Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue and set it afire.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1099 The Aleppo Codex, owned by Jewish community in Jerusalem, was seized by Crusaders who sacked the city. It was then ransomed and made its way to Cairo, Egypt.
(AP, 9/27/08)
c1100-1200 Judah Halevi was a Jewish poet who lived in Muslim Spain in the 12th century. He wrote "City of the Great King, for thee my soul is longing."
(WSJ, 12/12/00, p.A24)
1105 Nov 24, Rabbi Nathan ben Yehiel of Rome completed a Talmudic dictionary.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1113 Feb 13, Pope Paschal II issued a papal bull recognizing the Knights of Malta as independent from bishops or secular authorities. The order traces had establishment an infirmary in Jerusalem that cared for people of all faiths making pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
(AP, 2/5/13)
1118 The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land following the First Crusade. The Knights Templar were founded to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the second Crusade.
(AHD, 1971, p.724)(AP, 10/12/07)
1119 The French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order for the protection of the pilgrims. Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar)
1130 Feb 14, Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone was elected as anti-pope Anacletus II.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1130 The Knights of St. John (the Hospitallers) became a military order some 60 years after having been founded in Jerusalem to care for the sick.
(Arch, 9/02, p.27)
1135 Maimonides (d.1204), Jewish scholar, philosopher and rabbi was born in Spain. He analyzed linkages between wealth and charity and created a ladder of giving with each rung representing a higher degree of virtue. The most virtuous way to give was to help a stranger by offering him a loan or job so that he would no longer need help. The lowest rung was to make a grudging donation.
(WUD, 1994, p.864)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 10/5/01, p.W17)
1149 In Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, rebuilt by the Crusaders, was consecrated.
(Arch, 9/02, p.28)
c1171 Benjamin ben Jonah, a Spanish Jew, returned to his home in Tudela and published an account of his 6-year journey to Constantinople, Cyprus, Palestine, Damascus, Persia and Egypt: "The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela."
(WSJ, 8/8/02, p.D10)
1187 Oct 2, Sultan Saladin captured Jerusalem from Crusaders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin)
1189 Sep 3, After the death of Henry II, Richard Lionheart, King Richard I, was crowned king of England in Westminster.
(AP, 9/3/97)(HN, 9/3/98)
1189 Sep 3, Jacob of Orleans, Rabbi, was killed in the London anti Jewish riot in which 30 Jews were massacred.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1190 Mar 16, An estimated 150 Jews were massacred in York, England. The Jewish population of York fled to Clifford’s Tower overlooking the rivers Ouse and Foss during an anti-Jewish riot. A crazed friar set fire to the tower and rather than be captured, the inhabitants committed mass suicide.
(http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/norman/the-1190-massacre)(SFEC, 10/26/97, p.T5)(HN, 3/16/99)
1190 Mar 18, The people of Bury St. Edmonds, England, killed 57 Jews.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bury_St_Edmunds)
1192 The Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem formed in Acre about this time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_Knights)
1197 Dec 4, Crusaders wounded Rabbi Elezar ben Judah.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1199 Sep 30, Rambam (Maimonides) authorized Samuel Ibn Tibbon to translate "Guide of Perplexed" from Arabic into Hebrew.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1200-1300 Moses de Leon, a Spanish Jewish mystic, wrote the "Zohar," in Aramaic. It was a mystical interpretation of the Torah disguised as a novel. The Zohar consists of mystical interpretations and commentaries of the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Old Testament. It became the major text of Jewish mysticism that came to be called the Kabbalah, as developed a few centuries later by Isaac Luria in Palestine. In 2003 a new translation was made by Daniel C. Matt, as part of a 12-volume new edition of the Kabbalah.
(WUD, 1994, p.1662)(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)(SFC, 12/16/03, p.D1)
1204 Maimonides (b.1135), Jewish scholar, died. His books included the “Mishnah Torah," the single most important Jewish book after the Bible and Talmud, and “Guide for the Perplexed." In 2005 Sherwin B. Nuland authored “Maimonides."
(WUD, 1994, p.864)(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.M1)
1205 Jul 15, Pope Innocent III decreed that the Jews were doomed to perpetual servitude and subjugation due to crucifixion of Jesus.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1210 Nov 1, King John of England began imprisoning Jews.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1235 Jan 2, Emperor Joseph II ordered the Jews of Galicia, Austria, to adopt family names.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1241 May 25, 1st attack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1242 Jun 6, 24 wagonloads of Talmudic books were burned in Paris.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1244 Jul 11, The Khwarezmian Turks attacked Jerusalem. By August 23 they completely razed it and left it in ruins useless to both Christians and Muslims.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Jerusalem_(Middle_Ages))
1244 Aug 23, Khwarezmian Turks expelled the crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s citadel, the Tower of David, surrendered. The Turks ruthlessly decimated the population, leaving only 2,000 people, Christians and Muslims, still living in the city. This attack triggered the Europeans to respond with the Seventh Crusade.
(HN, 8/23/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarezmian_Empire)
1250 Apr 15, Pope Innocent III refused Jews of Cordova, Spain, permission to build a synagogue.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1253 Jul 23, Jews were expelled from Vienne, France, by order of Pope Innocent III.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1263 Aug 19, King James I of Aragon censored Hebrew writing.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1264 Aug 5, Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Arnstadt, Germany.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1265 The coastal settlement of Caesarea (Palestine) was razed to the ground.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.83)
1267 Feb 9, Synod of Breslau ordered Jews of Silesia to wear special caps.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1267 May 10, Vienna's Catholic church ordered all Jews to wear distinctive garb.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1267 Sep 1, Ramban (Nachmanides) arrived in Jerusalem to establish a Jewish community.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1269 Jun 19, King Louis IX of France decreed all Jews must wear a badge of shame.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1275 May 23, King Edward I of England ordered a cessation to the persecution of French Jews.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1278 May 10, Jews of England were imprisoned on charges of coining. [see Nov 17]
(MC, 5/10/02)
1278 Nov 17, In England 680 Jews were arrested for counterfeiting coins. 293 were hanged. [see May 10]
(MC, 11/17/01)
1285 Oct 12, 180 Jews refused baptism in Munich, Germany, and were set on fire.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1288 Apr 24, Jews of Yroyes France were accused of ritual murder.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1290 Jul 12, Jews were expelled from England by order of King Edward I.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1290 Oct 9, Last of 16,000 English Jews, expelled by King Edward I, left. The country was on the verge of bankruptcy. The debt to Jewish bankers was written off and all Jews were expelled from England. The Medicis and other northern Italian bankers were invited as a replacement.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, BR p.3)(MC, 10/9/01)
1291 Mar 5, Sa'ad al'Da'ulah, Jewish grand vizier of Persia, was assassinated.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1291 May 18, Acre, the last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, fell to the hands of Al-Ashraf Khalil and his forces from Egypt and Syria after a siege of 43 days. It had been in the hands of the Franks for 100 years. Egyptian Mamelukes (Mamluks) occupied Akko (Acre). The crusaders were driven out of Palestine. Khalil, al-Ashraf Salah ad-Din, the Mamluk King, conquered Akko and put an end to the Crusader’s rule in the Holy Land.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Acre_%281291%29)(Arch, 7/02, p.19)
1294 Jun 30, Jews were expelled from Bern, Switzerland.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1298 Jun 24, Rindfleish Persecutions: Jews of Ifhauben, Austria, were massacred.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1298 Jul 23, Jews were massacred at Wurzburg, Germany.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1306 Jul 22, King Phillip the Fair ordered the expulsion of Jews from France.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1322 Jun 24, Jews were expelled from France for a 3rd time.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1348 Sep 21, Jews in Zurich Switzerland were accused of poisoning wells.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1348 Nov 15, Rudolph of Oron claimed Jews confessed to poisoning wells.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1349 Jan 9, In Basel, Switzerland, 700 Jews were burned alive in their houses.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1349 Feb 13, Jews were expelled from Burgsdorf, Switzerland.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1349 Feb 14, 2,000 Jews were burned at the stake in Strasbourg, Germany.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1349 Mar 21, Some 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt, Germany.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1349 Apr 30, Jewish community at Radolszell, Germany, was exterminated.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1349 May 28, 60 Jews were murdered in Breslau, Silesia.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1349 Aug 24, Some 6,000 Jews, blamed for the Bubonic Plague, were killed in Mainz.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1349 Aug 24, Jews of Cologne Germany set themselves on fire to avoid baptism.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1349 Sep 10, The Jews who survived a massacre in Constance, Germany, were burned to death.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1349 Nov 1, Duke of Brabant ordered the execution of all Jews in Brussels. He accused them of poisoning the wells.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1349 Nov 29, Jews of Augsburg, Germany, were massacred.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1349 Dec 5, 500 Jews of Nuremberg were massacred during Black Death riots.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1355 May 7, 1,200 Jews of Toledo, Spain, were killed by Count Henry of Trastamara.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1357 Nov 25, Charles IV issued a letter of protection of Jews of Strasbourg and Alsace.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1360 Jul 25, Jews were expelled from Breslau, Silesia.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1366 Oct 12, King Frederick III of Sicily forbade decorations on synagogues.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1370 May 22, Jews were expelled (massacred) from Brussels, Belgium.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1391 Mar 15, Jew-hating monk in Seville, Spain, stirred up a mob to attack Jews.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1391 Jun 4, Mob led by Ferrand Martinez surrounded and set fire to the Jewish quarter of Seville, Spain. The surviving Jews were sold into slavery.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1391 Aug 5, Castilian sailors in Barcelona, Spain set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 people and setting off four days of violence against the Jews.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1391 Aug 24, Jews of Palma Majorca, Spain, were massacred.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1391 There were anti-Jewish attacks in Girona, Spain, and many Hebrew documents were destroyed.
(SFC, 1/20/02, p.A15)
1391 Ottoman Caliph Bayezid I sent boats to rescue Jews as they were being expelled from Spain.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.67)
1394 Sep 17, In France King Charles VI decreed as an irrevocable law and statute that thenceforth no Jew should dwell in his domains. The decree was not immediately enforced, a respite being granted to the Jews in order that they might sell their property and pay their debts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France)
1394 Nov 3, Jews were expelled from France by Charles VI. The order, signed on Yom Kippur, was enforced on November 3. Jews continued to live in Lyons and papal possessions such as Pugnon. [see Sep 17, 1394]
(www.wzo.org.il/doingzionism/resources/view.asp?id=261)
1407 Oct 26, Mobs attacked the Jewish community of Cracow.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1421 May 11, Jews were expelled from Styria, Austria.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1421 May 23, Jews of Austria were imprisoned and expelled.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1424 Dec 6, Don Alfonso V of Aragon granted Barcelona the right to exclude Jews.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1427 May 10, Jews were expelled from Berne, Switzerland.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1428 Feb 5, King Alfonso V ordered Sicily's Jews to convert to Catholicism.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1430 May 5, Jews were expelled from Speyer, Germany.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1430 Oct 3, Jews were expelled from Eger, Bohemia.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1450 Oct 5, Jews were expelled from Lower Bavaria by order of Ludwig IX.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1451 Sep 21, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa ordered the Jews of Holland to wear a badge.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1454 Aug 22, Jews were expelled from Brunn Moravia by order of King Ladislaus Posthumus (1440-1457), king of Hungary as Ladislaus V, king of Bohemia as Ladislaus I.
(MC, 8/22/02)(Internet)
1455 May 3, Jews fled Spain.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1490 Mar 23, 1st dated edition of Maimonides "Mishna Torah" was published.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1491 Nov 15, 6 Jews and 5 Conversos (Jews who pretend to be Catholic converts) were accused of killing Christians in La Guardia, Spain.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1492 Jan 23, "Pentateuch," a Jewish holy book, was first printed.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1492 Mar 30, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed a decree expelling all Jews from Spain. Jews numbered about 80,000 and it was estimated that about half chose to convert. [see Mar 30]
(HN, 3/30/98)(WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A20)
1492 Mar 31, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews from Spanish soil, except those willing to convert to Christianity. In 2002 Claudia Roden authored "The Ornament of the World," a collection of stories of Sephardic Jews in Spain from 750 to 1492. A Jewish text later known as the Sarajevo Haggadah was carried by a refugee to Italy and later to Bosnia. [see Mar 30]
(AP, 3/30/97)(WSJ, 4/26/02, p.W12)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.F9)
1492 Dec 31, 100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1492 Jews began arriving in Morocco, Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world after their expulsion from Spain.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T11)(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)
1493 Jan 12, This was the last day for all Jews to leave Sicily.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1496 Mar 9, Jews were expelled from Carinthia, Austria.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1496 Mar 12, Jews were expelled from Syria.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1496 Dec 5, Jews were expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1497 Jan 6, Jews were expelled from Graz, Syria. [see Mar 12, 1496]
(MC, 1/6/02)
1498 Jun 21, Jews were expelled from Nuremberg, Bavaria, by Emperor Maximillian.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1505 Apr 20, Jews were expelled from Orange, Burgundy, by Philibert of Luxembourg.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1510 Jan 22, Jews were expelled from Colmar, Germany.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1510 Jul 19, In Berlin 38 Jews were burned at the stake.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1516 Mar 29, The Jewish Ghetto of Venice, the first ghetto in Europe, was established by the government of Venetian Serenissima Republic. The incoming Jews were forced to pay 30% more to their new landlords as compared to the outgoing Christian tenants.
(www.elitehotel.it/en/the_ancient_jewish_ghetto_in_venice_13en1341en.htm)(Econ, 6/18/16, p.83)
1521 Nov 20, Arabs attributed a shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1525 Jacob Ben-Hayim published an overhaul of the Hebrew Bible, the Mikraot Gedolot, or Great Scriptures, in Venice. His version unified the religion's varying texts and commentaries under a single umbrella and remained the standard for generations. In 2012 Menachem Cohen completed an updated 21-volume set, with the final chapter set to be published in 2013.
(AP, 8/8/12)
1526 Nov 9, Jews were expelled from Pressburg, Hungary, by Maria of Hapsburg.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1529 May 27, 30 Jews of Posing, Hungary, charged with blood ritual, were burned at stake.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1536 May 23, Pope Paul III installed the Portuguese Inquisition at the request of John III. Its most common accusation was maintaining outlawed Jewish practices in secret. The Inquisition was disbanded in 1821.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Inquisition)(AP, 8/19/15)
1539 Feb 19, Jews of Tyrnau, Hungary, (then Trnava, Czech), were expelled.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1550 Apr 2, Jews were expelled from Genoa, Italy. [see Jun 15, 1567]
(MC, 4/2/02)
1551 Persecution of the Jews became widespread in Bavaria.
(TL-MB, p.18)
1553 Aug 12, Pope Julius III ordered the confiscation and burning of the Talmud.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1553 Oct 21, Volumes of the Talmud were burned.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1556 Apr 13, Portuguese Marranos who reverted back to Judaism were burned alive by order of Pope.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1558 Aug 4, 1st printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabala).
(MC, 8/4/02)
1563 Apr 30, Jews were expelled from France by order of Charles VI.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1567 Jun 15, Genoa expelled the Jews. [see Apr 2, 1550]
(MC, 6/15/02)
1567 Jun 20, Jews were expelled from Brazil by order of regent Don Henrique.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1573 Nov 7, Solomon Luria (Maharshal), Talmudic author (Yam Shel Shelomo), died.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1583 Feb 20, Joseph Sanalbo, Jewish convert in Rome, was burned at stake on 27 Shebat.
(www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12816-rome)(http://jewishholidaysonline.com/1583)
1587 An early collection of Jewish songs was published in Zeminoth Israel.
(TL-MB, p.24)
c1590-1600 In late 16th century Prague Rabbi Judah Bezalel Loew, the Maharal, used clay and the mysticism of the Kabbalah to fashion the Golem, a human-like creature to help avenge Jewish persecution.
(WSJ, 4/17/02, p.D7)
1593 The Minhogimbukh, a Jewish version of the old Farmers’ Alamanac, was written in Yiddish and published in Venice.
(SFC, 12/6/04, p.B1)
1596 Dec 8, Luis de Carabajal, 1st Jewish author in America, was executed in Mexico. The nephew of Luis Carvajal, a Jewish convert to Catholicism and governor of the province of Nuevo Leon, was accused of relapsing into Judaism. He was tried by Spanish Inquisitors and under torture gave out 116 names of other Judaizers that included his mother and 23 sisters. They were eventually strangled with iron collars and burned to death. A 1997 opera by Myron Fink was composed based on his story. Monterey, Mexico, was founded by conquistador Don Luis de Carvajal. He fell in love the wrong man’s daughter and was later denounced to the Mexican Inquisition because of his Jewish heritage.
(SFC, 8/16/96, p.A19)(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A11)(WSJ, 2/25/97, p.A20)(MC, 12/8/01)
1598 Jan 8, Genoa, Italy, expelled its Jews.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1600-1700 Shabettai Zvi [Sabbatai Zevi], a Kabbalist from the Ottoman Empire, became the central figure in a widespread Messianic craze. He declared himself the Messiah and caused an uproar throughout the Jewish world. He eventually embraced a form of Islam.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)(SFEC, 3/12/00, BR p.2)(Econ, 10/16/04, p.80)
1614 Aug 22, Trades people under Vincent Fettmilch chased and plunder Jews out of ghetto in Frankfurt.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1614 Sep 1, Vincent Fettmich expelled Jews from Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1625 Sep 13, 16 Rabbis (including Isiah Horowitz) were imprisoned in Jerusalem.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1632 Apr 20, Nicolas Antione, converted to Judaism, was burned at the stake. [see Dec 20]
(MC, 4/20/02)
1632 Dec 20, Nicolas Antoine, French Catholic pastor who converted to Judaism, was executed. [see Apr 20]
(MC, 12/20/01)
1638 Jan 5, Petition in Recife, Brazil, led to the closing of its two synagogues.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1645 Apr 7, Michael Cardozo became the 1st Jewish lawyer in Brazil.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1648 Jun 24, Cossacks slaughtered 2,000 Jews and 600 Polish Catholics in Ukraine.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1648 Jul 22, Some 10,000 Jews of Polannoe were murdered in a massacre led by Cossack Bogdan Chmielnicki (55).
(PC, 1992, p.241)(MC, 7/22/02)
1648 Nov 2, 12,000 Jews were massacred by Chmielnicki hordes in Narol Podlia (Ukraine). Cossack Bogdan Chmielnicki led the pogrom in quest of Ukrainian independence from the Polish nobility, who employed Jews to collect taxes.
(PCh, 1992, p.241)(MC, 11/2/01)
1648-1649 It is estimated that 100,000-200,000 Jews died in the Chmielnicki (Khmelnytskyi) revolt that lasted from 1648-1649. This wave of destruction is considered the first modern pogrom.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Poland.html)
1654 Apr 26, Jews were expelled from Brazil.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1654 Aug 22, Jacob Barsimson, the 1st Jewish immigrant to US, arrived in New Amsterdam.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1655 Apr 26, Dutch West Indies Co. denied Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1655 Aug 28, New Amsterdam & Peter Stuyvesant barred Jews from military service.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1655 Oct 15, Jews of Lublin, Poland, were massacred.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1656 Jan 24, Jacob Lumbrozo, 1st Jewish doctor in US, arrived in Maryland.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1656 Feb 22, New Amsterdam was granted a Jewish burial site.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1656 Mar 13, Jews were denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1657 Aug 6, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (b.1595/6), founder of the Hetman state (Ukraine), died. In 1648 Ukrainian officer Bogdan Chmielnicki, with the support of the Tatar Khan of Crimea, roused the local peasants to fight with him and the Russian Orthodox Cossacks against the Jews.
(http://tinyurl.com/5pe5gf)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Poland.html)
1660 Oct 15, Asser Levy was granted a butcher's license for kosher meat in New Amsterdam.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1665 May 31, Jerusalem's rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaimed himself Messiah.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1667 Feb 20, David ben Samuel Halevi, rabbi, author (Shulchan Aruch), died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1668 Oct 23, Jews of Barbados were forbidden to engage in retail trade.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1670 Feb 14, Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chased the Jews out of Vienna.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1670 Feb 27, Jews were expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1670 Jul 25, Jews were expelled from Vienna, Austria.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1683 Sep 24, King Louis XIV expelled all Jews from French possessions in America.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1685 Dec 3, Charles II barred Jews from settling in Stockholm, Sweden.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1689 Racine wrote a drama based on the Book of Esther. The Jewish holiday of Purim is based on the Book of Esther. It tells the biblical story of how Esther, the Jewish daughter of Mordecai, is persuaded by her father to intervene on behalf of the Jews to her husband, King Ahaseurus of Persia, who has been persuaded by his lieutenant, Haman, to have all the Jews killed
(WSJ, 5/12/98, p.A20)
1691 The Spanish Inquisition killed 37 Jews from Mallorca for secretly practicing their faith. In 2011 the island’s leading government official issued an official condemnation for the killing.
(SFC, 5/6/11, p.A2)
1695 Sep 12, NY Jews petitioned governor Dongan for religious liberties.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1699 Mar 4, Jews were expelled from Lubeck, Germany.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1700-1800 The Kabbalah of Isaac Luria provided the inspiration for the revolutionary 18th century Jewish revivalist movement in Eastern Europe, Hasidism. It included the idea known as "tikkun olam" whereby the world is repaired by identifying the spark of God in every living thing.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)
1700-1800 The Gaon of Vilna excommunicated the Hasidic Jews after they cast aside the traditional Jewish prayer book, replacing it with one composed by Isaac Luria.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)
1712 Oct 4, Utrecht banished poor Jews.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1716 Jul 18, A decree ordered all Jews expelled from Brussels.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1726 May 14, Moshe Darshan, Rabbi, author (Torat Ahsam), died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1727 May 7, Jews were expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1727 Nov 15, NY General assembly permitted Jews to omit phrase "upon the faith of a Christian" from abjuration oath.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1730 Apr 8, 1st Jewish congregation in US formed the synagogue, "Sherith Israel, NYC."
(MC, 4/8/02)
1731 May 28, All Hebrew books in Papal State were confiscated.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1732 Sep 2, Pope Clement XII renewed the anti-Jewish laws of Rome.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1738 Dec 9, Jews were expelled from Breslau, Silesia.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1739 Sep 1, 35 Jews were sentenced to life in prison in Lisbon, Portugal.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1740 Feb 3, Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invited the Jews to return to Sicily.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1742 Dec 1, Empress Elisabeth ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Russia.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1744 Nov 25, Austrian forces pillaged and killed Jews of Prague.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1745 Mar 31, Jews were expelled from Prague.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1745 Schneur Zalman Boruchovitch of Liadi (d.1813), founder of the Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic Movement, was born. He labored for 20 years to complete the Tanya before it was printed in 1796. In 1814, the Rav’s Shulchan Aruch fast became regarded by all scholars of Jewish law as a major source and reference guide in the study and application of Jewish law. In 2003 Sue Fishkoff authored "The Rebbe's Army," a study of the sect.
(Internet, 7/18/03)(WSJ, 7/18/03, p.W17c)
1748 Mar 19, English Naturalization Act was passed granting Jews right to colonize US.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1750 Sep 5, A decree issued in Paderborn, Prussia, allowed for annual search of all Jewish homes for stolen or "doubtful" goods.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1750 Acre, a former stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, was re-built by the Ottoman Turks around this time, effectively preserving the earlier town, which had been destroyed in 1291 and hidden for centuries under rubble.
(AP, 6/22/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Acre_%281291%29)
1751 Sep 12, Amsterdam refused to establish a Jewish ghetto.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1753 Jul 7, English parliament granted Jews English citizenship.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1757 The Greek Orthodox clergy wrested control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Ottoman rulers declared a status quo for the holy sties of the city and control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was split primarily among the Latin, Greek and Armenian patriarchates of Jerusalem and secondarily among the churches of Egypt, Syria and Ethiopia. This arrangement was formalized in 1852.
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
1760 Oct 23, The 1st Jewish prayer books were printed in US.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1763 Dec 2, Touro Shul, the oldest existing US synagogue, was dedicated in Newport, RI.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1772 Upon the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, or simply Galicia, became the largest, most populous, and northernmost province of Austria where it remained until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. Jews accounted for 10% of the 2.6 million population of Galicia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_(Central_Europe))(Econ, 11/15/14, p.87)
1774 Jul 11(Jun 11), Jews of Algiers escaped an attack of the Spanish Army.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1774 Dec 18, Empress Maria Theresa expelled Jews from Prague, Bohemia and Moravia.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1775 Jan 11, In South Carolina Francis Salvador became the 1st Jew elected to office in America. [see Aug 1]
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1775 Jan 22, Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski expelled Jews from Warsaw, Poland.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1775 Feb 22, Jews were expelled from the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1783 Mar 5, King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski granted rights to Jews of Kovno.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1784 May 25, Jews were expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1786 Jan 4, Mozes Mendelssohn (56), Jewish-German philosopher (Haksalah), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1787 Aug 17, Jews were granted permission in Budapest, Hungary, to pray in groups.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1791 Sep 27, Jews in France were granted French citizenship.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1794 Jun 23, Empress Catherine II granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.
(MC, 6/23/02)
1794 Nov 22, Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, prohibited circumcision and the wearing of beards.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1797 Oct 9, Elijahu ben Solomon Zalman (b.1720), the Great Gaon of Vilnius, died. He was one of the most influential Rabbinic authorities since the Middle Ages.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilna_Gaon)
1798 Nov 27, Rabbi Shneur Zalman (1745-1812) of Liadi, a Hasidic leader, was released from prison in St. Petersburg. He had been arrested on charges of treason, laid by Jews who opposed the nascent movement of Hasidism. He was the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism.
(Econ, 7/28/12, SR p.6)(http://tinyurl.com/8sqmk9w)
1799 Mar 7, In Palestine, Napoleon captured the Turkish citadel at Jaffa and his men massacred more than 2,000 Albanian prisoners. [see Mar 26] The prisoners were massacred because Napoleon claimed that he could not feed them. About this time bubonic plague broke out among his troops.
(HN, 3/7/99)(ON, 12/99, p.2)
1799 Mar 26, Napoleon Bonaparte captured Jaffa, Palestine. [see Mar 7]
(HN, 3/26/99)
1799 Mar, Napoleon moved on to the Turkish fortress at Acre. His 2 month siege was unsuccessful. In 1999 N. Schur authored Napoleon in the Holy Land."
(ON, 12/99, p.2,4)
1799 Apr 14, Napoleon called for establishing Jerusalem for Jews.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1799 May 20, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a withdrawal from his siege of St. Jean d'Acre in Egypt. Plague had run through his besieging French forces, forcing a retreat. Napoleon, in pursuance of his scheme for raising a Syrian rebellion against Turkish domination, appeared before Acre, but after a siege of two months (March–May) was repulsed by the Turks.
(HN, 5/20/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre,_Israel)
1800 About this time an Arab nomadic tribe settled in the southern Israeli desert of Negev. The Al-Sayyid community that developed there grew with a high incidence of profound deafness due to a recessive gene. The village developed a sign language in response that came to be called the Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL). In 2007 Margalit Fox authored “Signs and Wonders," which told the Al-Sayyid story as part of a history of linguistics and sign language in American and the world.
(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.D7)
1801 Mar 3, 1st US Jewish Governor, David Emanuel, took office in Georgia.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1801 Apr 8, Soldiers rioted in Bucharest and killed 128 Jews.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1804 Nov 18, Palver Purim (Feast of Lots) was 1st celebrated to commemorate miraculous escape. The Jewish festival marked the deliverance of the Jews in Persia from Haman.
(WUD, 1994 p.1167)(MC, 11/18/01)
1808 Mar 31, French created the Kingdom of Westphalia and ordered Jews to adopt family names.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1808 Jul 20, Napoleon decreed that all French Jews adopt family names.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1808 Oct 17, The political rights of Jews was suspended in Duchy of Warsaw.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1809 May 5, Citizenship was denied to Jews of Canton of Aargau, Switzerland.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1810 Oct 16, Rabbi Nachman (b.1772) of Bratslav died and was buried in Uman, Ukraine. Nachman was renowned for his mystical interpretations of Jewish texts and his belief that higher spirituality could be achieved through a combination of prayer, meditation and good deeds. On his deathbed, he is said to have promised to be an advocate for anyone who would come and pray beside his tomb.
(AP, 9/9/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachman_of_Breslov)
1812 Mar 11, Citizenship was granted to Prussian Jews.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1816 Mar 6, Jews were expelled from Free city of Lubeck, Germany.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1817 Mar 25, Tsar Alexander I recommended the formation of Society of Israeli Christians.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1818 Nov 21, Russia's Czar Alexander I petitioned for a Jewish state in Palestine.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1819 Mar 29, Isaac Mayer Wise, rabbi, founder (American Hebrew Congregations), was born.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1820 Mar 5, Dutch city of Leeuwarden forbade Jews to go to synagogues on Sundays.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1825 Mordecai Noah attempted to establish a Jewish state called Grand Island near Buffalo, N.Y. No one came to the grand opening ceremony. At this time there were about 1000 Jews living in Manhattan.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.E1,8)
1826 Jul 26, Riots in Vilnius, Lithuanian, caused the death of many Jews.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1829 Nov 20, Jews were expelled from Nikolayev and Sevastopol, Russia.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1834 At the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem the ceremony of the Holy Fire led to a stampede in which many people were killed.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.82)
1835-1868 Adah Isaacs Menken, a Jewish poet and actress, was born near New Orleans and learned French, German, Spanish and Hebrew in school. She shocked American and European audiences in the 1860s for her bold acting style and became notorious for her role in the play Mazeppa, where she appeared on stage barely clothed tied to the back of a running horse. Around 1856 she published her first book of poems and married Alexander Isaacs Menken, whose name she kept through divorce and subsequent remarriages and liaisons. Called the most perfectly developed woman in the world, she moved between Europe and the United States as she performed. Adah Isaacs Menken died of tuberculosis in Paris and was buried there in the Montparnasse Cemetery.
(HNPD, 11/16/98)
1836 Sep 1, Reconstruction began on Synagogue of Rabbi Judah Hasid in Jerusalem.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1839 Jews in Mashad, Iran, were forcibly converted to Shiite Islam following a pogrom.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A10)
1840 Feb 5, In Damascus, Syria, Father Thomas, originally from Sardinia, and the superior of a Franciscan convent at Damascus, disappeared with his servant. 13 prominent Jews were falsely accused of the ritual murder of the Franciscan monk and his servant. The “Damascus Affair" inspired international protests. In 2004 Ronald Florence authored “Blood Libel: The Damascus Affair of 1840."
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_affair)
1847 George Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York Univ., authored “The Valley of Vision," in which he called on the US government to militarily wrench Palestine from the Turks and return it to the Jews.
(WSJ, 6/2/07, p.P8)
1848 Apr 6, Jews of Prussia were granted equality.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1849 The Anglican Church of Christ was built in Jerusalem by the British.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.T7)
1852 Sep 3, Anti Jewish riots broke out in Stockholm.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1853 Oct 2, Austrian law forbade Jews from owning land.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1855 Sir Moses Montefiore, an Italian-born British Jew and financier, became the first European to be allowed by the Ottomans to visit Jerusalem.
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Montefiore)
1856 A Turkish imperial edict lifted a ban on Christian bell-ringing in Jerusalem, whnich at this time was part of the Ottoman empire. The British were given the honor of erecting the city’s first outdoor bell since the crusades.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.35)
1857 Apr 27, Establishment of Jewish congregations in Lower Austria prohibited.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1858 Jul 23, Jewish Disabilities Removal Act was passed by British Parliament.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1858 Jul 26, Baron Lionel de Rothschild became the 1st Jew elected to British Parliament.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1859 Feb 18, Shalom Aleichem (Solomon Rabinowitz, d.1916), Russian-Yiddish playwright, author and humorist, was born in the Ukraine. "To want to be the cleverest of all is the biggest folly."
(AP, 1/13/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholem_Aleichem)
1860 May 2, Theodor Herzl, journalist, founder (Zionist movement), was born in Austria.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1862 Jul 1, Czar Alexander II granted Jews the right to publish books.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Dec 17, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11 designed to combat a Civil War black market in cotton. Grant believed the trade was run primarily by Jewish traders and th order expelled Jews in his military district. Pres. Lincoln rescinded the order a few weeks later. In 2012 Jonathan D. Sarna authored “When General Grant Expelled the Jews."
(SSFC, 4/22/12, p.F3)
1863 Jul 7, Orders barring Jews from serving under US Grant were revoked.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 14, Jews of Holstein, Germany, were granted equality.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1864 Dec 4, Romanian Jews were forbidden to practice law.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1871 Apr 16, German Empire ended all anti-Jewish civil restrictions.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1871 A pogrom took place against the Jews in Odessa and the governor made no effort to suppress it.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.88)
1872 C.P. Scott began editing the Guardian in England and continued for almost 60 years. Scott was a friend of Zionist Chaim Weizmann. In 2004 Daphna Baram authored “Disenchantment: The Guardian and Israel."
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.71)
1873 Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer founded the Rabbinerseminar zu Berlin as German Orthodoxy’s answer to the Judisch-Theologische Seminar in Breslau. Its outlook was that although Jewish law, the halacha, was immutable, it had to be couched in contemporary language. In 1990 Rabbi David Ellenson authored a biography of Rabbi Hildesheimer.
(Econ, 7/28/12, SR p.10,11)
1878 Feb 8, Martin Buber, German-Israeli philosopher, theologist (Ich und Du), was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1878 Jul 30, German anti-Semitism began during the Reichstag election.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1880 Abi Hasira (b.1807), a Jewish kabbalist (aka Abu Hassira, Jacoub Ben Masoud, Yaakov Abuhatzeira) and the son of the chief rabbi of Morocco, died in Damanhur, near Alexandria, Egypt, following an attempted trip to the Holy Land. He is revered by some Jews as a mystic renowned for his piety and for performing miracles. His gravesite became popular with pilgrims.
(http://tinyurl.com/7pryucu)(AP, 1/4/10)
1880 Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine were part of Syria under Ottoman rule.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.80)
1880 A tablet known as the Siloam inscription was found in a tunnel hewed to channel water from a spring outside Jerusalem's walls into the city and taken by the Holy Land's Ottoman rulers to Istanbul. It was later placed in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. The tunnel was constructed around 700 BC, a project mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Chronicles. The tablet was installed to celebrate the moment the two construction teams of King Hezekiah met underground. In 2007 Jerusalem's mayor asked the Turkish government to return the tablet.
(AP, 7/13/07)
1881 Apr 1, Anti-Jewish riots took place in Jerusalem.
(OTD)
1881 Apr 27, Pogroms against Russian Jews started in Elisabethgrad.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1881 May 5, Anti-Jewish rioting took place in Kiev, Ukraine.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1881 Oct 13, A revival of the Hebrew language began as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends agreed to use Hebrew exclusively in their conversations.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1881 A large pogrom took place against the Jews in Odessa.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.88)
1882 Apr 13, An anti-Semitic League formed in Prussia.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1882 May 15, May Laws: Czar Alexander III banned Jews from living in rural Romania.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1882 Sep 10, The 1st international conference to promote anti-Semitism met in Dresden, Germany (Congress for Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests).
(MC, 9/10/01)
1883 Jul 11, In Cincinnati the Reform Jewish Seminary held a dinner for its 1st class of rabbis. The meal gained notoriety for abrogating every rule of kashrut, except the prohibition against pork.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.W11)
1885 Isaac Mayer Wise united pockets of Jewish immigrants and assembled 15 rabbis in Pittsburgh to articulate a platform for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Hebrew Union College, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The organization of Reform Judaism discussed the Mitzvot, the 613 commandments in the Torah, and accepted only the moral laws as binding.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)
1886 Oct 16, David Ben-Gurion (d.1973), Israeli statesman, was born in Plonsk, Poland. He was the 1st PM of Israel and served from 1948-53 and in 1955.
(HN, 10/16/00)(MC, 10/16/01)
1888 Jul 17, S.Y. Agnon, Israeli writer (The Day Before Yesterday), was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1888 In Jerusalem the Mary Magdalene convent was consecrated. Its decoration was overseen by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, consort to Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the brother of Tsar Alexander III.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
1890 Mar 21, Austrian Jewish communities were defined by law.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1890 The Ecole Biblique of Jerusalem, a research center for Biblical and archeological studies, was founded.
(WSJ, 8/28/01, p.A12)
1890 In Jerusalem a small tract known as Sergei's Courtyard, named for Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a son of Czar Alexander III, was built. It became part of the larger Russian Compound, most of which Israel purchased in 1964, when Israel paid $3.5 million in oranges because it lacked hard currency. In 2008 Israel approved handing back Sergei's Courtyard to Russia. The actual transfer took place in 2011.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Compound)(AP, 10/7/08)(AP, 3/21/11)
1891 Apr 11, A Jewish tailor's daughter (8) disappeared in Greece. A rumor spread that she was a Christian girl ritually killed by Jews.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1891 Apr 23, Jews were expelled from Moscow.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1893 Many Russian pilgrims for the ceremony of the Holy Fire Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem died in a snowstorm north of Jerusalem.
(Econ, 12/16/06, p.61)
1894 Dec 22, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was fraudulently convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery captain on the General Staff, was accused of passing secret French military documents found in to the German embassy in Paris. Dreyfus was eventually vindicated. [see 1906]
(WSJ, 4/22/96, p.A-20)(AP, 12/22/97)
1896 Feb 14, Theodor Herzl published "Der Judenstaat," in which he called for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)(MC, 2/14/02)
1896 Moises Saba Amigo arrived in Mexico from Aleppo, Syria. He was part of a large migration of Jews known as "Turcos" from Syria and Palestine whose passports were issued by Ottoman Turkey. He started peddling dry goods and moved up to a chain of stores, then textiles. The family savings were put into real estate. The Saba family were billionaires by 1997.
(WSJ, 8/22/97, p.A10)
1896 In Egypt Solomon Schechter, a Romanian-born reader in rabinics at England’s Cambridge Univ., discovered a cache of hundreds of thousands of documents collected by the Jews of Fustat (Old Cairo). In 2011 Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole authored “Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza."
(SSFC, 5/29/11, p.G4)
1897 Apr 22, NYC Jewish newspaper "Forward" began publishing.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1897 The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were 1st printed. They were copied from a novel by Hermann Goedsche and believed to be concocted by the secret police of Czar Nicholas II. Goedsche claimed a secret group of rabbis were plotting to take over the world. His story was based on Maurice Joly’s "Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu."
(SFC, 10/24/02, p.A9)
1897 The first Zionist Congress was held in Basel, Switzerland.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.1)
1897 Apr, The US "Jewish Daily Forward" began publishing. It was a socialist and secular paper in Yiddish founded by Russian immigrant Abraham Cahan.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A16)
1898 May 3, Golda Mier (d.1978), 4th Prime Minister of Israel (1969-1974) and the first woman PM, was born in Kiev, Ukraine. "Whether women are better than men, I cannot say -- but I can say they are certainly no worse."
(AP, 5/11/97)(HN, 5/3/02)(MC, 5/3/02)
1898 Oct 1, Jews were expelled from Kiev, Russia.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1898 Nov 2, Theodor Herzl, founder (1897) of modern political National Zionism, arrived in Jerusalem to promote his World Zionist Organization. Zionism maintains that the Jewish people constitute a nation and are entitled to a national homeland.
(www.wzo.org.il/home/movement/herzl.htm)
1900-1986 The history of Jerusalem over this period is covered by Martin Gilbert in his book: "Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century."
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)
1901 Feb 2, Jascha Heifetz, US violin virtuoso (Carnegie Hall), was born in Vilna, Lithuania.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1901 Apr 29, Anti Semitic riot took place in Budapest.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 The Jewish National Fund was founded to buy and develop land in Palestine (later Israel) for Jewish settlement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_National_Fund)
1901 Three German Jewish businessmen founded a wholesale drug business in Jerusalem. The operation grew and in 1976 following mergers became Teva Pharmaceuticals.
(WSJ, 10/28/04, p.A8)
1902 Apr 14, Menachem A. Schneerson (d.1994), rebee (head of Lubavitcher Jews), was born.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1902 May 10, Joachim Prinz, author, Rabbi of Berlin (1926-37), was born.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1902 Jul 30, Anti-Jewish rioters attacked the funeral procession of Rabbi Joseph in NYC.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1902 Sep 17, The US protested anti-Semitism in Romania.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1903 Apr, Russia instigated a Jewish pogrom in Kishinev, Bessarabia. 49 people died and some 600 were seriously injured.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1905 May 26, There was a pogrom against Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1905 May 29, There was a pogrom against Jewish community in Brisk, Lithuania.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 The SF Jewish Congregation Sherith Israel completed a new Beaux Arts structure, designed by Albert Pissis (1852-1914) at California and Webster streets. Emile Pissis (1854-1934) designed many of its stained-glass windows. Frescoes in the dome were done by Attilion Moretti (1852-1915). The structure survived the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 3/12/05, p.E1)
1905 More anti-Jewish pogroms swept the province of Bessarabia.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1905 Another large pogrom took place against the Jews in Odessa, Ukraine. Many began to leave, mainly for the USA.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.88)
1906 Jul 23, Pogroms took place against Jews in Odessa.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1906 Boris Schatz (d.1932) founded a visionary art school in Jerusalem and became known for his trademark white robe and pet peacock. Born in Lithuania and trained in Paris he was a Jewish artist and occasional boxer who discovered Zionism and abandoned the European art scene for Jerusalem, then a Mideastern backwater.
(AP, 5/23/10)
1906 A Jewish Museum was founded in Prague.
(USAT, 9/24/04, p.3D)
1907 Aug 14, "Ha-Tikva" was adopted as official Zionist hymn.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1908 Mar 13, Jerusalem's inhabitants saw their first automobile owned by Charles Glidden of Boston.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1909 Apr 11, Tel Aviv began as a suburb of Jaffa. While Palestine was still under Ottoman rule, sixty-six Jewish families took possession of lots in Karm al-Jabali, on the northern outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa near the Mediterranean coast amidst dunes, vineyards, and orchards. There they established a “garden suburb" called Ahuzat Bayit (“Homestead"), which in 2010 was renamed Tel Aviv, or Hill of Spring.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv)(http://tinyurl.com/l8ymtod)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.78)
1909 Dec 1, The 1st Israeli kibbutz, Deganya Alef, a collective agricultural settlement, was founded in Palestine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(MC, 12/1/01)
1909 In Palestine mostly Russian socialist idealists of the Zionist movement set up an armed group, Hashomer, to protect their new farms and villages from Arab marauders.
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.9)
1910 May 4, Tel Aviv was founded.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1910 Degania Aleph, Israel’s first kibbutz, was founded by 12 pioneers, while the area was still under Ottoman control. In 2007 it joined a growing proportion of kibbutzim abandoning egalitarian socialism in favor of a self-taxing regime combined with free-market forces.
(SSFC, 3/4/07, p.A15)
1912 Feb 24, The Jewish organization Hadassah was founded in New York City.
(HN, 2/24/01)
1913 Aug 16, Menachem Begin, Israeli statesman (1977-83) and Nobel Peace Prize (1978) recipient, was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)(MC, 8/16/02)
1913 In 2007 Amy Dockser Marcus authored “Jerusalem 1913, The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," in which she asserted that choices were made in this year that led to the current stand.
(SSFC, 5/6/07, p.M1)
1914 Aug 11, Jews were expelled from Mitchenick, Poland.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1914 Dec 17, Jews were expelled from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1914 The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, an int’l. relief organization, was formed to aid Palestinian Jews during WW I.
(SFC, 3/29/00, p.E1)
1914-1928 German and Austrian Jews born in this period collided with the Third Reich. In 2001 Walter Laqueur authored "Generation Exodus," a study of what happened to many of them.
(WSJ, 8/13/01, p.A11)
1915 Feb 2, Abba Eban (d.2002), Israeli statesman, was born in South Africa. He grew up in England, attaining honors at Cambridge University, where he honed his oratory as a leader of the university debating society.
(AP, 11/17/02)
1915 Mar 2, Vladmir Jabotinsky formed a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1915 May 20, Moshe Dayan, Israeli general, minister of Defense, was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1915 Aug 17, Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager, was lynched by a mob of anti-Semites in Cob County, Georgia. He had been convicted in the killing of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old girl who worked at his pencil factory. The governor believed him innocent and commuted his death sentence in June. Frank was pardoned in 1986. In 2000 Stephen Goldfarb posted the names of some 2 dozen men believed to have participated in the murder.
(WSJ, 6/9/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/02)
1916 May 9, The Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret understanding between the governments of Britain and France, defined their respective spheres of post-World War I influence and control in the Middle East. It was signed on 16 May 1916. Italian claims were added in 1917. Britain and France carved up the Levant into an assortment of monarchies, mandates and emirates. The agreement enshrined Anglo-French imperialist ambitions at the end of WW II. Syria and Lebanon were put into the French orbit, while Britain claimed Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states and the Palestinian Mandate. Sir Mark Sykes (d.1919 at age 39) and Francois Picot made the deal. As of 2016 the boundaries of the agreement remained in much of the common border between Syria and Iraq.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement)(WSJ, 2/27/00, p.A17)(Econ, 5/14/16, SR p.5)
1916 May 13, Sholem Aleichem (b.1859), Yiddish writer (Fiddler on the Roof), died in NY. He was born as Solomon Rabinowitz (1859) in Russia. His work included “Tevye the Dairyman," a series of stories published from 1894-1914.
(www.britannica.com)(WSJ, 9/22/07, p.W6)
1917 Feb 16, The 1st Madrid synagogue in 425 years opened.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1917 Mar 28, Jews were expelled from Tel Aviv and Jaffa by Turkish authorities.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1917 May 20, Turkish government authorized Jews to return to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1917 Oct 31, Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) defeated Ottoman troops to gain control of a strategic crossroads at Beersheba that helped clear the way to Jerusalem during World War I.
(http://tinyurl.com/yaqsor8k)(AFP, 10/31/17) fo
1917 Nov 2, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, in what became known as the Balfour Declaration, expressed support for a "national home" for the Jews of Palestine. It encouraged Jewish immigration to Israel in the decade after WW I.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 11/2/97)
1917 Nov 7, British General Sir Edmond Allenby broke the Turkish defensive line in the Third Battle of Gaza.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1917 Nov 16, British occupied Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1917 Dec 9, British forces under General Allenby captured Jerusalem. He liberated the city from Turkish control.
(WSJ, 4/4/96, A-12)(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(MC, 12/9/01)
1918 Mar 22, Ukrainian mobs massacred the Jews of Seredino Buda.
(www.ukraine-observer.com/articles/205/612)
1918 Sep 17, Chaim Herzog (d.1997), president (Israel, 1983-93), was born in Belfast.
(www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Government/Memorial/Presidents/Hertsog.htm)
1918 Sep 22, General Allenby led the British army against the Turks, taking Haifa and Nazareth, Palestine.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1918 Nov 21, Polish soldiers organized a pogrom against Jews of Galicia, Poland.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1918 Nov 22, Polish forces attacked the Jewish community of Lemberg (Lvov).
(MC, 11/22/01)
1919 Apr 5, Polish Army executed 35 young Jews.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1919 Aug 10, Ukrainian National Army massacred 25 Jews in Podolia, Ukraine.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1919 Aug 28, The American King-Crane Commission presented its report and recommendations to the allies on the status of Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. The report recommended that Jewish immigration should be definitely limited, and that the project for making Palestine distinctly a Jewish commonwealth should be given up. It also recommended the creation of a single Arab state - "Greater Syria"- that included Lebanon and Palestine and would have been administered under American mandatory power.
(http://tinyurl.com/z4rnwf4)
1919 This year marked the birth of Palestinian - Arab nationalism. The events are documented in the 1996 book "Jerusalem in the 20th Century" by Martin Gilbert.
(WSJ, 10/14/96, p.A14)
1919 In central Uganda Semei Kakungule, chief of the Abayudaya, converted to Judaism after the British broke a promise to give him a kingdom. By 1961 membership reached 3,000. In 1972 Idi Amin banned Judaism. Membership in 2004 was about 600.
(Econ, 1/24/04, p.43)
1920 Apr 4, Arabs attacked Jews in Jerusalem.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1920 Apr 20, Balfour Declaration was recognized following a conference in San Remo, Italy. It was agreed that a mandate to Britain should be formally given by the League of Nations over an area, which in 2010 comprised Israel, Jordan and the Golan Heights, to be called the "Mandate of Palestine". The Balfour Declaration was to apply to the whole of the mandated territory. The doctrine was named after British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, who had first articulated it as a policy on 2 November 1917.
(www.ijs.org.au/The-Balfour-Declaration/default.aspx)
1920 Apr 24, British Mandate over Palestine went into effect and lasted for 28 years. The British organized a police force with some 3,000 British, Arab and Jewish officers.
(MC, 4/24/02)(WSJ, 2/2/04, p.A12)
1920 Aug 10, Turkish government renounced its claim to Israel and recognized the British mandate.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1920 S. Ansky (b.1863), Russian-Jewish journalist and playwright, died. In 2003 Joachim Neugroschel edited and translated "The Enemy at His Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I."
(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.M4)
1921 Apr 2, Einstein (1879-1955) made his first visit to the US on a fundraising tour with Zionist leader Chaim Weizman. Prof. Albert Einstein lectured in NYC on his new theory of relativity. In 2007 Jurgen Neffe authored “Einstein: A Biography;" and Jozsef Illy edited “Albert Meets America."
(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein)
1921 May 11, Tel Aviv became the 1st all Jewish municipality.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1921 Jun 19, Turks and Christians of Palestine signed a friendship treaty against Jews.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1921 H. Leivick wrote his Yiddish play "The Golem." It was translated to English in 1966.
(WSJ, 4/17/02, p.D7)
1921 The British contrived the election of Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974) as the Mufti of Jerusalem. In 2008 David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman authored “Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam."
(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A13)
1921 At the Cairo Conference Britain and France carved up Arabia and created Jordan under Emir Abdullah; his brother Faisal became King of Iraq. France was given influence over Syria and Jewish immigration was allowed into Palestine.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.D3)
1921 There was an Arab uprising in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)
1922 Mar 1, Yitzhak Rabin, premier (Israel, 1992-95, Nobel 1994), was born.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1922 Sep 11, The British mandate of Palestine began.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1922 Sep 21, Pres Warren G. Harding signed a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1922 The West Bank became an unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate. The eastern area became known as Transjordan.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1922 Hungary’s Regent Miklos Horthy passed the first of four anti-Jewish laws, limiting the number of Jewish students at universities.
(Econ, 11/9/13, p.59)
1922-1948 Palestine and the West Bank comprised about 1/5th of the area under British rule at his time.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey, was concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and divided the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a massive exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. A Muslim community of at least 100,000 was allowed in northern Greece. In 2006 Bruce Clark authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey."
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.92)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.72)
1923 Aug 15, Simon Peres, [Persky], premier of Israel, was born in Belarus.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1923 Vladimir Jabotinsky, founder of the Zionist movement, wrote that Zionists could never reach a voluntary agreement with Arabs on sharing land. He said Arabs would yield to Jews “when there is no longer any hope of getting rid of us, because they can make no breach in the iron wall."
(Econ 5/20/17, SR p.11)
1923 An int'l. border agreement with Syria was reached.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.A12)
1925 May 9, Cornerstone for Hebrew University in Jerusalem was laid. It was founded in Jerusalem in part by Aharon and Yocheved Shulov.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)(MC, 5/9/02)
1925-1939 Joseph Roth, a German Jew, was assigned to Paris by a Frankfurt newspaper. After one year the job was given to a Nationalist. He stayed in Paris and wrote for emigre publications and railed against Germany and racism in his essays and novels. In 2004 his selected essays appeared in English as "Report From a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925-1939."
(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M4)
1926 The Tnuva Central Cooperative for the Marketing of Agricultural Produce in Israel was founded as a dairy cooperative. By 2006 it was Israel’s largest food concern.
(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.A11)
1928 Stalin began his plan for the resettlement of Jews to Birobidzhan, an area of land the size of Belgium on the Russian-Chinese border. It was officially declared the Jewish Autonomous Region and by 1930 some 230,000 people lived in colonies there. Yiddish language and culture was fostered but worship was forbidden.
(SFEM, 5/24/98, p.4)
1928 Ariel Sharon (d.2014), Israeli defense minister 1981-1984, was born as Ariel Scheinermann in Kfar Mallal, a part of British-ruled Palestine.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(Econ, 1/18/14, p.90)
1929 Aug 24, In the Hebron massacre 65–68 Jews are killed by Arabs and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron.
(www.zionism-israel.com/Hebron_Massacre1929.htm)
1929 Sir Ronald Stores was governor of Jerusalem and insisted that all of the buildings of the city be built or faced with white Jerusalem stone.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)
1929 There were 67 Jews massacred in Hebron and the survivors were forced to flee. Arab riots in Hebron killed dozens of Jews with guns and axes and destroyed the ancient Jewish quarter.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A14)(SFC, 1/25/02, p.AA11)
1930 Oct 20, A British White Paper restricted Jews from buying Arab land.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1930s Imi Litchtenfeld, a Jewish Slav, invented Krav Maga (contact combat), which combined wrestling, boxing and other martial arts to defeat gangs attacking Jewish neighborhoods before WW II. He later fled to Israel and joined the Defense Forces where he developed his techniques for the military.
(SFEC, 10/1/00, p.F6)
1930s Forces of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, killed hundreds of Jews and attempted to get rid of Arabs who tolerated Jewish presence.
(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A14)
1933 Jan 21, Itzhak Fuks, Israeli El Al captain, was born. He was captain of the Jumbo Jet that crashed in Amsterdam on Oct 4, 1992.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1933 Apr 7, The 1st two Nazi anti-Jewish laws barred Jews from legal and public service.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1933 Apr 26, Jewish students were barred from school in Germany.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1933 Jul 21, Haifa Harbor in Palestine opened.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1933 Fritz Hirschberger (1912-2004), later Holocaust artist, founded the Dresden chapter of the Zionist underground organization "Betar."
(SFC, 2/6/04, p.A25)
1934 Feb 10, A Jewish immigrant ship 1st broke the English blockade in Palestine.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1935 Mar 13, Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem confirming biblical history.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1935 Aug 11, There was a Nazi mass demonstration against German Jews.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1935 Sep 15, In Berlin, the Reich under Adolf Hitler adopted The Nuremberg Laws which deprived German Jews of their citizenship, made the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany and established gradations of "Jewishness." "Full Jews," people with four "non-Aryan" grandparents, were deprived of German citizenship and forbidden to marry members of the "Aryan race." German Jews, had been barred since 1938 from government, medical, and legal professions, and shut out from every area of German public life. After the war Gen'l. Patton gave the documents to a friend and they were stored in the Huntington Museum in Cal.
(AP, 9/15/97)(HN, 9/15/99)(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A3)
1935 Nov 14, Nazis stripped German Jews of their citizenship. [see Sep 15]
(MC, 11/14/01)
1936 Mar 9, The German press warned that all Jews who voted in the upcoming elections would be arrested.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1936 Apr 15, A number of cars on the road between Tulkarm and Nablus were held up by Arab highwaymen. After the armed robbers had removed valuables from the occupants of the cars, three Jews were forced to sit together in a truck where they were shot by the bandits in cold blood. One was killed outright and another died later from his injuries.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Apr 19, Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Jaffa, Palestine.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_riots_1936-39.php)(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Apr 20, Serious rioting took place on the borders between Jaffa and Tel-Aviv, in particular in the Catton, Manshieh and Saknat Abu Kebir quarters.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Dec 26, The Palestine Orchestra was formed. It grew to become the Israeli Philharmonic.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.E1)(MC, 12/26/01)
1936 Oct 10, The Arab Higher Committee issued a manifesto to end riots in Palestine. The committee had been formed in opposition to growing Jewish immigration into Palestine.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)(HNQ, 2/2/99)
1936 Nov 11, A British Royal Commission arrived in Palestine to investigate the underlying cause of the anti-Jewish riots. The Arab Higher Committee called a boycott of the commission’s inquiry.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 The Arab Revolt of 1936 was a culmination of actions by Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974), the Mufti of Jerusalem, who recruited and commanded a national movement of violence aimed at forbidding all compromise with Jews.
(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A13)
1936 British forces destroyed the kasbah of Jaffa in Operation Anchor, a security measure to improve their strategic control of the settlement. Some 100 residents of Tel Aviv were killed and over 1,000 injured from gunfire emanating from Jaffa.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.18)
1937 Jan, Arab riots spread across Palestine and British forces sought to restrict Jewish immigration. In the Beit Shean Valley 30 young people set up a defensible tower and stockade that became the Kibbutz Sde Nahum.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A26)
1937 Aug 1, The Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, became operational. The hill on which it stood was called "Ettersberg," a place where Goethe often wrote and sketched, and that was the initial name for the camp, which the people of Weimar protested. The name was then changed to Buchenwald, Beech Forest. By April 11, 1945, an estimated 56,000 people were killed here, including approximately 11,000 Jews.
(HN, 8/1/98)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A10)(AP, 6/5/09)
1938 Apr 5, Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Dabrowa, Poland.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1938 Apr 26, Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1938 May 28, The foundation for Tel Aviv harbor was laid.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1938 July 6, Delegates from thirty-two countries met for 9 days at the French resort of Evian to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austrian. The German government was able to state with great pleasure how "astounding" it was that foreign countries criticized Germany for their treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to them when "the opportunity offer[ed]." The French foreign ministry, the Quai d’Orsay, sabotaged the Evian conference on European refugees, the only diplomatic effort to alleviate the fate of “stateless" German and Austrian Jews.
(http://christianactionforisrael.org/antiholo/evian/evian.html)(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)
1938 Jul 14, Italian Premier Mussolini published an anti-Jewish and African manifesto prepared by Italian "scientists."
(http://specialcollections.library.wisc.edu/exhibits/Fascism/Race.html)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.55)
1938 Sep 27, Jewish lawyers were forbidden to practice in Germany.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1938 Aug 28, Mauthausen concentration camp began operating in Austria.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1938 Sep 1, Mussolini cancelled the civil rights of Italian Jews.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1938 Oct 14, Nazis planned Jewish ghettos for all major cities.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1938 Nov 9, Kristallnacht took place in Germany. Nazi leaders heard that a Jew had shot Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat in Paris, and ordered reprisals. Nazis killed 35 Jews, arrested thousands and destroyed Jewish synagogues, homes and stores throughout Germany and Austria in what became known as Kristallnacht. 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps. The event is depicted by Peter Gay in his 1998 book "My German Question."
(AP, 11/9/97)(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A12)(SSFC, 11/10/13, DB p.46)
1938 Nov 10, Fascist Italy enacted anti-Semitic legislation.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1938 Nov 11, German and Austrian Jews suffered 1 billion Mark damage in the Nov 9 Nazi Kristallnacht; Jews forced to wear Star of David.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1938 Nov 12, Hermann Goering announced he favored Madagascar as a Jewish homeland.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1938 Nov 17, Italy passed its own version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1938 Nov 30, Germany banned Jews from being lawyers.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1938 Neturei Karta (Aramaic for "Guardians of the City") was founded in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel, believing only the Messiah could do that. The members of Neturei Karta descended from Hungarian Jews who settled in Jerusalem's Old City in the early nineteenth century, and from Lithuanian Jews who were students of the Gaon of Vilna, who had settled earlier.
(http://www.nkusa.org/AboutUs/index.cfm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neturei_Karta)
1938 Dr. Feng Shan Ho (d.1997), Chinese consul general in Vienna, rescued thousands of Jews by giving them exit visas after the Nazis annexed the country.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A15)
1938-1940 Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, and Jan Zvartendijk, a Dutch diplomat, worked together to save 6-8 thousand Polish Jews, who had fled to Lithuania by issuing them visas for Japan, China and the Dutch colonies in South America. In 1997 Ken Mochizuki published "Passage To Freedom: The Sugihara Story."
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFEC, 4/27/97, BR p.10)
1939 Jan 4, Hermann Goering appointed Reinhard Heydrich as head of Jewish Emigration.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1939 Jan 17, The Reich issued an order forbidding Jews to practice as dentists, veterinarians and chemists.
(HN, 1/17/99)
1939 Jan 20, Hitler proclaimed to German parliament his intention to exterminate all European Jews.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1939 May 4, Amos Oz, Israeli novelist (The Black Box, The Third State), was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1939 May 13, The SS St Louis departed Hamburg with some 937 passengers including over 900 Jewish refugees. They sought refuge in Cuba, but only 22 were allowed to disembark there. No country in the Americas would take them. It returned to Germany where a number of the Jews were later murdered. [see May 27, June 4 and June 16]
(http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.+Con.+Res.+185:)(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)
1939 May 27, The ship St. Louis sailed into Havana Bay with 937 Jewish passengers fleeing the Nazis. The ship was turned away and headed for the Florida coast. The 1976 film "Voyage of the Damned" was based on this. [see June 4]
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.D1)
1939 Jun 4, During what became known as the "Voyage of the Damned," the SS St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast. Also denied permission to dock in Canada and Cuba, the ship eventually returned to Europe. The passengers were divided among England, France, Belgium and Holland and a number of the refugees later died in Nazi concentration camps. By 2003 efforts to track their fates identified 935 out of the 937 passengers. Some 260 ended in Nazi killing centers.
(AP, 6/4/99)(SFC, 10/4/99, p.D3)(SSFC, 12/7/03, Par p.5)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.44)
1939 Jun 16-1939 Jun 20, Jewish refugees, whose quest for freedom in the Americas was denied, began to disembark the SS St. Louis back in Europe. Holland took 181, France received 224, 228 went to Great Britain, and 214 went to Belgium. [see May 13 and June 4]
(www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1999/ushmm-and-st-louis2.htm)
1939 Jul 6, Nazis closed the last Jewish enterprises.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1939 Aug 29, Chaim Weizmann informed England that Palestine Jews would fight in WW II.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1939 Sep 5, In Czestochowa, Poland, approximately 150 Jews were shot dead by the Germans. The day was remembered as “Bloody Monday."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cz%C4%99stochowa)
1939 Sep 19, Wehrmacht (German regular army) murdered 100 Jews in Lukov, Poland.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1939 Sep 21, Reinhard Heydrich met in Berlin to discuss final solution of Jews.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1939 Oct 24, Nazis required Jews to wear star of David.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1939 Oct 26, Polish Jews were forced into obligatory work service.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1939 Nov 12, Jews in Lodz Poland were ordered to wear yellow star of David.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1939 Nov 15, Nazis began their mass murder of Warsaw Jews.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1939 Nov 23, Hans Frank, the Nazi Gov. of Poland, required Jews to wear a blue star.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1939 Nov 28, Nazi Gov-Gen of Poland, Hans Frank organized Judenrat.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1939 Dec 1, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the deportation of Polish Jews.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1939 Dec 11, New anti Jewish measurements in Poland were proclaimed.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1939 Joseph Burg (d.1999 at 90) came to Palestine and was soon elected to the executive committee of the Jewish Agency, which served as a pre-state shadow government. He later helped found the National Religious Party.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A23)
1939 Nicholas Winton (b.1909), English stockbroker, saved 669 Jewish children by organizing train transport from Prague to London at the outbreak of World War II. In 2007 the Czech Rep. awarded Sir Nicholas Winton (98) the Cross of Merit of the 1st class for saving the children. In 2001 the biography, “Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation," by Muriel Emmanuel and Vera Gissing was published. The documentary film “Nicholas J Winton - the Power of Good," was shown in September 2001 in Prague, where Sir Nicholas met 250 of those he saved.
(AP, 10/9/07)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Winton.html)
1939-1945 Of the 330,000 Jews in France at the start of the war, about 76,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps and only 2,500 survived. Prof. Irving Halperin (d.2000) later authored ""Messengers from the Dead," a book on Holocaust literature.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A8)(SFC, 9/6/00, p.D2)
1940 Jan 25, Nazis established a Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1940 Jan 26, Nazis forbade Polish Jews to travel on trains.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1940 Feb 21, The Germans began construction of a concentration camp at Auschwitz. Hans Munch was an SS doctor at the camp and later reported his experiences there in detail for the 1998 TV documentary "People’s Century." [see Mar 27]
(HN, 2/21/98)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)
1940 Mar 27, Himmler ordered the building of Auschwitz concentration camp. [see Feb 21]
(MC, 3/27/02)
1940 Apr, The Germans sealed the Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland, with barbed wire. Lodz at this time had some 231,000 Jews, about one-third of the city’s population. Some 45,000 Jews from other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe were forced into the ghetto as well as some 5,000 Gypsies. Many died under forced labor and horrific conditions. Those remaining were killed in August, 1944.
(SSFC, 8/30/09, p.A17)
1940 May 1, 140 Palestinian Jews died as German planes bombed their ship.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1940 Jun, Hitler confided to Mussolini his plan to ship Jews to Madagascar.
(WSJ, 3/23/04, p.D8)
1940 Jul 1, Australia refused entry to Dutch Jewish refugees.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1940 Jul, Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, and Jan Zvartendijk, a Dutch diplomat, worked together to save 6-8 thousand Polish Jews, who had fled to Lithuania by issuing them visas for Japan, China and the Dutch colonies in South America. The Sugihara family was later captured by the Russians and placed in a concentration camp for 1 1/2 years.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1940 Aug 4, Zeev Jabotinsky (b.1880), a revisionist Zionist leader, died in NY. He co-founded the Jewish Legion of the British army in World War I and later established several Jewish organizations, including Beitar, Hatzohar and the Irgun. He had argued that no concession could appease Arabs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze%27ev_Jabotinsky)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.27)
1940 Aug 30, Senpo Chinne Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, received orders from Japan to stop issuing visas immediately. He disobeyed the order and continued issuing visas until the end of the month when the consulate closed. In all Sugihara issued visas to some 3,500 Jewish refugees.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1940 Sep 17, Nazis deprived Jews of possessions.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1940 Sep 19, A Nazi decree forbade gentile woman to work in Jewish homes.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1940 Oct 3, In France the Vichy government passed a law that placed great restrictions on French Jews.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A9)(MC, 10/3/01)
1940 Nov 25, The ship Patria, carrying illegal immigrants, sank in port of Haifa, 200 died.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1940 Dec 9, Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa were deported to Mauritius.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1940 In Greece the occupying Germans started transporting the 50,000 Jews of Thessaloniki to Auschwitz. Up to 1943 there were 36 synagogues in the city. In 1997 there was one. The Jewish population at Salonika was wiped out.
(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.3)
1940 Isaac Babel, Russian-Jewish author, was killed by a Soviet firing squad. In 2001 Nathalie Babel edited the "Complete Works of Isaac Babel," translated by Peter Constantine.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.M3)
1941 Jan 9, Some 6,000 Jews were exterminated in a pogrom in Bucharest, Romania. [see Jan 22]
(MC, 1/9/02)
1941 Jan 22, The 1st mass killing of Jews took place in Romania. [see Jan 9]
(MC, 1/22/02)
1941 Feb 9, Nazi collaborators destroyed the pro-Jewish cafe Alcazar Amsterdam. Alcazar had refused to hang "No Entry for Jews" signs in front.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1941 Feb 20, The 1st transport of Jews to concentration camps left Plotsk, Poland.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1941 Feb 20, Nazis ordered Polish Jews barred from using public transportation.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1941 Feb 26, Utrecht and Zaandam struck against raid on Jews.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 27, Jewish musicians came together in Berlin and performed Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony. In 2001 Martin Goldsmith authored "The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany."
(SSFC, 4/8/01, BR p.5)
1941 Apr 1, Nazi's forbade Jews access to cafes in Paris.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1941 Apr 9, In Czestochowa, Poland, a ghetto for Jews was created. By the end of WW II some 45,000 of Czestochowa's Jews were murdered by the Germans, almost the entire Jewish community living there.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cz%C4%99stochowa)
1941 Apr 11, The Jewish Weekly newspaper was taken control by Nazis.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1941 Apr 14, The 1st massive German raid in Paris rounded up 3,600 Jews. [see May 14]
(MC, 4/14/02)
1941 May 14, Some 3,600 Parisian Jews were arrested. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 5/14/02)
1941 May 30, Serbia enacted anti-Semitic measures.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1941 Jun 3, German occupiers stamped "J" on Jewish passports.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1941 Jun 4, Republic of Croatia ordered all Jews to wear a star with the letter Z.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1941 Jun 13, Thousands of Jewish community leaders in Bessarabia (Moldova) were deported to Siberia as part of the general purge. The Soviet Union, which had occupied the former Romanian province a year earlier, loaded 22,600 Moldovans on cargo trains bound for Siberia, where the deportees were used for forced labor.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)(AP, 6/13/06)
1941 Jun 19, Romania ordered Jews to evacuate Darabani.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1941 Jun 24, The entire Jewish male population of Gorzhdy, Lithuania, was exterminated.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1941 Jun 25, Germans invaded Dubno, Poland, and encouraged the Ukrainians to do whatever they want to 12,000 Jews living there.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1941 Jun 26, Lithuanian fascists massacred 2,300 Jews in Kovno.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1941 Jun 28, German and Romanian soldiers killed 11,000 Jews in Kishinev.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1941 Jun, In the northeastern city of Iasi, Romania, up to 12,000 people are believed to have died as Romanian and German soldiers swept from house to house to killing Jews. Those who did not die were systematically beaten, put in cattle wagons in stifling heat and taken to a small town, where what happened to them would be concealed. Of the 120 people on the train, just 24 survived. In 2010 a mass grave was found containing the bodies of an estimated 100 Jews killed by Romanian troops in a forest near the town of Popricani, about 350 km northeast of Bucharest. It contained the bodies of men, women and children who were shot in 1941.
(AP, 6/14/03)(AP, 11/5/10)
1941 Jul 7, Nazis executed 5,000 Jews in Kovno, Lithuania.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1941 Jul 8, All Jews living in Baltic States were obligated to wear Star of David.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1941 Jul 10, In Jedwabne, Poland, some 300-400 Jews were herded into a barn by the local villagers and burned to death. In 1949 a communist-era court convicted 12 Poles in the massacre, saying they assisted German forces in the killings. In 2001 Jan Tomasz authored "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne." According to Gross, some 1,600 Jews were killed in Jedwabne.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A12)(AP, 7/10/11)
1941 Jul 11(Jun 11), The 2nd great roundup of Jews of Amsterdam took place.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1941 Jul 11(Jun 11), Vichy-French planes bombed Tel Aviv and killed 20 Jews.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1941 Jul 14, 6,000 Lithuanian Jews were exterminated at Viszalsyan Camp.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1941 Jul 18, SS troops drowned 40 Jews in Dvina River in Belorussia.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1941 Jul 21, Himmler ordered the building of the Majdanek concentration camp. The camp was built in eastern Poland as a principal site to exterminate Jews. It contained 7 gas chambers.
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A14)(MC, 7/21/02)
1941 Jul 21, 200 Jewish Torahs were burned in Ukraine.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1941 Jul 24, Nazis massacred the entire Jewish population of Grodz, Lithuania.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1941 Jul, Artist Marc Chagall and his wife Bella Rosenfeld departed France for America. On the same day that he left Vichy police deported some 1,200 other Jewish refugees to forced labor in north Africa.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.102)
1941 Aug 2, Jews were expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1941 Aug 7, In Romania 551 Jews were shot in the Kishinev ghetto.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1941 Aug 15, Lithuanian Jews in Kaunas were herded into the Slobodka ghetto.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1941 Aug 20, Police raided the 11th district of Paris and took over 4,000 Jewish males.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1941 Aug 29, The German Einsatzkommando in Russia killed 1,469 Jewish children.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1941 Sep 1, Jews living in Germany were required to wear a yellow Star of David. [see Oct 24, 1939]
(MC, 9/1/02)
1941 Sep 6, Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas were ordered to wear yellow Stars of David.
(AP, 9/6/97)(HN, 9/6/98)
1941 Sep 6, Jews of Vilna, Poland (Lithuania), were confined to their ghetto.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1941 Sep 8, The entire Jewish community of Meretsch, Lithuania was exterminated.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1941 Sep 15, Nazis killed 800 Jewish women at Shkudvil, Lithuania.
(http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/shkudvil/shkudvil.html)
1941 Sep 19, The Nazi's forced all German Jews from the age of 6 to wear the Star of David.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1941 Sep 29, In Ukraine some 33,711 Jews of Kiev were killed over 2 days before Yom Kippur in the ravine at Babi Yar by the Nazis. Henrich Himmler had sent four strike squads to exterminate Soviet Jewish civilians and other "undesirables." Over the next 2 years some 100-200 thousand more people, mostly Jews, were killed at the site.
(SFC, 10/29/96, p.A6)(HN, 9/29/00)(SFC, 6/25/01, p.A8)(SFC, 6/26/01, p.A8)(AP, 11/16/07)
1941 Sep 30, In Ukraine 33,771 Jews were killed in a two-day Nazi operation at Babi Yar ravine near Kiev [see Sep 29]. Einsatzgruppe C was responsible for the shooting of nearly 34,000 at Babi Yar.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar)(AP, 9/28/17)
1941 Oct 2, 6 Paris synagogues were bombed by Gestapo. [see Oct 3]
(MC, 10/2/01)
1941 Oct 3, Nazi's blew up 6 synagogues in Paris. [see Oct 2]
(MC, 10/3/01)
1941 Oct 3, All elderly Jewish men of Kerenchug Ukraine, were killed by SS.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1941 Oct 12, Thousands of Jews were killed in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, by men of the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei; SiPo), assisted by members of the German Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) and the railroad police.
{Jews, Ukraine, Holocaust, Germany}
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivano-Frankivsk)
1941 Oct 13, Nazis killed 11,000 Jewish children and old people.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1941 Oct 14, The 1st mass deportations took place at Kovno, Lodz, Minsk & Riga.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1941 Oct 15, The 1st mass deportation of German Jews to Eastern Europe.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1941 Oct 22-23, Some 39,000 Jews were killed by Romanian troops over 2 days in Odessa. Many of them were burned to death in a public square or in warehouses that were locked shut. Altogether some 90,000 Jews were killed in Odessa.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A11)
1941 Oct 25, 16,000 Jews were massacred in Odessa, Ukraine. [see Oct 22-23]
(MC, 10/25/01)
1941 Oct 27, Nazis directed the evacuation of the gypsy ghetto in Belgrade.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1941 Nov 6, Einsatz death groups killed some 18 thousand Jews of Rovno, Ukraine. “Einsatzgruppen" were special soldiers who followed the fighting forces and “cleaned up" the area.
(www.members.tripod.com/~ebionite/zikkar.htm#nov)
1941 Nov 24, "Life Certificates" were issued to some Jews of Vilna. The rest were exterminated.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1941 Nov 25, German Jews in Netherlands were declared stateless.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1941 Nov, Some 4,000 who remained in Gomel, Belarus, were shot by the Nazis. Most of the 40,000 who had lived there had managed to escape before the Nazis arrived.
(AP, 4/12/08)
1941 Dec 4, Nazi ordinances placed the Jews of Poland outside protection of courts.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1941 Dec 12, German occupying army searched house to house in Paris looking for Jews.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1941 Dec, David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), Israeli leader, traveled to Washington to speak with Pres. F.D. Roosevelt regarding a Jewish state. He waited for 10 weeks at the Ambassador Hotel but was refused a meeting.
(http://tinyurl.com/kkvdh)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.28)
1941 Dec, In Romania authorities ordered the dissolution of all Jewish organizations. Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran (1910-2006) helped set up the Jewish Council, an underground organization comprising all sectors of the Jewish population. The council used its links with Romanian church officials, the Vatican and the royal family in a bid to prevent the mass deportation of Romania's Jews to the Nazi extermination camps.
(AP, 7/28/06)
1941 According to later day Holocaust researchers a force in Ukraine under the command of Roman Shukhevych took part in pogroms in which 4,000 Jews were killed. In 2007 Shukhevych was posthumously named a Hero of Ukraine.
(AP, 11/16/07)
1941 Nazi documents from this year showed that the Einsatzgruppe, a Nazi-run Serbian police unit, executed 11,164 people, mostly Serbian Jewish men, suspected communists and Gypsies. The unit was allegedly run by Peter Egner, who emigrated to the US in 1960, and received citizenship in 1966. In 2009 Serbian authorities sought his extradition. In 2010 Serbia issued an international warrant for the arrest of Egner (88), who has denied the accusations.
(AP, 4/14/09)(AP, 4/2/10)
1941-1942 Nearly 80,000 Jews, or 90% of Latvia's prewar Jewish population, were killed during this period.
(AP, 3/16/11)
1941-1942 At the beginning of the war there were about 60,000 Jews in Vilnius, Lithuania. A year later, only 18,000 remained. In 1998 Schoschana Rabinovici published her non-fiction account: "Thanks To My Mother" a description of the murder of Polish Jews in Vilnius through the eyes of a child.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.8)
1941-1943 Three Jewish brothers established a refuge in the forests of Belarus. In 2003 Peter Duffy authored "The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Saved 1,200 Jews and Built a Village in the Forest."
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.M4)
1941-1944 Necdet Kent (d.2002), Turkish diplomat, was posted to Marseilles, France, and gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.
(AP, 9/20/02)
1941-1944 Avraham Tory (d.2002), a Jewish lawyer in Kovno (Kaunas), kept a diary on the horrors of Nazi rule during this period. They were published in Hebrew in 1988 and in English in 1990 as: "Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary."
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A20)
1941-1945 Some 148,000 Bessarabian Jews were killed in Rybnitsa and other ghettos and concentration camps on the East bank of the Dniester during the Nazi occupation.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1942 Jan 20, Top Nazis met at Grossen-Wannsee, outside Berlin, and there formulated the infamous "Final Solution" to the Jewish question. Chaired by SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the one-day conference was designed to address the Nazi efforts at removing the Jews. The 15 top-ranking men of the German Reich agreed upon a blueprint for the extermination of Europe’s Jews. Their "final solution" called for exterminating Europe's Jews. Until this time, the plan had been to deport all Jews to the island of Madagascar off Africa, but by 1942 this plan was rejected in favor of transporting Jews to the east where the able-bodied would become slave laborers for the Reich. SS chief Heinrich Himmler would be in charge. Those unfit to work would be, the conference minutes noted, "appropriately dealt with." This phrase was left unexplained, but there was no doubt of its sinister meaning. After approving genocide as Nazi policy, the conference attendees adjourned for lunch. The minutes were taken by Adolf Eichmann. In 2004 Christopher R. Browning authored "The Origins of the Final Solution."
(AP, 1/20/98)(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(HNPD, 1/20/99)(MC, 1/20/02)(WSJ, 3/23/04, p.D8)
1942 Jan 23, At Novi Sad, Serbia, some 1200 people (predominantly Jewish), rounded up over a period of three days, were shot along the shores of the Danube. Their bodies were dumped into the frozen waters. Sandor Kepiro (1914-2011), a Hungarian gendarmerie officer, participated in the mass murder. In 1944 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the atrocities, but conviction was later annulled. Kepiro, who was at the top of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's most-wanted war criminals list, returned to Hungary in 1996 after living for decades in Argentina. In 2011 Kepiro (96) was charged with war crimes in the slaughter, but was cleared by a court on July 18, 2011.
(http://tinyurl.com/o5n5j3)(AP, 9/15/09)(AP, 2/14/11)(AP, 7/18/11)(AP, 9/3/11)
1942 Feb 12, In Palestine British police killed Avraham Stern (34), founder of the breakaway militant Zionist group named Lehi. British forces had begun shooting members of “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel" (Lehi) after the group had ambushed British soldiers and solicited fascist and Nazi support for their campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Stern)(Econ, 5/3/14, p.75)
1942 Feb 24, The SS Struma was sunk in the Black Sea by a Soviet torpedo. The ship with over 750 Jewish passengers fleeing Romania, had docked in Istanbul, but was denied entry to Palestinian territory by colonial power Britain. On Feb 23 Turkey towed the vessel to the Black Sea and set it adrift. Only one person survived.
(AP, 2/24/12)
1942 Feb 27, The 1st transport of French Jews left to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1942 Mar 1, Suriname camp for NSB people opened to save Jews.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1942 Mar 11, 1st deportation train left Paris for the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1942 Mar 17, The Nazis began deporting Jews to the Belsen camp.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1942 Mar 23, Some 2,500 Jews of Lublin were massacred or deported.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1942 Mar 25-26, The 1st 700 Jews from Polish Lvov-district reached concentration camp Belzec. The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.
(HN, 3/25/98)(MC, 3/25/02)(SS, 3/26/02)
1942 Mar 26, The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1942 Mar, British and US intelligence received information on Nazi plans for the Holocaust: "It has been decided to eradicate all the Jews." This was part of a dispatch from a Chilean consul in Prague, Gonzalo Montt Rivas, to Santiago of a German decree that Jews abroad could no longer be German subjects.
(SFC, 7/3/01, p.A8)
1942 Apr 27, Belgium Jews were forced to wear stars.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1942 May 7, A Nazi decree ordered all Jewish pregnant women of Kovno Ghetto executed.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1942 May 12, David Ben-Gurion left the Jewish state in Palestine.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1942 May 12, 1,500 Jews were gassed in Auschwitz.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1942 Jun 8, In Paris on the first day Helene Berr was forced to wear the yellow star to distinguish Jews: "My God, I didn't know this would be so hard. I was very brave all day. I held my head high and looked people so straight in the eyes they turned away. But it's hard ... This morning, I went out with Mother. Two kids in the street pointed at us saying 'Hey? You see? Jewish.'"
(AP, 1/9/08)
1942 Jun 20, Adolf Eichmann proclaimed the deportation of Dutch Jews.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1942 Jun 22, A Jewish Brigade, attached by British Army, formed.
(MC, 6/22/02)
1942 Jul 10, Himmler ordered the sterilization of all Jewish woman in Ravensbruck Camp.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1942 Jul 13, 5,000 Jews of Rovno, Polish Ukraine, were executed by Nazis.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1942 Jul 13, SS shot 1,500 Jews in Josefov, Poland.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1942 Jul 16, Jews were transported from Holland to an extermination camp.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1942 Jul 16, The first large-scale roundups of Jews began under protests by only a half-dozen Catholic church leaders. French police rounded up some 13,000 Jews over 2 days in Paris, many of whom were first holed up in harsh conditions at Paris' Vel d'Hiv, or the Winter Velodrome stadium.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A22)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.49)(AP, 7/22/12)
1942 Jul 22, Warsaw Ghetto Jews (300,000) were sent to death at Treblinka extermination Camp.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1942 Jul 23, Treblinka Concentration Camp was destroyed.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1942 Jul 26, Roman Catholic churches protested the Dutch bishops’ stand against the spread of Judaism.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1942 Jul 28, Nazis liquidated 10,000 Jews in Minsk, Russia.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1942 Jul 30, German SS einsatzgruppen death battalions killed 25,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1942 Jul 31, The German SS gassed some 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1942 Aug 4, The 1st train with Jews departed Mechelen, Belgium, to Auschwitz.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1942 Aug 7, Transport 16 departed with French Jews to Nazi-Germany.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, The Nazi 36th Police Battalion, made up of ethnic Estonians, massacred some 2,500 Jews at Novogrudok, Belarus (according to the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation).
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A4)
1942 Aug 8, Gerhart Riegner (d.2001 at 90), World Jewish Congress official in Geneva, cabled the US vice consul to describe Hitler’s plan to deport an estimated 4 million Jews to Eastern Europe and to annihilate them.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A19)
1942 Aug 11, 999 Jews were taken from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1942 Aug 11-Sep 30, The SS began exterminating 3,500 Jews in Zelov Lodz, Poland.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1942 Aug 25, German SS began transporting Jews of Maastricht, Neth.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1942 Aug 26, 7,000 Jews were rounded up in Vichy, France.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1942 Aug, Irene Nemirovsky, French-Jewish author, died at Auschwitz. She had recently authored "Suite Francaise" while waiting in rural France for what she knew was her imminent arrest and deportation. It is a powerful account of the effect on ordinary people of the military collapse of June 1940, the panicked flight from Paris and the arrival of the German army. In 2004 she Nemirovsky was awarded a top French literary award.
(AFP, 11/8/04)
1942 Oct 5, 5,000 Jews of Dubno, Russia, were massacred.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1942 Oct 10, 1,300 Austrian Jews were transported to Theresienstadt.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1942 Oct 27, In Starachowice, Poland, Nazi soldiers separated out weak Jews from the strong. The strong were sent to work and the weak were sent to the extermination camp at Treblinka.
(WSJ, 11/25/03, p.A1)
1942 Oct 29, Nazis murdered some 16,000 Jews in Pinsk, Soviet Union.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1942 Oct, On Yom Kippur 2,900 Jews were killed in Domachevo, Belarus.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.A23)
1942 Nov 5, Nazis raided on Greek Jews in Paris.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1942 Nov 6, Nazis executed 12,000 Minsk ghetto Jews.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1942 Nov 9, Transport #44 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1942 Nov 11, 745 French Jews were deported to Auschwitz.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1942 Nov, German troops arrived in Tunisia. The nation was home to some 100,000 Jews at the time. The Germans imposed anti-Semitic policies that included fines, forcing Jews to wear Star of David badges and confiscating property. More than 5,000 Jews were sent to forced labor camps, where 46 are known to have died. About 160 Tunisian Jews in France were sent to European death camps.
(AP, 1/30/07)
1942 The Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem was created by Aharon Shulov as a center for children of all denominations.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)
1942 American rabbi Judah Magnes (d.1948) helped found a political party in Palestine called Ihud (Unity). He argued for a single binational state to be shared by Arabs and Jews.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.25)
1942 Andree Geulen-Herscovici was a teacher in Brussels when she witnessed a Gestapo raid on a school. That prompted her to join a rescue organization and for more than two years she took in over 300 Jewish children and hid them in Christian homes and monasteries under assumed identities. In 2007 Geulen-Herscovici (86) was granted honorary Israeli citizenship.
(AP, 4/18/07)
1942 Nazi documents of this year showed that the Einsatzgruppe, a Nazi-run Serbian police unit, killed 6,280 Serbian Jewish women and children who were held as prisoners. In two months, those women and children allegedly were taken from a camp and forced into a specially designed van, in which they were gassed with carbon monoxide. The unit was allegedly run by Peter Egner, who emigrated to the US in 1960, and received citizenship in 1966 [see 1941]. In 2010 Serbia issued an international warrant for the arrest of Egner (88), who has denied the accusations.
(AP, 4/14/09)(AP, 4/2/10)
1942-1943 Irena Sendler (29), posing as a nurse, visited the Warsaw Ghetto and persuaded parents that their children had better chances of survival outside its walls. She and 20 helpers smuggled some 2,500 children out of the ghetto and placed them with Polish families. In 2003 Sendler was awarded Poland's highest order. In 2007 Sendler (97) was honored by parliament at a ceremony during which Poland's president said she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
(AP, 11/11/03)(AP, 3/14/07)
1942-1945 Jose Arturo Castellanos (d.1977 at 86), Salvadoran diplomat in Geneva, gave citizenship certificates to as many as 40,000 Jews during the Holocaust. In 2010 Israel named him posthumously as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations."
(AP, 5/14/10)(http://tinyurl.com/28n2pd7)
1943 Jan 14, Italian occupation authorities refused to deport any Jews living on their territories in France.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1943 Jan 18, Jews in Warsaw Ghetto began an uprising against the Nazis. [see Apr 19, 1943]
(MC, 1/18/02)
1943 Feb 11, Transport # 47 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1943 Feb 17, Dutch churches protested to Artur Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1943 Mar 1, In Amsterdam a Jewish old age home for disabled was raided.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1943 Mar 2, 1st transport of Jews from Westerbork, Netherlands, to Sobibor concentration camp.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1943 Mar 4, Transport Number 50 departed with French Jews to Majdanek and Sobibor.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1943 Mar 15, In Thessaloniki, Greece, occupying German forces began founding up the first batch of Jews in Eleftherias (Freedom) Square. By August 1943, 46,091 Jews had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of those, 1,950 survived.
(AP, 3/16/13)
1943 Mar 22, SS police chief Rauter threatened to kill half Jewish children.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1943 Apr 19, In Warsaw, Poland, young Jews under Mordechai Anielewicz directed the 1st urban uprising against the Nazis. During World War II, tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but futile battle against Nazi forces. SS-Gen Jurgen Stroop led the destruction of the ghetto of Warsaw: "The Warsaw Ghetto is no more!" he wrote proudly to Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler. Stroop was hanged on the site of the Warsaw ghetto after the war. Jacek Zlatka (Jack Eisner, 1925-2003) smuggled arms for the revolt. Eisner made a fortune in the import-export business after the war and in 1980 authored the autobiography "The Survivor."
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T11)(AP, 4/19/97)(HN, 4/19/97)(MC, 4/19/02)(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.A29)
1943 May 1, A German plane sank a boat loaded with Palestinian Jews bound for Malta.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1943 May 15, Warsaw ghetto uprising ended in it's destruction by Nazi-SS troops.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1943 May 16, German troops destroyed the synagogue of Warsaw. Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ended after 30 days of fighting.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1943 May 19, Berlin was declared "Judenrien" (cleansed of Jews).
(MC, 5/19/02)
1943 May 26, Jews rioted against Germans in Amsterdam.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1943 Jul 23, Meijer de Hond, [Emanuel Querido], rabbi of Sobibor, died.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1943 Jul 23, Emanuel Querido, publisher (Sobibor), died.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1943 Aug 2, In Poland at the Nazi Treblinka concentration camp some 600 prisoners staged an uprising and fled into the woods. Only 40 survived. In 1999 Ian MacMillan authored "Village of a Million Spirits: A Novel of the Treblinka Uprising."
(SFEC, 8/22/99, BR p.5)
1943 Aug 18, Final convoy of Jews from Salonika, Greece, arrived at Auschwitz.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1943 Sep 11, The Jewish ghettos of Minsk & Lida in Belorussia were liquidated.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1943 Sep 18, Hitler ordered the deportation of Danish Jews (unsuccessful).
(MC, 9/18/01)
1943 Oct 1, Germans attacked Jews in Denmark.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1943 Oct 14, Some 300 of 600 prisoners escaped from the Nazi’s Sobibor death camp in Poland. Alexander Pechersky, a Russian officer of Jewish origin, roused his fellow prisoners to rebellion. The event was later documented in the book "Escape from Sobibor" by Richard Rashke (1982) and the film of the same name with Alan Arkin. Josef Vallaster, an Austrian guard, was among 11 SS officers and 11 Ukrainians killed in the escape. Most of the escaped prisoners were killed as they fled. Only 50 prisoners survived the war. Vallaster had operated the motor that funneled gas into Sobibor’s shower rooms. After the uprising at Sobibor, the Nazis shut it down and leveled it to the ground, replanting over it to cover their tracks.
(SFC, 7/11/03, p.A19)(SSFC, 2/17/08, p.A8)(AP, 8/21/12)(AFP, 10/14/13)
1943 Oct 16, In Italy the Nazi SS police and Waffen SS began rounding up the Jews of Rome. There was an anti Jewish riot in Rome as the Jewish quarter was surrounded by Nazis, and Jews were evacuated to Auschwitz. Pope Pius XII made no public protest, though he did send some messages of disapproval through intermediaries.
(WSJ, 10/18/99, p.A46)(MC, 10/16/01)
1943 Oct 23, The 1st Jewish transport out of Rome reached Birkenau (Poland) extermination camp.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1943 Oct, Germans demolished the ghetto buildings of Minsk, known as the Yama, or Pit, in an effort to find Jews in hiding. 2,000 remaining Jews were rounded up and killed. More than 100,000 Jews were killed there from August 1941.
(AP, 10/21/08)
1943 Nov 2, Jewish ghetto of Riga, Latvia, was destroyed.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1943 Nov 3, SS and police units shot at least 6,000 Jewish inmates of the Trawniki and Dorohucza Labor Camps.
(www.ushmm.org/wlc_ie/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007397)
1943 Nov 3-1943 Nov 4, The 2-day "Operation Harvest" at the Majdanek concentration camp executed men, women and children. Nazi officer Alfons Goetzfried later admitted to having personally shot 500 people. Over 42,000 people, mostly Jews, were killed in the operation. In 1999 Alfons Goetzfrid (79) was convicted for assisting in the murders of 17,000 Jews at the camp. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. During the so-called "Mission Harvest Festival" massacres tens of thousands of Jews in the district of Lublin were shot by Nazi officers. Among them were members of Erich Steidtmann’s Hamburg Polizeibataillon 101 company. In 2010 prosecutors reopened an investigation on Steidtmann’s role in the massacre.
{Holocaust, Poland, Germany, WWII, Jews}
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A14)(SFC, 5/21/99, p.D2)(AP, 4/22/10)
1943 Dec 2, 1st RSHA transport out of Vienna reached Birkenau camp.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1943 Primo Levi (25) was sent to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. He later authored "Survival in Auschwitz."
(SFEC, 3/5/00, BR p.8)
1943 Roman Frister (15) was sent to the Nazi concentration camp at Plaszow. In 1993 Frister published his biography "The Cap: The Price of Life."
(SFEC, 3/5/00, BR p.8)
1943 Bulgarians occupying Macedonia rounded up and deported 7,148 Macedonian Jews to the death camp at Treblinka. Of a pre-war population of some 8,000 Jews, only 350 remained after the war.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.88)
1943 Over 7,000 Danish Jews crossed to Sweden to escape the Nazis.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.46)
1943 In Tunisia Khaled Abdelwahhab hid a group of Jews on his farm outside Mahdia, saving them from the Nazi troops occupying the North African nation. In 2007 Abdelwahhab became the first Arab to be nominated for recognition as "Righteous Among the Nations," an honor bestowed on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazi persecution.
(AP, 1/30/07)
1944 Jan, In Hungary Sandor Kepiro (b.1914) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the Jan, 1942, atrocities at Novi Sad, Serbia, in which 1,200 Serb and Jewish civilians were killed by Hungarian forces, who raided Serbia in the wake of the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia. He was freed by Hungary's fascist regime shortly after his trial and fled to Argentina after the war. In 1946, the Communist government of Hungary tried him again and sentenced him to 14 years in absentia. He returned to Budapest in 1996.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/world/europe/28iht-hungary.2970014.html?_r=1)(AP, 9/15/09)
1944 Mar 7, Emanuel Ringelblum (b.1900), Jewish historian, died in the Warsaw ghetto. He is known for his “Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto," “Notes on the Refugees in Zbąszyn" chronicling the deportation of Jews from the town of Zbąszyń, and the so-called Ringelblum's Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto. In 2009 Samuel D. Kassow authored “Who Will Write our History? Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.84)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Ringelblum)
1944 Mar 27, Some 2,000 Jews were murdered in Kaunas, Lithuania.
(HN, 3/27/98)(MC, 3/27/02)
1944 Mar 31, Hungary ordered all Jews to wear yellow stars.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1944 Apr 13, Transport No. 71 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1944 Apr 14, 1st Jews transported from Athens arrived at Auschwitz.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1944 Apr-Jul, Hungarian authorities facilitated the deportation of some 437,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
(SFC, 6/7/99, p.A9)(Econ, 4/24/04, p.48)
1944 May 16, The 1st of over 180,000 Hungarian Jews reached Auschwitz.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1944 May 19, 240 gypsies were transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork Neth.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1944 May, Laszlo Csatary was named chief of an internment camp at a brick factory in Kosice, a Slovakian city under Hungarian rule, from where 12,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. In 1948 he was convicted in absentia for war crimes in Czechoslovakia and sentenced to death. He arrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia the following year, became a Canadian citizen in 1955 and worked as an art dealer in Montreal. He left Canada in 1997 and was arrested in Hungary in 2012. In 2013 Csatary was indicted in Hungary for war crimes.
(AP, 7/18/12)(AP, 6/18/13)
1944 May-1944 Jun, Some 425,000 Jews from Hungary were brought to the Nazi-run Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. At least 300,000 were almost immediately gassed to death. In 2014 German prosecutors charged Oskar Groening (93) with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder for serving as as SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp during this period.
(SFC, 9/16/14, p.A2)
1944 May-1944 Oct, About 158 trainloads of victims were brought to the Nazi-run Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. In 2013 a German arest warrant accused Johann Breyer (d.2014 at 89), a resident of Pennsylvania, of 158 counts of accessory to murder, one for each trainload of victims brought to Auschwitz while he served as a guard there.
(SFC, 7/24/14, p.A8)
1944 Jun 20, Nazis began mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1944 Jun, The "Kasztner Train," with 1,684 Jews on board, departed Budapest for the safety of neutral Switzerland. Rudolf Kasztner's negotiations also saved 20,000 Hungarian Jews by diverting them to an Austrian labor camp instead of a planned transfer to extermination camps. Kasztner, a Zionist leader in Hungary, headed the Relief and Rescue Committee, a small Jewish group that negotiated with Nazi officials to rescue Hungarian Jews in exchange for money, goods and military equipment.
(AP, 7/23/07)
1944 Jul 7, Hungary’s regent Miklos Horthy issued an order suspending Nazi deportations of Hungarian Jews.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.1)
1944 Jul 9, Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish National Guardsman, arrived in Budapest to head the local office of the US-sponsored War Refugee Board. He had been recruited in June by a US Embassy official in Stockholm and sent to Nazi-controlled Budapest under Swedish diplomatic cover. He used US funds to bribe Nazi officials and saved over 20,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-7)(MT, Spg. ‘99, p.18)(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A7)
1944 Jul 20, The death march of 1,200 Jews from Lipcani, Moldavia, began.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1944 Jul 23, Bernard M. Cohen, attorney, was killed at Belsen concentration camp.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1944 Aug 2, Jewish survivors of Kovno Ghetto, Lithuania, emerged from their bunker.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1944 Aug 4, Nazi police raided the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrested eight people, including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary became a famous account of the Holocaust. She died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the spring of 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated.
(AP, 8/4/02)
1944 Aug 6, All 1,200 Jewish death marchers from Lipcani, Moldavia, died by this date.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1944 Aug 6, The deportation of 70,000 Jews from Lodz. Poland, to Auschwitz began.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1944 Aug 22, Last transport of French Jews departed to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1944 Oct 2, Nazi troops crushed the 2-month-old (63 days) Warsaw Uprising, during which a quarter-million people were killed.
(AP, 10/2/97)
1944 Oct 7, Jews burned down the crematoria during an uprising at Auschwitz.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1944 Oct 7, There was an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1944 Oct 16, In Hungary the Horthy government fell as Adolf Eichmann returned to Budapest and immediately ordered the resumption of the Jewish deportation program. Ferenc Szalasi (1897-1946) became the prime minister.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Sz%C3%A1lasi)
1944 Nov 6, British official Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo, Egypt, by members of the Zionist Stern gang (Lehi).
(AP, 11/6/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_%28group%29)
1944 Nov 8, In Hungary Jews under Nazi custody and the command of Adolf Eichmann began marches of 120 miles to the Austrian border.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.3)
1944 Nov 8, In Hungary Peter Balazs (18) was fatally beaten to death for failing to wear a yellow star marking him as a Jew. In 2009 Australia agreed to extradite Charles Zentai (87) to face charges regarding the fatal beating of Balazs. In 2012 Australia said Mr Zentai cannot be surrendered for extradition because the offence of 'war crime' did not exist under Hungarian law at the time of his alleged criminal conduct.
(www.shalom-magazine.com/Article.php?id=480310)(AP, 11/12/09)(AFP, 8/15/12)
1944 Dec, Carol Deutsch, Jewish artist, perished in the Holocaust. Deutsch created illustrations of the Bible while in hiding from the Nazis in Belgium. He was informed upon, and died in the Buchenwald camp. After the war, his daughter Ingrid discovered that the Nazis had confiscated their furniture and valuables but had left behind a single item: a meticulously crafted wooden box adorned with a Star of David and a seven-branched menorah, containing a collection of 99 of the artist's illustrations of biblical scenes.
(AP, 1/11/08)
1944 Irgun leader Menachem Begin, an officer with the exiled Polish army, led some 3,500 men to fight Britain’s occupation of Palestine.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.76)
1944 Some 350,000 Romanian Jews survived WWII and many soon migrated to Israel.
(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.A11)
1945 Oct 20, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon formed the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1944 Nov 5, British official Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo, Egypt, by the Zionist Stern gang.
(AP, 11/5/01)
1944 Nov 6, Hannah Senesh, Jewish poet, was executed by Nazis in Budapest.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1944 Nov 8, 25,000 Hungarian Jews were "loaned" to Nazis for forced labor.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1944 Nov 26, Heinrich Himmler ordered the destruction of Auschwitz and Birkenau crematoriums.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1944 Hungary’s Admiral Miklos Horthy passed the 4th of four anti-Jewish laws, outlawing sexual intercourse between Jews and non-Jews.
(Econ, 11/9/13, p.59)
1945 Jan 26, Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. [see Jan 27]
(MC, 1/26/02)
1945 Jan 27, The Soviet army arrived at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland, and found the Nazi concentration camp and crematorium where 1.1 - 1.5 million people were murdered. It is now believed that 1 million Jews were murdered here, up to 75,000 Polish Christians, 21,000 Gypsies, and 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war.
(SF E&C, 1/15/1995, A-10)(AP, 1/27/98)
1945 Jan 30, Nazi SS guards shot down an estimated 4,000 Jewish prisoners on the Baltic coast at Palmnicken, Kaliningrad. The town was later renamed by the Russians to Yantarny. Some 7,000 prisoners had been marched 25 miles from Konigsberg to a vacant lock factory at Palmnicken where they were mowed down with machine guns. The prisoners had been vacated from a network of 30 camps that made up Poland's Stutthoff concentration camp. 90% of the Jews were women from Lithuania and Hungary.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.C1)
1945 Feb 4-12, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin held a wartime conference at Yalta, in the southern Ukraine. Roosevelt joked to Stalin that the only concession he might give to Ibn Saud in Saudi Arabia was "the 6 million Jews in the US."
(AP, 2/4/97)(WUD, 1994, p.1653)(WSJ, 3/8/99, p.A16)
1945 Apr 3, Nazi's began evacuation of camp Buchenwald.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1945 Apr 11, The Americans liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Some 250,000 prisoners passed through the camp and 50,000 are known to have died there. From 1945 to 1950, occupying Soviet forces used the camp to hold political prisoners.
(AP, 4/11/97)(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.B1)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A10)(AP, 6/5/09)
1945 Apr 22, Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen was liberated.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1945 May, In Austria US Army officers and troops plundered a “gold train" on its way to Germany from Hungary that carried gold, jewels, paintings and other valuables seized by the Nazis from Jewish families. A 2001 suit filed in Miami said the army falsely classified it as unidentifiable and enemy property, which avoided having to return the goods to their rightful owners. The suit alleged that the US made no effort to return the goods and lied to Hungarian Jews who sought information about their property after the war. In 2004 the property was estimated to be worth ten times its original $200 million valuation. In 2005 the US government reached a $25.5 million settlement with families of the Hungarian Holocaust victims for distribution to needy Holocaust survivors.
(AP, 12/20/04)(SFC, 3/12/05, p.A5)
1945 Aug 13, 35 Jews sacrificed their lives to blow up a Nazi rubber plant in Silesia.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1945 Aug 25, Jewish immigrants were permitted to leave Mauritius for Palestine.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1945 Sep 8, Bess Myerson of New York was crowned Miss America, the first Jewish contestant to win the title.
(AP, 9/8/99)
1945-1948 The 1997 documentary film "The Long Way Home" was about Holocaust survivors and won a 1998 Oscar. It was written and directed by Mark Jonathon Harris and covered the years 1945-1948, when the state of Israel was formed.
(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A6)
1945-1950 In 2002 Ruth Gay authored "Safe Among the Germans," an account of Eastern European Jews in the post-war refugee camps.
(SFC, 9/19/02, p.D12)
1946 Apr 13, Jewish "Avengers" carried out a mass poisoning of former SS men at Stalag 13, an American prisoner-of-war camp at Langwasser. The effort sickened more than 2,200 Germans but ultimately caused no known deaths. Authorities in Nuremberg later investigated Joseph Harmatz and Leipke Distal, who worked undercover in a nearby bakery for months, after they appeared in a 1999 television documentary and revealed details of the operation.
(AP, 8/31/16)
1946 May 25, Marcel Petiot (b.1897), a French doctor, was beheaded for offering Jews an escape to Argentina, then killing them and getting rid of their bodies, many by incineration. The remains of 26 people were found in his home, but he was suspected of killing more than 60 people. In 1980 Thomas Maeder authored “The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot." In 2011 David King chronicled the hunt for Petiot in "Death in the City of Light."
(WSJ, 6/9/07, p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Petiot)(Reuters, 11/10/11)
1946 July 4, A postwar pogrom in Kielce, Poland, left 42 Jews people, mostly Jews, dead and 50 wounded. Army and security officers took part in the attack that was sparked by the false story of Walenty Blaszcyk that his son had been kidnapped by Jews. The event is considered as Europe’s last pogrom. In 2001 Jan Tomascz Gross authored “Neighbours," the story of the Kielce Jews, who were herded into a barn that was set alight.
(WSJ, 3/20/96, p.A-14)(SFC,10/17/97, p.D3)(Econ, 2/2/08, p.59)
1946 Jul 22, Jewish extremists, that included Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which housed British administrative offices. 90-92 people were killed and included Britons (28), Arabs and Jews. The admitted terrorists were members of a Zionist organization called Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel), earlier known as the Stern Gang.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 7/22/97)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C5)
1946 Aug 13, Britain transferred illegal immigrants bound for Palestine to Cyprus.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1946 Dec 20, Uri Geller, psychic and fork bender, was born in Israel.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1946 Zvi Kolitz (d.2002 at 89) wrote the story "Yosl Rakover Talks to God," for a Jewish newspaper in Buenos Aires. It became a classic of Holocaust literature.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1946 Egypt’s King Farouk hosted the 1st Arab summit. The group resolved to thwart the birth of Israel.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A10)
1946 In Palestine Israeli Lehi assassins dressed up as tennis players killed British detective Thomas Martin. Lehi was led by Yitzhak Yezernitzky (later PM Yitzhak Shamir).
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.76)
1947 Jan 12, In Haifa, Palestine, the Stern Gang drove a truckload of explosives into a British police station. 4 people were killed and 140 injured.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.E4)
1947 Feb 7, Arabs and Jews rejected a British proposal to split Palestine.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1947 Feb 23, Gen. Eisenhower opened a drive to raise $170M in aid for European Jews.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1947 Apr 1, The 1st Jewish immigrants to Israel disembarked at Port of Eilat.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1947 Jul 16, Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat jailed by the Soviets who believed that he was an American spy, reportedly died at the Lubyanka prison in Moscow of an alleged heart attack. He had saved more than 20,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps. A 2001 Swedish report failed to confirm his death.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-7)(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A12)(SFC, 1/13/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A7)
1947 Jul 18, British seized the "Exodus 1947" ship of Jewish immigrants to Palestine. The British Royal Navy intercepted the ship President Warfield, which had been renamed Exodus by its passengers, forcing the 4,000 Jewish would-be immigrants aboard back to Displaced Person camps in Germany. Britain was still the ruling power in Palestine, which was being wracked by conflict resulting from Jewish national aspirations. The return of the Jewish immigrants, many of them survivors of Nazi persecution, heightened anti-British sentiment among Jews in Palestine and elsewhere. Yossi Harel, commander of the Exodus, died in 2008 at age 90.
(MC, 7/18/02)(HNQ, 12/4/98)(AP, 4/26/08)
1947 Jul 31, The Jewish underground Irgun Zvai Leumi said it hanged 2 British sergeants in Palestine.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A2)
1947 Sep 8, British government sailed the "Exodus" with fugitives from Nazis.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1947 Nov 29, The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine [Jerusalem] between Arabs and Jews. It was to be the heart of an Arab Palestinian state.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 11/29/97)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1947 Nov 30, A day after the UN decree for Israel, Jewish settlements were attacked.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1947 Dec 2, A Syrian mob burned a synagogue where the Aleppo Codex was hidden. This followed a UN resolution calling for the creation of Arab and Jewish states in Palestine Nearly two-thirds of the pages were retrieved by congregant, Mourad Faham. But 196 pages vanished, including books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as pages from other books.
(AP, 9/27/08)(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)
1947 Dec 29, Ship carrying Jewish immigrants were forced back from Palestine.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1947 Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran was dismissed from his post and forced to leave Romania, making his home in Geneva. He had refused to cooperate with the new Jewish Democratic Committee, saying it was a Communist body intent on breaking up traditional Jewish organizations and bringing Jewish life in Romania to a standstill.
(AP, 7/28/06)
1947 The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by Bedouin at the caves of Qumran in Jordan. The scrolls predated the Christian gospels, but contained many similarities. They also contained some differences from the traditional (Masoretic) text of the Hebrew Bible. In 1955 Edmund Wilson published "The Scrolls from the Dead Sea." In 1998 Hershel Shank published "The Mystery and meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls." From 1978-1998 over 6,000 books were written about the scrolls. The discovery date was later contested as were many of the historic circumstances surrounding the scrolls. In 2010 Geza Vermes authored “The Story of the Scrolls: The Miraculous Discovery and the True significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.82)
1948 Feb 1, The Palestine Post building in Jerusalem was bombed.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1948 Feb 22, An Arab bomb attack in Jerusalem killed 50 people.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1948 Mar 10, Political and military men gathered at the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Haganah and put the final touches to Plan Dalet. In 2006 Prof. Ilan Pappe of the Univ. of Haifa authored “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine." He held that Plan Dalet was a plan for the ethnic cleansing of some 800,000 Palestinians in order to allow the formation of the Jewish state.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.92)
1948 Mar 11, Jewish Agency of Jerusalem was bombed.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1948 Mar 24, Israel Galili, chief of the Haganah, sent orders reminding commanders of the policy to protect the “full rights, needs, and freedoms of the Arabs in the Hebrew state without discrimination."
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.93)
1948 Apr 9, Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist Organization, wrote to Pres. Truman saying: “The choice for our people, Mr. President, is between statehood and extermination."
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.53)
1948 Apr 9, In Deir Yassin about one-third of 750 Palestinians were killed by Jewish fighters of the National Military Organization, an underground group better known as the Irgun, and a splinter group called Lehi. The event is called Al-Nakbah (catastrophe) by the Palestinians. 30 similar massacres happened on other Palestinian villages. The death toll was said to be inflated by Jewish forces to invoke fear and cause maximum flight.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A10)(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A1,11)
1948 Apr 10, Jewish Hagana repelled an Arab attack on Mishmar HaEmek.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1948 Apr 15, Arabs were defeated in the first Jewish-Arab battle.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1948 May 11, Haganah took control of Safed and port of Haifa.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1948 May 14, The British evacuated Israel. The independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion as British rule in Palestine came to an end. Ben-Gurion and 36 fellow members of the Provisional Council of State signed the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. 10 of the member’s signatures were delayed for 10 days because they were cut off by fighting in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 5/14/97) (SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)(HN, 5/14/98)(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1948 May 14, US granted Israel de facto recognition.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1948 May 15, A 28 year old British Mandate over Palestine ended.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1948 May 15, Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
(AP, 5/15/97)
1948 May 16, Chaim Weizmann was elected Chairman of the Provisional State Council of Israel. Weizmann, born in Russia in 1874, taught chemistry in England and as a leading Zionist influenced Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917 favoring a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Weizmann settled in Palestine in 1934 and served as president of Israel from 1948 until his death in 1952.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann)
1948 May 16, PM David Ben-Gurion appointed Israel Amir (d.2002) to head the fledgling air force of 8 secondhand light aircraft. Amir held the post for 10 weeks and raised the force to 3,000 personnel.
(SFC, 11/2/02, p.A22)
1948 May 17 The Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.
(AP, 5/17/97)
1948 May 18, Arab Legion captured the fort on Mount Scopus.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1948 May 18, Saudi Arabia joined the invasion of Israel.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1948 May 20, Israel made the 1st use of its Air Force and claimed its 1st war victory with the defeat of the Syrian army.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1948 May 24, Ariel Sharon, then called Arik Scheinerman, was wounded at the battle of Latrun while securing Jerusalem for Jews in the 1st Arab-Israeli War.
(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.A15)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrun)
1948 May 26, Entire Hagana arm forces were sworn-in as Israeli soldiers.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1948 May 27, Arabs blew up the Jewish synagogue Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1948 Jun 1, Israel and the Arabs agreed to a cease fire.
(DTnet 6/1/97)
1948 Jul 1, Zahava Rozman, artist, was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 1958 she moved to NYC and in 1976 graduated from Pratt Inst. with a BFA in Fine Arts.
(www.see-art.net/current_work.html)
1948 Jul 14, Israel bombed Cairo.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1948 Jul 16, Pinchas Zukerman, violinist and conductor, was born in Tel Aviv Israel.
(HN, 7/16/01)(MC, 7/16/02)
1948 Aug 23, Count Bernadotte asked for aid for fugitives to Palestine. [see Sep 17]
(MC, 8/23/02)
1948 Sep 17, Count Folke Bernadotte (b.1895) of Sweden, the UN mediator for Palestine, was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the extreme Zionist Stern Group. Yehoshua Zettler (d.2009 at 91), one of the founding members of the group, masterminded the assassination.
(AP, 9/17/98)(www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Bernadotte.html)(AP, 5/25/09)
1948 Sep 18, Ralph J. Bunche was confirmed as acting UN mediator in Palestine.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1948 Oct 14, Large scale fighting took place between Israel and Egypt.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1948 Oct 16, Moscow Jews held a demonstration honoring Israeli ambassador Golda Meir.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1948 Oct 21, The Israeli offensive, Operation 10 Plagues, liberated Beersheba (Be’er Sheva) from Egyptian control.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beersheba)
1948 Oct 28, Flag of Israel was adopted.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1948 Nov 16, Operation Magic Carpet began with the 1st plane from Yemen carrying Jews to Israel.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1948 Nov, In Israel hundreds of residents left Kufr Birim, a Maronite village just south of the Lebanese border. Israeli troops told Kufr Birim residents they must leave for security reasons, but would be allowed to return after two weeks. Their return never materialized.
(AP, 5/28/14)
1948 Dec 8, Jordan annexed Arabic Palestine. The old city of East Jerusalem came under Jordanian control until 1968. Transjordan was given to a client Arab family, the Hashemites (led by King Hussein’s grandfather), and was run out of Mecca by the Saudis. The country now has an ethnic Palestinian majority. Elections chose a body evenly divided between Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/23/13)
1948 Dec 11, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 was passed near the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The resolution expresses appreciation for the efforts of UN Envoy Folke Bernadotte after his assassination by members of the Stern Gang. It was later often quoted in support of the Palestinian right of return.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_194)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.68)
1948 John Phillips (1915-1996), photographer for Life Magazine, took pictures of the ill-fated defense of the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem against Arab troops.
(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A17)
1948 The Dheisheh Refugee Camp for Palestinians was founded outside Bethlehem. Some 700,000 Palestinians had become refugees in the war.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A10)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1948 Chaim Herzog (1918-1997) founded Israel’s military intelligence service.
(SFC, 4/18/97, p.E2)
1948 Soon after independence Israel began to evacuate Jews from Yemen and other middle Eastern countries to Israel.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C2)
1948 The military unit of Yitzhak Rabin, on orders from David Ben-Gurion, forced the Arab inhabitants from the towns of Lydda (later Lod) and Ramleh.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A16)
1948 In the months preceding the war between Israel and the Arab states some 10,000 Arab homes in West Jerusalem were looted and seized.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.D6)
1948 Jerusalem was split between Israel and Jordan.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1948 Jewish militia massacred Palestinians at Deir Yassin.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A10)
1948 Attacks on Baghdad’s synagogues prompted the flight of most of Iraq’s 200,000 Jews.
(Econ, 8/7/04, p.39)
1948 The UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) was established to observe the cease-fire following the war that followed Israel's creation.
(AP, 7/28/06)
1948 Charles Winters, a Miami businessman, broke US law to supply B-17 bombers to Jews fighting in Israel’s war of independence. In 1949 he was convicted for violating the Neutrality Act, for which he was fined $5,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. In 2008 Pres. Bush granted Winters a posthumous pardon.
(SFC, 12/24/08, p.A3)
1948 In Libya more deadly attacks took place against the Jewish community, prompting most of those remaining to leave. A few thousand remained until 1967.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A19)
1948-1949 Jordan seized the West Bank and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1948-1949 Iraqi troops participated in the Arab League invasion of the new state of Israel. Iraq joined Transjordan and other Arab states to fight Israel. Most of Iraq’s 120,000 Jews fled to Israel or the West.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A9)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A10)
1948-1968 The old city of East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. Transjordan was given to a client family, the Hashenites (led by King Hussein’s grandfather), and was run out of Mecca by the Saudis.
(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A14)
1948-1998 Micha Bar-Am in 1998 published "Israel, A Photobiography: The First Fifty Years."
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.6)
1949 Feb 14, 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel).
(MC, 2/14/02)
1949 Feb 16, Chaim Weitzman was elected the 1st president of Israel. The title was invented by PM David Ben-Gurion to honor and to sideline veteran Zionist leader Chaim Weitzman.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann)(Econ, 8/29/15, p.40)
1949 Feb 24, Israel and Egypt signed an armistice agreement.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1949 Feb 27, Chaim Weizmann became the 1st Israeli president.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1949 Mar 4, Security Council of UN recommended membership for Israel.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1949 Mar 23, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
(www.wikipedia.org)
1949 Apr 3, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Transjordan.
(www.wikipedia.org)
1949 May 11, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member by a vote of 37-12. The capital was moved to Tel Aviv.
(TOH, 1982, p.1949)(AP, 5/11/97)(MC, 5/11/02)
1949 Jul 20, Israel's 19 month war of independence ended with a ceasefire agreement with Syria. According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, 6,373 people, or nearly 1 percent of the Jewish population, were killed during Israel's War of Independence.
(www.wikipedia.org)(AP, 12/8/07)
1949 Aug 5, A bomb exploded at a synagogue in Damascus, Syria, killing 12 people.
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/loxc6n)
1949 Oct 21, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)(MC, 10/21/01)
1949 Nov 20, Jewish population of Israel reached 1,000,000.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1949 Nov 28, Victor Ostrovsky, Canadian-Israeli, Mossad agent (By Way of Deception), was born.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1949 Dec 9, UN took trusteeship over Jerusalem.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1949 Dec 13, Knesset voted to transfer Israel's capital to Jerusalem.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1949 Yizhar Smilanksy, under the pen-name S. Yizhar, authored “Khirbet Khizeh," a novella based on his experience in clearing a Palestinian village on the Israeli side of the 1949 ceasefire line.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.93)
1949-1950 Some 35,000 Yemenite Jews were airlifted to Israel. Some 14,000 more followed in the early 1950s. Some children were separated from their parents and passed on to other parents.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C2)
1950 Jan 23, The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)(AP, 1/23/98)
1950 Apr 24, Jordan annexed the West Bank and offered citizenship to all Palestinians wishing to claim it.
(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A6)
1950 Sep 24, In "Operation Magic Carpet" all Jews from Yemen moved to Israel.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1950 Israel enacted an Absentee Property Law which allowed the state to confiscate land within Israel if its owners spent any time at all away in Arab countries.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.46)
1950 Some 20,000 Jews remained in Germany. 8,000 of these were native German Jews and some 12,000 came from eastern Europe, mostly from Poland.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.41)
1951 Mar 8, The Int’l. Table Tennis Federation banned Egypt for refusing to play Israel.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1951 Mar 13, Israel demanded DM 6.2 billion ($1.5 billion) in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees.
(HN, 3/13/98)(MC, 3/13/02)
1951 Apr 12, The Israeli Knesset officially designated the 27th of Nissan, a few days after the end of Passover, as Holocaust Memorial Day.
(http://tinyurl.com/76zxh)
1951 Jul 20, Jordan's King Abdullah Ibn Hussein was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian extremist. Prince Hussein (15) witnessed the murder. Talal became king with the assassination of his father, Abdullah ibn-Hussein, who ruled when Jordan was a British mandate.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan)(AP, 7/20/97)(HN, 7/20/98)(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A13)
1951 Sep 1, PM Ben-Gurion ordered the establishment of Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1951 Oct 7, David Ben-Gurion formed Israeli government.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1951 The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) was founded. It was the only US registered Jewish lobby and was dedicated to nurturing and preserving the American-Israeli relationship regardless of the government in Washington or Israel.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.A23)
1951 The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany was founded.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.44)
1951 The Work and Rest Hours Act was passed. The law prohibited companies from employing workers on their religious days of rest.
(WSJ, 6/24/97, p.A1)
1952 Sep 10, Germany and Israel signed an accord about recovery payments in the Luxembourg Agreement. West Germany agreed to pay Israel a sum of 3 billion marks over the next fourteen years. It was signed by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett and World Jewish Congress President Nahum Goldmann.
(http://tinyurl.com/etznn)(http://tinyurl.com/h6n7m)
1952 Nov 3, Egypt protested German retribution payments to Israel.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1952 Nov 9, Chaim Weizmann (b.1874), Russian-born bio-chemist and 1st president of Israel (1949-1952), died.
(www.jafi.org.il/education/100/people/bios/weiz.html)
1952 West Germany signed a compensation treaty for victims of Nazi crimes.
(SFC, 11/16/12, p.A2)
1953 Feb 12, The Soviets broke off diplomatic relations with Israel after the bombing of Soviet legation.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1953 Jul 20, USSR and Israel recovered diplomatic relations.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1953 Oct 14, Ariel Sharon, who had formed the elite Israeli commando unit "101" to fight Palestinian guerrillas, led it in a raid against the Jordanian village of Qibya killed some 70 civilians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibya_massacre)(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.85)
1953 Nov 12, David Ben-Gurion, resigned as premier of Israel.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1953 Nov 16, The US joined in the condemnation of Israel for its raid on Jordan.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1953 Dec 7, Israel's PM Ben-Gurion retired.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1953 In Israel Shimon Peres (b.1923) became the youngest ever Director General of the Ministry of Defense. He was involved in arms purchases and establishing strategic alliances that were important for the State of Israel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres)
1953 Hizb ut-Tahir was founded in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, an Islamic scholar and appeals court judge from the Palestinian village of Ijzim. It seeks the return of the caliphate, based on Islamic sharia law, by political means. By 2012 it had members and sympathizers in more than 50 countries.
(AP, 3/10/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hizb_ut-Tahrir)
1953 Israeli forces demolished Kufr Birim, a Maronite village just south of the Lebanese border, five years after persuading hundreds of residents to leave with the promise of a speedy return that never materialized.
(AP, 5/28/14)
1954 Jun 20, Ilan Ramon, Israeli pilot and astronaut, was born in Tel Aviv. He was among the 7 astronauts killed in the US Columbia space shuttle tragedy Feb 1, 2003.
(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A8)
1954 Oct 14, An Israeli act of revenge in Qibiya, Jordan, killed 53.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1954 Zvi Kolitz (d.2002 at 89) wrote and co-produced "Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer," Israel’s 1st war of independence movie.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1954 Zohara Shatz (d.1999) was awarded the Israel Prize, an honor conferred by the president on distinguished scholars, artists, writers and public figures.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D4)
1954 Israel established an enemy infiltrators law. It allowed the government to hold people without judicial revue if they were deemed to be security threats.
(SFC, 6/9/06, p.A14)
1954 The Uzi machine gun was first made by Israel Military Industries. Uzi Gal, the inventor of Israel's Uzi submachine gun, died in Philadelphia after a long illness in 2002. The Netherlands was the 1st country outside Israel to buy Uzis in 1958.
(AP, 9/9/02)(SFC, 9/10/02, p.A16)
1954-1959 The names of 77,297 Czech Jews were put on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague. The memorial was closed in 1968. It was renovated after the collapse of the Communist regime and re-opened in 1996.
(www.jewishmuseum.cz/en/a-ex-pinkas.htm)
1955 Feb 13, Israel acquired 4 of 7 Dead Sea scrolls. Israel already had 3 scrolls, acquired in 1947. The 4 scrolls were purchased from a Christian clergyman, a Syrian Orthodox archbishop. The price, according to the New York Times, was an estimated $300,000.
(NYT, 2/14/55, p.21)
1955 Feb 14, A Jewish couple lost their fight to adopt Catholic twins as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to rule on state law.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1955 Mar 1, An Israeli retaliation in Gaza is reported as having killed 37 Egyptians and wounded 29 others. Palestinians stone the United Nations Gaza office.
(www.fsmitha.com/time/1955.htm)
1955 Nov 2, David Ben-Gurion formed an Israeli govt.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1955 Dec 11, Israel launched an attack on Syrian positions along the Sea of Galilee.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)(HN, 12/11/98)
1956 Apr 18, An Israeli-Egyptian cease fire, arranged by UN Gen’l. Sec. Dag Hammarskjöld, went into effect.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Jun 17, Golda Meir began her term as Israel's foreign minister.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1956 Jul 25, Jordanians attacked the UN Palestine truce.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1956 Sep 30, An Israeli delegation presented France with a fabricated reason for war in Egypt. The details were agreed on at a secret meeting in Sevres. Israel proposed to invade Egypt and then let France and Britain come in as peacekeepers and occupy the Suez Canal.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Oct 29, During the Suez Canal crisis, Israel launched an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Paratroopers under Ariel Sharon dropped into Sinai to open the Straits of Tiran. The Sinai Campaign, also known as Operation Kadesh, lasted eight days to November 5, 1956.
(AP, 10/29/97)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)(www.jafi.org.il/education/100/Concepts/d3.html)
1956 Oct 29, At Kafr Kassem village 49 Palestinians were massacred by Israeli border guards enforcing a curfew.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafr_Qasim_massacre)
1956 Nov 2, Gaza was occupied by the Israeli army and evacuated in March 1957.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07101.html)
1956 Nov 2, The UN passed an American resolution, 64 to 5, for a ceasefire at the Suez Canal in Egypt. The General Assembly took up a Canadian suggestion for an emergency force to monitor the ceasefire. The UN Emergency Force (UNEF) became the first “blue hat" UN peacekeepers.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)(www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unefi.htm)
1956 Nov 4, Israel captured the Straits of Tiran and reached the Suez Canal in Egypt.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1956 Nov 5, Israel liberated Sharm-el-Sheikh, reopening Gulf of Aqaba.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1956 Nov 5, Britain and France started landing troops in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. A cease-fire was declared two days later.
(AP, 11/5/97)
1956 Nov 6, Pressure from the US and USSR effected a cease-fire in the Middle-East. The UN created an emergency force (UNEF) to supervise a cease fire. Britain’s PM Anthony Eden called French PM Guy Mollet to tell him that Britain was aborting operations in Egypt. German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, meeting with Mollet, remarked that Europe must unite to counter the influence of the United States.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(EWH, 1968, p. 1242)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Nov 7, Britain’s PM Anthony Eden surrendered to American demands and stopped British operations in Egypt’s Canal Zone.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.29)
1956 Dec 18, The Israeli flag was hoisted on Mount Sinai.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1956 Zorach Warhaftig (d.2002 at 96), a rabbi from Belarus, helped found the National Religious Party.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1957 Mar 8, Israeli troops left Egypt. Suez Canal re-opened for minor ships.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1957 Mar 12, In Israel Rudolf Kasztner, hailed by admirers as a Holocaust hero for saving thousands of Jews, was assassinated by Jewish extremists. Critics had reviled him as a collaborator who "sold his soul." Kasztner, a Zionist leader in Hungary during World War II, headed the Relief and Rescue Committee, a small Jewish group that negotiated with Nazi officials to rescue Hungarian Jews in exchange for money, goods and military equipment.
(AP, 7/23/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Kastner)
1957 Oct 29, Hand grenade exploded in Israel's Knesset (Parliament).
(MC, 10/29/01)
1957 Dec 9, Japan [announced?] its 1st ambassador to Israel.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1957 The Jewish town of Upper Nazareth was built on confiscated Palestinian land for the purpose of domination over Palestinian Nazareth. The 1997 book "Overlooking Nazareth: The Ethnography of Exclusion in Jalilee" (sic) by Dan Rabinowitz describes the relations between Arabs and Jews here.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.16)
1958 Nov 18, The 1st true reservoir in Jerusalem opened.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1958 Waltert Eytan (d.2001 at 90), diplomat, authored "The First Ten Years: A Diplomatic History of Israel."
(SSFC, 5/27/01, p.A27)
1958 Israeli Premier David Ben-Gurion made a secret visit to Ankara, Turkey.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B2)
1958 Mourad Faham smuggled the Aleppo Codex out of Syria to Turkey and then to Jerusalem, where it was presented to the president of Israel. In 1982 the first missing page, from the Book of Chronicles, surfaced in New York and was sent to join rest of the manuscript. In 2007 another fragment, a piece from the Exodus story of the 10 plagues, was sent to Jerusalem. Sam Sabbagh, an Aleppo Jew living in New York, had carried it in wallet for decades as good luck charm.
(AP, 9/27/08)
1958 Israeli scholars at Hebrew Univ. began working on the Bible Project. They sought to publish an authoritative edition of the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, tracking every single evolution of the text over centuries and millennia.
(AP, 8/12/11)
1959 Jan 28, Joseph Sprinzak (73), Speaker of Israel Knesset (1949-59), died.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1959 Jun, Britain shipped 20 tons of heavy water to Israel. The information, made public in 2005, revealed that the water was vital for the production of plutonium at Israel's secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert. The documents revealed that heavy water was transported from a British port in Israeli ships in two shipments, half in June 1959 and half a year later.
(AP, 8/4/05)(AP, 12/10/05)
1959 Jul 1, Israeli Knesset agreed to weapon sales to West Germany.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1959 Jul 5, Ben-Gurion's Israeli government resigned.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1959 Jul 25, Dr. Isaac Halevi Herzog (71), chief rabbi of Israel (1936-59), died.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1959 Nov 3, Ben-Gurion's Mapai-party won Israeli parliamentary election.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1960 May 11, Israeli soldiers captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires as he returned home from his job at the Mercedes factory. Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal, was nabbed by Peter Malkin. Eichmann was taken to Israel where he was tried, found guilty and hung in 1962.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, Par. p.13)(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(HN, 5/11/98)(MC, 5/11/02)
1960 May 23, Israel announced Israeli agents had captured former Nazi official SS Lt. Col. Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. Eichmann was tried in Israel, found guilty of crimes against humanity, and hanged in 1962. [see May 11]
(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(AP, 5/23/02)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
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USLC: http://www.loc.gov/collections/country-studies/?q=israel
Zionism: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Zionism
Israel is about the same size as New Jersey.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
What we call ancient Israel was a federation of 12 tribes, 12 different groups that did not even speak the same language. The Jews did not become ethnic until the time of Nehemiah, when he tried to force the Jews to divorce their non-Jewish mates.
(MT, Spg. '97, p.12)
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the Jewish year. The steps to atonement are precisely defined: 1) God directly forgives sins only against God. 2) Only the victim of a sin may forgive. 3) To obtain forgiveness one must repent. 4) A sinner must acknowledge that he has sinned. 5) A sin must be acknowledged precisely. 6) The penitent must resolve not to commit the sin again. 7) The person who wishes to make amends must acknowledge that he deserves punishment.
(WSJ, 9/25/98, p.W11)
The Bible listed 613 laws given to the Jews.
(SFC, 9/22/03, p.B4)
95Mil BC The 3-foot-long snake, Pachyrhachis problematicus, lived in a shallow sea over Israel about this time. It had short, well-developed hind limbs and may have been related to mosasaurs, giant swimming reptiles.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.C14)
400000 BC In 2010 a Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found in Israel. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half as old. The prehistoric Qesem cave was discovered in 2000, and excavations began in 2004.
(AP, 12/28/10)
4500BC-3500BC The Galgal Refaim, or the "wheel of ghosts," first noticed by scholars in 1968, was built during this period. It consists of four circles, the outermost more than 500 feet across, made up of an estimated 42,000 tons of basalt stone, the remains of massive walls that experts believe once rose as much as high as 30 feet. The enormous feat of construction was carried out by a society about which little is known. Scholars tended to agree that a tomb in the center of the site was added a millennia or two after the circles were erected in the Chalcolithic period. In 2011 a scholar suggested that Galgal Refaim was an excarnation facility.
(AP, 11/3/11)
c21000BC Plant remains from this time were found at the Ohalo II site on the shore of the Sea of Galilee indicating use of barley and perhaps other grains in the human diet.
(SFC, 6/22/04, p.A3)(SFC, 8/16/04, p.A6)(Econ, 8/7/04, p.65)
10000BC In 2008 archeologists in northern Israel found a female skeleton in a grave containing 50 tortoise shells, a leopard pelvis, a cow tail and part of an eagle wing and believed they were the remains of a witch doctor from the Natufian culture.
(AP, 11/18/08)
8000BC Tel Sultan, an archaeological dig, indicated that Jericho was first settled about this time.
(AP, 10/1/10)
7000BC Stone masks, dating to about this time, were later discovered in the Judean desert and hills near Jerusalem. In 2014 eleven stone masks were put on exhibit and offered a rare glimpse at some of civilization's first communal rituals.
(AP, 3/11/14)
6000BC In 2010 Israeli archaeologists uncovered the remains of an 8,000-year-old prehistoric building as well as ancient flint tools in the modern city of Tel Aviv.
(AP, 1/11/10)
53000BC In 2008 a human cranium dating to about this time was found in the Manot Cave in Israel. Anthropologists later said the cranium was a missing connection between African and European populations.
(SFC, 1/29/15, p.A7)
3800BC-3700BC In 2010 archeologists in Israel uncovered two fragments of a clay tablet with writing that resembled portions of the Code of Hammurabi of the 18th century BC. The fragments referred to issues of personal injury law relating to slaves and masters.
(SFC, 7/27/10, p.A2)
c3761BCE The first year of the Jewish calendar, lunar based, that begins with Rosh Hashana. [Sep 6, 2002 ended year 5762]
(SFC, 10/1/97, p.A16)(WUD, 1994, p.767)
3000BC-2800BC The Burckle Crater, an undersea crater, formed during this period by a very large scale comet or meteorite impact event. It is located to the east of Madagascar and west of Western Australia in the southern Indian ocean and is estimated to be about 30 km (18 mi) in diameter. In 2006 the Holocene Impact Working Group believed that it was created when a comet impacted in the ocean, and that enormous megatsunamis created the dune formations which later allowed the crater to be pin-pointed. As not only the Bible, but other ancient writings from various cultures make reference to a 'great flood', it is hypothesized that these legends are associated with this event.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burckle_Crater)
2000BC-1600BC In Mesopotamia the Old Babylonian period began after the collapse of Sumer, probably due to an increase in the salt content of the soil that made farming difficult. Weakened by poor crops and lack of surplus goods, the Sumerians were conquered by the Amorites, situated in Babylon. The center of civility shifted north. The Amorites preserved much of the Sumerian culture but introduced their own Semitic language, an early ancestor to Hebrew, into the region.
(eawc, p.2)
1900BC-1500BC During this period a Semitic group of nomads migrated from Sumer to Canaan and then on to Egypt. They were led by a caravan trader, the Patriarch Abraham, who became the father of the nation of Israel. Ishmael was a son of Abraham had by Hagar. Isaac was a son of Abraham by Sarah. Hebrews trace their lineage through Isaac, Arabs through Ishmael.
(eawc, p.3)(NW, 11/02, p.55)
1800BC About this time Abraham buried his wife, Sarah, in a cave in Hebron. The area later became known to the Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
1800BC In 2016 the Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled a "unique" 3,800-year-old figurine showing a seated person, apparently deep in thought. It was discovered recently in excavations at Yehud, east of Tel Aviv.
(AFP, 11/23/16)
1700BC Canaanites, before the Hebrew conquest, built a massive wall about this time when Jerusalem was a small, fortified enclave. Archeologists first discovered the 26-foot-high wall in 1909 and later believed it to have been part of a protected passage built from a hilltop fortress to a nearby spring that was the city's only water source and vulnerable to marauders.
(AP, 9/3/09)
1700BC A Canaanite palace stored wine in large ceramic jars. In 2013 archeologists exploring the site in northern Israel, known as Tel Kabri, announced the discovery of a storage room holding the broken remains of the jars.
(SFC, 11/23/13, p.A5)
1600BC A curved wall in Shekhem city was built by skilled engineers around this time. The king of Shekhem, Labaya, is mentioned in the cuneiform tablets of the Pharaonic archive found at Tel al-Amarna in Egypt, which are dated to the 14th century BC. The king had rebelled against Egyptian domination, and soldiers were dispatched north to subdue him, but failed. Romans later abandoned the original site and built a new city to the west, calling it Flavius Neapolis. The Greek name Neapolis, or "new city," later became enshrined in Arabic as Nablus.
(AP, 7/22/11)
c1500BCE Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and established a calendar with Egyptian features but based on a seven day week. The later 8-day Sukkot festival commemorates the fall harvest and the wandering of the Hebrews in the Sinai desert after the Exodus. In 1998 Jonathan Kirsch authored "Moses: A Life." Miriam was the sister of Moses and led the celebration following the crossing of the Red Sea.
(K.I.-365D, p.58)(SFEC,10/19/97, p.A26)(SFEC, 12/13/98, BR p.5)(WSJ, 4/7/00, p.W17)
c1500BCE Linguistic evidence shows that the Canaanites (now more commonly known as the Phoenicians) were non-Jewish Semites whose language was almost identical with Hebrew.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.12)
1500-1400 The Canaanite "Poem of Aqhat," a work of seasonal writing, dates to this time.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, BR p.9)
1500-1200BCE The Late Bronze Age. The Amorites in the time of Moses came from northeast Syria. The languages of northeast Syria and Palestine appear to have been 1/3 Semitic, 1/3 Indo-European and 1/3 Hurrian.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.11)
1490-1436BCE Tuthmosis III, ruled as Pharaoh of Egypt. In the 15th cent. BCE Thutmose III led his army from Egypt to Megiddo and outflanked the chariots of the Canaanite forces that had revolted against him.
(L.C.-W.P.p.87-89)(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)
1470BCE The volcano Thera, or Santorini, erupted in the Mediterranean. It may correspond to the ninth plague of Egypt recorded in Exodus as the "darkness over Egypt." [see 1645BCE and 1500BCE for alternate date]
(NOHY, 3/90, p.129)
1400BC-1300BC In 2010 Israeli archaeologists said a newly discovered clay fragment from the 14th century BC is the oldest example of writing ever found in antiquity-rich Jerusalem. Dig director Eilat Mazar of Hebrew University said the 2-centimeter-long fragment bears an ancient form of writing known as Akkadian wedge script.
(AP, 7/12/10)
c1300-1200BCE Moses: Neither can we be certain even when Moses lived, except that it was obviously before the Jews settled in Palestine, when they were still wanderers. The general opinion seems to be that it was at some time within the period of Ramesses and his son. The father-in-law of Moses was a Midianite. Moses reportedly died at Mount Nebo.
(L.C.-W.P.p.123)(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.11)(WSJ, 5/11/00, p.A24)
1290-1279 In Egypt the period of the 19th Dynasty under Seti I, the father of Ramses II. Seti overran Palestine, made peace with the Hittites in Syria, opened mines and quarries, and enlarged the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. His tomb was discovered in 1817.
(NG, 9/98, p.17,19)
1250BCE Under the directions of Moses, the Israelites left Egypt and headed for the "promised land."
(eawc, p.5)
1250-1200BCE The Hebrew people returned to Canaan from Egypt after wandering for several years in the Sinai desert and began the conquest of Canaan. The conquest took some hundred years and after victory they parceled the land of Canaan into tribal territories under a government known as an amphictyony.
(eawc, p.5)
1200BC The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece about this time. They went on to rule major ports at Ashkelon and Ashdod, now cities in Israel, and at Gaza, now part of the Palestinian territory known as the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/8/11)
1200-1020BCE The Israelites were ruled by the Judges in a period of relative stability until a Philistine invasion in 1050.
(eawc, p.5)
1200-1000BCE The archeological evidence later confirmed that a collection of small settlements appeared in the eastern parts of the highlands of Palestine later known as the West Bank.
(AM, 9/01, p.30)
1100BC In 2010 Israeli archeologists found a trove of gold jewelry in a jug near Megiddo dating to about this time. The jewelry was said to have belonged to a Canaanite family.
(AP, 5/25/12)
1050BCE The Philistines invaded Israel from the North. Facing annihilation the Israelites instituted governmental reform and asked Samuel, the last of the Judges, to select a king. In 2000 Robert Alter authored "The David Story," a new translation of the 2 Books of Samuel.
(eawc, p.5)(SFEC, 3/12/00, Par p.8)
1020BCE Samuel selected Saul to be king and unified the tribes into a nation. Saul faced many losses against the Philistines and eventually committed suicide. David in his campaigns against the Philistines proved victorious.
(eawc, p.6)
1020 BC - 980 BC Radiocarbon dating on burnt olive pits found in the ancient city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, 19 miles (30km) southwest of Jerusalem, indicate it existed between during this period, before being violently destroyed. In 2012 archaeologists reported the discovery of shrines from the fortified city, providing the earliest evidence of a Biblical cult.
(http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/)(http://tinyurl.com/7hxg4qx)
1005BCE King David's conquest of Jerusalem. In 1995 Israel launched a 17 month celebration of the event.
(WSJ, 9/25/95, P. A-1)
1004BC David became the king of Israel. He ruled from Hebron before moving his capital to Jerusalem. He began to build a centralized government based in Jerusalem and implemented forced labor, a census and a mechanism for collecting taxes. In 2000 Jonathan Kirsch authored "King David: The Real Life of the Man Who ruled Israel." According to the Bible the census under David was followed by a plague that left some 70,000 Israelites dead.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A4)(SFC, 12/31/00, BR p.8)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.97)(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
1004BC-1000BC Absalom, the third son of King David, led a major rebellion which temporarily dethroned his father in the late eleventh century BC. Absalom died when his long hair became entangled in an oak tree and he was slain by David's general, Joab.
(http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Absalom)
1000BC Israel became a kingdom.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
1000BC A clay tablet, described as an Akkadian-language letter, dating to about this time was placed on display in 2011 in Jerusalem. The letter was from the Canaanite King Abdi-Heba to the king of Egypt. It was found in excavations of a site from the First Temple period.
(SFC, 6/21/11, p.A6)
c1000BCE A major earthquake struck along the Carmel-Gilboa fault system about this time. The Hebrew city of Har Megiddo, located at the strategic Nahal Iron Pass - the only route where chariots could speed between Egypt and Syria, was destroyed in the quake. This event is likely one described by John of Patmos in the Book of Revelations, where a great quake takes place at Armageddon.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)
c1000BCE The Samaritans broke away from the mainstream of Judaism about this time. They believed that God chose Mount Gerizim as the site for the Jews to build their temple.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A21)
c1000BCE A Pashtun legend later held that about this time King Saul’s son, Jeremiah, had a daughter named Afghana whose descendants made their way to Central Asia.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A10)
c1000BCE Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem on Mar 13, 1935, confirming biblical history.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1000BC-975BC In 2008 Israeli archeologists found a Hebrew inscription in proto-Canaanite script on a pottery fragment at a site believed to the biblical city of Sha’arayim (Two Gates). The city was located on a hill above the Valley of Elah, where the bible says David slew Goliath.
(SFC, 11/17/08, p.A10)
1000BC-900BC Archeologists in 2005 reported that 2 lines of an alphabet had been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C. The stone was found in July, on the final day of a five-week dig at Tel Zayit, about 30 miles south of Tel Aviv.
(AP, 11/10/05)
970BCE King David of Israel died about this time. In 2000 Robert Alter authored "The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel." In 2005 Robert Pinsky authored “The Life of David."
(WUD, 1994, p.369)(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.10)(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.M1)
965BCE Solomon, the son of David, became king of Israel. He was intent on completing the plans of David to make Jerusalem stand out and to affirm the religious commitment of the people. He undertook expensive building projects that included the building of the temple in Jerusalem and raised taxes with increased forced labor to his ends.
(eawc, p.6)
955-587 The Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest built by Moses containing the Ten Commandments, disappeared from Jerusalem during this period. Legend in Ethiopia holds that the Ark was stolen by Menelik I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and taken to Aksum where Orthodox Christian monks have watched over it ever since. The 1992 book "The Sign and the Seal" by Graham Hancock presents evidence that it was taken to Ethiopia some 800 years after it disappeared.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
c950BCE The Queen of Sheba lived about this time. Local legends name her Makeda and claim that she was from Ethiopia. Archeologists have found inscriptions from the ancient Sabean kingdom but no mention of Makeda or Bilqis, the local name for Sheba in Yemen. The Koran claims she ruled from Yemen.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A1)
c950BCE The Kebra Negast, a 14th cent. Ethiopian text, claims that the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to see Solomon and that he tricked her into sleeping with him and bearing him a son.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A6)
c938BC Israel’s King Solomon died about this time. The northerners, unwilling to subsidize the financial difficulties of Jerusalem and the national court, separated from the southern people. This created Israel to the north with its capital in Samaria, and Judah to the south with its capital in Jerusalem. Solomon’s son Rehoboam ruled in the south. Only the tribes of Juda and Benjamin remaining faithful to Rehoboam. Jeroboam, the son of Nathan an Ephraimite, ruled 10 tribes in the north.
(eawc, p.6)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/08340a.htm)
930BC Sheshonq I, ruler of Egypt, campaigned in Palestine about this time laying tribute upon the king of Judah.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
925BCE The Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak (Shoshenq) destroyed many Israelite cities, including Rehov, Megiddo and Hazor.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A4)(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A9)
c900-800 Ahab was king of Israel. Pottery, a 4-entry gate at Megiddo, and other structures at Hazor and Gezer are similar to others in the time of Ahab. This kind of data has prompted "the Finkelstein correction," which pushes archeological evidence attributed to David and Solomon more to the time of Ahab and Jezebel, his wife from Phoenicia. In 2000 Janet Howe Gaines authored "Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages."
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A4)(SFEC, 3/12/00, Par p.8)
c900-800BCE Joash was King of Judah in the 9th century. Joash and Ashyahu are common variations of the same name. The temple priest Zechariah was a contemporary to Joash and was put to death by Joash after a dispute. In 1997 a 13 word pottery fragment was dated to this time with the words: "Pursuant to the order to you of Ashyahu the King to give by the hand of Zecharyahu silver of Tarshish to the House of Yahweh. Three shekels."
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A8)
c900BC-800BC Sebastia, located just outside the modern city of Nablus, served as the capital of the biblical Kingdom of Israel under the name of Samaria in the 8th and 9th centuries B.C.
(AP, 6/2/13)
830BC The Philistine city of Gath was razed. It appears to have been the work of the Aramean king Hazael, an incident mentioned in the Book of Kings.
(AP, 7/8/11)
c800BCE The Jewish city of Sepphoris was founded about this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.64)
742BCE The time of the Hebrew prophet Isaiah.
(MofB, A&E TV, 9/7/96)
722BC Hoshea, the king of Israel, sent messengers to Osorkon in Egypt. He was requesting help against Assyria’s Shalmaneser V. No help was sent. Samaria was captured and the Israelites were taken away to Assyria. The Assyrians conquered Israel and left nothing behind. The Hebrew kingdom of Judah managed to survive. Descendants of the Israelites not exiled by the Assyrians were later known as the Samaritans.
(eawc, p.7)(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.W15)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
721BC About this time as the northern Israelite kingdom failed, Hebron remained the capital of the southern Israelite kingdom of Judah.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
c720BCE Some Jewish tribes went missing after being sent into exile by the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pilesar III. In 2002 Hillel Halkin authored "Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel," an account of the search for the lost tribes that included the Gadites, Reubenites and tribe of Manasseh (Menashe) and its possible relationship to the Kuki-Chin-Mizo people of Burma.
(WSJ, 8/8/02, p.D10)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.M2)
715-642 Judah absorbed refugees from the Assyrian conquest an achieved the attributes of a state.
(AM, 9/01, p.32)
705-681BCE At the same time the Ekronites had revolted against the Assyrian. Their king, Padi, had remained a loyal vassal to his overlord, but his turbulent subjects had put him in fetters and sent him to Hezekiah, king of Judah, who cast him into prison. The Ekronites summoned assistance from North Arabia and Egypt, and met Sennacherib at El-Tekeh. Here they were defeated, and Sennacherib marched against Ekron, slaying and impaling the chief officers. Padi was rescued from Jerusalem... Sennacherib then cut of some of the territory of Judah and divided it among his vassals.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
701BCE The Assyrian King Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.16)
700BC King Hezekiah, about this time, constructed a 1,750-foot tunnel to bring water into Jerusalem. Archeologists in 2003 dated plant fragments in the tunnel's plaster to this time +/- 100 years. In 1880 a tablet known as the Siloam inscription was found in the tunnel. It had been installed to celebrate the moment the two construction teams met underground. The tablet was taken by the Holy Land's Ottoman rulers to Istanbul. It was later placed in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. In 2007 Jerusalem's mayor asked the Turkish government to return the tablet.
(SFC, 9/11/03, p.A6)(AP, 7/13/07)
700BC – 600BC In 2016 Israeli archaeologists made public a fragment of an ancient text which they say is the earliest Hebrew reference to Jerusalem outside the Bible. The piece of papyrus was dated by the Israel Antiquities Authority to the 7th century B.C.
(Reuters, 10/26/16)
700-600BCE The search for the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were dispersed in the tenth century BCE when the Assyrians conquered part of the Holy Land, is depicted on a CD titled The Myth of the 10 Lost Tribes, by Creative Multimedia Corp.
(New Media, 2/95, p.84)
639BC-609BC King Josiah reigned in Israel. The biblical account of Israel's origin was possibly drafted during this time. The leadership reinstituted the exclusive worship of the god of the Israelites centered on the Temple in Jerusalem.
(AM, 9/01, p.30,31)
609BC The biblical king Josiah of Judah was slain on Har (Mt.) Megiddo (root of Armageddon) about this time when he was betrayed by Pharaoh Necho, whom he had approached to stop from going to war on the side of the Assyrians against the Babylonians.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.180)(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
606BCE In Cairo the Ben Ezra Synagogue was established.
(WSJ, 3/15/00, p.A1)
604BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and put the Philistines' cities to the sword. There is no remnant of them after that.
(AP, 7/8/11)
587BCE King Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
c587BCE Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah, the Persian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, arrived from Babylon.
(SFC, 9/6/04, p.A4)
586BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ruler of Mesopotamia, destroyed Jerusalem and recorded his deeds at the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River) cliff face between Beirut and Byblos. He destroyed the first Temple, built by Solomon and took the Jewish people into captivity.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A11)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.26)
586BC Ezekial, in exile at Babylon, described Tyre as it was before Nebuchadnezzar's attack in the Bible: (Ezekial 27:1-25). This time is known as the "Babylonian Captivity."
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.162)(eawc, p.8)
c586BC The Menashe tribe was lost following the Jewish exile in this year. Jews dispersed across Europe and North Africa. In the 1990s members of Shinglung community from the province of Mizuru in India claimed to be the children of Menashe and began returning to Israel.
(SFC, 1/12/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A13)
586BC The Jewish Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, was later said to date to about this time. The first Jews who arrived were said to have brought a stone from the ancient temple of Jerusalem that was destroyed by the Babylonians.
(AP, 4/27/13)
539BCE Babylon, under Chaldean rule since 612BCE, fell to the Persians. Cyrus the Persian captured Babylon after the New Babylonian leader, Belshazaar, failed to read "the handwriting on the wall." The Persian Empire under Cyrus lasted to 331BCE, when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Cyrus returned some of the exiled Jews to Palestine, while other Jews preferred to stay and establish a 2nd Jewish center, the first being in Jerusalem.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(eawc, p.8,9)
520BC-519BC Darius of Persia authorized the Jews to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, in accordance with an earlier decree of Cyrus. The Hebrew’s began to rebuild Solomon’s Temple destroyed in the sack of 586BCE. The Second Temple in Jerusalem was begun. It was remodeled many times and destroyed in 70CE.
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)(eawc, p.10)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
515BCE Mar 10, The building of the great Jewish temple in Jerusalem was completed.
(HN, 3/10/98)
500-400BCE A Byzantine shopping mall was uncovered in 1998 in Jerusalem at the site of a new mall. One inscription read "For the victory of the Blues" in Greek. It was a reference to the competing factions of Blues and Greens at horse races.
(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A8)
500BC-400BC Mordechai, a Jew, became the prime minister of Persia during this period.
(SFC, 10/21/00, p.C1)
500BC-400BC Haman is described as the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. In the Biblical story, Haman and his wife Zeresh instigate a plot to kill all of the Jews of ancient Persia. Haman attempts to convince Ahasuerus to order the killing of Mordecai and all the Jews of the lands he ruled. The plot is foiled by Queen Esther, the king's recent wife, who is herself a Jew. Haman is hanged from the gallows that had originally been built to hang Mordecai. Court councilor Haman warned Persia’s King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) against strangers whose laws are diverse from all people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Esther)(SFC, 5/29/15, p.D4)
486BC-465BC Xerxes the Great, king of Persia, ruled Egypt as the 3rd king of the 27th Dynasty. His rule extended from India to the lands below the Caspian and Black seas, to the east coast of the Mediterranean including Egypt and Thrace. Persia’s great cities Sardis, Ninevah, Babylon, and Susa were joined by the Royal Road. East of Susa was Persopolis, a vast religious monument. To the north of Persia were the Scythians.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(eawc, p.11)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
332BC-63BC The Hellenistic period in Israel.
(AM, 9/01, p.32)
300BC-68BC The Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran, Jordan, date to this period. The scrolls are usually identified with the Jewish-monkish cult, the Essenes, know for their pathological aversion to stool. In 2004 Chicago Prof. Norman Golb authored “Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls." In 2009 Israeli scholar Rachel Elior theorized that the Essenes, did not exist. She suggested they were really the renegade sons of Zadok, a priestly caste banished from the Temple of Jerusalem by intriguing Greek rulers in 2nd century BC. When they left, they took the source of their wisdom - their scrolls - with them.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.74)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(SFC, 9/6/04, p.A4)(TIME, 3/17/09)
300BC-68BC The Dead Sea Scrolls dating to this period were discovered by Bedouin at the caves of Qumran in Jordan in 1947. The scrolls predated the Christian gospels, but contained many similarities. They also contained some differences from the traditional (Masoretic) text of the Hebrew Bible. In 1955 Edmund Wilson published "The Scrolls from the Dead Sea." In 1998 Hershel Shank published "The Mystery and meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls." From 1978-1998 over 6,000 books were written about the scrolls. The discovery date was later contested as were many of the historic circumstances surrounding the scrolls [see Jordan 1947].
(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)
190BC-180BC The “Wisdom of Sirach" was written about this time in Hebrew. Its apocalyptic tone reflects the shock of the Jewish religious establishment at the encounter with Hellenic culture.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.91)(www.updated.org/sirach.shtml)
170BC The rebel Maccabees were able to gain victory in Jerusalem occupied by Antiochus II. During the re-dedication of the temple they stretched a days worth of oil out to 8 days for which the holiday of Hanukkah is celebrated.
(SFC, 11/27/96, zz1 p.F1)
168BC Syria’s Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes ruled over Israel and tried to outlaw Judaism. He tried to Hellenize the Jews by erecting idols. The Jews resisted and began the Maccabean revolt. The Maccabees were successful until internal dissension tore them apart.
(eawc, p.15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.27)
167BC Antiochus IV, the Hellenistic tyrant of the what later became called the Middle East, began to increase religious persecution against the Jews in Palestine and outlawed observance of the Torah. This included the circumcision of males, dietary restrictions and observance of the Sabbath. He installed a cult of Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish priest Mattathias of Modin defied Antiochus, escaped outside Lydda with his 5 sons and began a revolt.
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.W15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.27)
165BC Jerusalem and sacred temple of Judah were recaptured by the Maccabees. They used guerrilla tactics and elephants as tanks to throw off the tyranny of the Greco-Syrian oppressors. During the cleanup they found one container of the sacred oil used to light the temple’s candelabra known as a menorah. They gathered to light the oil which was expected to last only a day, but lasted eight nights. The event was memorialized in the celebration of Hanukkah (rededication), the Feast of Lights. [see 164BCE]
(SFC,12/10/97, Z1 p.4)(SFC,12/23/97, p.A13)(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.W8)
164BC The Temple of Jerusalem was recaptured by forces under Judah Maccabee, religious traditionalists from the countryside. [see 165BCE] The restoration of Jewish law was also a victory over Jewish factions who wanted to turn Jerusalem to a city modeled after the Greek pagan city-states.
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.W15)
155BC-213AD Some evidence has it that the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia about this time. The 1992 book "The Sign and the Seal" by Graham Hancock presents the evidence.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
140BC The first Jews arrived at Salonika, Greece, from Alexandria.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.3)
63BC The Romans conquered the Jews The Jews appealed to Pompey to settle internal dissention. The Romans intervened and began their occupation of Palestine.
(V.D.-H.K.p.102)(eawc, p.15)
37BC King Herod (d.4BCE) reigned over Judea. During his reign underground support structures were built for an expansion of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Wall of King Herod’s Second Temple is the famed "Wailing Wall."
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.D1)(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A13)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A10)
31BC An earthquake occurred at the Qumran caves by the Dead Sea when Herod ruled in Jerusalem. This was the site where fragments of scrolls from the books of Psalms and Numbers were later found, as well as a human skeleton beneath boulders from the earthquake.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
15BC King Herod of Judea built the coastal settlement of Caesarea. It was razed to the ground in 1265.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.83)
6BC Apr 17, Jupiter was in a rare alignment with the constellation Aries and marked an important date for ancient astrologers. Jesus was believed to have been born in this year.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.C1)
~4BC The Second Temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt a few years before the birth of Jesus. Jerusalem at this time had a population of about 100,000 people.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)
4BC King Herod the Great died. He governed Judea from 37BCE.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A12)
4BC-40AD Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, tetrarch of Galilee for this period. He examined Jesus at the request of Pilate. He executed John the Baptist. Pontius Pilate served as governor of the island of Ponza before he was made procurator of Judea.
(AHD, 1971, p.618, 706)(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T12)
2BC The Maccabeans built an aqueduct in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A10)
1CE Dec 25, The celebrated birth of Christ in Bethlehem. The birth of Jesus is celebrated on Dec. 25th because the Romans needed to replace the pagan holiday called the Feast of the Unconquered Sun. In Ethiopia Jan 7 is the day that Christmas is celebrated. According to the gospel of Matthew Joseph soon fled with his family to Egypt following a decree by Herod that ordered all boys of Bethlehem under age 2 to be put to death. The gospels of Luke and Matthew are inconsistent on historical facts. Christ’s birth on this day was officially set by the Roman Church in 336AD. [see 6-2BCE]
(SFC, 12/4/94, p. S-4)(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A10)(Econ, 1/1/05, p.38)
1CE The three wise men that reportedly visited the baby Jesus were said to be from Arabia and Nubia, Godolia and Tarsus.
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.30)
6CE The Romans named Caesarea as their regional capital.
(SFC, 6/18/02, p.A2)
10CE Hillel the Elder, Jewish religious leader, died in Jerusalem. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud. "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_the_Elder)
30 Apr 30, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified [see 33AD]. Christ died on hill of Golgotha, Jerusalem. His path along the Via Dolorosa was later disputed as to whether he was tried by Pontius Pilate at the palace of Herod or at the Roman fortress of Antonia. His death was at an abandoned quarry, the site of today’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1998 Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar published "The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus." The group had published an earlier work "The Five Gospels," in which the sayings of Jesus were examined. In 1999 Thomas Cahill authored "Desire of the Everlasting Hills," a book about Jesus and his effect on the world. In 2010 Paul Johnson authored “Jesus: A Biography From a Believer." Also in 2010 Philip Pullman authored “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ," in which he proposes that Jesus and Christ were twin brothers.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.C2)(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.8)(HN, 4/30/98)(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.W12)(Econ, 4/3/10, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus)
33 Apr 3, Christ was crucified (according to astronomers Humphreys and Waddington). The date is highly debated. See April 30, 30AD.
(Econ, 4/23/11, p.64)
c37-100 Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian and general.
(WUD, 1994, p.771)
c62-63 James, the "brother" of Jesus, was stoned to death for teaching the divinity of Christ. He had led the church in Jerusalem for the 3 decades following the death of Jesus. In 2002 a stone ossuary, looted from a Jerusalem cave, was found with an Aramaic inscription that read "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." In 1997 Robert Eisenman authored "James, the Brother of Jesus." In 2003 Hershel Shanks and Ben Witherington III co-authored "The Brother of Jesus: The Dramatic Story & Meaning of the First Archeological Link to Jesus & His Family." In 2003 the stone ossuary was declared a fake.
(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A12)(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.E2)(AP, 6/18/03)
65 Jun 8, Jews revolted against Rome, capturing the fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem.
(MC, 6/8/02)
66 Jewish Zealots called sicarii (from the Latin word for dagger) murdered Roman officials and high-ranking Jews whom they considered as enemies to Israel’s war of independence.
(NG, 11/04, p.76)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.33)
66-70 The Jews during this period laid in supplies and prepared to hide during their revolt against the Romans. In 2006 archeologists in northern Israel reported the discovery of chambers, linked by short tunnels, that would have served as a concealed subterranean home.
(AP, 3/14/06)
66-73 Roman general Vespasian's army assaulted the forces of Jewish rebel Joseph ben Matthias at Jotapata in Galilee. During the Jewish revolt of 66-73 CE, Emperor Nero chose Titus Flavius Vespasianus (Vespasian) to subdue Judea. Vespasian was eminently qualified for this martial task. He was fresh from crushing a German rebellion, and as commander of Legio II, he had played a significant role in the conquest of Britannia (Britain) by Nero‘s predecessor. Joseph, meanwhile had assembled his own army from the rebel bands of Galilee and trained them in the Roman model. He also fortified many towns, the strongest being Jotapata, a natural fortress perched on a rock outcrop. It was surrounded on three sides by steep valleys that made attack virtually impossible. The only approach to the city was from a hilltop to the north, and that was blocked by a dry moat fronting a sturdy wall.
(HNQ, 12/4/00)
67 Some 37,000 Jewish prisoners were held at the Roman stadium in Tiberias after they lost a naval battle on the Sea of Galilee.
(SFC, 6/18/02, p.A2)
69 Sep 1, Traditional date for the destruction of Jerusalem. [see Aug 29 70CE]
(MC, 9/1/02)
70 May 31, Rome captured the 1st wall of the city of Jerusalem.
(MC, 5/31/02)
70 Jun 5, Titus & his Roman legions breached the middle wall of Jerusalem.
(MC, 6/5/02)
70 Jul 1, Roman Emperor Titus assaulted the walls of Jerusalem with battering rams.
(MC, 7/1/02)
70 Aug 8, Tower of Antonia was destroyed by the Romans.
(MC, 8/8/02)
70 Aug 29, The Temple of Jerusalem burned after a nine-month Roman siege. The Second Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome’s 10th Legion and the Jews there were exiled. In the Jewish War the Israelites tried unsuccessfully to revolt against Roman rule. The destruction buried the shops that lined the main street. Archeologists in 1996 found numerous artifacts that included bronze coins called prutot. Carpenters from Israel’s Antiquities Authority used manuscripts of the Roman master builder Vitruvius to reconstruct contraptions used in the construction of the temple. In 2007 Martin Goodman authored “Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations."
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)(HN, 8/29/98)(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T11)(Econ, 1/20/07, p.90)
70 Sep 7, The Roman army under Titus occupied and plundered Jerusalem.
(MC, 9/7/01)
70 Sep 27, The walls of upper city of Jerusalem were battered down by Romans.
(MC, 9/27/01)
70 The Jerusalem mansion of Queen Helene, who came from a royal clan that ruled Adiabene (northern Iraq), was destroyed along with the rest of Jerusalem. In 2007 archeologists uncovered remains of the structure. Helene converted along with her family to Judaism when they came to Jerusalem in the first half of the first century AD.
(AP, 12/7/07)
70 Josephus recorded that Vespasian and his son Titus plundered 50 tons of gold and silver during the Roman conquest of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
71 Vespasian and his son Titus paraded the treasure plundered from Jerusalem in triumph through the streets of Rome. They used the 50 tons of gold and silver to help finance the building of the Colosseum.
(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
73 Jewish zealots on Mount Masada chose to perish by their own hands rather than surrender to slavery under the Romans.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T5)
73 When the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule was crushed, many Jewish refugees fled in all direction. Those who fled to Europe became known as Ashkenazim.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.75)
75 The treasure plundered from Jerusalem in 70AD by the Romans under Vespasian and his son, Titus, was put on public display in the Temple of Peace in the Roman Forum and stayed there into the early 5th century.
(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
c100 Raban Gamliel in the first century is credited with arranging the Amidah, considered by many to be the most important prayer in the Jewish liturgy. Raban Gamliel was the most influential Rabbi in the period following the destruction of the Temple. This was a time when many different rabbis each had their own individual domains.
(www.kolshalom.com/divrei/dvarilana1.html)
129 Roman Emp. Hadrian visited Jerusalem. In 2014 archeologists discovered a large stone with Latin engravings bearing the name of Hadrian and the year of his visit.
(SFC, 10/22/14, p.A3)
132-135 Jewish rebels occupied the mountain ridge of Hebron during the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans. The remains of an ancient synagogue and mikveh are visible.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, p.T2)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.94)
135 Roman Emperor Hadrian sent 12 divisions under Julius Severus to quell the Jewish rebellion led by Simon Bar Kokhba, who was killed at Bethar. An estimated 600,000 Jews were killed. Hadrian ordered Jerusalem plowed under and Aelia Capitolina was built on the site. He barred Jews from returning and survivors dispersed across the empire. Judea was renamed Syria Palestine.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.C16)(PBS, Nova, 11/23/04)(PC, 1992 ed, p.41)
c200 The Mishna, a section of the Talmud consisting of a collection of oral laws, was edited by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi in the city of Sepphoris.
(WUD, 1994, p.916)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.64)
211-217 The reign of the Roman emperor Caracalla (188-217). Coins were minted at the Jewish city of Sepphoris during the reign of Caracalla.
(WUD, 1994, p.221)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.64)
325 Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena reportedly announced the discovery of Christ’s tomb. The site became the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.81)
326 The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was begun by the Roman emperor Constantine.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B2)
335 Oct 21, Constantinople emperor (Constantine the Great) enacted rules against Jews.
(MC, 10/21/01)
335 Byzantine Emperor Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on the hill of Golgotha, where his mother claimed to have found the remains of the True Cross. It was raised by the Persians in 614, reconstructed and again destroyed by Caliph Hakim of Egypt in 1009. It was rebuilt by the Crusaders.
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
337 Constantine died after having made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. He had the Chapel of the Burning Bush built in the Sinai Desert at the site where Moses was believed to have witnessed the Miracle of the Burning Bush.
(V.D.-H.K.p.92)
c350 The “Codex Sinaiticus," the world’s oldest Bible, was created about this time. For most of its history it resided at St. Catherine’s Monastery built (527-565) on Mt. Sinai.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.80)
c400-500 In Ashkalon the bones of some 100 infants were discovered in 1988 in the debris of a sewer adjacent to a bath house of this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.12)
418 Mar 10, Jews were excluded from public office in the Roman Empire.
(MC, 3/10/02)
500 The second component of the Talmud, the Gemara, was compiled about this time in Babylon (later Iraq). It is a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh. The first component, the Mishnah, the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law, dated to around 200.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud)
527-565 Emperor Justinian built the St. Catherine monastery in the Sinai Desert to house the bones of St. Catherine of Alexandria, who was tortured to death for converting to Christianity. The site was thought to be the place where Moses saw the Miracle of the Burning Bush.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T6)(http://interoz.com/egypt/Catherines.htm)
549 Jerusalem held to a Jan 6 date for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus until this year. In the end the West added the Epiphany and the East added the Dec 25 nativity to their liturgical calendars.
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.W15)
560 Emperor Justinian about this time returned the treasure of Jerusalem, plundered by the Romans in 70AD, to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
600 A synagogue at Ein Gedi on the shores of the Dead Sea was destroyed about this time by fire. It had stood there from about 800BC. In 1970 archeologists digging at the site discovered a trove of scrolls. Technology in 2016 determined the scrolls to be of Leviticus, one of the first five books of the Bible, which dated to 200AD-300AD.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.77)
614 Christian Palestine was invaded by the Persians. The 5th century monastery of St. Theodosius east of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem was destroyed by the Persians. The Jews of Jerusalem allied with the Persians during the invasion and entered into the cave beneath the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, p.T3)(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.W12)(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)
624-628 Several Jewish clans in the Arabian peninsula joined forces with an Arab tribe, the Quraysh, to make war on a renegade Qurayshi named Mohammad, who claimed he was a prophet of God.
(Econ, 8/14/10, p.68)
632-661 The Rashidun Caliphate, also known as the Rightly Guided Caliphate, comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia in the east. It was the one of the largest empires in history up until that time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate)
633 In Spain the 4th Synod of Toledo took on the right to confirm elected kings. Jews were obliged to be baptized. The vernacular language, of Latin origin, prevailed over that of the Visigoths.
(www.sispain.org/english/history/visigoth.html)
634 Sophronius (74), Christian monk, was elected patriarch and political ruler of Jerusalem.
(ON, 7/03, p.3)
636 Summer, A Byzantine army arrived in the region of Jerusalem and was defeated by a much smaller Muslim army at the Yarmuk River. With Muslims at the gate Sophronius, head of Jerusalem, requested a meeting with Caliph Omar.
(ON, 7/03, p.5)
638 cJan, Sophronius met with Caliph Omar and obtained a set of guarantees and regulations that came to be known as "the Covenant of Omar."
(ON, 7/03, p.3)
638 Mar 11, Sophronius of Jerusalem, saint, patriarch of Jerusalem, died.
(MC, 3/12/02)
638 Arabs conquered the city of Hebron. They allowed the Jews to build a synagogue near Abraham’s burial site.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
691 The Dome of the Rock mosque was built in Jerusalem. It contained inscriptions that later were held as the 1st evidence of the Koran.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A15)
694 Nov 9, Spanish King Egica accused Jews of aiding Moslems and sentenced them to slavery.
(MC, 11/9/01)
749 An earthquake cause great damage in the area of the Sea of Galilee.
(SFC, 6/18/02, p.A2)
861 The Khazar kings converted to Judaism. A Jewish dynasty of kings presided over the Khazar kingdom until the 960s. In 2008 Dmitry Vasilyev, a Russian professor at Astrakhan State University, said his nine-year excavation near the Caspian Sea has finally unearthed the foundations of a triangular fortress of flamed brick, along with modest yurt-shaped dwellings, and he believes these are part of what was once Itil, the Khazar capital.
(TJOK, chap. 6)(AP, 9/20/08)
930 The Aleppo Codex was written on parchment in the Holy Land town of Tiberias by the scribe Shlomo Ben Boya'a about this time. Its completion marked the end of a centuries-long process that created final text of the Hebrew Bible.
(AP, 9/27/08)
942 May 16, Saadiah Gaon, head of Talmudic Academy of Sura, died.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1009 In Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was burned by Muslims under Caliph Hakim of Egypt.
(WSJ, 5/7/01, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
1033 An enormous pilgrimage to Jerusalem marked the 1000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A3)
1035 In Spain 66 Jews were killed in Castrojeriz near Burgos. Others were expelled and settled on a nearby hill that was named Castrillo Motajudios (Jew’s Hill). Records from 1627 show the name was changed to Castrillo Matajudios, meaning "Kill Jews." In 2014 the 56 town residents planned a May 25 vote on changing the name back to Castrillo Motajudios.
(AP, 4/22/14)(http://tinyurl.com/pzmhvqh)
1065 Apr 12, Pilgrims under bishop Gunther of Bamberg reached Jerusalem.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1080 The Knights of St. John (the Hospitallers) were founded in Jerusalem about this time to care for the sick.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller)
1099 Jun 5, Knights and their families on the First Crusade witnessed an eclipse of the moon and interpreted it as a sign from God that they would recapture Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1099 Jun 12, Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/12/99)
1099 Jul 13, The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.
(HN, 7/13/99)
1099 Jul 15, Jerusalem fell to the crusaders following a 7 week siege. A massacre of the city's Muslim and Jewish population followed with the dead numbered at about 3,000.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(HN, 7/15/98)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.E3)
1099 Jul 16, Crusaders herded the Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue and set it afire.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1099 Aug 12, At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, routed an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem. The Norman Godfrey, elected King of Jerusalem, had assumed the title Defender of the Holy Sepulcher. Disease starvation by this time reduced the Crusaders to 60,000, down from an initial 300,000, and most of the survivors left for home.
(HN, 8/12/99)(PC, 1992, p.88)
1099 The Aleppo Codex, owned by Jewish community in Jerusalem, was seized by Crusaders who sacked the city. It was then ransomed and made its way to Cairo, Egypt.
(AP, 9/28/08)
1096 May 18, Crusaders massacred the Jews of Worms. Before embarking on the First Crusade to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim Turks, Count Emich von Leiningen and his army swept through their own German homeland, murdering thousands of Jews, whom they had declared "murderers of Christ." When Emich arrived in the town of Worms in May, the town's Roman Catholic Bishop tried to protect the Jewish population, but the Crusaders overran his palace and slaughtered some 500 people who had taken shelter there. Another 300 were killed over the next two days. The graves of the massacre victims can still be seen at the Jewish Cemetery at Worms.
(HNPD, 5/12/99)(SC, 5/18/02)
1096 Jun 25, The 1st Crusaders slaughtered the Jews of Werelinghofen, Germany.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1096 Oct 21, Seljuk Turks at Chivitot slaughtered thousands of German crusaders.
(HN, 10/21/99)
c1096 The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in Jerusalem on the traditional site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1997 renovation was completed with a new 115-foot dome, designed by Fresno architect Ara Normart.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A18)
1099 Jun 5, Knights and their families on the First Crusade witnessed an eclipse of the moon and interpreted it as a sign from God that they would recapture Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1099 Jun 12, Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/12/99)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1099 Jul 13, The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.
(HN, 7/13/99)
1099 Jul 15, Jerusalem fell to the crusaders following a 7 week siege. A massacre of the city's Muslim and Jewish population followed with the dead numbered at about 3,000.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(HN, 7/15/98)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.E3)
1099 Jul 16, Crusaders herded the Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue and set it afire.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1099 The Aleppo Codex, owned by Jewish community in Jerusalem, was seized by Crusaders who sacked the city. It was then ransomed and made its way to Cairo, Egypt.
(AP, 9/27/08)
c1100-1200 Judah Halevi was a Jewish poet who lived in Muslim Spain in the 12th century. He wrote "City of the Great King, for thee my soul is longing."
(WSJ, 12/12/00, p.A24)
1105 Nov 24, Rabbi Nathan ben Yehiel of Rome completed a Talmudic dictionary.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1113 Feb 13, Pope Paschal II issued a papal bull recognizing the Knights of Malta as independent from bishops or secular authorities. The order traces had establishment an infirmary in Jerusalem that cared for people of all faiths making pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
(AP, 2/5/13)
1118 The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land following the First Crusade. The Knights Templar were founded to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the second Crusade.
(AHD, 1971, p.724)(AP, 10/12/07)
1119 The French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order for the protection of the pilgrims. Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar)
1130 Feb 14, Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone was elected as anti-pope Anacletus II.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1130 The Knights of St. John (the Hospitallers) became a military order some 60 years after having been founded in Jerusalem to care for the sick.
(Arch, 9/02, p.27)
1135 Maimonides (d.1204), Jewish scholar, philosopher and rabbi was born in Spain. He analyzed linkages between wealth and charity and created a ladder of giving with each rung representing a higher degree of virtue. The most virtuous way to give was to help a stranger by offering him a loan or job so that he would no longer need help. The lowest rung was to make a grudging donation.
(WUD, 1994, p.864)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 10/5/01, p.W17)
1149 In Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, rebuilt by the Crusaders, was consecrated.
(Arch, 9/02, p.28)
c1171 Benjamin ben Jonah, a Spanish Jew, returned to his home in Tudela and published an account of his 6-year journey to Constantinople, Cyprus, Palestine, Damascus, Persia and Egypt: "The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela."
(WSJ, 8/8/02, p.D10)
1187 Oct 2, Sultan Saladin captured Jerusalem from Crusaders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin)
1189 Sep 3, After the death of Henry II, Richard Lionheart, King Richard I, was crowned king of England in Westminster.
(AP, 9/3/97)(HN, 9/3/98)
1189 Sep 3, Jacob of Orleans, Rabbi, was killed in the London anti Jewish riot in which 30 Jews were massacred.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1190 Mar 16, An estimated 150 Jews were massacred in York, England. The Jewish population of York fled to Clifford’s Tower overlooking the rivers Ouse and Foss during an anti-Jewish riot. A crazed friar set fire to the tower and rather than be captured, the inhabitants committed mass suicide.
(http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/norman/the-1190-massacre)(SFEC, 10/26/97, p.T5)(HN, 3/16/99)
1190 Mar 18, The people of Bury St. Edmonds, England, killed 57 Jews.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bury_St_Edmunds)
1192 The Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem formed in Acre about this time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_Knights)
1197 Dec 4, Crusaders wounded Rabbi Elezar ben Judah.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1199 Sep 30, Rambam (Maimonides) authorized Samuel Ibn Tibbon to translate "Guide of Perplexed" from Arabic into Hebrew.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1200-1300 Moses de Leon, a Spanish Jewish mystic, wrote the "Zohar," in Aramaic. It was a mystical interpretation of the Torah disguised as a novel. The Zohar consists of mystical interpretations and commentaries of the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Old Testament. It became the major text of Jewish mysticism that came to be called the Kabbalah, as developed a few centuries later by Isaac Luria in Palestine. In 2003 a new translation was made by Daniel C. Matt, as part of a 12-volume new edition of the Kabbalah.
(WUD, 1994, p.1662)(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)(SFC, 12/16/03, p.D1)
1204 Maimonides (b.1135), Jewish scholar, died. His books included the “Mishnah Torah," the single most important Jewish book after the Bible and Talmud, and “Guide for the Perplexed." In 2005 Sherwin B. Nuland authored “Maimonides."
(WUD, 1994, p.864)(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.M1)
1205 Jul 15, Pope Innocent III decreed that the Jews were doomed to perpetual servitude and subjugation due to crucifixion of Jesus.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1210 Nov 1, King John of England began imprisoning Jews.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1235 Jan 2, Emperor Joseph II ordered the Jews of Galicia, Austria, to adopt family names.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1241 May 25, 1st attack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1242 Jun 6, 24 wagonloads of Talmudic books were burned in Paris.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1244 Jul 11, The Khwarezmian Turks attacked Jerusalem. By August 23 they completely razed it and left it in ruins useless to both Christians and Muslims.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Jerusalem_(Middle_Ages))
1244 Aug 23, Khwarezmian Turks expelled the crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s citadel, the Tower of David, surrendered. The Turks ruthlessly decimated the population, leaving only 2,000 people, Christians and Muslims, still living in the city. This attack triggered the Europeans to respond with the Seventh Crusade.
(HN, 8/23/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarezmian_Empire)
1250 Apr 15, Pope Innocent III refused Jews of Cordova, Spain, permission to build a synagogue.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1253 Jul 23, Jews were expelled from Vienne, France, by order of Pope Innocent III.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1263 Aug 19, King James I of Aragon censored Hebrew writing.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1264 Aug 5, Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Arnstadt, Germany.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1265 The coastal settlement of Caesarea (Palestine) was razed to the ground.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.83)
1267 Feb 9, Synod of Breslau ordered Jews of Silesia to wear special caps.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1267 May 10, Vienna's Catholic church ordered all Jews to wear distinctive garb.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1267 Sep 1, Ramban (Nachmanides) arrived in Jerusalem to establish a Jewish community.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1269 Jun 19, King Louis IX of France decreed all Jews must wear a badge of shame.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1275 May 23, King Edward I of England ordered a cessation to the persecution of French Jews.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1278 May 10, Jews of England were imprisoned on charges of coining. [see Nov 17]
(MC, 5/10/02)
1278 Nov 17, In England 680 Jews were arrested for counterfeiting coins. 293 were hanged. [see May 10]
(MC, 11/17/01)
1285 Oct 12, 180 Jews refused baptism in Munich, Germany, and were set on fire.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1288 Apr 24, Jews of Yroyes France were accused of ritual murder.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1290 Jul 12, Jews were expelled from England by order of King Edward I.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1290 Oct 9, Last of 16,000 English Jews, expelled by King Edward I, left. The country was on the verge of bankruptcy. The debt to Jewish bankers was written off and all Jews were expelled from England. The Medicis and other northern Italian bankers were invited as a replacement.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, BR p.3)(MC, 10/9/01)
1291 Mar 5, Sa'ad al'Da'ulah, Jewish grand vizier of Persia, was assassinated.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1291 May 18, Acre, the last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, fell to the hands of Al-Ashraf Khalil and his forces from Egypt and Syria after a siege of 43 days. It had been in the hands of the Franks for 100 years. Egyptian Mamelukes (Mamluks) occupied Akko (Acre). The crusaders were driven out of Palestine. Khalil, al-Ashraf Salah ad-Din, the Mamluk King, conquered Akko and put an end to the Crusader’s rule in the Holy Land.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Acre_%281291%29)(Arch, 7/02, p.19)
1294 Jun 30, Jews were expelled from Bern, Switzerland.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1298 Jun 24, Rindfleish Persecutions: Jews of Ifhauben, Austria, were massacred.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1298 Jul 23, Jews were massacred at Wurzburg, Germany.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1306 Jul 22, King Phillip the Fair ordered the expulsion of Jews from France.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1322 Jun 24, Jews were expelled from France for a 3rd time.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1348 Sep 21, Jews in Zurich Switzerland were accused of poisoning wells.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1348 Nov 15, Rudolph of Oron claimed Jews confessed to poisoning wells.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1349 Jan 9, In Basel, Switzerland, 700 Jews were burned alive in their houses.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1349 Feb 13, Jews were expelled from Burgsdorf, Switzerland.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1349 Feb 14, 2,000 Jews were burned at the stake in Strasbourg, Germany.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1349 Mar 21, Some 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt, Germany.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1349 Apr 30, Jewish community at Radolszell, Germany, was exterminated.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1349 May 28, 60 Jews were murdered in Breslau, Silesia.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1349 Aug 24, Some 6,000 Jews, blamed for the Bubonic Plague, were killed in Mainz.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1349 Aug 24, Jews of Cologne Germany set themselves on fire to avoid baptism.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1349 Sep 10, The Jews who survived a massacre in Constance, Germany, were burned to death.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1349 Nov 1, Duke of Brabant ordered the execution of all Jews in Brussels. He accused them of poisoning the wells.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1349 Nov 29, Jews of Augsburg, Germany, were massacred.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1349 Dec 5, 500 Jews of Nuremberg were massacred during Black Death riots.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1355 May 7, 1,200 Jews of Toledo, Spain, were killed by Count Henry of Trastamara.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1357 Nov 25, Charles IV issued a letter of protection of Jews of Strasbourg and Alsace.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1360 Jul 25, Jews were expelled from Breslau, Silesia.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1366 Oct 12, King Frederick III of Sicily forbade decorations on synagogues.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1370 May 22, Jews were expelled (massacred) from Brussels, Belgium.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1391 Mar 15, Jew-hating monk in Seville, Spain, stirred up a mob to attack Jews.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1391 Jun 4, Mob led by Ferrand Martinez surrounded and set fire to the Jewish quarter of Seville, Spain. The surviving Jews were sold into slavery.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1391 Aug 5, Castilian sailors in Barcelona, Spain set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 people and setting off four days of violence against the Jews.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1391 Aug 24, Jews of Palma Majorca, Spain, were massacred.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1391 There were anti-Jewish attacks in Girona, Spain, and many Hebrew documents were destroyed.
(SFC, 1/20/02, p.A15)
1391 Ottoman Caliph Bayezid I sent boats to rescue Jews as they were being expelled from Spain.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.67)
1394 Sep 17, In France King Charles VI decreed as an irrevocable law and statute that thenceforth no Jew should dwell in his domains. The decree was not immediately enforced, a respite being granted to the Jews in order that they might sell their property and pay their debts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France)
1394 Nov 3, Jews were expelled from France by Charles VI. The order, signed on Yom Kippur, was enforced on November 3. Jews continued to live in Lyons and papal possessions such as Pugnon. [see Sep 17, 1394]
(www.wzo.org.il/doingzionism/resources/view.asp?id=261)
1407 Oct 26, Mobs attacked the Jewish community of Cracow.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1421 May 11, Jews were expelled from Styria, Austria.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1421 May 23, Jews of Austria were imprisoned and expelled.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1424 Dec 6, Don Alfonso V of Aragon granted Barcelona the right to exclude Jews.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1427 May 10, Jews were expelled from Berne, Switzerland.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1428 Feb 5, King Alfonso V ordered Sicily's Jews to convert to Catholicism.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1430 May 5, Jews were expelled from Speyer, Germany.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1430 Oct 3, Jews were expelled from Eger, Bohemia.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1450 Oct 5, Jews were expelled from Lower Bavaria by order of Ludwig IX.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1451 Sep 21, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa ordered the Jews of Holland to wear a badge.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1454 Aug 22, Jews were expelled from Brunn Moravia by order of King Ladislaus Posthumus (1440-1457), king of Hungary as Ladislaus V, king of Bohemia as Ladislaus I.
(MC, 8/22/02)(Internet)
1455 May 3, Jews fled Spain.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1490 Mar 23, 1st dated edition of Maimonides "Mishna Torah" was published.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1491 Nov 15, 6 Jews and 5 Conversos (Jews who pretend to be Catholic converts) were accused of killing Christians in La Guardia, Spain.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1492 Jan 23, "Pentateuch," a Jewish holy book, was first printed.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1492 Mar 30, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed a decree expelling all Jews from Spain. Jews numbered about 80,000 and it was estimated that about half chose to convert. [see Mar 30]
(HN, 3/30/98)(WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A20)
1492 Mar 31, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews from Spanish soil, except those willing to convert to Christianity. In 2002 Claudia Roden authored "The Ornament of the World," a collection of stories of Sephardic Jews in Spain from 750 to 1492. A Jewish text later known as the Sarajevo Haggadah was carried by a refugee to Italy and later to Bosnia. [see Mar 30]
(AP, 3/30/97)(WSJ, 4/26/02, p.W12)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.F9)
1492 Dec 31, 100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1492 Jews began arriving in Morocco, Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world after their expulsion from Spain.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T11)(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)
1493 Jan 12, This was the last day for all Jews to leave Sicily.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1496 Mar 9, Jews were expelled from Carinthia, Austria.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1496 Mar 12, Jews were expelled from Syria.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1496 Dec 5, Jews were expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1497 Jan 6, Jews were expelled from Graz, Syria. [see Mar 12, 1496]
(MC, 1/6/02)
1498 Jun 21, Jews were expelled from Nuremberg, Bavaria, by Emperor Maximillian.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1505 Apr 20, Jews were expelled from Orange, Burgundy, by Philibert of Luxembourg.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1510 Jan 22, Jews were expelled from Colmar, Germany.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1510 Jul 19, In Berlin 38 Jews were burned at the stake.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1516 Mar 29, The Jewish Ghetto of Venice, the first ghetto in Europe, was established by the government of Venetian Serenissima Republic. The incoming Jews were forced to pay 30% more to their new landlords as compared to the outgoing Christian tenants.
(www.elitehotel.it/en/the_ancient_jewish_ghetto_in_venice_13en1341en.htm)(Econ, 6/18/16, p.83)
1521 Nov 20, Arabs attributed a shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1525 Jacob Ben-Hayim published an overhaul of the Hebrew Bible, the Mikraot Gedolot, or Great Scriptures, in Venice. His version unified the religion's varying texts and commentaries under a single umbrella and remained the standard for generations. In 2012 Menachem Cohen completed an updated 21-volume set, with the final chapter set to be published in 2013.
(AP, 8/8/12)
1526 Nov 9, Jews were expelled from Pressburg, Hungary, by Maria of Hapsburg.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1529 May 27, 30 Jews of Posing, Hungary, charged with blood ritual, were burned at stake.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1536 May 23, Pope Paul III installed the Portuguese Inquisition at the request of John III. Its most common accusation was maintaining outlawed Jewish practices in secret. The Inquisition was disbanded in 1821.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Inquisition)(AP, 8/19/15)
1539 Feb 19, Jews of Tyrnau, Hungary, (then Trnava, Czech), were expelled.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1550 Apr 2, Jews were expelled from Genoa, Italy. [see Jun 15, 1567]
(MC, 4/2/02)
1551 Persecution of the Jews became widespread in Bavaria.
(TL-MB, p.18)
1553 Aug 12, Pope Julius III ordered the confiscation and burning of the Talmud.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1553 Oct 21, Volumes of the Talmud were burned.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1556 Apr 13, Portuguese Marranos who reverted back to Judaism were burned alive by order of Pope.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1558 Aug 4, 1st printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabala).
(MC, 8/4/02)
1563 Apr 30, Jews were expelled from France by order of Charles VI.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1567 Jun 15, Genoa expelled the Jews. [see Apr 2, 1550]
(MC, 6/15/02)
1567 Jun 20, Jews were expelled from Brazil by order of regent Don Henrique.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1573 Nov 7, Solomon Luria (Maharshal), Talmudic author (Yam Shel Shelomo), died.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1583 Feb 20, Joseph Sanalbo, Jewish convert in Rome, was burned at stake on 27 Shebat.
(www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12816-rome)(http://jewishholidaysonline.com/1583)
1587 An early collection of Jewish songs was published in Zeminoth Israel.
(TL-MB, p.24)
c1590-1600 In late 16th century Prague Rabbi Judah Bezalel Loew, the Maharal, used clay and the mysticism of the Kabbalah to fashion the Golem, a human-like creature to help avenge Jewish persecution.
(WSJ, 4/17/02, p.D7)
1593 The Minhogimbukh, a Jewish version of the old Farmers’ Alamanac, was written in Yiddish and published in Venice.
(SFC, 12/6/04, p.B1)
1596 Dec 8, Luis de Carabajal, 1st Jewish author in America, was executed in Mexico. The nephew of Luis Carvajal, a Jewish convert to Catholicism and governor of the province of Nuevo Leon, was accused of relapsing into Judaism. He was tried by Spanish Inquisitors and under torture gave out 116 names of other Judaizers that included his mother and 23 sisters. They were eventually strangled with iron collars and burned to death. A 1997 opera by Myron Fink was composed based on his story. Monterey, Mexico, was founded by conquistador Don Luis de Carvajal. He fell in love the wrong man’s daughter and was later denounced to the Mexican Inquisition because of his Jewish heritage.
(SFC, 8/16/96, p.A19)(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A11)(WSJ, 2/25/97, p.A20)(MC, 12/8/01)
1598 Jan 8, Genoa, Italy, expelled its Jews.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1600-1700 Shabettai Zvi [Sabbatai Zevi], a Kabbalist from the Ottoman Empire, became the central figure in a widespread Messianic craze. He declared himself the Messiah and caused an uproar throughout the Jewish world. He eventually embraced a form of Islam.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)(SFEC, 3/12/00, BR p.2)(Econ, 10/16/04, p.80)
1614 Aug 22, Trades people under Vincent Fettmilch chased and plunder Jews out of ghetto in Frankfurt.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1614 Sep 1, Vincent Fettmich expelled Jews from Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1625 Sep 13, 16 Rabbis (including Isiah Horowitz) were imprisoned in Jerusalem.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1632 Apr 20, Nicolas Antione, converted to Judaism, was burned at the stake. [see Dec 20]
(MC, 4/20/02)
1632 Dec 20, Nicolas Antoine, French Catholic pastor who converted to Judaism, was executed. [see Apr 20]
(MC, 12/20/01)
1638 Jan 5, Petition in Recife, Brazil, led to the closing of its two synagogues.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1645 Apr 7, Michael Cardozo became the 1st Jewish lawyer in Brazil.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1648 Jun 24, Cossacks slaughtered 2,000 Jews and 600 Polish Catholics in Ukraine.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1648 Jul 22, Some 10,000 Jews of Polannoe were murdered in a massacre led by Cossack Bogdan Chmielnicki (55).
(PC, 1992, p.241)(MC, 7/22/02)
1648 Nov 2, 12,000 Jews were massacred by Chmielnicki hordes in Narol Podlia (Ukraine). Cossack Bogdan Chmielnicki led the pogrom in quest of Ukrainian independence from the Polish nobility, who employed Jews to collect taxes.
(PCh, 1992, p.241)(MC, 11/2/01)
1648-1649 It is estimated that 100,000-200,000 Jews died in the Chmielnicki (Khmelnytskyi) revolt that lasted from 1648-1649. This wave of destruction is considered the first modern pogrom.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Poland.html)
1654 Apr 26, Jews were expelled from Brazil.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1654 Aug 22, Jacob Barsimson, the 1st Jewish immigrant to US, arrived in New Amsterdam.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1655 Apr 26, Dutch West Indies Co. denied Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1655 Aug 28, New Amsterdam & Peter Stuyvesant barred Jews from military service.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1655 Oct 15, Jews of Lublin, Poland, were massacred.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1656 Jan 24, Jacob Lumbrozo, 1st Jewish doctor in US, arrived in Maryland.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1656 Feb 22, New Amsterdam was granted a Jewish burial site.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1656 Mar 13, Jews were denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1657 Aug 6, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (b.1595/6), founder of the Hetman state (Ukraine), died. In 1648 Ukrainian officer Bogdan Chmielnicki, with the support of the Tatar Khan of Crimea, roused the local peasants to fight with him and the Russian Orthodox Cossacks against the Jews.
(http://tinyurl.com/5pe5gf)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Poland.html)
1660 Oct 15, Asser Levy was granted a butcher's license for kosher meat in New Amsterdam.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1665 May 31, Jerusalem's rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaimed himself Messiah.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1667 Feb 20, David ben Samuel Halevi, rabbi, author (Shulchan Aruch), died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1668 Oct 23, Jews of Barbados were forbidden to engage in retail trade.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1670 Feb 14, Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chased the Jews out of Vienna.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1670 Feb 27, Jews were expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1670 Jul 25, Jews were expelled from Vienna, Austria.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1683 Sep 24, King Louis XIV expelled all Jews from French possessions in America.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1685 Dec 3, Charles II barred Jews from settling in Stockholm, Sweden.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1689 Racine wrote a drama based on the Book of Esther. The Jewish holiday of Purim is based on the Book of Esther. It tells the biblical story of how Esther, the Jewish daughter of Mordecai, is persuaded by her father to intervene on behalf of the Jews to her husband, King Ahaseurus of Persia, who has been persuaded by his lieutenant, Haman, to have all the Jews killed
(WSJ, 5/12/98, p.A20)
1691 The Spanish Inquisition killed 37 Jews from Mallorca for secretly practicing their faith. In 2011 the island’s leading government official issued an official condemnation for the killing.
(SFC, 5/6/11, p.A2)
1695 Sep 12, NY Jews petitioned governor Dongan for religious liberties.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1699 Mar 4, Jews were expelled from Lubeck, Germany.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1700-1800 The Kabbalah of Isaac Luria provided the inspiration for the revolutionary 18th century Jewish revivalist movement in Eastern Europe, Hasidism. It included the idea known as "tikkun olam" whereby the world is repaired by identifying the spark of God in every living thing.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)
1700-1800 The Gaon of Vilna excommunicated the Hasidic Jews after they cast aside the traditional Jewish prayer book, replacing it with one composed by Isaac Luria.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)
1712 Oct 4, Utrecht banished poor Jews.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1716 Jul 18, A decree ordered all Jews expelled from Brussels.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1726 May 14, Moshe Darshan, Rabbi, author (Torat Ahsam), died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1727 May 7, Jews were expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1727 Nov 15, NY General assembly permitted Jews to omit phrase "upon the faith of a Christian" from abjuration oath.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1730 Apr 8, 1st Jewish congregation in US formed the synagogue, "Sherith Israel, NYC."
(MC, 4/8/02)
1731 May 28, All Hebrew books in Papal State were confiscated.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1732 Sep 2, Pope Clement XII renewed the anti-Jewish laws of Rome.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1738 Dec 9, Jews were expelled from Breslau, Silesia.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1739 Sep 1, 35 Jews were sentenced to life in prison in Lisbon, Portugal.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1740 Feb 3, Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invited the Jews to return to Sicily.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1742 Dec 1, Empress Elisabeth ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Russia.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1744 Nov 25, Austrian forces pillaged and killed Jews of Prague.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1745 Mar 31, Jews were expelled from Prague.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1745 Schneur Zalman Boruchovitch of Liadi (d.1813), founder of the Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic Movement, was born. He labored for 20 years to complete the Tanya before it was printed in 1796. In 1814, the Rav’s Shulchan Aruch fast became regarded by all scholars of Jewish law as a major source and reference guide in the study and application of Jewish law. In 2003 Sue Fishkoff authored "The Rebbe's Army," a study of the sect.
(Internet, 7/18/03)(WSJ, 7/18/03, p.W17c)
1748 Mar 19, English Naturalization Act was passed granting Jews right to colonize US.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1750 Sep 5, A decree issued in Paderborn, Prussia, allowed for annual search of all Jewish homes for stolen or "doubtful" goods.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1750 Acre, a former stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, was re-built by the Ottoman Turks around this time, effectively preserving the earlier town, which had been destroyed in 1291 and hidden for centuries under rubble.
(AP, 6/22/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Acre_%281291%29)
1751 Sep 12, Amsterdam refused to establish a Jewish ghetto.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1753 Jul 7, English parliament granted Jews English citizenship.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1757 The Greek Orthodox clergy wrested control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Ottoman rulers declared a status quo for the holy sties of the city and control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was split primarily among the Latin, Greek and Armenian patriarchates of Jerusalem and secondarily among the churches of Egypt, Syria and Ethiopia. This arrangement was formalized in 1852.
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
1760 Oct 23, The 1st Jewish prayer books were printed in US.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1763 Dec 2, Touro Shul, the oldest existing US synagogue, was dedicated in Newport, RI.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1772 Upon the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, or simply Galicia, became the largest, most populous, and northernmost province of Austria where it remained until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. Jews accounted for 10% of the 2.6 million population of Galicia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_(Central_Europe))(Econ, 11/15/14, p.87)
1774 Jul 11(Jun 11), Jews of Algiers escaped an attack of the Spanish Army.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1774 Dec 18, Empress Maria Theresa expelled Jews from Prague, Bohemia and Moravia.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1775 Jan 11, In South Carolina Francis Salvador became the 1st Jew elected to office in America. [see Aug 1]
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1775 Jan 22, Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski expelled Jews from Warsaw, Poland.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1775 Feb 22, Jews were expelled from the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1783 Mar 5, King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski granted rights to Jews of Kovno.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1784 May 25, Jews were expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1786 Jan 4, Mozes Mendelssohn (56), Jewish-German philosopher (Haksalah), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1787 Aug 17, Jews were granted permission in Budapest, Hungary, to pray in groups.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1791 Sep 27, Jews in France were granted French citizenship.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1794 Jun 23, Empress Catherine II granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.
(MC, 6/23/02)
1794 Nov 22, Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, prohibited circumcision and the wearing of beards.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1797 Oct 9, Elijahu ben Solomon Zalman (b.1720), the Great Gaon of Vilnius, died. He was one of the most influential Rabbinic authorities since the Middle Ages.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilna_Gaon)
1798 Nov 27, Rabbi Shneur Zalman (1745-1812) of Liadi, a Hasidic leader, was released from prison in St. Petersburg. He had been arrested on charges of treason, laid by Jews who opposed the nascent movement of Hasidism. He was the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism.
(Econ, 7/28/12, SR p.6)(http://tinyurl.com/8sqmk9w)
1799 Mar 7, In Palestine, Napoleon captured the Turkish citadel at Jaffa and his men massacred more than 2,000 Albanian prisoners. [see Mar 26] The prisoners were massacred because Napoleon claimed that he could not feed them. About this time bubonic plague broke out among his troops.
(HN, 3/7/99)(ON, 12/99, p.2)
1799 Mar 26, Napoleon Bonaparte captured Jaffa, Palestine. [see Mar 7]
(HN, 3/26/99)
1799 Mar, Napoleon moved on to the Turkish fortress at Acre. His 2 month siege was unsuccessful. In 1999 N. Schur authored Napoleon in the Holy Land."
(ON, 12/99, p.2,4)
1799 Apr 14, Napoleon called for establishing Jerusalem for Jews.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1799 May 20, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a withdrawal from his siege of St. Jean d'Acre in Egypt. Plague had run through his besieging French forces, forcing a retreat. Napoleon, in pursuance of his scheme for raising a Syrian rebellion against Turkish domination, appeared before Acre, but after a siege of two months (March–May) was repulsed by the Turks.
(HN, 5/20/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre,_Israel)
1800 About this time an Arab nomadic tribe settled in the southern Israeli desert of Negev. The Al-Sayyid community that developed there grew with a high incidence of profound deafness due to a recessive gene. The village developed a sign language in response that came to be called the Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL). In 2007 Margalit Fox authored “Signs and Wonders," which told the Al-Sayyid story as part of a history of linguistics and sign language in American and the world.
(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.D7)
1801 Mar 3, 1st US Jewish Governor, David Emanuel, took office in Georgia.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1801 Apr 8, Soldiers rioted in Bucharest and killed 128 Jews.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1804 Nov 18, Palver Purim (Feast of Lots) was 1st celebrated to commemorate miraculous escape. The Jewish festival marked the deliverance of the Jews in Persia from Haman.
(WUD, 1994 p.1167)(MC, 11/18/01)
1808 Mar 31, French created the Kingdom of Westphalia and ordered Jews to adopt family names.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1808 Jul 20, Napoleon decreed that all French Jews adopt family names.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1808 Oct 17, The political rights of Jews was suspended in Duchy of Warsaw.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1809 May 5, Citizenship was denied to Jews of Canton of Aargau, Switzerland.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1810 Oct 16, Rabbi Nachman (b.1772) of Bratslav died and was buried in Uman, Ukraine. Nachman was renowned for his mystical interpretations of Jewish texts and his belief that higher spirituality could be achieved through a combination of prayer, meditation and good deeds. On his deathbed, he is said to have promised to be an advocate for anyone who would come and pray beside his tomb.
(AP, 9/9/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachman_of_Breslov)
1812 Mar 11, Citizenship was granted to Prussian Jews.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1816 Mar 6, Jews were expelled from Free city of Lubeck, Germany.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1817 Mar 25, Tsar Alexander I recommended the formation of Society of Israeli Christians.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1818 Nov 21, Russia's Czar Alexander I petitioned for a Jewish state in Palestine.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1819 Mar 29, Isaac Mayer Wise, rabbi, founder (American Hebrew Congregations), was born.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1820 Mar 5, Dutch city of Leeuwarden forbade Jews to go to synagogues on Sundays.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1825 Mordecai Noah attempted to establish a Jewish state called Grand Island near Buffalo, N.Y. No one came to the grand opening ceremony. At this time there were about 1000 Jews living in Manhattan.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.E1,8)
1826 Jul 26, Riots in Vilnius, Lithuanian, caused the death of many Jews.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1829 Nov 20, Jews were expelled from Nikolayev and Sevastopol, Russia.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1834 At the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem the ceremony of the Holy Fire led to a stampede in which many people were killed.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.82)
1835-1868 Adah Isaacs Menken, a Jewish poet and actress, was born near New Orleans and learned French, German, Spanish and Hebrew in school. She shocked American and European audiences in the 1860s for her bold acting style and became notorious for her role in the play Mazeppa, where she appeared on stage barely clothed tied to the back of a running horse. Around 1856 she published her first book of poems and married Alexander Isaacs Menken, whose name she kept through divorce and subsequent remarriages and liaisons. Called the most perfectly developed woman in the world, she moved between Europe and the United States as she performed. Adah Isaacs Menken died of tuberculosis in Paris and was buried there in the Montparnasse Cemetery.
(HNPD, 11/16/98)
1836 Sep 1, Reconstruction began on Synagogue of Rabbi Judah Hasid in Jerusalem.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1839 Jews in Mashad, Iran, were forcibly converted to Shiite Islam following a pogrom.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A10)
1840 Feb 5, In Damascus, Syria, Father Thomas, originally from Sardinia, and the superior of a Franciscan convent at Damascus, disappeared with his servant. 13 prominent Jews were falsely accused of the ritual murder of the Franciscan monk and his servant. The “Damascus Affair" inspired international protests. In 2004 Ronald Florence authored “Blood Libel: The Damascus Affair of 1840."
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_affair)
1847 George Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York Univ., authored “The Valley of Vision," in which he called on the US government to militarily wrench Palestine from the Turks and return it to the Jews.
(WSJ, 6/2/07, p.P8)
1848 Apr 6, Jews of Prussia were granted equality.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1849 The Anglican Church of Christ was built in Jerusalem by the British.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.T7)
1852 Sep 3, Anti Jewish riots broke out in Stockholm.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1853 Oct 2, Austrian law forbade Jews from owning land.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1855 Sir Moses Montefiore, an Italian-born British Jew and financier, became the first European to be allowed by the Ottomans to visit Jerusalem.
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Montefiore)
1856 A Turkish imperial edict lifted a ban on Christian bell-ringing in Jerusalem, whnich at this time was part of the Ottoman empire. The British were given the honor of erecting the city’s first outdoor bell since the crusades.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.35)
1857 Apr 27, Establishment of Jewish congregations in Lower Austria prohibited.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1858 Jul 23, Jewish Disabilities Removal Act was passed by British Parliament.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1858 Jul 26, Baron Lionel de Rothschild became the 1st Jew elected to British Parliament.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1859 Feb 18, Shalom Aleichem (Solomon Rabinowitz, d.1916), Russian-Yiddish playwright, author and humorist, was born in the Ukraine. "To want to be the cleverest of all is the biggest folly."
(AP, 1/13/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholem_Aleichem)
1860 May 2, Theodor Herzl, journalist, founder (Zionist movement), was born in Austria.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1862 Jul 1, Czar Alexander II granted Jews the right to publish books.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Dec 17, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11 designed to combat a Civil War black market in cotton. Grant believed the trade was run primarily by Jewish traders and th order expelled Jews in his military district. Pres. Lincoln rescinded the order a few weeks later. In 2012 Jonathan D. Sarna authored “When General Grant Expelled the Jews."
(SSFC, 4/22/12, p.F3)
1863 Jul 7, Orders barring Jews from serving under US Grant were revoked.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 14, Jews of Holstein, Germany, were granted equality.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1864 Dec 4, Romanian Jews were forbidden to practice law.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1871 Apr 16, German Empire ended all anti-Jewish civil restrictions.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1871 A pogrom took place against the Jews in Odessa and the governor made no effort to suppress it.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.88)
1872 C.P. Scott began editing the Guardian in England and continued for almost 60 years. Scott was a friend of Zionist Chaim Weizmann. In 2004 Daphna Baram authored “Disenchantment: The Guardian and Israel."
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.71)
1873 Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer founded the Rabbinerseminar zu Berlin as German Orthodoxy’s answer to the Judisch-Theologische Seminar in Breslau. Its outlook was that although Jewish law, the halacha, was immutable, it had to be couched in contemporary language. In 1990 Rabbi David Ellenson authored a biography of Rabbi Hildesheimer.
(Econ, 7/28/12, SR p.10,11)
1878 Feb 8, Martin Buber, German-Israeli philosopher, theologist (Ich und Du), was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1878 Jul 30, German anti-Semitism began during the Reichstag election.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1880 Abi Hasira (b.1807), a Jewish kabbalist (aka Abu Hassira, Jacoub Ben Masoud, Yaakov Abuhatzeira) and the son of the chief rabbi of Morocco, died in Damanhur, near Alexandria, Egypt, following an attempted trip to the Holy Land. He is revered by some Jews as a mystic renowned for his piety and for performing miracles. His gravesite became popular with pilgrims.
(http://tinyurl.com/7pryucu)(AP, 1/4/10)
1880 Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine were part of Syria under Ottoman rule.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.80)
1880 A tablet known as the Siloam inscription was found in a tunnel hewed to channel water from a spring outside Jerusalem's walls into the city and taken by the Holy Land's Ottoman rulers to Istanbul. It was later placed in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. The tunnel was constructed around 700 BC, a project mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Chronicles. The tablet was installed to celebrate the moment the two construction teams of King Hezekiah met underground. In 2007 Jerusalem's mayor asked the Turkish government to return the tablet.
(AP, 7/13/07)
1881 Apr 1, Anti-Jewish riots took place in Jerusalem.
(OTD)
1881 Apr 27, Pogroms against Russian Jews started in Elisabethgrad.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1881 May 5, Anti-Jewish rioting took place in Kiev, Ukraine.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1881 Oct 13, A revival of the Hebrew language began as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends agreed to use Hebrew exclusively in their conversations.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1881 A large pogrom took place against the Jews in Odessa.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.88)
1882 Apr 13, An anti-Semitic League formed in Prussia.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1882 May 15, May Laws: Czar Alexander III banned Jews from living in rural Romania.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1882 Sep 10, The 1st international conference to promote anti-Semitism met in Dresden, Germany (Congress for Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests).
(MC, 9/10/01)
1883 Jul 11, In Cincinnati the Reform Jewish Seminary held a dinner for its 1st class of rabbis. The meal gained notoriety for abrogating every rule of kashrut, except the prohibition against pork.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.W11)
1885 Isaac Mayer Wise united pockets of Jewish immigrants and assembled 15 rabbis in Pittsburgh to articulate a platform for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Hebrew Union College, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The organization of Reform Judaism discussed the Mitzvot, the 613 commandments in the Torah, and accepted only the moral laws as binding.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)
1886 Oct 16, David Ben-Gurion (d.1973), Israeli statesman, was born in Plonsk, Poland. He was the 1st PM of Israel and served from 1948-53 and in 1955.
(HN, 10/16/00)(MC, 10/16/01)
1888 Jul 17, S.Y. Agnon, Israeli writer (The Day Before Yesterday), was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1888 In Jerusalem the Mary Magdalene convent was consecrated. Its decoration was overseen by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, consort to Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the brother of Tsar Alexander III.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
1890 Mar 21, Austrian Jewish communities were defined by law.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1890 The Ecole Biblique of Jerusalem, a research center for Biblical and archeological studies, was founded.
(WSJ, 8/28/01, p.A12)
1890 In Jerusalem a small tract known as Sergei's Courtyard, named for Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a son of Czar Alexander III, was built. It became part of the larger Russian Compound, most of which Israel purchased in 1964, when Israel paid $3.5 million in oranges because it lacked hard currency. In 2008 Israel approved handing back Sergei's Courtyard to Russia. The actual transfer took place in 2011.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Compound)(AP, 10/7/08)(AP, 3/21/11)
1891 Apr 11, A Jewish tailor's daughter (8) disappeared in Greece. A rumor spread that she was a Christian girl ritually killed by Jews.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1891 Apr 23, Jews were expelled from Moscow.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1893 Many Russian pilgrims for the ceremony of the Holy Fire Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem died in a snowstorm north of Jerusalem.
(Econ, 12/16/06, p.61)
1894 Dec 22, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was fraudulently convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery captain on the General Staff, was accused of passing secret French military documents found in to the German embassy in Paris. Dreyfus was eventually vindicated. [see 1906]
(WSJ, 4/22/96, p.A-20)(AP, 12/22/97)
1896 Feb 14, Theodor Herzl published "Der Judenstaat," in which he called for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)(MC, 2/14/02)
1896 Moises Saba Amigo arrived in Mexico from Aleppo, Syria. He was part of a large migration of Jews known as "Turcos" from Syria and Palestine whose passports were issued by Ottoman Turkey. He started peddling dry goods and moved up to a chain of stores, then textiles. The family savings were put into real estate. The Saba family were billionaires by 1997.
(WSJ, 8/22/97, p.A10)
1896 In Egypt Solomon Schechter, a Romanian-born reader in rabinics at England’s Cambridge Univ., discovered a cache of hundreds of thousands of documents collected by the Jews of Fustat (Old Cairo). In 2011 Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole authored “Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza."
(SSFC, 5/29/11, p.G4)
1897 Apr 22, NYC Jewish newspaper "Forward" began publishing.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1897 The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were 1st printed. They were copied from a novel by Hermann Goedsche and believed to be concocted by the secret police of Czar Nicholas II. Goedsche claimed a secret group of rabbis were plotting to take over the world. His story was based on Maurice Joly’s "Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu."
(SFC, 10/24/02, p.A9)
1897 The first Zionist Congress was held in Basel, Switzerland.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.1)
1897 Apr, The US "Jewish Daily Forward" began publishing. It was a socialist and secular paper in Yiddish founded by Russian immigrant Abraham Cahan.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A16)
1898 May 3, Golda Mier (d.1978), 4th Prime Minister of Israel (1969-1974) and the first woman PM, was born in Kiev, Ukraine. "Whether women are better than men, I cannot say -- but I can say they are certainly no worse."
(AP, 5/11/97)(HN, 5/3/02)(MC, 5/3/02)
1898 Oct 1, Jews were expelled from Kiev, Russia.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1898 Nov 2, Theodor Herzl, founder (1897) of modern political National Zionism, arrived in Jerusalem to promote his World Zionist Organization. Zionism maintains that the Jewish people constitute a nation and are entitled to a national homeland.
(www.wzo.org.il/home/movement/herzl.htm)
1900-1986 The history of Jerusalem over this period is covered by Martin Gilbert in his book: "Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century."
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)
1901 Feb 2, Jascha Heifetz, US violin virtuoso (Carnegie Hall), was born in Vilna, Lithuania.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1901 Apr 29, Anti Semitic riot took place in Budapest.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 The Jewish National Fund was founded to buy and develop land in Palestine (later Israel) for Jewish settlement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_National_Fund)
1901 Three German Jewish businessmen founded a wholesale drug business in Jerusalem. The operation grew and in 1976 following mergers became Teva Pharmaceuticals.
(WSJ, 10/28/04, p.A8)
1902 Apr 14, Menachem A. Schneerson (d.1994), rebee (head of Lubavitcher Jews), was born.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1902 May 10, Joachim Prinz, author, Rabbi of Berlin (1926-37), was born.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1902 Jul 30, Anti-Jewish rioters attacked the funeral procession of Rabbi Joseph in NYC.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1902 Sep 17, The US protested anti-Semitism in Romania.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1903 Apr, Russia instigated a Jewish pogrom in Kishinev, Bessarabia. 49 people died and some 600 were seriously injured.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1905 May 26, There was a pogrom against Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1905 May 29, There was a pogrom against Jewish community in Brisk, Lithuania.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 The SF Jewish Congregation Sherith Israel completed a new Beaux Arts structure, designed by Albert Pissis (1852-1914) at California and Webster streets. Emile Pissis (1854-1934) designed many of its stained-glass windows. Frescoes in the dome were done by Attilion Moretti (1852-1915). The structure survived the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 3/12/05, p.E1)
1905 More anti-Jewish pogroms swept the province of Bessarabia.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1905 Another large pogrom took place against the Jews in Odessa, Ukraine. Many began to leave, mainly for the USA.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.88)
1906 Jul 23, Pogroms took place against Jews in Odessa.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1906 Boris Schatz (d.1932) founded a visionary art school in Jerusalem and became known for his trademark white robe and pet peacock. Born in Lithuania and trained in Paris he was a Jewish artist and occasional boxer who discovered Zionism and abandoned the European art scene for Jerusalem, then a Mideastern backwater.
(AP, 5/23/10)
1906 A Jewish Museum was founded in Prague.
(USAT, 9/24/04, p.3D)
1907 Aug 14, "Ha-Tikva" was adopted as official Zionist hymn.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1908 Mar 13, Jerusalem's inhabitants saw their first automobile owned by Charles Glidden of Boston.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1909 Apr 11, Tel Aviv began as a suburb of Jaffa. While Palestine was still under Ottoman rule, sixty-six Jewish families took possession of lots in Karm al-Jabali, on the northern outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa near the Mediterranean coast amidst dunes, vineyards, and orchards. There they established a “garden suburb" called Ahuzat Bayit (“Homestead"), which in 2010 was renamed Tel Aviv, or Hill of Spring.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv)(http://tinyurl.com/l8ymtod)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.78)
1909 Dec 1, The 1st Israeli kibbutz, Deganya Alef, a collective agricultural settlement, was founded in Palestine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(MC, 12/1/01)
1909 In Palestine mostly Russian socialist idealists of the Zionist movement set up an armed group, Hashomer, to protect their new farms and villages from Arab marauders.
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.9)
1910 May 4, Tel Aviv was founded.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1910 Degania Aleph, Israel’s first kibbutz, was founded by 12 pioneers, while the area was still under Ottoman control. In 2007 it joined a growing proportion of kibbutzim abandoning egalitarian socialism in favor of a self-taxing regime combined with free-market forces.
(SSFC, 3/4/07, p.A15)
1912 Feb 24, The Jewish organization Hadassah was founded in New York City.
(HN, 2/24/01)
1913 Aug 16, Menachem Begin, Israeli statesman (1977-83) and Nobel Peace Prize (1978) recipient, was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)(MC, 8/16/02)
1913 In 2007 Amy Dockser Marcus authored “Jerusalem 1913, The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," in which she asserted that choices were made in this year that led to the current stand.
(SSFC, 5/6/07, p.M1)
1914 Aug 11, Jews were expelled from Mitchenick, Poland.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1914 Dec 17, Jews were expelled from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1914 The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, an int’l. relief organization, was formed to aid Palestinian Jews during WW I.
(SFC, 3/29/00, p.E1)
1914-1928 German and Austrian Jews born in this period collided with the Third Reich. In 2001 Walter Laqueur authored "Generation Exodus," a study of what happened to many of them.
(WSJ, 8/13/01, p.A11)
1915 Feb 2, Abba Eban (d.2002), Israeli statesman, was born in South Africa. He grew up in England, attaining honors at Cambridge University, where he honed his oratory as a leader of the university debating society.
(AP, 11/17/02)
1915 Mar 2, Vladmir Jabotinsky formed a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1915 May 20, Moshe Dayan, Israeli general, minister of Defense, was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1915 Aug 17, Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager, was lynched by a mob of anti-Semites in Cob County, Georgia. He had been convicted in the killing of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old girl who worked at his pencil factory. The governor believed him innocent and commuted his death sentence in June. Frank was pardoned in 1986. In 2000 Stephen Goldfarb posted the names of some 2 dozen men believed to have participated in the murder.
(WSJ, 6/9/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/02)
1916 May 9, The Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret understanding between the governments of Britain and France, defined their respective spheres of post-World War I influence and control in the Middle East. It was signed on 16 May 1916. Italian claims were added in 1917. Britain and France carved up the Levant into an assortment of monarchies, mandates and emirates. The agreement enshrined Anglo-French imperialist ambitions at the end of WW II. Syria and Lebanon were put into the French orbit, while Britain claimed Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states and the Palestinian Mandate. Sir Mark Sykes (d.1919 at age 39) and Francois Picot made the deal. As of 2016 the boundaries of the agreement remained in much of the common border between Syria and Iraq.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement)(WSJ, 2/27/00, p.A17)(Econ, 5/14/16, SR p.5)
1916 May 13, Sholem Aleichem (b.1859), Yiddish writer (Fiddler on the Roof), died in NY. He was born as Solomon Rabinowitz (1859) in Russia. His work included “Tevye the Dairyman," a series of stories published from 1894-1914.
(www.britannica.com)(WSJ, 9/22/07, p.W6)
1917 Feb 16, The 1st Madrid synagogue in 425 years opened.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1917 Mar 28, Jews were expelled from Tel Aviv and Jaffa by Turkish authorities.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1917 May 20, Turkish government authorized Jews to return to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1917 Oct 31, Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) defeated Ottoman troops to gain control of a strategic crossroads at Beersheba that helped clear the way to Jerusalem during World War I.
(http://tinyurl.com/yaqsor8k)(AFP, 10/31/17) fo
1917 Nov 2, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, in what became known as the Balfour Declaration, expressed support for a "national home" for the Jews of Palestine. It encouraged Jewish immigration to Israel in the decade after WW I.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 11/2/97)
1917 Nov 7, British General Sir Edmond Allenby broke the Turkish defensive line in the Third Battle of Gaza.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1917 Nov 16, British occupied Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1917 Dec 9, British forces under General Allenby captured Jerusalem. He liberated the city from Turkish control.
(WSJ, 4/4/96, A-12)(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(MC, 12/9/01)
1918 Mar 22, Ukrainian mobs massacred the Jews of Seredino Buda.
(www.ukraine-observer.com/articles/205/612)
1918 Sep 17, Chaim Herzog (d.1997), president (Israel, 1983-93), was born in Belfast.
(www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Government/Memorial/Presidents/Hertsog.htm)
1918 Sep 22, General Allenby led the British army against the Turks, taking Haifa and Nazareth, Palestine.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1918 Nov 21, Polish soldiers organized a pogrom against Jews of Galicia, Poland.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1918 Nov 22, Polish forces attacked the Jewish community of Lemberg (Lvov).
(MC, 11/22/01)
1919 Apr 5, Polish Army executed 35 young Jews.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1919 Aug 10, Ukrainian National Army massacred 25 Jews in Podolia, Ukraine.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1919 Aug 28, The American King-Crane Commission presented its report and recommendations to the allies on the status of Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. The report recommended that Jewish immigration should be definitely limited, and that the project for making Palestine distinctly a Jewish commonwealth should be given up. It also recommended the creation of a single Arab state - "Greater Syria"- that included Lebanon and Palestine and would have been administered under American mandatory power.
(http://tinyurl.com/z4rnwf4)
1919 This year marked the birth of Palestinian - Arab nationalism. The events are documented in the 1996 book "Jerusalem in the 20th Century" by Martin Gilbert.
(WSJ, 10/14/96, p.A14)
1919 In central Uganda Semei Kakungule, chief of the Abayudaya, converted to Judaism after the British broke a promise to give him a kingdom. By 1961 membership reached 3,000. In 1972 Idi Amin banned Judaism. Membership in 2004 was about 600.
(Econ, 1/24/04, p.43)
1920 Apr 4, Arabs attacked Jews in Jerusalem.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1920 Apr 20, Balfour Declaration was recognized following a conference in San Remo, Italy. It was agreed that a mandate to Britain should be formally given by the League of Nations over an area, which in 2010 comprised Israel, Jordan and the Golan Heights, to be called the "Mandate of Palestine". The Balfour Declaration was to apply to the whole of the mandated territory. The doctrine was named after British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, who had first articulated it as a policy on 2 November 1917.
(www.ijs.org.au/The-Balfour-Declaration/default.aspx)
1920 Apr 24, British Mandate over Palestine went into effect and lasted for 28 years. The British organized a police force with some 3,000 British, Arab and Jewish officers.
(MC, 4/24/02)(WSJ, 2/2/04, p.A12)
1920 Aug 10, Turkish government renounced its claim to Israel and recognized the British mandate.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1920 S. Ansky (b.1863), Russian-Jewish journalist and playwright, died. In 2003 Joachim Neugroschel edited and translated "The Enemy at His Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I."
(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.M4)
1921 Apr 2, Einstein (1879-1955) made his first visit to the US on a fundraising tour with Zionist leader Chaim Weizman. Prof. Albert Einstein lectured in NYC on his new theory of relativity. In 2007 Jurgen Neffe authored “Einstein: A Biography;" and Jozsef Illy edited “Albert Meets America."
(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein)
1921 May 11, Tel Aviv became the 1st all Jewish municipality.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1921 Jun 19, Turks and Christians of Palestine signed a friendship treaty against Jews.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1921 H. Leivick wrote his Yiddish play "The Golem." It was translated to English in 1966.
(WSJ, 4/17/02, p.D7)
1921 The British contrived the election of Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974) as the Mufti of Jerusalem. In 2008 David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman authored “Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam."
(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A13)
1921 At the Cairo Conference Britain and France carved up Arabia and created Jordan under Emir Abdullah; his brother Faisal became King of Iraq. France was given influence over Syria and Jewish immigration was allowed into Palestine.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.D3)
1921 There was an Arab uprising in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)
1922 Mar 1, Yitzhak Rabin, premier (Israel, 1992-95, Nobel 1994), was born.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1922 Sep 11, The British mandate of Palestine began.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1922 Sep 21, Pres Warren G. Harding signed a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1922 The West Bank became an unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate. The eastern area became known as Transjordan.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1922 Hungary’s Regent Miklos Horthy passed the first of four anti-Jewish laws, limiting the number of Jewish students at universities.
(Econ, 11/9/13, p.59)
1922-1948 Palestine and the West Bank comprised about 1/5th of the area under British rule at his time.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey, was concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and divided the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a massive exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. A Muslim community of at least 100,000 was allowed in northern Greece. In 2006 Bruce Clark authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey."
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.92)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.72)
1923 Aug 15, Simon Peres, [Persky], premier of Israel, was born in Belarus.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1923 Vladimir Jabotinsky, founder of the Zionist movement, wrote that Zionists could never reach a voluntary agreement with Arabs on sharing land. He said Arabs would yield to Jews “when there is no longer any hope of getting rid of us, because they can make no breach in the iron wall."
(Econ 5/20/17, SR p.11)
1923 An int'l. border agreement with Syria was reached.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.A12)
1925 May 9, Cornerstone for Hebrew University in Jerusalem was laid. It was founded in Jerusalem in part by Aharon and Yocheved Shulov.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)(MC, 5/9/02)
1925-1939 Joseph Roth, a German Jew, was assigned to Paris by a Frankfurt newspaper. After one year the job was given to a Nationalist. He stayed in Paris and wrote for emigre publications and railed against Germany and racism in his essays and novels. In 2004 his selected essays appeared in English as "Report From a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925-1939."
(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M4)
1926 The Tnuva Central Cooperative for the Marketing of Agricultural Produce in Israel was founded as a dairy cooperative. By 2006 it was Israel’s largest food concern.
(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.A11)
1928 Stalin began his plan for the resettlement of Jews to Birobidzhan, an area of land the size of Belgium on the Russian-Chinese border. It was officially declared the Jewish Autonomous Region and by 1930 some 230,000 people lived in colonies there. Yiddish language and culture was fostered but worship was forbidden.
(SFEM, 5/24/98, p.4)
1928 Ariel Sharon (d.2014), Israeli defense minister 1981-1984, was born as Ariel Scheinermann in Kfar Mallal, a part of British-ruled Palestine.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(Econ, 1/18/14, p.90)
1929 Aug 24, In the Hebron massacre 65–68 Jews are killed by Arabs and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron.
(www.zionism-israel.com/Hebron_Massacre1929.htm)
1929 Sir Ronald Stores was governor of Jerusalem and insisted that all of the buildings of the city be built or faced with white Jerusalem stone.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)
1929 There were 67 Jews massacred in Hebron and the survivors were forced to flee. Arab riots in Hebron killed dozens of Jews with guns and axes and destroyed the ancient Jewish quarter.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A14)(SFC, 1/25/02, p.AA11)
1930 Oct 20, A British White Paper restricted Jews from buying Arab land.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1930s Imi Litchtenfeld, a Jewish Slav, invented Krav Maga (contact combat), which combined wrestling, boxing and other martial arts to defeat gangs attacking Jewish neighborhoods before WW II. He later fled to Israel and joined the Defense Forces where he developed his techniques for the military.
(SFEC, 10/1/00, p.F6)
1930s Forces of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, killed hundreds of Jews and attempted to get rid of Arabs who tolerated Jewish presence.
(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A14)
1933 Jan 21, Itzhak Fuks, Israeli El Al captain, was born. He was captain of the Jumbo Jet that crashed in Amsterdam on Oct 4, 1992.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1933 Apr 7, The 1st two Nazi anti-Jewish laws barred Jews from legal and public service.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1933 Apr 26, Jewish students were barred from school in Germany.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1933 Jul 21, Haifa Harbor in Palestine opened.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1933 Fritz Hirschberger (1912-2004), later Holocaust artist, founded the Dresden chapter of the Zionist underground organization "Betar."
(SFC, 2/6/04, p.A25)
1934 Feb 10, A Jewish immigrant ship 1st broke the English blockade in Palestine.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1935 Mar 13, Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem confirming biblical history.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1935 Aug 11, There was a Nazi mass demonstration against German Jews.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1935 Sep 15, In Berlin, the Reich under Adolf Hitler adopted The Nuremberg Laws which deprived German Jews of their citizenship, made the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany and established gradations of "Jewishness." "Full Jews," people with four "non-Aryan" grandparents, were deprived of German citizenship and forbidden to marry members of the "Aryan race." German Jews, had been barred since 1938 from government, medical, and legal professions, and shut out from every area of German public life. After the war Gen'l. Patton gave the documents to a friend and they were stored in the Huntington Museum in Cal.
(AP, 9/15/97)(HN, 9/15/99)(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A3)
1935 Nov 14, Nazis stripped German Jews of their citizenship. [see Sep 15]
(MC, 11/14/01)
1936 Mar 9, The German press warned that all Jews who voted in the upcoming elections would be arrested.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1936 Apr 15, A number of cars on the road between Tulkarm and Nablus were held up by Arab highwaymen. After the armed robbers had removed valuables from the occupants of the cars, three Jews were forced to sit together in a truck where they were shot by the bandits in cold blood. One was killed outright and another died later from his injuries.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Apr 19, Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Jaffa, Palestine.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_riots_1936-39.php)(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Apr 20, Serious rioting took place on the borders between Jaffa and Tel-Aviv, in particular in the Catton, Manshieh and Saknat Abu Kebir quarters.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Dec 26, The Palestine Orchestra was formed. It grew to become the Israeli Philharmonic.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.E1)(MC, 12/26/01)
1936 Oct 10, The Arab Higher Committee issued a manifesto to end riots in Palestine. The committee had been formed in opposition to growing Jewish immigration into Palestine.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)(HNQ, 2/2/99)
1936 Nov 11, A British Royal Commission arrived in Palestine to investigate the underlying cause of the anti-Jewish riots. The Arab Higher Committee called a boycott of the commission’s inquiry.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 The Arab Revolt of 1936 was a culmination of actions by Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974), the Mufti of Jerusalem, who recruited and commanded a national movement of violence aimed at forbidding all compromise with Jews.
(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A13)
1936 British forces destroyed the kasbah of Jaffa in Operation Anchor, a security measure to improve their strategic control of the settlement. Some 100 residents of Tel Aviv were killed and over 1,000 injured from gunfire emanating from Jaffa.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.18)
1937 Jan, Arab riots spread across Palestine and British forces sought to restrict Jewish immigration. In the Beit Shean Valley 30 young people set up a defensible tower and stockade that became the Kibbutz Sde Nahum.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A26)
1937 Aug 1, The Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, became operational. The hill on which it stood was called "Ettersberg," a place where Goethe often wrote and sketched, and that was the initial name for the camp, which the people of Weimar protested. The name was then changed to Buchenwald, Beech Forest. By April 11, 1945, an estimated 56,000 people were killed here, including approximately 11,000 Jews.
(HN, 8/1/98)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A10)(AP, 6/5/09)
1938 Apr 5, Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Dabrowa, Poland.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1938 Apr 26, Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1938 May 28, The foundation for Tel Aviv harbor was laid.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1938 July 6, Delegates from thirty-two countries met for 9 days at the French resort of Evian to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austrian. The German government was able to state with great pleasure how "astounding" it was that foreign countries criticized Germany for their treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to them when "the opportunity offer[ed]." The French foreign ministry, the Quai d’Orsay, sabotaged the Evian conference on European refugees, the only diplomatic effort to alleviate the fate of “stateless" German and Austrian Jews.
(http://christianactionforisrael.org/antiholo/evian/evian.html)(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)
1938 Jul 14, Italian Premier Mussolini published an anti-Jewish and African manifesto prepared by Italian "scientists."
(http://specialcollections.library.wisc.edu/exhibits/Fascism/Race.html)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.55)
1938 Sep 27, Jewish lawyers were forbidden to practice in Germany.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1938 Aug 28, Mauthausen concentration camp began operating in Austria.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1938 Sep 1, Mussolini cancelled the civil rights of Italian Jews.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1938 Oct 14, Nazis planned Jewish ghettos for all major cities.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1938 Nov 9, Kristallnacht took place in Germany. Nazi leaders heard that a Jew had shot Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat in Paris, and ordered reprisals. Nazis killed 35 Jews, arrested thousands and destroyed Jewish synagogues, homes and stores throughout Germany and Austria in what became known as Kristallnacht. 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps. The event is depicted by Peter Gay in his 1998 book "My German Question."
(AP, 11/9/97)(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A12)(SSFC, 11/10/13, DB p.46)
1938 Nov 10, Fascist Italy enacted anti-Semitic legislation.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1938 Nov 11, German and Austrian Jews suffered 1 billion Mark damage in the Nov 9 Nazi Kristallnacht; Jews forced to wear Star of David.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1938 Nov 12, Hermann Goering announced he favored Madagascar as a Jewish homeland.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1938 Nov 17, Italy passed its own version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1938 Nov 30, Germany banned Jews from being lawyers.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1938 Neturei Karta (Aramaic for "Guardians of the City") was founded in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel, believing only the Messiah could do that. The members of Neturei Karta descended from Hungarian Jews who settled in Jerusalem's Old City in the early nineteenth century, and from Lithuanian Jews who were students of the Gaon of Vilna, who had settled earlier.
(http://www.nkusa.org/AboutUs/index.cfm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neturei_Karta)
1938 Dr. Feng Shan Ho (d.1997), Chinese consul general in Vienna, rescued thousands of Jews by giving them exit visas after the Nazis annexed the country.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A15)
1938-1940 Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, and Jan Zvartendijk, a Dutch diplomat, worked together to save 6-8 thousand Polish Jews, who had fled to Lithuania by issuing them visas for Japan, China and the Dutch colonies in South America. In 1997 Ken Mochizuki published "Passage To Freedom: The Sugihara Story."
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFEC, 4/27/97, BR p.10)
1939 Jan 4, Hermann Goering appointed Reinhard Heydrich as head of Jewish Emigration.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1939 Jan 17, The Reich issued an order forbidding Jews to practice as dentists, veterinarians and chemists.
(HN, 1/17/99)
1939 Jan 20, Hitler proclaimed to German parliament his intention to exterminate all European Jews.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1939 May 4, Amos Oz, Israeli novelist (The Black Box, The Third State), was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1939 May 13, The SS St Louis departed Hamburg with some 937 passengers including over 900 Jewish refugees. They sought refuge in Cuba, but only 22 were allowed to disembark there. No country in the Americas would take them. It returned to Germany where a number of the Jews were later murdered. [see May 27, June 4 and June 16]
(http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.+Con.+Res.+185:)(WSJ, 11/3/98, p.A20)
1939 May 27, The ship St. Louis sailed into Havana Bay with 937 Jewish passengers fleeing the Nazis. The ship was turned away and headed for the Florida coast. The 1976 film "Voyage of the Damned" was based on this. [see June 4]
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.D1)
1939 Jun 4, During what became known as the "Voyage of the Damned," the SS St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast. Also denied permission to dock in Canada and Cuba, the ship eventually returned to Europe. The passengers were divided among England, France, Belgium and Holland and a number of the refugees later died in Nazi concentration camps. By 2003 efforts to track their fates identified 935 out of the 937 passengers. Some 260 ended in Nazi killing centers.
(AP, 6/4/99)(SFC, 10/4/99, p.D3)(SSFC, 12/7/03, Par p.5)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.44)
1939 Jun 16-1939 Jun 20, Jewish refugees, whose quest for freedom in the Americas was denied, began to disembark the SS St. Louis back in Europe. Holland took 181, France received 224, 228 went to Great Britain, and 214 went to Belgium. [see May 13 and June 4]
(www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1999/ushmm-and-st-louis2.htm)
1939 Jul 6, Nazis closed the last Jewish enterprises.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1939 Aug 29, Chaim Weizmann informed England that Palestine Jews would fight in WW II.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1939 Sep 5, In Czestochowa, Poland, approximately 150 Jews were shot dead by the Germans. The day was remembered as “Bloody Monday."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cz%C4%99stochowa)
1939 Sep 19, Wehrmacht (German regular army) murdered 100 Jews in Lukov, Poland.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1939 Sep 21, Reinhard Heydrich met in Berlin to discuss final solution of Jews.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1939 Oct 24, Nazis required Jews to wear star of David.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1939 Oct 26, Polish Jews were forced into obligatory work service.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1939 Nov 12, Jews in Lodz Poland were ordered to wear yellow star of David.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1939 Nov 15, Nazis began their mass murder of Warsaw Jews.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1939 Nov 23, Hans Frank, the Nazi Gov. of Poland, required Jews to wear a blue star.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1939 Nov 28, Nazi Gov-Gen of Poland, Hans Frank organized Judenrat.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1939 Dec 1, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the deportation of Polish Jews.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1939 Dec 11, New anti Jewish measurements in Poland were proclaimed.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1939 Joseph Burg (d.1999 at 90) came to Palestine and was soon elected to the executive committee of the Jewish Agency, which served as a pre-state shadow government. He later helped found the National Religious Party.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A23)
1939 Nicholas Winton (b.1909), English stockbroker, saved 669 Jewish children by organizing train transport from Prague to London at the outbreak of World War II. In 2007 the Czech Rep. awarded Sir Nicholas Winton (98) the Cross of Merit of the 1st class for saving the children. In 2001 the biography, “Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation," by Muriel Emmanuel and Vera Gissing was published. The documentary film “Nicholas J Winton - the Power of Good," was shown in September 2001 in Prague, where Sir Nicholas met 250 of those he saved.
(AP, 10/9/07)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Winton.html)
1939-1945 Of the 330,000 Jews in France at the start of the war, about 76,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps and only 2,500 survived. Prof. Irving Halperin (d.2000) later authored ""Messengers from the Dead," a book on Holocaust literature.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A8)(SFC, 9/6/00, p.D2)
1940 Jan 25, Nazis established a Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1940 Jan 26, Nazis forbade Polish Jews to travel on trains.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1940 Feb 21, The Germans began construction of a concentration camp at Auschwitz. Hans Munch was an SS doctor at the camp and later reported his experiences there in detail for the 1998 TV documentary "People’s Century." [see Mar 27]
(HN, 2/21/98)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)
1940 Mar 27, Himmler ordered the building of Auschwitz concentration camp. [see Feb 21]
(MC, 3/27/02)
1940 Apr, The Germans sealed the Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland, with barbed wire. Lodz at this time had some 231,000 Jews, about one-third of the city’s population. Some 45,000 Jews from other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe were forced into the ghetto as well as some 5,000 Gypsies. Many died under forced labor and horrific conditions. Those remaining were killed in August, 1944.
(SSFC, 8/30/09, p.A17)
1940 May 1, 140 Palestinian Jews died as German planes bombed their ship.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1940 Jun, Hitler confided to Mussolini his plan to ship Jews to Madagascar.
(WSJ, 3/23/04, p.D8)
1940 Jul 1, Australia refused entry to Dutch Jewish refugees.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1940 Jul, Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, and Jan Zvartendijk, a Dutch diplomat, worked together to save 6-8 thousand Polish Jews, who had fled to Lithuania by issuing them visas for Japan, China and the Dutch colonies in South America. The Sugihara family was later captured by the Russians and placed in a concentration camp for 1 1/2 years.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1940 Aug 4, Zeev Jabotinsky (b.1880), a revisionist Zionist leader, died in NY. He co-founded the Jewish Legion of the British army in World War I and later established several Jewish organizations, including Beitar, Hatzohar and the Irgun. He had argued that no concession could appease Arabs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze%27ev_Jabotinsky)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.27)
1940 Aug 30, Senpo Chinne Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, received orders from Japan to stop issuing visas immediately. He disobeyed the order and continued issuing visas until the end of the month when the consulate closed. In all Sugihara issued visas to some 3,500 Jewish refugees.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1940 Sep 17, Nazis deprived Jews of possessions.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1940 Sep 19, A Nazi decree forbade gentile woman to work in Jewish homes.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1940 Oct 3, In France the Vichy government passed a law that placed great restrictions on French Jews.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A9)(MC, 10/3/01)
1940 Nov 25, The ship Patria, carrying illegal immigrants, sank in port of Haifa, 200 died.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1940 Dec 9, Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa were deported to Mauritius.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1940 In Greece the occupying Germans started transporting the 50,000 Jews of Thessaloniki to Auschwitz. Up to 1943 there were 36 synagogues in the city. In 1997 there was one. The Jewish population at Salonika was wiped out.
(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.3)
1940 Isaac Babel, Russian-Jewish author, was killed by a Soviet firing squad. In 2001 Nathalie Babel edited the "Complete Works of Isaac Babel," translated by Peter Constantine.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.M3)
1941 Jan 9, Some 6,000 Jews were exterminated in a pogrom in Bucharest, Romania. [see Jan 22]
(MC, 1/9/02)
1941 Jan 22, The 1st mass killing of Jews took place in Romania. [see Jan 9]
(MC, 1/22/02)
1941 Feb 9, Nazi collaborators destroyed the pro-Jewish cafe Alcazar Amsterdam. Alcazar had refused to hang "No Entry for Jews" signs in front.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1941 Feb 20, The 1st transport of Jews to concentration camps left Plotsk, Poland.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1941 Feb 20, Nazis ordered Polish Jews barred from using public transportation.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1941 Feb 26, Utrecht and Zaandam struck against raid on Jews.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Feb 27, Jewish musicians came together in Berlin and performed Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony. In 2001 Martin Goldsmith authored "The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany."
(SSFC, 4/8/01, BR p.5)
1941 Apr 1, Nazi's forbade Jews access to cafes in Paris.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1941 Apr 9, In Czestochowa, Poland, a ghetto for Jews was created. By the end of WW II some 45,000 of Czestochowa's Jews were murdered by the Germans, almost the entire Jewish community living there.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cz%C4%99stochowa)
1941 Apr 11, The Jewish Weekly newspaper was taken control by Nazis.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1941 Apr 14, The 1st massive German raid in Paris rounded up 3,600 Jews. [see May 14]
(MC, 4/14/02)
1941 May 14, Some 3,600 Parisian Jews were arrested. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 5/14/02)
1941 May 30, Serbia enacted anti-Semitic measures.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1941 Jun 3, German occupiers stamped "J" on Jewish passports.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1941 Jun 4, Republic of Croatia ordered all Jews to wear a star with the letter Z.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1941 Jun 13, Thousands of Jewish community leaders in Bessarabia (Moldova) were deported to Siberia as part of the general purge. The Soviet Union, which had occupied the former Romanian province a year earlier, loaded 22,600 Moldovans on cargo trains bound for Siberia, where the deportees were used for forced labor.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)(AP, 6/13/06)
1941 Jun 19, Romania ordered Jews to evacuate Darabani.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1941 Jun 24, The entire Jewish male population of Gorzhdy, Lithuania, was exterminated.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1941 Jun 25, Germans invaded Dubno, Poland, and encouraged the Ukrainians to do whatever they want to 12,000 Jews living there.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1941 Jun 26, Lithuanian fascists massacred 2,300 Jews in Kovno.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1941 Jun 28, German and Romanian soldiers killed 11,000 Jews in Kishinev.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1941 Jun, In the northeastern city of Iasi, Romania, up to 12,000 people are believed to have died as Romanian and German soldiers swept from house to house to killing Jews. Those who did not die were systematically beaten, put in cattle wagons in stifling heat and taken to a small town, where what happened to them would be concealed. Of the 120 people on the train, just 24 survived. In 2010 a mass grave was found containing the bodies of an estimated 100 Jews killed by Romanian troops in a forest near the town of Popricani, about 350 km northeast of Bucharest. It contained the bodies of men, women and children who were shot in 1941.
(AP, 6/14/03)(AP, 11/5/10)
1941 Jul 7, Nazis executed 5,000 Jews in Kovno, Lithuania.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1941 Jul 8, All Jews living in Baltic States were obligated to wear Star of David.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1941 Jul 10, In Jedwabne, Poland, some 300-400 Jews were herded into a barn by the local villagers and burned to death. In 1949 a communist-era court convicted 12 Poles in the massacre, saying they assisted German forces in the killings. In 2001 Jan Tomasz authored "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne." According to Gross, some 1,600 Jews were killed in Jedwabne.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A12)(AP, 7/10/11)
1941 Jul 11(Jun 11), The 2nd great roundup of Jews of Amsterdam took place.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1941 Jul 11(Jun 11), Vichy-French planes bombed Tel Aviv and killed 20 Jews.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1941 Jul 14, 6,000 Lithuanian Jews were exterminated at Viszalsyan Camp.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1941 Jul 18, SS troops drowned 40 Jews in Dvina River in Belorussia.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1941 Jul 21, Himmler ordered the building of the Majdanek concentration camp. The camp was built in eastern Poland as a principal site to exterminate Jews. It contained 7 gas chambers.
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A14)(MC, 7/21/02)
1941 Jul 21, 200 Jewish Torahs were burned in Ukraine.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1941 Jul 24, Nazis massacred the entire Jewish population of Grodz, Lithuania.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1941 Jul, Artist Marc Chagall and his wife Bella Rosenfeld departed France for America. On the same day that he left Vichy police deported some 1,200 other Jewish refugees to forced labor in north Africa.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.102)
1941 Aug 2, Jews were expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1941 Aug 7, In Romania 551 Jews were shot in the Kishinev ghetto.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1941 Aug 15, Lithuanian Jews in Kaunas were herded into the Slobodka ghetto.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1941 Aug 20, Police raided the 11th district of Paris and took over 4,000 Jewish males.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1941 Aug 29, The German Einsatzkommando in Russia killed 1,469 Jewish children.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1941 Sep 1, Jews living in Germany were required to wear a yellow Star of David. [see Oct 24, 1939]
(MC, 9/1/02)
1941 Sep 6, Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas were ordered to wear yellow Stars of David.
(AP, 9/6/97)(HN, 9/6/98)
1941 Sep 6, Jews of Vilna, Poland (Lithuania), were confined to their ghetto.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1941 Sep 8, The entire Jewish community of Meretsch, Lithuania was exterminated.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1941 Sep 15, Nazis killed 800 Jewish women at Shkudvil, Lithuania.
(http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/shkudvil/shkudvil.html)
1941 Sep 19, The Nazi's forced all German Jews from the age of 6 to wear the Star of David.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1941 Sep 29, In Ukraine some 33,711 Jews of Kiev were killed over 2 days before Yom Kippur in the ravine at Babi Yar by the Nazis. Henrich Himmler had sent four strike squads to exterminate Soviet Jewish civilians and other "undesirables." Over the next 2 years some 100-200 thousand more people, mostly Jews, were killed at the site.
(SFC, 10/29/96, p.A6)(HN, 9/29/00)(SFC, 6/25/01, p.A8)(SFC, 6/26/01, p.A8)(AP, 11/16/07)
1941 Sep 30, In Ukraine 33,771 Jews were killed in a two-day Nazi operation at Babi Yar ravine near Kiev [see Sep 29]. Einsatzgruppe C was responsible for the shooting of nearly 34,000 at Babi Yar.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar)(AP, 9/28/17)
1941 Oct 2, 6 Paris synagogues were bombed by Gestapo. [see Oct 3]
(MC, 10/2/01)
1941 Oct 3, Nazi's blew up 6 synagogues in Paris. [see Oct 2]
(MC, 10/3/01)
1941 Oct 3, All elderly Jewish men of Kerenchug Ukraine, were killed by SS.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1941 Oct 12, Thousands of Jews were killed in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, by men of the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei; SiPo), assisted by members of the German Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) and the railroad police.
{Jews, Ukraine, Holocaust, Germany}
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivano-Frankivsk)
1941 Oct 13, Nazis killed 11,000 Jewish children and old people.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1941 Oct 14, The 1st mass deportations took place at Kovno, Lodz, Minsk & Riga.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1941 Oct 15, The 1st mass deportation of German Jews to Eastern Europe.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1941 Oct 22-23, Some 39,000 Jews were killed by Romanian troops over 2 days in Odessa. Many of them were burned to death in a public square or in warehouses that were locked shut. Altogether some 90,000 Jews were killed in Odessa.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A11)
1941 Oct 25, 16,000 Jews were massacred in Odessa, Ukraine. [see Oct 22-23]
(MC, 10/25/01)
1941 Oct 27, Nazis directed the evacuation of the gypsy ghetto in Belgrade.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1941 Nov 6, Einsatz death groups killed some 18 thousand Jews of Rovno, Ukraine. “Einsatzgruppen" were special soldiers who followed the fighting forces and “cleaned up" the area.
(www.members.tripod.com/~ebionite/zikkar.htm#nov)
1941 Nov 24, "Life Certificates" were issued to some Jews of Vilna. The rest were exterminated.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1941 Nov 25, German Jews in Netherlands were declared stateless.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1941 Nov, Some 4,000 who remained in Gomel, Belarus, were shot by the Nazis. Most of the 40,000 who had lived there had managed to escape before the Nazis arrived.
(AP, 4/12/08)
1941 Dec 4, Nazi ordinances placed the Jews of Poland outside protection of courts.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1941 Dec 12, German occupying army searched house to house in Paris looking for Jews.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1941 Dec, David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), Israeli leader, traveled to Washington to speak with Pres. F.D. Roosevelt regarding a Jewish state. He waited for 10 weeks at the Ambassador Hotel but was refused a meeting.
(http://tinyurl.com/kkvdh)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.28)
1941 Dec, In Romania authorities ordered the dissolution of all Jewish organizations. Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran (1910-2006) helped set up the Jewish Council, an underground organization comprising all sectors of the Jewish population. The council used its links with Romanian church officials, the Vatican and the royal family in a bid to prevent the mass deportation of Romania's Jews to the Nazi extermination camps.
(AP, 7/28/06)
1941 According to later day Holocaust researchers a force in Ukraine under the command of Roman Shukhevych took part in pogroms in which 4,000 Jews were killed. In 2007 Shukhevych was posthumously named a Hero of Ukraine.
(AP, 11/16/07)
1941 Nazi documents from this year showed that the Einsatzgruppe, a Nazi-run Serbian police unit, executed 11,164 people, mostly Serbian Jewish men, suspected communists and Gypsies. The unit was allegedly run by Peter Egner, who emigrated to the US in 1960, and received citizenship in 1966. In 2009 Serbian authorities sought his extradition. In 2010 Serbia issued an international warrant for the arrest of Egner (88), who has denied the accusations.
(AP, 4/14/09)(AP, 4/2/10)
1941-1942 Nearly 80,000 Jews, or 90% of Latvia's prewar Jewish population, were killed during this period.
(AP, 3/16/11)
1941-1942 At the beginning of the war there were about 60,000 Jews in Vilnius, Lithuania. A year later, only 18,000 remained. In 1998 Schoschana Rabinovici published her non-fiction account: "Thanks To My Mother" a description of the murder of Polish Jews in Vilnius through the eyes of a child.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.8)
1941-1943 Three Jewish brothers established a refuge in the forests of Belarus. In 2003 Peter Duffy authored "The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Saved 1,200 Jews and Built a Village in the Forest."
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.M4)
1941-1944 Necdet Kent (d.2002), Turkish diplomat, was posted to Marseilles, France, and gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.
(AP, 9/20/02)
1941-1944 Avraham Tory (d.2002), a Jewish lawyer in Kovno (Kaunas), kept a diary on the horrors of Nazi rule during this period. They were published in Hebrew in 1988 and in English in 1990 as: "Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary."
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A20)
1941-1945 Some 148,000 Bessarabian Jews were killed in Rybnitsa and other ghettos and concentration camps on the East bank of the Dniester during the Nazi occupation.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1942 Jan 20, Top Nazis met at Grossen-Wannsee, outside Berlin, and there formulated the infamous "Final Solution" to the Jewish question. Chaired by SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the one-day conference was designed to address the Nazi efforts at removing the Jews. The 15 top-ranking men of the German Reich agreed upon a blueprint for the extermination of Europe’s Jews. Their "final solution" called for exterminating Europe's Jews. Until this time, the plan had been to deport all Jews to the island of Madagascar off Africa, but by 1942 this plan was rejected in favor of transporting Jews to the east where the able-bodied would become slave laborers for the Reich. SS chief Heinrich Himmler would be in charge. Those unfit to work would be, the conference minutes noted, "appropriately dealt with." This phrase was left unexplained, but there was no doubt of its sinister meaning. After approving genocide as Nazi policy, the conference attendees adjourned for lunch. The minutes were taken by Adolf Eichmann. In 2004 Christopher R. Browning authored "The Origins of the Final Solution."
(AP, 1/20/98)(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(HNPD, 1/20/99)(MC, 1/20/02)(WSJ, 3/23/04, p.D8)
1942 Jan 23, At Novi Sad, Serbia, some 1200 people (predominantly Jewish), rounded up over a period of three days, were shot along the shores of the Danube. Their bodies were dumped into the frozen waters. Sandor Kepiro (1914-2011), a Hungarian gendarmerie officer, participated in the mass murder. In 1944 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the atrocities, but conviction was later annulled. Kepiro, who was at the top of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's most-wanted war criminals list, returned to Hungary in 1996 after living for decades in Argentina. In 2011 Kepiro (96) was charged with war crimes in the slaughter, but was cleared by a court on July 18, 2011.
(http://tinyurl.com/o5n5j3)(AP, 9/15/09)(AP, 2/14/11)(AP, 7/18/11)(AP, 9/3/11)
1942 Feb 12, In Palestine British police killed Avraham Stern (34), founder of the breakaway militant Zionist group named Lehi. British forces had begun shooting members of “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel" (Lehi) after the group had ambushed British soldiers and solicited fascist and Nazi support for their campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Stern)(Econ, 5/3/14, p.75)
1942 Feb 24, The SS Struma was sunk in the Black Sea by a Soviet torpedo. The ship with over 750 Jewish passengers fleeing Romania, had docked in Istanbul, but was denied entry to Palestinian territory by colonial power Britain. On Feb 23 Turkey towed the vessel to the Black Sea and set it adrift. Only one person survived.
(AP, 2/24/12)
1942 Feb 27, The 1st transport of French Jews left to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1942 Mar 1, Suriname camp for NSB people opened to save Jews.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1942 Mar 11, 1st deportation train left Paris for the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1942 Mar 17, The Nazis began deporting Jews to the Belsen camp.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1942 Mar 23, Some 2,500 Jews of Lublin were massacred or deported.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1942 Mar 25-26, The 1st 700 Jews from Polish Lvov-district reached concentration camp Belzec. The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.
(HN, 3/25/98)(MC, 3/25/02)(SS, 3/26/02)
1942 Mar 26, The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1942 Mar, British and US intelligence received information on Nazi plans for the Holocaust: "It has been decided to eradicate all the Jews." This was part of a dispatch from a Chilean consul in Prague, Gonzalo Montt Rivas, to Santiago of a German decree that Jews abroad could no longer be German subjects.
(SFC, 7/3/01, p.A8)
1942 Apr 27, Belgium Jews were forced to wear stars.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1942 May 7, A Nazi decree ordered all Jewish pregnant women of Kovno Ghetto executed.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1942 May 12, David Ben-Gurion left the Jewish state in Palestine.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1942 May 12, 1,500 Jews were gassed in Auschwitz.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1942 Jun 8, In Paris on the first day Helene Berr was forced to wear the yellow star to distinguish Jews: "My God, I didn't know this would be so hard. I was very brave all day. I held my head high and looked people so straight in the eyes they turned away. But it's hard ... This morning, I went out with Mother. Two kids in the street pointed at us saying 'Hey? You see? Jewish.'"
(AP, 1/9/08)
1942 Jun 20, Adolf Eichmann proclaimed the deportation of Dutch Jews.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1942 Jun 22, A Jewish Brigade, attached by British Army, formed.
(MC, 6/22/02)
1942 Jul 10, Himmler ordered the sterilization of all Jewish woman in Ravensbruck Camp.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1942 Jul 13, 5,000 Jews of Rovno, Polish Ukraine, were executed by Nazis.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1942 Jul 13, SS shot 1,500 Jews in Josefov, Poland.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1942 Jul 16, Jews were transported from Holland to an extermination camp.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1942 Jul 16, The first large-scale roundups of Jews began under protests by only a half-dozen Catholic church leaders. French police rounded up some 13,000 Jews over 2 days in Paris, many of whom were first holed up in harsh conditions at Paris' Vel d'Hiv, or the Winter Velodrome stadium.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A22)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.49)(AP, 7/22/12)
1942 Jul 22, Warsaw Ghetto Jews (300,000) were sent to death at Treblinka extermination Camp.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1942 Jul 23, Treblinka Concentration Camp was destroyed.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1942 Jul 26, Roman Catholic churches protested the Dutch bishops’ stand against the spread of Judaism.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1942 Jul 28, Nazis liquidated 10,000 Jews in Minsk, Russia.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1942 Jul 30, German SS einsatzgruppen death battalions killed 25,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1942 Jul 31, The German SS gassed some 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1942 Aug 4, The 1st train with Jews departed Mechelen, Belgium, to Auschwitz.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1942 Aug 7, Transport 16 departed with French Jews to Nazi-Germany.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, The Nazi 36th Police Battalion, made up of ethnic Estonians, massacred some 2,500 Jews at Novogrudok, Belarus (according to the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation).
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A4)
1942 Aug 8, Gerhart Riegner (d.2001 at 90), World Jewish Congress official in Geneva, cabled the US vice consul to describe Hitler’s plan to deport an estimated 4 million Jews to Eastern Europe and to annihilate them.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A19)
1942 Aug 11, 999 Jews were taken from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1942 Aug 11-Sep 30, The SS began exterminating 3,500 Jews in Zelov Lodz, Poland.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1942 Aug 25, German SS began transporting Jews of Maastricht, Neth.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1942 Aug 26, 7,000 Jews were rounded up in Vichy, France.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1942 Aug, Irene Nemirovsky, French-Jewish author, died at Auschwitz. She had recently authored "Suite Francaise" while waiting in rural France for what she knew was her imminent arrest and deportation. It is a powerful account of the effect on ordinary people of the military collapse of June 1940, the panicked flight from Paris and the arrival of the German army. In 2004 she Nemirovsky was awarded a top French literary award.
(AFP, 11/8/04)
1942 Oct 5, 5,000 Jews of Dubno, Russia, were massacred.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1942 Oct 10, 1,300 Austrian Jews were transported to Theresienstadt.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1942 Oct 27, In Starachowice, Poland, Nazi soldiers separated out weak Jews from the strong. The strong were sent to work and the weak were sent to the extermination camp at Treblinka.
(WSJ, 11/25/03, p.A1)
1942 Oct 29, Nazis murdered some 16,000 Jews in Pinsk, Soviet Union.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1942 Oct, On Yom Kippur 2,900 Jews were killed in Domachevo, Belarus.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.A23)
1942 Nov 5, Nazis raided on Greek Jews in Paris.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1942 Nov 6, Nazis executed 12,000 Minsk ghetto Jews.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1942 Nov 9, Transport #44 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1942 Nov 11, 745 French Jews were deported to Auschwitz.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1942 Nov, German troops arrived in Tunisia. The nation was home to some 100,000 Jews at the time. The Germans imposed anti-Semitic policies that included fines, forcing Jews to wear Star of David badges and confiscating property. More than 5,000 Jews were sent to forced labor camps, where 46 are known to have died. About 160 Tunisian Jews in France were sent to European death camps.
(AP, 1/30/07)
1942 The Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem was created by Aharon Shulov as a center for children of all denominations.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)
1942 American rabbi Judah Magnes (d.1948) helped found a political party in Palestine called Ihud (Unity). He argued for a single binational state to be shared by Arabs and Jews.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.25)
1942 Andree Geulen-Herscovici was a teacher in Brussels when she witnessed a Gestapo raid on a school. That prompted her to join a rescue organization and for more than two years she took in over 300 Jewish children and hid them in Christian homes and monasteries under assumed identities. In 2007 Geulen-Herscovici (86) was granted honorary Israeli citizenship.
(AP, 4/18/07)
1942 Nazi documents of this year showed that the Einsatzgruppe, a Nazi-run Serbian police unit, killed 6,280 Serbian Jewish women and children who were held as prisoners. In two months, those women and children allegedly were taken from a camp and forced into a specially designed van, in which they were gassed with carbon monoxide. The unit was allegedly run by Peter Egner, who emigrated to the US in 1960, and received citizenship in 1966 [see 1941]. In 2010 Serbia issued an international warrant for the arrest of Egner (88), who has denied the accusations.
(AP, 4/14/09)(AP, 4/2/10)
1942-1943 Irena Sendler (29), posing as a nurse, visited the Warsaw Ghetto and persuaded parents that their children had better chances of survival outside its walls. She and 20 helpers smuggled some 2,500 children out of the ghetto and placed them with Polish families. In 2003 Sendler was awarded Poland's highest order. In 2007 Sendler (97) was honored by parliament at a ceremony during which Poland's president said she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
(AP, 11/11/03)(AP, 3/14/07)
1942-1945 Jose Arturo Castellanos (d.1977 at 86), Salvadoran diplomat in Geneva, gave citizenship certificates to as many as 40,000 Jews during the Holocaust. In 2010 Israel named him posthumously as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations."
(AP, 5/14/10)(http://tinyurl.com/28n2pd7)
1943 Jan 14, Italian occupation authorities refused to deport any Jews living on their territories in France.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1943 Jan 18, Jews in Warsaw Ghetto began an uprising against the Nazis. [see Apr 19, 1943]
(MC, 1/18/02)
1943 Feb 11, Transport # 47 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1943 Feb 17, Dutch churches protested to Artur Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1943 Mar 1, In Amsterdam a Jewish old age home for disabled was raided.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1943 Mar 2, 1st transport of Jews from Westerbork, Netherlands, to Sobibor concentration camp.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1943 Mar 4, Transport Number 50 departed with French Jews to Majdanek and Sobibor.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1943 Mar 15, In Thessaloniki, Greece, occupying German forces began founding up the first batch of Jews in Eleftherias (Freedom) Square. By August 1943, 46,091 Jews had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of those, 1,950 survived.
(AP, 3/16/13)
1943 Mar 22, SS police chief Rauter threatened to kill half Jewish children.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1943 Apr 19, In Warsaw, Poland, young Jews under Mordechai Anielewicz directed the 1st urban uprising against the Nazis. During World War II, tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but futile battle against Nazi forces. SS-Gen Jurgen Stroop led the destruction of the ghetto of Warsaw: "The Warsaw Ghetto is no more!" he wrote proudly to Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler. Stroop was hanged on the site of the Warsaw ghetto after the war. Jacek Zlatka (Jack Eisner, 1925-2003) smuggled arms for the revolt. Eisner made a fortune in the import-export business after the war and in 1980 authored the autobiography "The Survivor."
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T11)(AP, 4/19/97)(HN, 4/19/97)(MC, 4/19/02)(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.A29)
1943 May 1, A German plane sank a boat loaded with Palestinian Jews bound for Malta.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1943 May 15, Warsaw ghetto uprising ended in it's destruction by Nazi-SS troops.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1943 May 16, German troops destroyed the synagogue of Warsaw. Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ended after 30 days of fighting.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1943 May 19, Berlin was declared "Judenrien" (cleansed of Jews).
(MC, 5/19/02)
1943 May 26, Jews rioted against Germans in Amsterdam.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1943 Jul 23, Meijer de Hond, [Emanuel Querido], rabbi of Sobibor, died.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1943 Jul 23, Emanuel Querido, publisher (Sobibor), died.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1943 Aug 2, In Poland at the Nazi Treblinka concentration camp some 600 prisoners staged an uprising and fled into the woods. Only 40 survived. In 1999 Ian MacMillan authored "Village of a Million Spirits: A Novel of the Treblinka Uprising."
(SFEC, 8/22/99, BR p.5)
1943 Aug 18, Final convoy of Jews from Salonika, Greece, arrived at Auschwitz.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1943 Sep 11, The Jewish ghettos of Minsk & Lida in Belorussia were liquidated.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1943 Sep 18, Hitler ordered the deportation of Danish Jews (unsuccessful).
(MC, 9/18/01)
1943 Oct 1, Germans attacked Jews in Denmark.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1943 Oct 14, Some 300 of 600 prisoners escaped from the Nazi’s Sobibor death camp in Poland. Alexander Pechersky, a Russian officer of Jewish origin, roused his fellow prisoners to rebellion. The event was later documented in the book "Escape from Sobibor" by Richard Rashke (1982) and the film of the same name with Alan Arkin. Josef Vallaster, an Austrian guard, was among 11 SS officers and 11 Ukrainians killed in the escape. Most of the escaped prisoners were killed as they fled. Only 50 prisoners survived the war. Vallaster had operated the motor that funneled gas into Sobibor’s shower rooms. After the uprising at Sobibor, the Nazis shut it down and leveled it to the ground, replanting over it to cover their tracks.
(SFC, 7/11/03, p.A19)(SSFC, 2/17/08, p.A8)(AP, 8/21/12)(AFP, 10/14/13)
1943 Oct 16, In Italy the Nazi SS police and Waffen SS began rounding up the Jews of Rome. There was an anti Jewish riot in Rome as the Jewish quarter was surrounded by Nazis, and Jews were evacuated to Auschwitz. Pope Pius XII made no public protest, though he did send some messages of disapproval through intermediaries.
(WSJ, 10/18/99, p.A46)(MC, 10/16/01)
1943 Oct 23, The 1st Jewish transport out of Rome reached Birkenau (Poland) extermination camp.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1943 Oct, Germans demolished the ghetto buildings of Minsk, known as the Yama, or Pit, in an effort to find Jews in hiding. 2,000 remaining Jews were rounded up and killed. More than 100,000 Jews were killed there from August 1941.
(AP, 10/21/08)
1943 Nov 2, Jewish ghetto of Riga, Latvia, was destroyed.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1943 Nov 3, SS and police units shot at least 6,000 Jewish inmates of the Trawniki and Dorohucza Labor Camps.
(www.ushmm.org/wlc_ie/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007397)
1943 Nov 3-1943 Nov 4, The 2-day "Operation Harvest" at the Majdanek concentration camp executed men, women and children. Nazi officer Alfons Goetzfried later admitted to having personally shot 500 people. Over 42,000 people, mostly Jews, were killed in the operation. In 1999 Alfons Goetzfrid (79) was convicted for assisting in the murders of 17,000 Jews at the camp. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. During the so-called "Mission Harvest Festival" massacres tens of thousands of Jews in the district of Lublin were shot by Nazi officers. Among them were members of Erich Steidtmann’s Hamburg Polizeibataillon 101 company. In 2010 prosecutors reopened an investigation on Steidtmann’s role in the massacre.
{Holocaust, Poland, Germany, WWII, Jews}
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A14)(SFC, 5/21/99, p.D2)(AP, 4/22/10)
1943 Dec 2, 1st RSHA transport out of Vienna reached Birkenau camp.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1943 Primo Levi (25) was sent to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. He later authored "Survival in Auschwitz."
(SFEC, 3/5/00, BR p.8)
1943 Roman Frister (15) was sent to the Nazi concentration camp at Plaszow. In 1993 Frister published his biography "The Cap: The Price of Life."
(SFEC, 3/5/00, BR p.8)
1943 Bulgarians occupying Macedonia rounded up and deported 7,148 Macedonian Jews to the death camp at Treblinka. Of a pre-war population of some 8,000 Jews, only 350 remained after the war.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.88)
1943 Over 7,000 Danish Jews crossed to Sweden to escape the Nazis.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.46)
1943 In Tunisia Khaled Abdelwahhab hid a group of Jews on his farm outside Mahdia, saving them from the Nazi troops occupying the North African nation. In 2007 Abdelwahhab became the first Arab to be nominated for recognition as "Righteous Among the Nations," an honor bestowed on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazi persecution.
(AP, 1/30/07)
1944 Jan, In Hungary Sandor Kepiro (b.1914) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the Jan, 1942, atrocities at Novi Sad, Serbia, in which 1,200 Serb and Jewish civilians were killed by Hungarian forces, who raided Serbia in the wake of the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia. He was freed by Hungary's fascist regime shortly after his trial and fled to Argentina after the war. In 1946, the Communist government of Hungary tried him again and sentenced him to 14 years in absentia. He returned to Budapest in 1996.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/world/europe/28iht-hungary.2970014.html?_r=1)(AP, 9/15/09)
1944 Mar 7, Emanuel Ringelblum (b.1900), Jewish historian, died in the Warsaw ghetto. He is known for his “Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto," “Notes on the Refugees in Zbąszyn" chronicling the deportation of Jews from the town of Zbąszyń, and the so-called Ringelblum's Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto. In 2009 Samuel D. Kassow authored “Who Will Write our History? Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.84)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Ringelblum)
1944 Mar 27, Some 2,000 Jews were murdered in Kaunas, Lithuania.
(HN, 3/27/98)(MC, 3/27/02)
1944 Mar 31, Hungary ordered all Jews to wear yellow stars.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1944 Apr 13, Transport No. 71 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1944 Apr 14, 1st Jews transported from Athens arrived at Auschwitz.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1944 Apr-Jul, Hungarian authorities facilitated the deportation of some 437,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
(SFC, 6/7/99, p.A9)(Econ, 4/24/04, p.48)
1944 May 16, The 1st of over 180,000 Hungarian Jews reached Auschwitz.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1944 May 19, 240 gypsies were transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork Neth.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1944 May, Laszlo Csatary was named chief of an internment camp at a brick factory in Kosice, a Slovakian city under Hungarian rule, from where 12,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. In 1948 he was convicted in absentia for war crimes in Czechoslovakia and sentenced to death. He arrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia the following year, became a Canadian citizen in 1955 and worked as an art dealer in Montreal. He left Canada in 1997 and was arrested in Hungary in 2012. In 2013 Csatary was indicted in Hungary for war crimes.
(AP, 7/18/12)(AP, 6/18/13)
1944 May-1944 Jun, Some 425,000 Jews from Hungary were brought to the Nazi-run Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. At least 300,000 were almost immediately gassed to death. In 2014 German prosecutors charged Oskar Groening (93) with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder for serving as as SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp during this period.
(SFC, 9/16/14, p.A2)
1944 May-1944 Oct, About 158 trainloads of victims were brought to the Nazi-run Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. In 2013 a German arest warrant accused Johann Breyer (d.2014 at 89), a resident of Pennsylvania, of 158 counts of accessory to murder, one for each trainload of victims brought to Auschwitz while he served as a guard there.
(SFC, 7/24/14, p.A8)
1944 Jun 20, Nazis began mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1944 Jun, The "Kasztner Train," with 1,684 Jews on board, departed Budapest for the safety of neutral Switzerland. Rudolf Kasztner's negotiations also saved 20,000 Hungarian Jews by diverting them to an Austrian labor camp instead of a planned transfer to extermination camps. Kasztner, a Zionist leader in Hungary, headed the Relief and Rescue Committee, a small Jewish group that negotiated with Nazi officials to rescue Hungarian Jews in exchange for money, goods and military equipment.
(AP, 7/23/07)
1944 Jul 7, Hungary’s regent Miklos Horthy issued an order suspending Nazi deportations of Hungarian Jews.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.1)
1944 Jul 9, Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish National Guardsman, arrived in Budapest to head the local office of the US-sponsored War Refugee Board. He had been recruited in June by a US Embassy official in Stockholm and sent to Nazi-controlled Budapest under Swedish diplomatic cover. He used US funds to bribe Nazi officials and saved over 20,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-7)(MT, Spg. ‘99, p.18)(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A7)
1944 Jul 20, The death march of 1,200 Jews from Lipcani, Moldavia, began.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1944 Jul 23, Bernard M. Cohen, attorney, was killed at Belsen concentration camp.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1944 Aug 2, Jewish survivors of Kovno Ghetto, Lithuania, emerged from their bunker.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1944 Aug 4, Nazi police raided the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrested eight people, including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary became a famous account of the Holocaust. She died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the spring of 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated.
(AP, 8/4/02)
1944 Aug 6, All 1,200 Jewish death marchers from Lipcani, Moldavia, died by this date.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1944 Aug 6, The deportation of 70,000 Jews from Lodz. Poland, to Auschwitz began.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1944 Aug 22, Last transport of French Jews departed to Nazi Germany.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1944 Oct 2, Nazi troops crushed the 2-month-old (63 days) Warsaw Uprising, during which a quarter-million people were killed.
(AP, 10/2/97)
1944 Oct 7, Jews burned down the crematoria during an uprising at Auschwitz.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1944 Oct 7, There was an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1944 Oct 16, In Hungary the Horthy government fell as Adolf Eichmann returned to Budapest and immediately ordered the resumption of the Jewish deportation program. Ferenc Szalasi (1897-1946) became the prime minister.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Sz%C3%A1lasi)
1944 Nov 6, British official Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo, Egypt, by members of the Zionist Stern gang (Lehi).
(AP, 11/6/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_%28group%29)
1944 Nov 8, In Hungary Jews under Nazi custody and the command of Adolf Eichmann began marches of 120 miles to the Austrian border.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.3)
1944 Nov 8, In Hungary Peter Balazs (18) was fatally beaten to death for failing to wear a yellow star marking him as a Jew. In 2009 Australia agreed to extradite Charles Zentai (87) to face charges regarding the fatal beating of Balazs. In 2012 Australia said Mr Zentai cannot be surrendered for extradition because the offence of 'war crime' did not exist under Hungarian law at the time of his alleged criminal conduct.
(www.shalom-magazine.com/Article.php?id=480310)(AP, 11/12/09)(AFP, 8/15/12)
1944 Dec, Carol Deutsch, Jewish artist, perished in the Holocaust. Deutsch created illustrations of the Bible while in hiding from the Nazis in Belgium. He was informed upon, and died in the Buchenwald camp. After the war, his daughter Ingrid discovered that the Nazis had confiscated their furniture and valuables but had left behind a single item: a meticulously crafted wooden box adorned with a Star of David and a seven-branched menorah, containing a collection of 99 of the artist's illustrations of biblical scenes.
(AP, 1/11/08)
1944 Irgun leader Menachem Begin, an officer with the exiled Polish army, led some 3,500 men to fight Britain’s occupation of Palestine.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.76)
1944 Some 350,000 Romanian Jews survived WWII and many soon migrated to Israel.
(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.A11)
1945 Oct 20, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon formed the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1944 Nov 5, British official Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo, Egypt, by the Zionist Stern gang.
(AP, 11/5/01)
1944 Nov 6, Hannah Senesh, Jewish poet, was executed by Nazis in Budapest.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1944 Nov 8, 25,000 Hungarian Jews were "loaned" to Nazis for forced labor.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1944 Nov 26, Heinrich Himmler ordered the destruction of Auschwitz and Birkenau crematoriums.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1944 Hungary’s Admiral Miklos Horthy passed the 4th of four anti-Jewish laws, outlawing sexual intercourse between Jews and non-Jews.
(Econ, 11/9/13, p.59)
1945 Jan 26, Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. [see Jan 27]
(MC, 1/26/02)
1945 Jan 27, The Soviet army arrived at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland, and found the Nazi concentration camp and crematorium where 1.1 - 1.5 million people were murdered. It is now believed that 1 million Jews were murdered here, up to 75,000 Polish Christians, 21,000 Gypsies, and 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war.
(SF E&C, 1/15/1995, A-10)(AP, 1/27/98)
1945 Jan 30, Nazi SS guards shot down an estimated 4,000 Jewish prisoners on the Baltic coast at Palmnicken, Kaliningrad. The town was later renamed by the Russians to Yantarny. Some 7,000 prisoners had been marched 25 miles from Konigsberg to a vacant lock factory at Palmnicken where they were mowed down with machine guns. The prisoners had been vacated from a network of 30 camps that made up Poland's Stutthoff concentration camp. 90% of the Jews were women from Lithuania and Hungary.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.C1)
1945 Feb 4-12, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin held a wartime conference at Yalta, in the southern Ukraine. Roosevelt joked to Stalin that the only concession he might give to Ibn Saud in Saudi Arabia was "the 6 million Jews in the US."
(AP, 2/4/97)(WUD, 1994, p.1653)(WSJ, 3/8/99, p.A16)
1945 Apr 3, Nazi's began evacuation of camp Buchenwald.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1945 Apr 11, The Americans liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Some 250,000 prisoners passed through the camp and 50,000 are known to have died there. From 1945 to 1950, occupying Soviet forces used the camp to hold political prisoners.
(AP, 4/11/97)(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.B1)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A10)(AP, 6/5/09)
1945 Apr 22, Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen was liberated.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1945 May, In Austria US Army officers and troops plundered a “gold train" on its way to Germany from Hungary that carried gold, jewels, paintings and other valuables seized by the Nazis from Jewish families. A 2001 suit filed in Miami said the army falsely classified it as unidentifiable and enemy property, which avoided having to return the goods to their rightful owners. The suit alleged that the US made no effort to return the goods and lied to Hungarian Jews who sought information about their property after the war. In 2004 the property was estimated to be worth ten times its original $200 million valuation. In 2005 the US government reached a $25.5 million settlement with families of the Hungarian Holocaust victims for distribution to needy Holocaust survivors.
(AP, 12/20/04)(SFC, 3/12/05, p.A5)
1945 Aug 13, 35 Jews sacrificed their lives to blow up a Nazi rubber plant in Silesia.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1945 Aug 25, Jewish immigrants were permitted to leave Mauritius for Palestine.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1945 Sep 8, Bess Myerson of New York was crowned Miss America, the first Jewish contestant to win the title.
(AP, 9/8/99)
1945-1948 The 1997 documentary film "The Long Way Home" was about Holocaust survivors and won a 1998 Oscar. It was written and directed by Mark Jonathon Harris and covered the years 1945-1948, when the state of Israel was formed.
(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A6)
1945-1950 In 2002 Ruth Gay authored "Safe Among the Germans," an account of Eastern European Jews in the post-war refugee camps.
(SFC, 9/19/02, p.D12)
1946 Apr 13, Jewish "Avengers" carried out a mass poisoning of former SS men at Stalag 13, an American prisoner-of-war camp at Langwasser. The effort sickened more than 2,200 Germans but ultimately caused no known deaths. Authorities in Nuremberg later investigated Joseph Harmatz and Leipke Distal, who worked undercover in a nearby bakery for months, after they appeared in a 1999 television documentary and revealed details of the operation.
(AP, 8/31/16)
1946 May 25, Marcel Petiot (b.1897), a French doctor, was beheaded for offering Jews an escape to Argentina, then killing them and getting rid of their bodies, many by incineration. The remains of 26 people were found in his home, but he was suspected of killing more than 60 people. In 1980 Thomas Maeder authored “The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot." In 2011 David King chronicled the hunt for Petiot in "Death in the City of Light."
(WSJ, 6/9/07, p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Petiot)(Reuters, 11/10/11)
1946 July 4, A postwar pogrom in Kielce, Poland, left 42 Jews people, mostly Jews, dead and 50 wounded. Army and security officers took part in the attack that was sparked by the false story of Walenty Blaszcyk that his son had been kidnapped by Jews. The event is considered as Europe’s last pogrom. In 2001 Jan Tomascz Gross authored “Neighbours," the story of the Kielce Jews, who were herded into a barn that was set alight.
(WSJ, 3/20/96, p.A-14)(SFC,10/17/97, p.D3)(Econ, 2/2/08, p.59)
1946 Jul 22, Jewish extremists, that included Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which housed British administrative offices. 90-92 people were killed and included Britons (28), Arabs and Jews. The admitted terrorists were members of a Zionist organization called Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel), earlier known as the Stern Gang.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 7/22/97)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C5)
1946 Aug 13, Britain transferred illegal immigrants bound for Palestine to Cyprus.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1946 Dec 20, Uri Geller, psychic and fork bender, was born in Israel.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1946 Zvi Kolitz (d.2002 at 89) wrote the story "Yosl Rakover Talks to God," for a Jewish newspaper in Buenos Aires. It became a classic of Holocaust literature.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1946 Egypt’s King Farouk hosted the 1st Arab summit. The group resolved to thwart the birth of Israel.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A10)
1946 In Palestine Israeli Lehi assassins dressed up as tennis players killed British detective Thomas Martin. Lehi was led by Yitzhak Yezernitzky (later PM Yitzhak Shamir).
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.76)
1947 Jan 12, In Haifa, Palestine, the Stern Gang drove a truckload of explosives into a British police station. 4 people were killed and 140 injured.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.E4)
1947 Feb 7, Arabs and Jews rejected a British proposal to split Palestine.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1947 Feb 23, Gen. Eisenhower opened a drive to raise $170M in aid for European Jews.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1947 Apr 1, The 1st Jewish immigrants to Israel disembarked at Port of Eilat.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1947 Jul 16, Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat jailed by the Soviets who believed that he was an American spy, reportedly died at the Lubyanka prison in Moscow of an alleged heart attack. He had saved more than 20,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps. A 2001 Swedish report failed to confirm his death.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-7)(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A12)(SFC, 1/13/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A7)
1947 Jul 18, British seized the "Exodus 1947" ship of Jewish immigrants to Palestine. The British Royal Navy intercepted the ship President Warfield, which had been renamed Exodus by its passengers, forcing the 4,000 Jewish would-be immigrants aboard back to Displaced Person camps in Germany. Britain was still the ruling power in Palestine, which was being wracked by conflict resulting from Jewish national aspirations. The return of the Jewish immigrants, many of them survivors of Nazi persecution, heightened anti-British sentiment among Jews in Palestine and elsewhere. Yossi Harel, commander of the Exodus, died in 2008 at age 90.
(MC, 7/18/02)(HNQ, 12/4/98)(AP, 4/26/08)
1947 Jul 31, The Jewish underground Irgun Zvai Leumi said it hanged 2 British sergeants in Palestine.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A2)
1947 Sep 8, British government sailed the "Exodus" with fugitives from Nazis.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1947 Nov 29, The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine [Jerusalem] between Arabs and Jews. It was to be the heart of an Arab Palestinian state.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 11/29/97)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1947 Nov 30, A day after the UN decree for Israel, Jewish settlements were attacked.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1947 Dec 2, A Syrian mob burned a synagogue where the Aleppo Codex was hidden. This followed a UN resolution calling for the creation of Arab and Jewish states in Palestine Nearly two-thirds of the pages were retrieved by congregant, Mourad Faham. But 196 pages vanished, including books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as pages from other books.
(AP, 9/27/08)(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)
1947 Dec 29, Ship carrying Jewish immigrants were forced back from Palestine.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1947 Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran was dismissed from his post and forced to leave Romania, making his home in Geneva. He had refused to cooperate with the new Jewish Democratic Committee, saying it was a Communist body intent on breaking up traditional Jewish organizations and bringing Jewish life in Romania to a standstill.
(AP, 7/28/06)
1947 The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by Bedouin at the caves of Qumran in Jordan. The scrolls predated the Christian gospels, but contained many similarities. They also contained some differences from the traditional (Masoretic) text of the Hebrew Bible. In 1955 Edmund Wilson published "The Scrolls from the Dead Sea." In 1998 Hershel Shank published "The Mystery and meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls." From 1978-1998 over 6,000 books were written about the scrolls. The discovery date was later contested as were many of the historic circumstances surrounding the scrolls. In 2010 Geza Vermes authored “The Story of the Scrolls: The Miraculous Discovery and the True significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.82)
1948 Feb 1, The Palestine Post building in Jerusalem was bombed.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1948 Feb 22, An Arab bomb attack in Jerusalem killed 50 people.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1948 Mar 10, Political and military men gathered at the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Haganah and put the final touches to Plan Dalet. In 2006 Prof. Ilan Pappe of the Univ. of Haifa authored “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine." He held that Plan Dalet was a plan for the ethnic cleansing of some 800,000 Palestinians in order to allow the formation of the Jewish state.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.92)
1948 Mar 11, Jewish Agency of Jerusalem was bombed.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1948 Mar 24, Israel Galili, chief of the Haganah, sent orders reminding commanders of the policy to protect the “full rights, needs, and freedoms of the Arabs in the Hebrew state without discrimination."
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.93)
1948 Apr 9, Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist Organization, wrote to Pres. Truman saying: “The choice for our people, Mr. President, is between statehood and extermination."
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.53)
1948 Apr 9, In Deir Yassin about one-third of 750 Palestinians were killed by Jewish fighters of the National Military Organization, an underground group better known as the Irgun, and a splinter group called Lehi. The event is called Al-Nakbah (catastrophe) by the Palestinians. 30 similar massacres happened on other Palestinian villages. The death toll was said to be inflated by Jewish forces to invoke fear and cause maximum flight.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A10)(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A1,11)
1948 Apr 10, Jewish Hagana repelled an Arab attack on Mishmar HaEmek.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1948 Apr 15, Arabs were defeated in the first Jewish-Arab battle.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1948 May 11, Haganah took control of Safed and port of Haifa.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1948 May 14, The British evacuated Israel. The independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion as British rule in Palestine came to an end. Ben-Gurion and 36 fellow members of the Provisional Council of State signed the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. 10 of the member’s signatures were delayed for 10 days because they were cut off by fighting in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 5/14/97) (SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)(HN, 5/14/98)(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1948 May 14, US granted Israel de facto recognition.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1948 May 15, A 28 year old British Mandate over Palestine ended.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1948 May 15, Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
(AP, 5/15/97)
1948 May 16, Chaim Weizmann was elected Chairman of the Provisional State Council of Israel. Weizmann, born in Russia in 1874, taught chemistry in England and as a leading Zionist influenced Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917 favoring a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Weizmann settled in Palestine in 1934 and served as president of Israel from 1948 until his death in 1952.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann)
1948 May 16, PM David Ben-Gurion appointed Israel Amir (d.2002) to head the fledgling air force of 8 secondhand light aircraft. Amir held the post for 10 weeks and raised the force to 3,000 personnel.
(SFC, 11/2/02, p.A22)
1948 May 17 The Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.
(AP, 5/17/97)
1948 May 18, Arab Legion captured the fort on Mount Scopus.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1948 May 18, Saudi Arabia joined the invasion of Israel.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1948 May 20, Israel made the 1st use of its Air Force and claimed its 1st war victory with the defeat of the Syrian army.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1948 May 24, Ariel Sharon, then called Arik Scheinerman, was wounded at the battle of Latrun while securing Jerusalem for Jews in the 1st Arab-Israeli War.
(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.A15)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrun)
1948 May 26, Entire Hagana arm forces were sworn-in as Israeli soldiers.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1948 May 27, Arabs blew up the Jewish synagogue Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1948 Jun 1, Israel and the Arabs agreed to a cease fire.
(DTnet 6/1/97)
1948 Jul 1, Zahava Rozman, artist, was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 1958 she moved to NYC and in 1976 graduated from Pratt Inst. with a BFA in Fine Arts.
(www.see-art.net/current_work.html)
1948 Jul 14, Israel bombed Cairo.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1948 Jul 16, Pinchas Zukerman, violinist and conductor, was born in Tel Aviv Israel.
(HN, 7/16/01)(MC, 7/16/02)
1948 Aug 23, Count Bernadotte asked for aid for fugitives to Palestine. [see Sep 17]
(MC, 8/23/02)
1948 Sep 17, Count Folke Bernadotte (b.1895) of Sweden, the UN mediator for Palestine, was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the extreme Zionist Stern Group. Yehoshua Zettler (d.2009 at 91), one of the founding members of the group, masterminded the assassination.
(AP, 9/17/98)(www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Bernadotte.html)(AP, 5/25/09)
1948 Sep 18, Ralph J. Bunche was confirmed as acting UN mediator in Palestine.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1948 Oct 14, Large scale fighting took place between Israel and Egypt.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1948 Oct 16, Moscow Jews held a demonstration honoring Israeli ambassador Golda Meir.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1948 Oct 21, The Israeli offensive, Operation 10 Plagues, liberated Beersheba (Be’er Sheva) from Egyptian control.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beersheba)
1948 Oct 28, Flag of Israel was adopted.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1948 Nov 16, Operation Magic Carpet began with the 1st plane from Yemen carrying Jews to Israel.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1948 Nov, In Israel hundreds of residents left Kufr Birim, a Maronite village just south of the Lebanese border. Israeli troops told Kufr Birim residents they must leave for security reasons, but would be allowed to return after two weeks. Their return never materialized.
(AP, 5/28/14)
1948 Dec 8, Jordan annexed Arabic Palestine. The old city of East Jerusalem came under Jordanian control until 1968. Transjordan was given to a client Arab family, the Hashemites (led by King Hussein’s grandfather), and was run out of Mecca by the Saudis. The country now has an ethnic Palestinian majority. Elections chose a body evenly divided between Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/23/13)
1948 Dec 11, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 was passed near the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The resolution expresses appreciation for the efforts of UN Envoy Folke Bernadotte after his assassination by members of the Stern Gang. It was later often quoted in support of the Palestinian right of return.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_194)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.68)
1948 John Phillips (1915-1996), photographer for Life Magazine, took pictures of the ill-fated defense of the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem against Arab troops.
(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A17)
1948 The Dheisheh Refugee Camp for Palestinians was founded outside Bethlehem. Some 700,000 Palestinians had become refugees in the war.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A10)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1948 Chaim Herzog (1918-1997) founded Israel’s military intelligence service.
(SFC, 4/18/97, p.E2)
1948 Soon after independence Israel began to evacuate Jews from Yemen and other middle Eastern countries to Israel.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C2)
1948 The military unit of Yitzhak Rabin, on orders from David Ben-Gurion, forced the Arab inhabitants from the towns of Lydda (later Lod) and Ramleh.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A16)
1948 In the months preceding the war between Israel and the Arab states some 10,000 Arab homes in West Jerusalem were looted and seized.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.D6)
1948 Jerusalem was split between Israel and Jordan.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1948 Jewish militia massacred Palestinians at Deir Yassin.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A10)
1948 Attacks on Baghdad’s synagogues prompted the flight of most of Iraq’s 200,000 Jews.
(Econ, 8/7/04, p.39)
1948 The UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) was established to observe the cease-fire following the war that followed Israel's creation.
(AP, 7/28/06)
1948 Charles Winters, a Miami businessman, broke US law to supply B-17 bombers to Jews fighting in Israel’s war of independence. In 1949 he was convicted for violating the Neutrality Act, for which he was fined $5,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. In 2008 Pres. Bush granted Winters a posthumous pardon.
(SFC, 12/24/08, p.A3)
1948 In Libya more deadly attacks took place against the Jewish community, prompting most of those remaining to leave. A few thousand remained until 1967.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A19)
1948-1949 Jordan seized the West Bank and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1948-1949 Iraqi troops participated in the Arab League invasion of the new state of Israel. Iraq joined Transjordan and other Arab states to fight Israel. Most of Iraq’s 120,000 Jews fled to Israel or the West.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A9)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A10)
1948-1968 The old city of East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. Transjordan was given to a client family, the Hashenites (led by King Hussein’s grandfather), and was run out of Mecca by the Saudis.
(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A14)
1948-1998 Micha Bar-Am in 1998 published "Israel, A Photobiography: The First Fifty Years."
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.6)
1949 Feb 14, 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel).
(MC, 2/14/02)
1949 Feb 16, Chaim Weitzman was elected the 1st president of Israel. The title was invented by PM David Ben-Gurion to honor and to sideline veteran Zionist leader Chaim Weitzman.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann)(Econ, 8/29/15, p.40)
1949 Feb 24, Israel and Egypt signed an armistice agreement.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1949 Feb 27, Chaim Weizmann became the 1st Israeli president.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1949 Mar 4, Security Council of UN recommended membership for Israel.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1949 Mar 23, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
(www.wikipedia.org)
1949 Apr 3, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Transjordan.
(www.wikipedia.org)
1949 May 11, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member by a vote of 37-12. The capital was moved to Tel Aviv.
(TOH, 1982, p.1949)(AP, 5/11/97)(MC, 5/11/02)
1949 Jul 20, Israel's 19 month war of independence ended with a ceasefire agreement with Syria. According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, 6,373 people, or nearly 1 percent of the Jewish population, were killed during Israel's War of Independence.
(www.wikipedia.org)(AP, 12/8/07)
1949 Aug 5, A bomb exploded at a synagogue in Damascus, Syria, killing 12 people.
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/loxc6n)
1949 Oct 21, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)(MC, 10/21/01)
1949 Nov 20, Jewish population of Israel reached 1,000,000.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1949 Nov 28, Victor Ostrovsky, Canadian-Israeli, Mossad agent (By Way of Deception), was born.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1949 Dec 9, UN took trusteeship over Jerusalem.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1949 Dec 13, Knesset voted to transfer Israel's capital to Jerusalem.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1949 Yizhar Smilanksy, under the pen-name S. Yizhar, authored “Khirbet Khizeh," a novella based on his experience in clearing a Palestinian village on the Israeli side of the 1949 ceasefire line.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.93)
1949-1950 Some 35,000 Yemenite Jews were airlifted to Israel. Some 14,000 more followed in the early 1950s. Some children were separated from their parents and passed on to other parents.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C2)
1950 Jan 23, The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)(AP, 1/23/98)
1950 Apr 24, Jordan annexed the West Bank and offered citizenship to all Palestinians wishing to claim it.
(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A6)
1950 Sep 24, In "Operation Magic Carpet" all Jews from Yemen moved to Israel.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1950 Israel enacted an Absentee Property Law which allowed the state to confiscate land within Israel if its owners spent any time at all away in Arab countries.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.46)
1950 Some 20,000 Jews remained in Germany. 8,000 of these were native German Jews and some 12,000 came from eastern Europe, mostly from Poland.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.41)
1951 Mar 8, The Int’l. Table Tennis Federation banned Egypt for refusing to play Israel.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1951 Mar 13, Israel demanded DM 6.2 billion ($1.5 billion) in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees.
(HN, 3/13/98)(MC, 3/13/02)
1951 Apr 12, The Israeli Knesset officially designated the 27th of Nissan, a few days after the end of Passover, as Holocaust Memorial Day.
(http://tinyurl.com/76zxh)
1951 Jul 20, Jordan's King Abdullah Ibn Hussein was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian extremist. Prince Hussein (15) witnessed the murder. Talal became king with the assassination of his father, Abdullah ibn-Hussein, who ruled when Jordan was a British mandate.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan)(AP, 7/20/97)(HN, 7/20/98)(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A13)
1951 Sep 1, PM Ben-Gurion ordered the establishment of Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1951 Oct 7, David Ben-Gurion formed Israeli government.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1951 The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) was founded. It was the only US registered Jewish lobby and was dedicated to nurturing and preserving the American-Israeli relationship regardless of the government in Washington or Israel.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.A23)
1951 The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany was founded.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.44)
1951 The Work and Rest Hours Act was passed. The law prohibited companies from employing workers on their religious days of rest.
(WSJ, 6/24/97, p.A1)
1952 Sep 10, Germany and Israel signed an accord about recovery payments in the Luxembourg Agreement. West Germany agreed to pay Israel a sum of 3 billion marks over the next fourteen years. It was signed by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett and World Jewish Congress President Nahum Goldmann.
(http://tinyurl.com/etznn)(http://tinyurl.com/h6n7m)
1952 Nov 3, Egypt protested German retribution payments to Israel.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1952 Nov 9, Chaim Weizmann (b.1874), Russian-born bio-chemist and 1st president of Israel (1949-1952), died.
(www.jafi.org.il/education/100/people/bios/weiz.html)
1952 West Germany signed a compensation treaty for victims of Nazi crimes.
(SFC, 11/16/12, p.A2)
1953 Feb 12, The Soviets broke off diplomatic relations with Israel after the bombing of Soviet legation.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1953 Jul 20, USSR and Israel recovered diplomatic relations.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1953 Oct 14, Ariel Sharon, who had formed the elite Israeli commando unit "101" to fight Palestinian guerrillas, led it in a raid against the Jordanian village of Qibya killed some 70 civilians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibya_massacre)(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.85)
1953 Nov 12, David Ben-Gurion, resigned as premier of Israel.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1953 Nov 16, The US joined in the condemnation of Israel for its raid on Jordan.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1953 Dec 7, Israel's PM Ben-Gurion retired.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1953 In Israel Shimon Peres (b.1923) became the youngest ever Director General of the Ministry of Defense. He was involved in arms purchases and establishing strategic alliances that were important for the State of Israel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres)
1953 Hizb ut-Tahir was founded in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, an Islamic scholar and appeals court judge from the Palestinian village of Ijzim. It seeks the return of the caliphate, based on Islamic sharia law, by political means. By 2012 it had members and sympathizers in more than 50 countries.
(AP, 3/10/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hizb_ut-Tahrir)
1953 Israeli forces demolished Kufr Birim, a Maronite village just south of the Lebanese border, five years after persuading hundreds of residents to leave with the promise of a speedy return that never materialized.
(AP, 5/28/14)
1954 Jun 20, Ilan Ramon, Israeli pilot and astronaut, was born in Tel Aviv. He was among the 7 astronauts killed in the US Columbia space shuttle tragedy Feb 1, 2003.
(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A8)
1954 Oct 14, An Israeli act of revenge in Qibiya, Jordan, killed 53.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1954 Zvi Kolitz (d.2002 at 89) wrote and co-produced "Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer," Israel’s 1st war of independence movie.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1954 Zohara Shatz (d.1999) was awarded the Israel Prize, an honor conferred by the president on distinguished scholars, artists, writers and public figures.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D4)
1954 Israel established an enemy infiltrators law. It allowed the government to hold people without judicial revue if they were deemed to be security threats.
(SFC, 6/9/06, p.A14)
1954 The Uzi machine gun was first made by Israel Military Industries. Uzi Gal, the inventor of Israel's Uzi submachine gun, died in Philadelphia after a long illness in 2002. The Netherlands was the 1st country outside Israel to buy Uzis in 1958.
(AP, 9/9/02)(SFC, 9/10/02, p.A16)
1954-1959 The names of 77,297 Czech Jews were put on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague. The memorial was closed in 1968. It was renovated after the collapse of the Communist regime and re-opened in 1996.
(www.jewishmuseum.cz/en/a-ex-pinkas.htm)
1955 Feb 13, Israel acquired 4 of 7 Dead Sea scrolls. Israel already had 3 scrolls, acquired in 1947. The 4 scrolls were purchased from a Christian clergyman, a Syrian Orthodox archbishop. The price, according to the New York Times, was an estimated $300,000.
(NYT, 2/14/55, p.21)
1955 Feb 14, A Jewish couple lost their fight to adopt Catholic twins as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to rule on state law.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1955 Mar 1, An Israeli retaliation in Gaza is reported as having killed 37 Egyptians and wounded 29 others. Palestinians stone the United Nations Gaza office.
(www.fsmitha.com/time/1955.htm)
1955 Nov 2, David Ben-Gurion formed an Israeli govt.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1955 Dec 11, Israel launched an attack on Syrian positions along the Sea of Galilee.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)(HN, 12/11/98)
1956 Apr 18, An Israeli-Egyptian cease fire, arranged by UN Gen’l. Sec. Dag Hammarskjöld, went into effect.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Jun 17, Golda Meir began her term as Israel's foreign minister.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1956 Jul 25, Jordanians attacked the UN Palestine truce.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1956 Sep 30, An Israeli delegation presented France with a fabricated reason for war in Egypt. The details were agreed on at a secret meeting in Sevres. Israel proposed to invade Egypt and then let France and Britain come in as peacekeepers and occupy the Suez Canal.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Oct 29, During the Suez Canal crisis, Israel launched an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Paratroopers under Ariel Sharon dropped into Sinai to open the Straits of Tiran. The Sinai Campaign, also known as Operation Kadesh, lasted eight days to November 5, 1956.
(AP, 10/29/97)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)(www.jafi.org.il/education/100/Concepts/d3.html)
1956 Oct 29, At Kafr Kassem village 49 Palestinians were massacred by Israeli border guards enforcing a curfew.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafr_Qasim_massacre)
1956 Nov 2, Gaza was occupied by the Israeli army and evacuated in March 1957.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07101.html)
1956 Nov 2, The UN passed an American resolution, 64 to 5, for a ceasefire at the Suez Canal in Egypt. The General Assembly took up a Canadian suggestion for an emergency force to monitor the ceasefire. The UN Emergency Force (UNEF) became the first “blue hat" UN peacekeepers.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)(www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unefi.htm)
1956 Nov 4, Israel captured the Straits of Tiran and reached the Suez Canal in Egypt.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1956 Nov 5, Israel liberated Sharm-el-Sheikh, reopening Gulf of Aqaba.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1956 Nov 5, Britain and France started landing troops in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. A cease-fire was declared two days later.
(AP, 11/5/97)
1956 Nov 6, Pressure from the US and USSR effected a cease-fire in the Middle-East. The UN created an emergency force (UNEF) to supervise a cease fire. Britain’s PM Anthony Eden called French PM Guy Mollet to tell him that Britain was aborting operations in Egypt. German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, meeting with Mollet, remarked that Europe must unite to counter the influence of the United States.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(EWH, 1968, p. 1242)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Nov 7, Britain’s PM Anthony Eden surrendered to American demands and stopped British operations in Egypt’s Canal Zone.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.29)
1956 Dec 18, The Israeli flag was hoisted on Mount Sinai.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1956 Zorach Warhaftig (d.2002 at 96), a rabbi from Belarus, helped found the National Religious Party.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1957 Mar 8, Israeli troops left Egypt. Suez Canal re-opened for minor ships.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1957 Mar 12, In Israel Rudolf Kasztner, hailed by admirers as a Holocaust hero for saving thousands of Jews, was assassinated by Jewish extremists. Critics had reviled him as a collaborator who "sold his soul." Kasztner, a Zionist leader in Hungary during World War II, headed the Relief and Rescue Committee, a small Jewish group that negotiated with Nazi officials to rescue Hungarian Jews in exchange for money, goods and military equipment.
(AP, 7/23/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Kastner)
1957 Oct 29, Hand grenade exploded in Israel's Knesset (Parliament).
(MC, 10/29/01)
1957 Dec 9, Japan [announced?] its 1st ambassador to Israel.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1957 The Jewish town of Upper Nazareth was built on confiscated Palestinian land for the purpose of domination over Palestinian Nazareth. The 1997 book "Overlooking Nazareth: The Ethnography of Exclusion in Jalilee" (sic) by Dan Rabinowitz describes the relations between Arabs and Jews here.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.16)
1958 Nov 18, The 1st true reservoir in Jerusalem opened.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1958 Waltert Eytan (d.2001 at 90), diplomat, authored "The First Ten Years: A Diplomatic History of Israel."
(SSFC, 5/27/01, p.A27)
1958 Israeli Premier David Ben-Gurion made a secret visit to Ankara, Turkey.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B2)
1958 Mourad Faham smuggled the Aleppo Codex out of Syria to Turkey and then to Jerusalem, where it was presented to the president of Israel. In 1982 the first missing page, from the Book of Chronicles, surfaced in New York and was sent to join rest of the manuscript. In 2007 another fragment, a piece from the Exodus story of the 10 plagues, was sent to Jerusalem. Sam Sabbagh, an Aleppo Jew living in New York, had carried it in wallet for decades as good luck charm.
(AP, 9/27/08)
1958 Israeli scholars at Hebrew Univ. began working on the Bible Project. They sought to publish an authoritative edition of the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, tracking every single evolution of the text over centuries and millennia.
(AP, 8/12/11)
1959 Jan 28, Joseph Sprinzak (73), Speaker of Israel Knesset (1949-59), died.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1959 Jun, Britain shipped 20 tons of heavy water to Israel. The information, made public in 2005, revealed that the water was vital for the production of plutonium at Israel's secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert. The documents revealed that heavy water was transported from a British port in Israeli ships in two shipments, half in June 1959 and half a year later.
(AP, 8/4/05)(AP, 12/10/05)
1959 Jul 1, Israeli Knesset agreed to weapon sales to West Germany.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1959 Jul 5, Ben-Gurion's Israeli government resigned.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1959 Jul 25, Dr. Isaac Halevi Herzog (71), chief rabbi of Israel (1936-59), died.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1959 Nov 3, Ben-Gurion's Mapai-party won Israeli parliamentary election.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1960 May 11, Israeli soldiers captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires as he returned home from his job at the Mercedes factory. Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal, was nabbed by Peter Malkin. Eichmann was taken to Israel where he was tried, found guilty and hung in 1962.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, Par. p.13)(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(HN, 5/11/98)(MC, 5/11/02)
1960 May 23, Israel announced Israeli agents had captured former Nazi official SS Lt. Col. Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. Eichmann was tried in Israel, found guilty of crimes against humanity, and hanged in 1962. [see May 11]
(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(AP, 5/23/02)
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