This comprehensive timeline of Jewish history is broken down into four parts: ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern. Each timeline contains events specific to Jewish history (in blue) as well as events of "general" history (in black). Be sure also to consult the more detailed timelines found at the beginning of each chapter of Scheindlin's Short History of the Jewish People (on pp. 2, 26-27, 52, 72, 98-99, 124, 150, 174-175, 200, 218, and 236).
|
circa 3000 |
Kingdom of Egypt united |
|
1800s? |
Migrations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob between Mesopotamia and Canaan |
|
circa 1700 |
Code of Hammurabi (old Babylonian Empire) |
|
1200? |
Exodus from Egypt, conquest of Canaan |
|
1100? |
Establishment of the Kingdom of Israel |
|
1000? |
David, King of Israel; foundation of Jerusalem as capital city |
|
950? |
Solomon, King of Israel; building of First Temple in Jerusalem |
|
900? |
Divided Kingdoms of Israel (north) and Judah (south) |
|
750s |
Rise of Assyrian Empire |
|
721 |
Fall of Israel (northern Kingdom), 10 Northern Tribes lost |
|
612 |
Rise of (new) Babylonian Empire |
|
587 |
Fall of Jerusalem; destruction of First Temple |
|
587-538 |
Babylonian Exile |
|
530s |
Rise of Persian Empire |
|
538-332 |
Persian rule of Judea (Yehud) |
|
515 |
Rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem; circulation of the Torah (?) |
|
330s |
Alexander the Great conquers Mediterranean, Egypt, Persia |
|
320s |
Alexander's Empire divided into three Hellenistic Kingdoms: Ptolemies (Egypt), Seleucids (Syria), and Antigonids (Greece) |
|
300-200 |
Ptolemaic rule of Judea (Ioudaia) |
|
200-160 |
Seleucid rule of Judea (Ioudaia) |
|
200 |
Canonization of the Nevi'im (?) |
|
166-160 |
Macabbean Revolt against Antiochus IV |
|
164 |
Rededication of the Temple by Judah Macabbee (Hanukkah) |
|
160-63 |
Hasmonean Kingdom of Judea |
|
63 |
Roman conquest of Judea (Roman rule continues, in various forms, until 638 CE) |
|
44 |
Assassination of Julius Caesar; Civil War in Rome |
|
37-4 |
Herod the Great acts as client King of Judea; rebuilds the Temple Mount |
|
27 |
Augustus becomes first Emperor of Rome |
|
TURN FROM Before Common Era (BCE) to Common Era (CE) |
|
|
6 CE |
Judea made into Roman province |
|
30 |
Ministry and crucifixion of Jesus |
|
66-73 |
First Jewish War; Second Temple destroyed by Romans (70 CE) |
|
90 |
Canonization of the Ketuvim, and the Tanak (?) |
|
132-135 |
Second Jewish War (Bar Kokhba revolt); destruction of Jerusalem |
|
200 |
Compilation of Mishnah by Judah Ha-Nasi (the Prince; also known as Rabbi) |
|
212 |
Universal grant of citizenship to all inhabitants of the Roman Empire |
|
220s |
Foundation of the Sassanid Empire in Persia and Mesopotamia; establishment of rabbinic communities in Persia |
|
313 |
Roman Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity; Persian King of Kings Shapur II cements alliance with Zoroastrian priests |
|
c. 380s |
Jerusalem (Palestinian) Talmud closed |
|
390s |
Christianity becomes official religion of the Roman Empire (persecution of Christians continues in Sassanid Persia) |
|
c. 500 |
Babylonian Talmud closed |
|
550s |
Heightened persecution of Jews in Rome and Persia |
| 614 | Persian conquest of Jerusalem |
| 622 | Foundation of Islam (hijra) |
| 638 | Islamic conquest of Jerusalem; Pact of Umar |
|
711 |
Islamic conquest of Spain |
| c. 750 | Baghdad founded; rabbinic academies move to new Islamic capital |
| c. 800 | Karaite (anti-Rabbinic) movement |
| 800 | Coronation of Charlemagne as King of the Romans |
| c. 930s | Masoretic text of the Bible established |
| 969 | Cairo founded |
| 1066 | Massacre of Jews in Grenada |
| 1096 | Massacre of Jews in Mainz (First Crusade) |
| 1144 | First "blood libel" against Jews (in Norwich, England) |
| c. 1150 | Almohads (Islamic extremists) enter into Spain from North Africa; family of Maimonides flees from Spain to Egypt |
| 1215 | Fourth Lateran Council in Rome (Jews subject to stricter regulation under Christianity) |
| 1258 |
Baghdad sacked by the Mongols; Nahmanides active |
| 1290 | Expulsion of Jews from England |
| 1306-1394 | Expulsion of Jews from France; settlement of Western European Jews ("Ashkenazim") to northeastern Europe begins |
| 1453 | Islamic sack of Constantinople by Ottoman Turks |
| 1492 | Expulsion of Jews from Spain; settlement of Spanish Jews ("Sephardim") in Ottoman Empire; Columbus "discovers" North America |
| 1497 | Expulsion of Jews from Portugal |
| 1516-1517 | Jewish ghetto established in Venice (Italy); beginning of the Protestant Reformation |
| 1570s | Kabbalists active in Safed (Ottoman Palestine); Jews expelled from the Papal States (Italy) |
| 1618-1648 | Thirty Years' War; first pogroms of Jews in Eastern Europe (Chmielnicki massacres in Poland) |
| 1656 | Excommunication of Benedictus (Baruch) Spinoza |
| 1665 | Shabbeti Zevi declares himself "messiah" (apostasy in 1666) |
|
1689 |
John Locke's "A Letter Concerning Toleration" |
| 1718 | John Toland argues for enfranchisement of British Jews |
| 1729-1786 | Moses Mendelssohn |
| 1760 | Death of Baal Shem Tov (founder of Hasidism) |
| 1772-1795 | Partitions of Poland between Russia, Prussia, and Austria |
| 1776 | American colonies declare independence from Britain |
| 1782 | Joseph II of Germany (Holy Roman Empire) issues first Edict of Toleration for Jews (later rescinded) |
| 1789 | French Revolution |
| 1791 | Enfranchisement of French Jews; Enfranchisement of U.S. Jews with passing of the Bill of Rights; Catherine the Great (Russia) established Pale of Settlement in which all Russian Jews must live |
| 1812 |
Enfranchisement of French Jews extended to Prussia after defeat by Napoleon (later rescinded) |
| 1818 | Foundation of first Reform Temple (Hamburg, Germany) |
| 1824 | First Reform Temple founded in United States (Charleston, South Carolina) |
| 1840s | Abraham Geiger active in German Reform and Haskalah |
| 1850s | Samson Raphael Hirsch spearheads Modern Orthodox movement in Europe; Zacharias Frankel breaks with reformers, eventually leading to Conservative Movement |
| 1861-1865 | United States Civil War |
| 1870 | Reunification of Germany and Italy; emancipation of German and Italian Jews |
| 1873 | Isaac Mayer Wise founds the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union of Reform Judaism) |
| 1881 | Assassination of Czar Alexander II leads to increased violence against Jews, and new waves of immigration to the United States |
| 1882 | "May Laws": Jews expelled from villages, restricted to tiny towns in the Pale of Settlement |
| 1890s | Gradual full emancipation of British Jews |
| 1893 | Alfred Dreyfus (Jewish French military officer) charged with treason; trial covered by Theodor Herzl |
| 1896 | Theodor Herzl writes The Jewish State |
| 1897 | First World Zionist Congress |
| 1905 | The Protocols of the Elders of Zion begin circulating in Russia |
| 1906 | Height of Jewish immigration to the United States |
| 1913 | Solomon Shechter founds the United Synagogue of America (now the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism) |
| 1914-1918 | World War I; end of Ottoman Empire; partition of "middle east" (British receive Palestinian mandate) |
| 1917 | Russian (Communist) Revolution; Balfour Declaration |
| 1925 | Publication of Adolf Hitler's My Struggle (Mein Kampf) |
| 1933 | Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany |
| 1935 | Nuremberg Laws begin to strip German Jews of civil rights |
| 1938 | Kristallnacht |
| 1939-1945 | World War II (United States enters war in 1941); Shoah |
| 1946 | Nuremberg Trials of German war criminals |
| 1947 | United Nations votes to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states; discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Judean desert (outside of Jerusalem) |
| 1948 | Israel declares independence; immediately goes to war with surrounding Arab nations (armistice signed in 1949) |
| 1958 | Elie Wiesel publishes Night (U.S. publication: 1960) |
| 1961 | Trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem (executed in 1962) |
| 1967 | Six-Days' War |
| 1972 | Reform movement ordains the first female rabbi (Reconstructionists ordain a woman rabbi in 1974; Conservatives in 1985) |
| 1973 | Yom Kippur War |
| 1975 | United Nations adopts resolution equating Zionism with racism and racial discrimination (rescinded in 1991) |
| 1978 | Camp David Agreement between Israel and Egypt |
| 1983 | Reform movement overturns principle of matrilineal descent |
| 1987 | First Intifada (uprising) begins |
| 1991 | First Gulf War |
| 1995 | Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin assassinated at peace rally |
| 2000 | Arial Sharon (future Prime Minister of Israel) visits Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem with armed police officers; new Intifada (uprising) begins in response |
| 2001 | Islamic terrorists attack the U.S., crashing passenger airliners into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center (NYC) |
| 2003 | Second Gulf War |