Key dates - Timeline

c. 1800

Abraham, Sarah and family leave Haran for Canaan

c. 1300

Israelites escape slavery in Egypt and receive the Torah on Mount Sinai

c. 1250

Israelites enter the Land of Canaan

c. 900

Jerusalem becomes the capital of Israel, under King David

c. 850

King Solomon builds the First Temple in Jerusalem

c. 800

The kingdom is split into: Israel (north, 10 tribes) and Judah (south, 2 tribes); prophecy develops in both kingdoms

721

Assyrians occupy Israel; ‘The Ten Lost Tribes’

586

Babylonians conquer Jerusalem, destroy the Temple and deport many Jews to Babylonia

c. 516

Some Jewish exiles return from Babylonia; Second Temple built in Jerusalem; vibrant Babylonian Jewish community grows

c. 450

Ezra establishes public Torah reading, leading to the study of Torah that become central to Judaism

c. 330

Alexander the Great (Greek) conquers Jerusalem

c. 250

The Torah is translated into Greek (Septuagint)

166—160

Maccabean revolt against the Assyrian Greek restrictions on Jewish practice and their desecration of the Temple

69

Romans, occupying Judah, let Yohanan ben Zakkai establish a study centre at Yavneh; study ‘saves’ Judaism

70

Romans destroy the Second Temple; most Jews dispersed

c. 200

Yehudah HaNasi completes the Mishnah

c. 500

Talmud (Mishnah and Gemara) is completed

624—7

Muslims attack Arabian Jews for refusing to convert to Islam

692

Muslims build Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, on the site of the First and Second Temples

c. 950—1150

‘Golden Age’ of Spain: good relations between Jews and Muslims, with freedom of worship and culture, in Islamic Spain

1040

Rashi, the most respected Jewish Bible commentator, born in France

1096

The First Crusade: Christian Crusaders fight Muslims in the Holy Land and attack Jewish communities in Europe

1096

Poland invites Jews to settle; royal charter protects their rites; Judaism is tolerated and the Jewish community flourishes

1135

Maimonides, a polymath and the most respected Jewish legalist, born in Spain

1144

Jews in Norwich accused of ritually murdering a Christian boy, leading to violent antisemitism; blood libels in Europe followed

1215

Fourth Lateran Council decrees that Jews be differentiated from Christians by clothing (e.g. badge, type of hat)

1290

Jews expelled from England; most go to France

1306

Jews expelled from France; some go to Spain

1348—9

Jews across Europe blamed for the ‘Black Plague’; accusation repudiated by Pope Clement VI

1415

Pope Benedict XIII bans the study of the Talmud

1492

Jews and Muslims expelled from Spain; later from Portugal

1516

First ghetto (Venice) established; ghettos followed in Europe

1656

Jews readmitted to England, under Cromwell’s republic

1700

Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer, ‘The Baal Shem Tov’ (‘Master of the Good Name’) born in Ukraine; Hasidic Judaism developed

1729

Mendelssohn, Jewish Enlightenment thinker, born in Germany

1730

Synagogue built in New York, the first in North America

1784

Sir Moses Montefiore, a Jewish philanthropist, born in England

1791

Emancipation: France grants Jews granted full citizenship; Germany and other countries follow

1791

Russia confines Jews to the ‘Pale of Settlement’, between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea

1810

Abraham Geiger born in Germany, the leader thinker behind the rise of Reform Judaism, attempting to halt assimilation

1818

Karl Marx born into a Jewish family; converted to Christianity; dubbed ‘the father of Communism’

1838

Rebecca Gratz establishes first Jewish Sunday School, in USA

1847

Nathan Rothschild elected to Parliament in England but cannot take his seat because he refuses to swear Christian oath

1860

First neighbourhood outside walls of Jerusalem, funded by Montefiore

1864

Leon Pinsker writes Autoemancipation, arguing for the creation of a Jewish state

1866

Jews become a majority in Jerusalem

1868

Benjamin Disraeli born, Prime Minister of Great Britain, Europe’s first premier of Jewish descent

1878

Jews set up Petah Tikvah (‘Gate of Hope’), the first modern agricultural settlement in Land of Israel (Ottoman Palestine)

1879

Albert Einstein, Zionist and Nobel Prize winning physicist, born

1881

Laws in Russia restricting Jewish conduct and movement; wave of antisemitic attacks in Eastern Europe; ‘pogrom’ enters the English language; start of mass migrations of Jews, mainly to Land of Israel and America

1882

Bilu, first (Zionist) pioneering movement, founded in Russia

1894

Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem begins Tevye the Dairyman (the basis for Fiddler on the Roof)

1897

Theodor Herzl convenes First Zionist Congress in Switzerland

1897

The Bund (Jewish labour union) founded in Eastern Europe, embracing Socialism and patriotism, within Jewish culture

1903—5

500, 000 Jews flee Russia, 90% to the USA

1905

Poale Tzion (Zionist Labour Party) founded in Minsk

1917

Balfour Declaration favours Jewish homeland in Palestine

1920

Mandate for Palestine given to Britain, with a view to implementing the Balfour Declaration

In Palestine, Histradut (labour union), Haganah (defence organisation) and Va’ad V’eumi (national committee) set up

1922

East of the Jordan, British create ‘Transjordan’, comprising 75% of the Mandate area and forbidden to Jewish immigration

1933

Nazis come to power in Germany

1935

Regina Jonas ordained in Berlin, the first woman rabbi

1938

Kristallnacht (‘Night of Glass’) in Germany, in which Jewish property, including synagogues, is dstroyed

1938

Kindertransport brings about 10, 000 Jewish children from Germany and other countries to England

1939

British strictly limit Jewish immigration to Palestine

1942

Nazi leaders define the ‘Final Solution’ for the genocide of the Jews by means of mass murder in death camps

1943

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Polish Jews resist Nazi occupation

1945

End of the Holocaust: the liberation of death and other camps

1947

UN votes for ‘Partition of Palestine’ (west of River Jordan) into an Arab and a Jewish state; Zionists accept, Arabs reject

1948

British Mandate ends; State of Israel declared; Arab armies attack Israel; beginning of legal immigration of Jews to Israel from Europe and the Middle East

1949

End of the 1948 War; ‘Green Line’ marks borders of Israel; Jerusalem divided between Israel and Jordan

1956

Sinai Campaign/Suez War: Israel cooperates with Britain and France against Egypt, to open Suez Canal

1967

Six Day War between Israel and surrounding Arab countries; Israel gains the West Bank (territory west of the Jordan River), Gaza and the Sinai region; Jerusalem is reunified; later there are Jewish settlements in territories gained in the Six Day War

1973

Yom Kippur War: surrounding Arab states attack Israel; Israel is almost defeated but wins

1978

Camp David Accords include framework for peace and Palestinian self-government

1979

Israel and Egypt sign peace treaty

1982

Israel withdraws from Sinai

1987

The first ‘Intifada’: widespread violence by Palestinians starts in Israel-administered areas

1989

Mass immigration to Israel by Jews of the FSU starts

1994

Israel and Jordan sign peace treaty

Palestinians internally govern Gaza and Jericho

Arafat (Palestinian leader), and Rabin and Peres (Israeli leaders) awarded Nobel Peace Prize

1995

Yitzak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, assassinated

1996

Palestinian terrorism against Israel escalates

2000

Camp David: Israel makes ‘land for peace’ offer to Palestinian leader Arafat; Arafat refuses offer

Second ‘Intifada’ begins: increase in terrorist attacks, including many suicide bombings, inside Israel

2003

To reduce terrorist attacks from the ‘West Bank’, Israel begins building the ‘Separation Barrier’, along or close to the ‘Green Line’

2005

Israel leaves Gaza, which comes under Palestinian control