History of antisemitism

This is a partial chronology of hostilities towards or discrimination against the Jews as a religious or ethnic group. See main article Anti-Semitism for etymology, roots, traits and disputes on what is sometimes called "the longest hatred."[1]

Here we note significant events in the history of anti-Semitism: as well as important anti-Semitic actions, we also give events in the history of anti-Semitic thought, actions taken to combat or relieve the effects of anti-Semitism, and events that affected the prevalence of anti-Semitism in later years.

Ancient animosity towards Jews

3rd century BCE: Manetho, a Hellenistic Egyptian chronicler and priest, alleges that Moses was not a Jew, but an Egyptian renegade priest called Osarseph, and portrays the Exodus as the expulsion of a leper colony.

175 BCE-165 BCE: Antiochus Epiphanes sacks Jerusalem, calls Judaism "inimical to humanity", prohibits brit milah, confiscates copies of Torah and erects an altar to Zeus in the Second Temple after plundering it. (See also Maccabees, Hanukkah)

2nd century BCE: Mnaseas of Patros, a Greek author, reports that the Jews worship a donkey's head in the Holy of Holies. This legend was repeated by Apollonius Molon, Democritus, Apion, and Plutarch.

66-73: Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans is crushed by Vespasian and Titus Flavius. Titus refuses to accept a wreath of victory, as there is "no merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their own God". (Philostratus, Vita Apollonii). The events of this period were recorded in detail by the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus. His record is largely sympathetic to the Roman view, and hence is considered a controversial source. Josephus describes the Jewish revolt as being led by "tyrants," to the detriment of the city, and of Titus as having "moderation" in his escalation the Siege of Jerusalem (70).

1st century: Fabrications of Apion in Alexandria, Egypt, including the first recorded blood libel. Juvenal writes anti-Jewish poetry. Josephus picks apart contemporary and old anti-Semitic myths in his work Against Apion. (e-text at Project Gutenberg)

Late 1st–early 2nd century: Tacitus writes anti-Jewish polemic in his Histories (book 5). He reports on several old myths of ancient anti-Semitism (including that of the donkey's head in the Holy of Holies), but the key to his view that Jews "regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies" is his analysis of the extreme differences between monotheistic Judaism and the polytheism common throughout the Roman world.

117-138: Roman emperor Hadrian bans circumcision, making Judaism itself de facto illegal, and crushes the subsequent revolt led by Bar Kokhba. Judea is wiped off the map; Jews are left dispersed and stateless.

167: The first recorded accusation of deicide. Melito of Sardis publishes a sermon On the Passion, in which he blames the Jews for the persecution and death of Jesus, absolves Pontius Pilate and the Romans from guilt or responsibility. At a time when Christians were widely persecuted alongside Jews, Melitos speech was an appeal to Rome to spare Christians.

The 4th century

306 The Synod of Elvira bans intermarriage between Christians and Jews. Other social intercourses, such as eating together, are also forbidden.

315-337 Constantine I the Great refers to Jews as the "impure beings", members of "unclean and pernicious sect". His repressive edicts limit their rights, forbid congregations for religious services (deemed sacrilegious). Conversion to Judaism is outlawed. In contrast to past despots' political motivations to crush rebellions and dissent, Constantine and his followers pursue religious goals.

325 First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. The Christian Church separates Easter from Passover: "We desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews... How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded."

361-363 Tolerant to other faiths, pagan Emperor Julian the Apostate announces that the Jews are allowed to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt".

386 John Chrysostom of Antioch writes eight homilies Adversus Judaeos (lit: Against the Judaizers). See also: Christianity and anti-Semitism#The Church Fathers.

388 A Christian mob incited by the local bishop plunders and burns down a synagogue in Callinicum. Theodosius I orders punishment for those responsible, and rebuilding the synagogue at the Christian expense. Ambrose of Milan insists in his letter that the whole case be dropped and defends violence in pursuit of a religious cause: "The maintenance of civil law is secondary to religious interest." Later he interrupts the liturgy in the emperor's presence with an ultimatum that he would not continue until the case was dropped. Theodosius complies.

399 The Western Roman Emperor Flavius Augustus Honorius calls Judaism superstitio indigna and confiscates gold and silver collected by the synagogues for Jerusalem.

The 5th century

415 Jews are accused of ritual murder during Purim. The Church confiscates or burns synagogues in Antioch, Magona, Alexandria. Bishop (St.) Cyril of Alexandria forces his way into the synagogue, expels the Jews and gives their property to the mob. The prefect Orestes is stoned almost to death for protesting.

418 The first record of Jews being forced to convert or face expulsion. Severus, the Bishop of Minorca, claimed to have forced 540 Jews to accept Christianity upon conquering the island.

419 The monk Barsauma (subsequently the Bishop of Nisibis) gathers a group of followers and for the next three years destroys synagogues throughout the Eretz Israel.

429 The East Roman Emperor Theodosius II orders all funds raised by Jews to support schools be turned over to his treasury (AKA the patriarchal funds).

439 Jan 31. Code of Theodosius: the first imperial compilation of anti-Jewish laws after Constantine. Jews are prohibited from holding important positions involving money, including judicial and executive offices. The ban against building new synagogues is reinstated. The anti-Jewish statutes apply to the Samaritans. The Code is also accepted by Western Roman Emperor, Valentinian III.

451 Sassanid ruler Yazdegerd II of Persia's decree abolishes the Sabbath and orders executions of Jewish leaders, including the Exilarch Mar Nuna.

465 Council of Vannes, Gaul prohibited the Cristian clergy from participating in Jewish feasts.

The 6th century

519 Ravenna, Italy. After the local synagogues were burned down by the local mob, Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great orders the town to rebuild them at its own expense.

529-559 Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great revolutionizes judicial system in his novellae Corpus Juris Civilis (imperial instructions). New laws unite Church and state, making anyone who was not connected to the Christian church a non-citizen. These regulations determined the status of Jews throughout the Empire for hundreds of years. Jewish civil and religious rights restricted: "they shall enjoy no honors". The principle of Servitus Judaeorum (Servitude of the Jews) is established: the Jews cannot testify against Christians. The emperor becomes an arbiter in internal Jewish matters. The use of the Hebrew language in worship is forbidden. Shema Yisrael ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one"), sometimes considered the most important prayer in Judaism, is banned as a denial of the Trinity. Some Jewish communities are converted by force, their synagogues turned into churches.

535 The First Council of Clermont, Gaul bans Jewish judges and prohibits Jews from holding any public office position.

538 The Third Council of Orléans, Gaul forbids Jews to employ Christian servants or possess Christian slaves. Jews are prohibited from appearing in the streets during Easter: "their appearance is an insult to Christianity". A Merovingian king Childebert approves the measure.

576 Clermont-Ferrend, Gaul. Bishop Avitus offers Jews a choice: accept Christianity or leave Clermont. Most emigrate to Marseille.

587 King Reccared of Visigothic Spain bans Jews from slave ownership, intermarriage and holding positions of authority, and Reccared also declares that children of mixed marriages must be raised Christian.

589 The Council of Narbonne, Gaul forbids Jews from chanting psalms while burying their dead. Anyone violating this law is fined 6 ounces of gold.

The 7th century

610-620 Visigothic Hispania After many of his anti-Jewish edicts were ignored, king Sisebur prohibits Judaism. Those not baptized fled. This was the first incidence where a prohibition of Judaism affected an entire country.

614 Fifth Council of Paris decrees that all Jews holding military or civil positions must accept baptism, together with their families.

615 Italy. The earliest referral to the Juramentum Judaeorum (the Jewish Oath): the concept that no heretic could be believed in court against a Christian. The oath became standardized throughout Europe in 1555.

629 Mar. 21. Byzantine Emperor Heraclius with his army marches into Jerusalem. Jewish inhabitants support him after his promise of amnesty. Upon his entry into Jerusalem the local priests convince him that killing Jews is a good deed. Hundreds of Jews are massacred, thousands flee to Egypt.

629 Frankish King Dagobert I, encouraged by Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, expels all Jews from the kingdom.

632 The first case of officially sanctioned forced baptism. Emperor Heraclius violates the Theodosian Law, which limited freedoms of the Jews but protected them from forced conversions.

681 The Twelfth Council of Toledo, Spain orders burning of the Talmud and other "heretic" books.

682 Visigothic king Erwig begins his reign by enacting 28 anti-Jewish laws. He presses for the "utter extirpation of the pest of the Jews" and decrees that all converts must be registered by a parish priest, who must issue travel permits. All holidays, Christian and Jewish, must be spent in the presence of a priest to ensure piety and to prevent the backsliding.

692 Trulan Ecumenical Council in Italy forbids Christians on pain of excommunication to bathe in public baths with Jews, employ a Jewish doctor or socialize with Jews.

694 17th Council of Toledo, Spain. King Ergica believes rumors that the Jews had conspired to ally themselves with the Muslim invaders and forces Jews to give all land, slaves and buildings bought from Christians, to his treasury. He declares that all Jewish children over the age of seven should be taken from their homes and raised as Christians.

The 8th century

717 Caliph Omar II introduces discriminatory regulations against the dhimmi, among them for Jews to wear a special yellow garb.

722 Byzantine emperor Leo III forcibly converts all Jews and Montanists in the empire into mainstream Byzantine Christianity. (The Montanists were a Christian sect to begin with, but Leo III considered them to be heretics.)

The 9th century

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

820 After Charlemagne's death in 814, his tolerant policies are terminated. Archbishop of Lyon St. Agobard declares in his essays that Jews are accursed and born to be slaves. He forcibly converts Jewish children, giving them or their parents no choice, for the first time in France. In 826 he issues a series of pamphlets to convince King Louis the Pious to attack "Jewish insolence".

898-929 French king Charles the Simple confiscates Jewish-owned property in Narbonne and donates it to the Church.

The 10th century

960 Jewish Slave trader Ibrahim Ibn Jaaqub travels to Slavic countries: Poland, Bohemia, Bulgaria, Obotrits kingdom and writes his chronicle. Jews-organized trade of slaves exported from Slavic countries through Christian Europe to Muslim Empire, contributed to moral contempt of Jews by Christians. See also Adalbert of Prague. Mieszko I of Poland produce the coins with Hebrew letters.

The 11th century

1008-1013 Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah issues severe restrictions against Jews in the Land of Israel. All Jews are forced to wear a "golden calf" (made of wood) around their necks. On Oct. 18 1009 he destroys the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but the French "historian" Raoul Glaber blames the Jews. As a result, Jews were expelled from Limoges and other French towns.

1012 One of the first known persecutions of Jews in Germany: Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor expels Jews from Mainz.

1032 Abul Kamal Tumin conquers Fez, Morocco and decimates the Jewish community, killing 6,000 Jews.

1050 Council of Narbonne, France forbids Christians to live in Jewish homes.

1066 Dec 30. The entire Jewish community of Granada came under the riotous siege resulting in 4,000 deaths and the destruction of most property. The community quickly recovered, only to fall again at the hands of the Almoravides lead by Iban Iashufin in 1090, bringing the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain to end.

1078 Coucil of Gerona decrees Jews to pay taxes for support of the Catholic Church to the same extent as Christians.

File:FirstCrusade.jpg

Jews (identifiable by Judenhut) are being massacred by Crusaders.1250 French Bible illustration

1096 The First Crusade. Three hosts of crusaders pass through several Central European cities. The third, unofficial host, led by Count Emicho, decides to attack the Jewish communities, most notably in the Rhineland, under the slogan: "Why fight Christ's enemies abroad when they are living among us?" Eimicho's host attacks the synagogue at Speyers and kills all the defenders. Another 1,200 Jews commit suicide in Mayence to escape his attempt to forcibly convert them; see German Crusade, 1096. Attempts by the local bishops remained fruitless. All in all, 5,000 Jews were murdered. St. Bernard attempts to stop further atrocities: "Whoever makes an attempt on a life of a Jew, sins as if he had attacked Jesus himself."

The 12th century

1107 Moroccan Almoravid ruler Yoseph Ibn Tashfin orders all Moroccan Jews to convert or leave.

1143 150 Jews killed in Ham, France.

1144 March 20 (Passover), the first blood libel. Jews of Norwich are accused with both ritual murder after a boy (William of Norwich) is found dead with stab wounds. The legend gets turned into a cult, William acquires status of martyr saint and crowds of pilgrims bring wealth to local church. In 1189, Jewish deputation attending coronation of Richard the Lionheart is attacked by the crowd. Pogroms in London follow and spread around England. On Feb 6 1190 all the Norwich Jews found in their houses were slaughtered, except few who found refuge in the castle.

1148-1212 The rule of the Almohads. Only Jews who had converted to Christianity or Islam are allowed to live in Granada. One of the refugees was Rambam (AKA Maimonides) who settled in Fez and later in Fustat near Cairo.

1171 Blois, France: 31 Jews burned at the stake for blood libel.

1179 The Third Lateran Council, Canon 26: Jews are forbidden to be plaintiffs or witnesses against Christians in the Courts. Jews are forbidden to withhold inheritance from descendants who had accepted Christianity.

1180 Philip Augustus of France after four months in power, imprisons all the Jews in his lands and demands a ransom for their release. In 1181 he annuls all loans made by Jews to Christians and takes a percentage for himself. A year later, he confiscates all Jewish property and expels the Jews from Paris. He readmits them in 1198, only after another ransom was paid and a taxation scheme was set up to procure funds for himself.

1189 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa orders priests not to preach against Jews.

1190 Mar. 16. 500 Jews of York massacred after 6-day siege by departing Crusaders, backed by a number of people indebted to Jewish money-lenders. York Masssacre

1190 Saladdin takes over Jerusalem from Crusaders and lifts the ban for Jews to live there.

1198 Aug. Saladdin's nephew al-Malik, caliph of Yemen, summons all the Jews and forcibly converts them.

The 13th century

13th century Germany. Appearance of Judensau: obscene and dehumanizing imagery of Jews, ranging from etchings to Cathedral ceilings. Its popularity lasted for over 600 years.

1215 The Fourth Lateran Council headed by Pope Innocent III declares: "Jews and Saracens of both sexes in every Christian province and at all times shall be marked off in the eyes of the public from other peoples through the character of their dress." (Canon 68). See Judenhut. The Fourth Lateran Council also noted that the Jews' own law required the wearing of identifying symbols. Pope Innocent III also reiterated papal injunctions against forcible conversions, and added: "No Christian shall do the Jews any personal injury...or deprive them of their possessions...or disturb them during the celebration of their festivals...or extort money from them by threatening to exhume their dead."

1222 Council of Oxford: Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton forbids Jews from building new synagogues, owning slaves or mixing with Christians.

1235 Blood libel at Fulda, Germany. Pope Gregory IX issued a bull denouncing mob violence against Jews. And in (1247) Pope Innocent IV repudiated the legend of the ritual murder of Christian children by Jews. This denunciation of the Blood libel legend was repeated in 1272 by Pope Gregory X, who also ruled that thereafter any testimony of a Christian against a Jew could not be accepted unless it was confirmed by a Jew.

1236 Crusaders attack Jewish communities of Anjou and Poitou and attempt to baptize all the Jews. Those who resisted (est. 3,000) were slaughtered.

1240 Duke Jean le Roux expels Jews from Brittany.

1240 Disputation of Paris. Pope Gregory IX puts Talmud on trial on the charges that it contains blasphemy against Jesus and Mary and attacks on the Church. In 1242 24 cart-loads of hand-written manuscripts were burned in the streets of Paris.

1254 Louis IX of France expels the Jews from France, their property and synagogues confiscated. Most move to Germany and further east, however, after a couple of years, some were readmitted back.

1255 Self-proclaimed "master of the Jews" king Henry III of England sells his rights to the Jews to his brother for 5,000 marks.

1263 Disputation of Barcelona.

1267 In a special session, the Vienna city council forces Jews to wear Pileum cornutum (a cone-shaped head dress, prevalent in many medieval illustrations of Jews). This distinctive dress is an addition to Yellow badge Jews were already forced to wear. Christians are not permitted to attend Jewish ceremonies.

1267 Synod of Breslau orders Jews to live in compulsory ghettos

1275 King Edward I of England passes anti-Jewish statute forcing Jews over the age of seven to wear an identifying Yellow badge, and making usury illegal (linked to blasphemy), in order to seize their assets. Scores of English Jews are arrested, 300 hanged and their property goes to the Crown. In 1280 he orders Jews to be present at Dominicans preaching conversion. In 1287 he arrests heads of Jewish families and demands their communities to pay ransom of 12,000 pounds.

1278 The Edict of Pope Nicholas III requires compulsory attendance of Jews at conversion sermons.

1279 Synod of Ofen: Christians are forbidden to sell or rent real estate to/from Jews.

1282 The Archbishop of Canterbury, John Pectin, orders all London synagogues to close and prohibits Jewish physicians from practicing on Christians.

1283 Philip III of France causes mass migration of Jews by forbidding them to live in the small rural localities.

1285 Blood libel in Munich, Germany results in the death of 68 Jews. 180 more Jews are burned alive at the synagogue.

1287 A mob in Oberwesel, Germany kills 40 Jewish men, women and children after a ritual murder accusation.

1289 Jews expelled from Gascony and Anjou.

1290 July 18. King Edward I of England expels all Jews from England, allowing to take only what they could carry, all the other property became the Crown's. Official reason: continued practice of usury.

1291 Philip the Fair publishes an ordinance prohibiting the Jews to settle in France.

1298 German knight Rindfleisch leads massacres of thousands of Jews in 146 localities.

The 14th century

1305 Philip IV of France seizes all Jewish property (except the clothes they wear) and expels them from France (approx. 100,000). His successor Louis X of France allows French Jews to return in 1315.

1310 Synod of Mainz defines adoption by a Christian of Judaism or return by a baptized Jew to the faith of his fathers as a heresy.

1320 Shepherds' Crusade attacks the Jews of 120 localities in southwest France.

1321 King Henry II of Castile forces Jews to wear Yellow badge.

1321 Jews in central France falsely charged of their supposed collusion with lepers to poison wells. After massacre of est. 5,000 Jews, king Philip V of France admits they were innocent.

1322 King Charles IV expels Jews from France.

1336 Persecutions against Jews in Franconia and Alsace led by lawless German bands, the Armleder.

1348 European Jews are blamed for the Black Death. Charge laid to the Jews that they poisoned the wells. Massacres spread throughout Spain, France, Germany and Austria. More than 200 Jewish communities destroyed by violence. Many communities have been expelled and settle down in Poland.

1348 Basel: 600 Jews burned at the stake, 140 children forcibly baptized, the remaining city's Jews expelled. The city synagogue is turned into a church and the Jewish cemetery is destroyed.

1359 Charles V of France allows Jews to return for a period of 20 years in order to pay ransom for his father John II of France, imprisoned in England. After few extensions, on Nov 3, 1394 his son Charles VI of France expels all Jews from France.

1386 Wenceslaus, Holy Roman Emperor, expels the Jews from Swabian League and Strasbourg and confiscates their property. On March 18, 1389, a Jewish boy is accused of plotting against a priest. The mob slaughters approx. 3,000 of Prague Jews, destroys the city's synagogue and Jewish cemetery. Wenceslaus insists that the responsibility lay with the Jews for going outside during the Holy Week.

1391 Violence incited by Archdeacon of Ecija Ferrand Martinez, results in over 10,000 murdered Jews. The Jewish quarter in Barcelona is destroyed. The campaign quickly spreads throughout Spain (except for Granada) and destroys Jewish communities in Valencia and Palma De Majorca.

1399 Blood libel in Posen.

The 15th century

1411 Oppressive legislation against Jews in Spain as an outcome of the preaching of the Dominican friar Vicente Ferrer.

1413 Disputation of Tortosa, Spain, staged by the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, is followed by forced mass conversions.

1420 All Jews are expelled from Lyons.

1421 Persecutions of Jews in Vienna, known as Wiener Gesera (Vienna Edict), confiscation of their possessions, and forced conversion of Jewish children. 270 Jews burned at stake. Expulsion of Jews from Austria.

1422 Pope Martin V issues a Bull reminding Christians that Christianity was derived from Judaism and warns the friars not to incite against the Jews. The Bull was withdrawn the following year, alleging that the Jews of Rome attained the Bull by fraud.

1431 German Knight Saufleisch massacres Jews of Madrid on entering the city.

1434 Council of Basel, Sessio XIX: Jews are forbidden to obtain academic degrees and to act as agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians.

1435 Massacre and forced conversion of Majorcan Jews.

1438 Establishment of mellahs (ghettos) in Morocco.

1447 Casimir IV renews all the rights of Jews of Poland and makes his charter one of the most liberal in Europe. He revokes it in 1454 at the insistence of Bishop Zbigniew.

1463 Pope Nicholas V authorizes the establishment of the Inquisition to investigate heresy among the Marranos. See also Crypto-Judaism.

1473-1474 Spain. Massacres of Marranos of Valladolid, Cordoba, Segovia, Ciudad Real.

1475 A student of the preacher Giovanni da Capistrano, Franciscan Bernardino de Fletre, accuses the Jews in murdering an infant, Simon. The entire community is arrested, 15 leaders are burned at the stake, the rest expelled. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V confirmed Simon's cultus. Saint Simon was considered a martyr and patron of kidnap and torture victims for alomst 500 years. In 1965 Pope Paul VI declared the episode a fraud, and decanonized Simon's sainthood.

1481 The Spanish Inquisition is instituted.

1487 - 1504 Bishop Gennady exposes the heresy of Zhidovstvuyshchy (Judaizers) in Eastern Orthodoxy of Muscovy.

1490 The Blood libel in Laguardia, Spain, where the alleged victim became revered as a saint.

1492 Mar 31. Ferdinand II and Isabella issue General Edict on the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain: approx. 200,000. Some return to the Land of Israel. As many localities and entire countries expel their Jewish citizens (after robbing them), and others deny them entrance, the legend of the Wandering Jew, a condemned harbinger of calamity, gains popularity.

1492 Oct. 24 Jews of Mecklenburg, Germany are accused of stabbing a consecrated wafer. 27 Jews are burned, including two women. The spot is still called the Judenberg. All the Jews are expelled from the duchy.

1493 Jan. 12. Expulsion from Sicily: approx. 37,000.

1496 Forced conversion and expulsion of Jews from Portugal. This included many who fled Spain four years earlier.

1498 Prince Alexander of Lithuania forces most of the Jews to forfeit their property or convert. The main motivation is to cancel the debts the nobles owe to the Jews. Within a short time the trade grounds to a halt and the Prince invites the Jews back in.

The 16th century

Jews from Worms, Germany wear the mandatory yellow badge. A moneybag and garlic in the hands are an anti-semitic stereotype. 16th century drawing

1505 Ten České Budějovice Jews tortured and executed for killing a Christian girl; later, on deathbed, shepherd confesses to fabricating the accusation.

1506 April 19. A marrano expresses his doubts about miracle visions at St. Dominics Church in Lisbon, Portugal. The crowd, led by Dominican monks, kills him, then ransacks Jewish houses and slaughters any Jew they could find. The countrymen hear about the massacre and join in. Over 2,000 marranos killed in three days.

1509 August 19. Converted Jew Johann Pfefferkorn in Frankfurt receives authority of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor to destroy all Jewish books, especially the Talmud.

1510 July 19. Forty Jews are executed in Brandenburg, Germany for allegedly desecrating the host; remainder expelled. November 23. Less-wealthy Jews expelled from Naples; remainder heavily taxed. 38 Jews burned at the stake in Berlin.

1511 June 6. Eight Roman Catholic converts from Judaism burned at the stake for allegedly reverting.

1516 The first ghetto established, on one of the islands in Venice.

1519 Martin Luther leads Protestant Reformation and challenges the doctrine of Servitus Judaeorum "... to deal kindly with the Jews and to instruct them to come over to us". February 21. All Jews expelled from Ratisbon/Regensburg.

1527 June 16. Jews ordered to leave Florence, but order is soon rescinded.

1528 Three judaizers burned at the stake in Mexico City's first auto da fe.

1535 After Spanish troops capture Tunis all the local Jews are sold into slavery.

1543 In his pamphlet On the Jews and Their Lies Martin Luther advocates an eight-point plan to get rid of the Jews as a distinct group either by religious conversion or by expulsion:

"...set fire to their synagogues or schools..."
"...their houses also be razed and destroyed..."
"...their prayer books and Talmudic writings... be taken from them..."
"...their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb..."
"...safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews..."
"...usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them..." and "Such money should now be used in ... the following [way]... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed [certain amount]..."
"...young, strong Jews and Jewesses [should]... earn their bread in the sweat of their brow..."
"If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs."

1540 All Jews banished from Prague.

1545 Lutherans raid and loot synagogue in Berlin. Jews subsequently expelled.

1546 Martin Luther's sermon Admonition against the Jews contains accusations of ritual murder, black magic, and poisoning of wells. Luther recognizes no obligation to protect the Jews.

1547 Ivan the Terrible becomes ruler of Russia and refuses to allow Jews to live in or even enter his kingdom because they "bring about great evil" (quoting his response to request by Polish king Sigismund).

1550 Dr. Joseph Hacohen is chased out of Genoa for practicing medicine; soon all Jews are expelled.

1553 Rome’s Inquisitor-General, Cardinal Carafa (later Pope Paul IV) has Talmud publicly burnt in Rome on Rosh Hashanah, starting a wave of Talmud burning throughout Italy.

1554 Cornelio da Montalcino, a Franciscan Friar who converted to Judaism, is burned alive in Rome.

1555 In Papal Bull Cum nimis absurdum, Pope Paul IV writes: "It appears utterly absurd and impermissible that the Jews, whom God has condemned to eternal slavery for their guilt, should enjoy our Christian love." He renews anti-Jewish legislation and installs a locked nightly ghetto in Rome. The Bull also forces Jewish males to wear a yellow hat, females - yellow kerchief. Owning real estate or practicing medicine on Christians is forbidden. It also limits Jewish communities to only one synagogue.

1557 Jews temporarily banished from Prague.

1558 Recanati, Italy: a baptized Jew Joseph Paul More enters synagogue on Yom Kippur under the protection of Pope Paul IV and tries to preach a conversion sermon. The congregation evicts him. Soon after, the Jews are expelled from Recanati.

1559 12,000 copies of Talmud burned in Milan.

1563 February. Russian troops take Polotsk from Lithuania, Jews are given ultimatum: embrace Russian Orthodox Church or die. Around 300 Jewish men, women and children were thrown into ice holes of Dvina river.

1564 Brest-Litovsk: the son of a wealthy Jewish tax collector is accused of killing the family's Christian servant for ritual purposes. He is tortured and executed in line with the law. King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland forbids future charges of ritual murder, calling them groundless.

1565 Jew banished from Prague.

1566 Antonio Ghislieri elected and, as Pope Pius V, reinstates the harsh anti-Jewish laws of Pope Paul IV.

1586 Pope Sixtus V forbids printing of the Talmud.

1590 Jewish quarter of Mikulov burns to ground and 15 people die while Christians watch or pillage. King Philip II of Spain orders expulsion of Jews from Lombardy. His order is ignored by local authorities until 1597, when 72 Jewish families are forced into exile.

1593 Pope Clement VIII expels Jews from all Papal states except Rome and Ancona.

The 17th century

1603 Frei Diogo Da Assumpacao, a partly Jewish friar who embraced Judaism, burned alive in Lisbon.

1612 The Hamburg Senate decides to officially allow Jews to live in the city on the condition there is no public worship.

Expulsion of the Jews from Frankfurt on August 23, 1614: "1380 persons old and young were counted at the exit of the gate"

1614 Vincent Fettmilch, who called himself the "new Haman of the Jews", leads a raid on Frankfurt synagogue that turned into an attack which destroyed the whole community.

1615 King Louis XIII of France decrees that all Jews must leave the country within one month on pain of death.

1615 The Guild led by Dr. Chemnitz, "non-violently" forced the Jews from Worms.

1619 Shah Abbasi of the Persian Sufi Dynasty increases persecution against the Jews, forcing many to outwardly practice Islam. Many keep practicing Judaism in secret.

1624 Ghetto established in Ferrara, Italy.

1632 King Ladislaus IV of Poland forbids Anti-Semitic print-outs.

1648-1655 The Ukrainian Cossacks lead by Bohdan Chmielnicki massacre about 100,000 Jews and similar number of Polish nobles, 300 Jewish communities destroyed.

1655 Oliver Cromwell readmits Jews to England.

1664 May. Jews of Lvov ghetto organize self-defense against impending assault by students of Jesuit seminary and Cathedral school. The militia sent by the officials to restore order, instead joined the attackers. About 100 Jews killed.

1670 Jews expelled from Vienna.

The 18th century

1711 Johann Andreas Eisenmenger writes his Entdecktes Judenthum ("Judaism Unmasked"), a work denouncing Judaism and which had a formative influence on modern anti-Semitic polemics.

1712 Blood libel in Sandomierz and expulsion of the town's Jews.

1727 Edict of Catherine I of Russia: "The Jews... who are found in Ukraine and in other Russian provinces are to be expelled at once beyond the frontiers of Russia."

1734-1736 The Haidamaks, paramilitary bands in Polish Ukraine, attack Jews.

1742 Dec. Elizabeth of Russia issues a decree of expulsion of all the Jews out of Russian Empire. Her resolution to the Senate's appeal regarding harm to the trade: "I don't desire any profits from the enemies of Christ". One of the deportees is Antonio Ribera Sanchez, her own personal physician and the head of army's medical dept.

1744 Frederick II The Great (a "heroic genius", according to Hitler) limits Breslau to ten "protected" Jewish families, on the grounds that otherwise they will "transform it into complete Jerusalem". He encourages this practice in other Prussian cities. In 1750 he issues Revidiertes General Privilegium und Reglement vor die Judenschaft: "protected" Jews had an alternative to "either abstain from marriage or leave Berlin" (Simon Dubnow).

1744 Dec. Archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa orders: "... no Jew is to be tolerated in our inherited duchy of Bohemia" by the end of Feb. 1745. In Dec. 1748 she reverses her position, on condition that Jews pay for readmission every ten years. This extortion was known as malke-geld (queen's money). In 1752 she introduces the law limiting each Jewish family to one son.

1762 Rhode Island refuses to grant Jews Aaron Lopez and Isaac Eliezer citizenship stating "no person who is not of the Christian religion can be admitted free to this colony."

1768 Haidamaks massacre the Jews of Uman, Poland.

1775 Pope Pius VI issues a severe Editto sopra gli ebrei (Edict concerning the Jews). Previously lifted restrictions are reimposed, Judaism is suppressed.

1782 Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II abolishes most of persecution practices in Toleranzpatent on condition that Yiddish and Hebrew are eliminated from public records and judicial autonomy is annulled. Judaism is branded "quintessence of foolishness and nonsense". Moses Mendelssohn writes: "Such a tolerance... is even more dangerous play in tolerance than open persecution".

1790 May 20. Eleazer Solomon is quartered for the alleged murder of a Christian girl in Grodno.

1790 "To Bigotry No Sanction, to Persecution No Assistance" (George Washington's Letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island)

1790-1792 Destruction of most of the Jewish communities of Morocco.

1791 Catherine II of Russia confines Jews to the Pale of Settlement and imposes them with double taxes. Pale of Settlement

The 19th century

1805 Massacre of Jews in Algeria.

1819 A series of anti-Jewish riots in Germany that spread to several neighboring countries: Denmark, Poland, Latvia and Bohemia known as Hep-Hep Riots, from the derogatory rallying cry against the Jews in Germany.

1827 August 26 Compulsory military service for the Jews of Russia: Jewish boys under 18 years of age, known as the Cantonists, were placed in preparatory military training establishments for 25 years. Cantonists were encouraged and sometimes forced to baptize.

1835 Oppressive constitution for the Jews issued by Czar Nicholas I of Russia.

1840 The Damascus affair: false accusations cause arrests and atrocities, culminating in the seizure of sixty-three Jewish children and attacks on Jewish communities throughout the Middle East.

1844 Karl Marx praises Bruno Bauer's essays containing demands that the Jews abandon Judaism, and publishes his work On the Jewish Question: "What is the worldly cult of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly god? Money... Money is the jealous God of Israel, besides which no other god may exist... The god of the Jews has been secularized and has become the god of this world", "In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism."

1853 Blood libel in Saratov, Russia renews of the blood libels throughout Russia.

1858 Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish boy, is abducted in Bologna by Catholic conversionists, an episode which aroused universal indignation in liberal circles.

1862 Polish Jews are given equal rights. Old privileges forbidding Jews to settle in some cities are abolished.

1871 Speech of Pope Pius IX in regard to Jews: "of these dogs, there are too many of them at present in Rome, and we hear them howling in the streets, and they are disturbing us in all places."

1878 Adolf Stoecker, German anti-Semitic preacher and politician, founds the Social Workers' Party, which marks the beginning of the political anti-Semitic movement in Germany.

1879 Heinrich von Treitschke, German historian and politician, justifies the anti-Semitic campaigns in Germany, bringing anti-Semitism into learned circles.

1879 Wilhelm Marr coins the term Anti-Semitism, a misnomer.

1881-1884 Pogroms sweep southern Russia, propelling mass Jewish emigration: about 2 million Russian Jews emigrated in period 1880-1920. The Russian word "pogrom" becomes international.

1882 The Tiszaeszlár blood libel in Hungary arouses public opinion throughout Europe.

1882 First International Anti-Jewish Congress convenes at Dresden, Germany.

1882 May. A series of "temporary laws" by Czar Alexander III of Russia (the May Laws), which adopted a systematic policy of discrimination, with the object of removing the Jews from their economic and public positions, to "cause one-third of the Jews to emigrate, one-third to accept baptism and one-third to starve."

1887 Russia introduces measures to limit Jews access to education, known as the quota.

1891 Blood libel in Xanten, Germany.

1891 Expulsion of 20,000 Jews from Moscow, Russia. The Congress of the United States eases immigration restrictions for Jews from the Russian Empire. (Webster-Campster report)

1893 Karl Lueger establishes anti-Semitic Christian Social Party and becomes the Mayor of Vienna in 1897.

1894 The Dreyfus Affair in France.

1895 Alexander C. Cuza organizes the Alliance Anti-semitique Universelle in Bucharest, Romania.(Do not confuse with reformist Romanian ruler Alexander John Cuza).

1899 Houston Stewart Chamberlain, racist and anti-Semitic author, publishes his Die Grundlagen des 19 Jahrhunderts which later became a basis of National-Socialist ideology.

1899 Blood libel in Bohemia (the Hilsner case).

The 20th century

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church adhered to a distinction between "good anti-Semitism" and "bad anti-Semitism". The "bad" kind promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent. This was considered un-Christian because the Christian message was intended for all of humanity regardless of ethnicity; anyone could become a Christian. The "good" kind criticized alleged Jewish conspiracies to control newspapers, banks, and other institutions, to care only about accumulation of wealth, etc. Many Catholic bishops wrote articles criticizing Jews on such grounds, and, when accused of promoting hatred of Jews, would remind people that they condemned the "bad" kind of anti-Semitism. A detailed account is found in historian David Kertzer's book The Popes Against the Jews.

The victims of a 1905 pogrom in Dnipropetrovsk

1903 The Kishinev pogrom: 49 Jews murdered.

1905 The first appearance of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Russia.

1911 The Blood libel trial of Menahem Mendel Beilis in Kiev.

1915 The World War I prompts expulsion of 250,000 Jews from Western Russia.

1917-1921 Attacked for being revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries, unpatriotic pacifists or warmongers, religious zealots or godless atheists, capitalist exploiters or bourgeois profiteers, masses of Jewish civilians (by various estimates 70,000 to 250,000, the number of orphans exceeded 300,000) were murdered in pogroms in the course of Russian Civil War. Out of estimated 900 mass pogroms:

about 40% were perpetrated by the forces led by Simon Petlyura fighting for Ukrainian directorate. Its president Vladimir Vinnichenko was quoted as saying: "The pogroms will cease when Jews will cease to be Communists",
25% by the Green Army and various nationalist and anarchist gangs,
17% by the White Army, especially forces of Anton Denikin,
8.5% by the Red Army. (Source: Solzhenitsyn 200 Years Together)

1919-1922 Soviet Yevsektsiya (the Jewish section of the Communist Party) attacks Bund and Zionist parties for "Jewish cultural particularism". In April 1920, the All-Russian Zionist Congress is broken up by Cheka led by Bolsheviks, whose leadership and ranks included many anti-Jewish Jews. Thousands are arrested and sent to Gulag for "counter-revolutionary... collusion in the interests of Anglo-French bourgeoisie... to restore the Palestine state." Hebrew language is banned, Judaism is suppressed, along with other religions.

1920 The Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920 of old Yishuv, incited by Haj Amin Al-Husseini.

File:Protocols of the Elders of Zion 1927 Paris Ru emig.jpg

The Protocols issued by Russian emigrants in Paris, 1927

1920 The idea that Bolshevik revolution is a Jewish conspiracy for the world domination sparks worldwide interest in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In a single year, five editions are sold out in England alone. In the US Henry Ford prints 500,000 copies and begins a series of anti-Semitic articles in The Dearborn Independent newspaper.

1921 Riots in Palestine of May, 1921 also known as Jaffa riots. Those riots eventually lead to Tel Aviv developing a business district, and Tel Aviv goes on to become one of the largest cities in Israel.

1921-1925 Outbreak of Anti-Semitism in USA, lead by Ku Klux Klan.

1925 Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.

1929 August 23. The ancient Jewish community of Hebron destroyed in the Hebron massacre. Hebron Massacre

1933-1941 Persecution of Jews in Germany rises until they are stripped of their rights not only as citizens, but also as human beings. It is also during this time in which Anti-Semitism reached an all-time high. [2]

Law against Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities
Law for the Reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service (ban on professions)

1934 2,000 of Afghani Jews expelled from their towns and forced to live in the wilderness.

1935 Nuremberg Laws introduced. Jewish rights rescinded. The Reich Citizenship Law strips them of citizenship. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor:

Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden.
Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden.
Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or kindred blood as domestic servants.
Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colors. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colors.

1938 Anschluss, pogroms in Vienna, anti-Jewish legislation, deportations to concentration camps.

Decree authorizing local authorities to bar Jews from the streets on certain days
Decree empowering the justice Ministry to void wills offending the "sound judgment of the people"
Decree providing for compulsory sale of Jewish real estate
Decree providing for liquidation of Jewish real estate agencies, brokerage agencies, and marriage agencies catering to non-Jews
Directive providing for concentration of Jews in houses

1938 Father Charles E. Coughlin, Roman Catholic priest, starts anti-Semitic weekly radio broadcasts in the United States.

1938 November 9 and 10, Kristallnacht (Night of The Broken Glass). In one night most German synagogues and hundreds of Jewish-owned German businesses are destroyed. Almost 100 Jews are killed, and 10,000 are sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht and The World's Response

1938 November 17. Racial legislation introduced in Italy. Anti Jewish economic legislation in Hungary.

1938 July 6 - July 15. Evian Conference: 31 country refuses to accept Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany (with exception of Dominican Republic). Most find temporary refuge in Poland. See also Bermuda Conference.

1939 The "Voyage of the damned": S.S. St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees from Germany, is turned back by Cuba and the US. The Tragedy of the S.S. St. Louis

1939 February. The Congress of the United States rejects the Wagner-Rogers Bill, an effort to admit 20,000 Jewish refugee children under the age of 14 from Nazi Germany. A Decision Not to Save 20,000 Jewish Children

1939-1945 The Holocaust. About 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children, systematically killed by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (3 million), Soviet Union (2 million) and other countries of Europe (1 million). See also Holocaust denial.

1941 The Farhud pogrom in Baghdad results in 200 Jews dead, 2,000 wounded.

1946 July 4. The Kielce pogrom. Over 40 Jews were massacred and 80 wounded out of about 200 who returned home after World War II. There were also killed 2 non-Jewish Poles.

1946 Nikita Khrushchev, then the first secretary of Communist party of Ukraine, closes many synagogues (the number declines from 450 to 60) and prevents Jewish refugees from returning to their homes: "It is not in our interests that the Ukrainians should associate the return of the Soviet power with the return of the Jews." (Joseph Schechtmann, Star in Eclipse: Russian Jewry Revisited).

1948 January 13 Solomon Mikhoels, actor-director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater and chairman of Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee is killed in suspicious car accident (see MGB). Mass arrests of prominent Jewish intellectuals and suppression of Jewish culture follow under the banners of campaign on rootless cosmopolitanism and anti-Zionism. Some 13 Yiddish writers were executed on Aug. 12, 1952, among them Peretz Markish, Leib Kwitko, David Hoffstein, Itzik Feffer, David Bergelson, Der Nister. In 1955 UN General Assembly's session a high Soviet official still denied the "rumors" about their disappearance.

1948-2001 The Jewish population of Arab Middle East and North Africa is reduced from 900,000 to less than 8,000. Some communities, as ancient as the Babylonian captivity, uprooted due to anti-Semitism. (See also Jewish refugees).

1952 The Prague Trials

1953 The Doctors' plot accusation in the USSR. Scores of Soviet Jews dismissed from their jobs, arrested, some executed.

1964 The Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI issues the document Nostra Aetate as part of Vatican II, repudiating the doctrine of Jewish guilt for the Crucifixion.

File:Iudaism bez prikras 63-7.gif

"Judaism Without Embellishments" published by the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in 1963

1960s-1991 The rise of Zionology in the Soviet Union. In 1983, the Department of Propaganda and the KGB's Anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public orchestrates formally "anti-Zionist" campaign.

1968 The "anti-Zionist" campaign in Poland. Most of the remaining Jews of Poland emigrate.

1972 The Munich Olympic Massacre.

Since 1987 Activities of Pamyat and other "nonformal" ultra-nationalist organizations in the Soviet Union.

1992 March 17. The Israeli Embassy Attack in Buenos Aires. 29 killed, and 242 wounded.

1994 July 18. Buenos Aires. The Argentina-Israeli Mutual Association building bombing. 86 killed, 300 wounded.

The 21st century

File:Tishreen-Apr-30-2000.jpg

Cartoon from the Syrian newspaper Tishreen (Apr 30, 2000). Negative zoomorphism is commonly used in anti-Semitic discourse.

2003 October 16. The Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohammed draws standing ovation at the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference for his speech. An excerpt: "...But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them... They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong..."

2003 The Istanbul Bombings.

2004 June. A series of attacks on Jewish cemeteries in Wellington,New Zealand.

2004 September. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, a part of the Council of Europe, called on its member nations to "ensure that criminal law in the field of combating racism covers anti-Semitism" and to penalize intentional acts of public incitement to violence, hatred or discrimination, public insults and defamation, threats against a person or group, and the expression of anti-Semitic ideologies. It urged member nations to "prosecute people who deny, trivialize or justify the Holocaust". The report was drawn up in wake of a rise in attacks on Jews in Europe. The report said it was Europe's "duty to remember the past by remaining vigilant and actively opposing any manifestations of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance... Anti-Semitism is not a phenomenon of the past and... the slogan 'never again' is as relevant today as it was 60 years ago." ([3])

2005 A group of 15 members of the State Duma of the Russian Federation demands that Judaism and Jewish organizations be banned from the country. In June, 500 prominent Russians demand that the state prosecutor investigate ancient Jewish texts as "anti-Russian" and ban Judaism. The investigation was launched, but halted among international outcry.

2005 December. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad widens the hostility between Iran and Israel by denying the Holocaust during a speech in the Iranian city of Zahedan. He made the following comments on live television: "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets." Continuing, he suggested that if the Holocaust had occurred, that it was the responsibility of Europeans to offer up territory to Jews: "This is our proposal: give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them [the Jews] so that the Jews can establish their country."

Anti-Semitism is regarded by some as a cause of the continuing violence against Israelis over the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. See also Arabs and anti-Semitism.

External links

Books

ISBN 0706513274 Anti-Semitism, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1974.
ISBN 1559724366 But Were They Good for the Jews? Over 150 Historical Figures Viewed Fom a Jewish Perspective (by Elliot Rosenberg)
ISBN 0060156988 A History of the Jews (by Paul Johnson)
ISBN 078796851X The New Anti-Semitism (by Phyllis Chesler)
ISBN 0060542462 Never Again?: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism (by Abraham Foxman)
ISBN 0300084862 Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (by Joshua Rubenstein)
ISBN 0253337844 The Moscow State Yiddish Theater (by Jeffrey Veidlinger)
ISBN 0827606362 History and Hate: The Dimensions of Anti-Semitism (ed. David Berger)
ISBN 0809127024 The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism (by Edward H. Flannery)
ISBN 0886190649 None is too many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948 (by Irving M. Abella, Harold M. Troper)
ISBN 080505944X The Enemy at His Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I (by S. Ansky, translated by Joachim Neugroschel)
ISBN 0393318397 Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice (by Bernard Lewis)
ISBN 0841909105 The Destruction of European Jews (by Raul Hilberg) Holmes & Meier Publishers. 1985