History of antisemitism: Difference between revisions

This is the chronology of hostilities towards or discrimination against the Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group. See also: Anti-Semitism.

Antiochus to Hadrian

175 BCE - 165 BCE Antiochus Epiphanes sacks Jerusalem, bans circumcision, confiscates copies of the Torah, and erects an altar to Zeus in the Temple after first plundering it. He is eventually expelled by the Maccabees, who were led by Judas Maccabeus. Jews celebrate Hanukkah in commemoration of their victory.

59 BCE Cicero denounces Judaism as barbara superstitio, describes Jews as people born to be slaves.

1st century Fabrications of Apion in Alexandria, Egypt. Tacitus writes in Histories that Jews regard "the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies", calls for their expulsion from Rome. Juvenal writes anti-Jewish poetry.

26 Procurator Pontius Pilate misappropriates Temple funds, orders his legion to attack the protestors. Philo calls him consumed with "corruption, violence and robbery", responsible for "oppression, illegal executions, never-ending most grevious cruelty". Blaming Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth (in c. 36) is traditional anti-semitic accusation.

Constantine to Almoravides

306 The Council of Elvira bans intermarriage of Christians and Jews.

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 Roman despots' political motivations to crush rebellions and dissent, Constantine and his followers pursue religious goals.

325 Ecumenical council at Nicaea. The Christian Church formulates its policy: Jews must exist for the sake of Christianity in seclusion and humiliation.

386 John Chrysostom of Antioch writes eight homilies Adversus Judaeos (against the Judaizers).

415 Accusations of ritual murder by the Jews during Purim. Christians confiscate or burn synagogues in Antioch, Magona, Alexandria. Bishop of Alexandria St. Cyril expels the Jews from the city in spite of the opposition of prefect Orestes.

438 The Roman Emperor of the East Theodosius II legalizes civil inferiority of the Jews, enacts a code prohibiting Jews from holding important positions involving money, burns synagogues.

c. 470 Jews persecuted in Babylonia by the exilarch Firuz, many Jews murdered and their children given to Mazdeans.

519 Residents of Ravenna, Italy burn down local synagogues.

529 - 559 Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great revolutionizes judicial system in his novellae Corpus Juris Civilis (imperial instructions). New laws restrict Jewish civil and religious rights: "they shall enjoy no honors". The principle of servitus Judaeorum (Servitude of the Jews) is established. The emperor becomes an arbiter in internal Jewish matters. The use of the Hebrew language in worship is forbidden. The confession of faith "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one" is banned as a denial of the Trinity. Some Jewish communities are converted by force, their synagogues turned into churches.

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

612 After several anti-Jewish edicts are ignored, Visigothic king Sisebut of Spain inaugurates a policy of forcible conversion of all Jews in the kingdom. Many Jews flee Spain.

628 Dagobert I expels Jews from Frankish kingdom.

632 Heraclius, Byzantine emperor, decrees forced baptism of all Jews in the empire. Hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands exiled to Egypt, ending Jewish towns in the Galilee and Judea.

632 Official Church doctrine on conversion of Jews in Spain formulated.

638 Visigothic king Chintila compels the Sixth Council of Toledo to adopt resolution proclaiming that only Catholics may reside in the kingdom of Spain.

682 Visigothic king Erwig continues oppression of Jews, making it illegal to practice any Jewish rites and pressing for the conversion or emigration of the remaining Jews.

694 - 711 All Jews under Visigothic rule in Spain declared slaves, their possessions confiscated and Judaism outlawed.

717 Caliph Omar II introduces series of discriminatory regulations against the dhimmi, among them wearing of a special yellow garb.

722 Leo III of Constantinople forcibly converts Jews into Christianity.

1008 - 1013 Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim issues severe restrictions against Jews in Land of Israel. All Jews are forced to wear a "golden calf" around their necks.

1012 The beginning of persecutions against Jews in Germany. Emperor Henry II expels Jews from Mainz.

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

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 in Spain to the end..

Crusades to Marranos

1096 The First Crusade. The Crusaders massacre the Jews in several Central European cities, most notably in Rhineland (over 5,000 Jews murdered). This begins centuries of pogroms linked to the Crusades.

1096 May. Count Emico of Leiningen, on his way to join the Crusade, attacked the synagogue at Speyers and killed all the defenders. Another 1,200 Jews commit suicide in Mayence to escape his attempt to forcibly convert them.

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

1113 First recorded anti-Jewish myatezh (riot) in Kiev occured in short period between reigns of Svyatopolk II and Vladimir Monomakh. The Vladimir's council calls to expell all the Jews out of Kievan Rus. The records of big fire of 1124 in Jewish quarter suggest that this decision was not implemented.

1143 150 Jews killed in Ham, France.

1144 Passover: The first recorded blood libel in Norwich, England.

1148 - 1212 The rule of the Almohads. Only Jews who had converted to Christianity are allowed to live in Granada.

1171 The first Blood libel in Blois, France: 31 Jews burned at the stake.

1180 Philip Augustus of France after four months in power, imprisoned all the Jews in his lands and demanded a ransom for their release. In 1181 he annulls 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.

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

1215 The Fourth Lateran Council forces Jews to wear yellow "Badge of Shame".

1222 Deacon Robert of Reading, England burned for converting to Judaism, setting a precedent for the burning of heretics. Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton forbids Jews from building new synagogues, owning slaves or mixing with Christians.

1227 - 1274 Christian theologian St. Thomas Aquinas calls for all Jews to be enslaved.

1235 Blood libel at Fulda, Germany.

1240 Disputation of Paris leads to the burning of the Talmud.

1254 King Louis IX expels the Jews from France, ending the Tosaphist period. Most Jews move to Germany and further east.

1255 Self-proclaimed "master of the Jews" King Henry II 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 headress, prevalent in many medieval illustrations of Jews). This distinctive dress is an additon to badge Jews were already forced to wear.

1275 King Edward I of England forces Jews over the age of seven to wear an indentifying badge.

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

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

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.

1290 King Edward expels Jews from England, allowing to take only what they could carry. Most went to France, many were thrown overboard on their way.

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

1306 - 1320 Pastoureaux ("Shepherds"), participants of the Crusade against the Muslims in Spain, attack the Jews of 120 localities in southwest France.

1321 King Henry II forces Jews to wear yellow badge.

1321 Jews in central France falsely charged of their supposed collusion with the lepers to poison wells. Est. 5,000 Jews massacred before the king Philip the Tall admits the Jews are 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 violentce.

1348 Basle: 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.

1386 German Emperor Wenceslaus expelles the Jews from Swabian League and Strassburg and confiscates their property.

1389 Thousands of Jews massacred, the city's synagogue and Jewish cemetery destroyed on a false accusation of a Jewish plot against a priest. King Wenceslaus insists that the responsibility lay with the Jews for going outside during the Holy Week.

1389 Massacres in Prague, kingdom of Bohemia.

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.

1394 Expulsion from the kingdom of France.

1399 Blood libel in Poznan.

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

1413 Disputation of Tortosa, Spain 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.

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 of Poland and makes his charter one of the most liberal in Europe. He revokes it in 1454 at the insistence of Bishop Zbignev.

1463 Pope Nicholas V authorizes the establishment of the Inquisition to investigate heresy among the Marranos.

1473 Marranos of Valladolid and Cordoba, Spain massacred.

1474 Marranos of Segovia, Spain massacred.

Spanish Inquisition to the end of 18th century

1481 The Spanish Inquisition begins.

1483 Jews are expelled from Sicily (approx 137,000), and Warsaw.

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

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

1492 Jews are expelled from Spain (approx. 200,000). Some return to the Land of Israel.

1494 Polish King Jan Olbracht orders Jews to leave Cracow after they are blamed for a large fire that destroyed part of the city.

1495 Expulsion from Lithuania.

1496 Forced conversion and expulsion of Jews from Portugal.

1500 Protestant Christian Reformation. Jews are expelled from Portugal and from many German cities.

1506 In Lisbon, 4,000 Marranos, including children, were thrown out of windows to street mobs below, due to preaching by Dominicans against the Jews.

1510 Jews are expelled from Brandenburg, Germany. 38 Jews burned at the stake in Berlin.

1516 The first ghetto in Europe: Venice.

1543 Martin Luther vilifies the Jews in his pamphlet About the Jews and Their Lies.

1547 Ivan the Terrible becomes ruler of Russia and refuses to allow Jews to live in his kingdom.

1550 Dr. Jospeh Hacohen chased out of Genoa for practicing medicine, and soon after, all the Jews are expelled.

1553 Under the direction of Cardinal Caraffa, later Pope Paul IV, the Talmud was confiscated and publicaly burned 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 his Bull Cum Nimis Absurdum, Pope Paul IV renewed all anti-Jewish legislation and installed a ghetto in Rome. The Bull also forced Jews to wear a special cap, forbade them from owning real estate or practicing medicine on Christians. It also limited Jewish communities to only one synagogue.

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

1559 12,000 copies of Talmud burned in Milan.

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 killed.

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

1603 Frei Diogo Da Assumpacao, a partly Jewish friar who embraced Judaism, was 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.

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

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

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

1616 Jesuits arrive in Grodno, Poland and accuse the Jews of blood orgies and host desecrations.

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.

1648-1655 The Ukrainian Cossacks lead by Bohdan Chmielnicki massacre about 100,000 Jews, 300 Jewish communities destroyed.

1670 Jews expelled from Vienna.

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

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

1734 - 1736 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".

1745 Expulsion from Prague.

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, together with the Jews from other places who had sought refuge there.

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

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

1791 Tzarist Russia confines Jews to Pale of Settlement. [1]

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 Compulsory military service for the Jews of Russia: Jewish minors under 18 years of age, known as Cantonists, placed in preparatory military training establishments. Cantonists were frequently baptised.

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

1840 Blood libel in Damascus (The Damascus Affair).

1853 Blood libel in Saratov, Russia, bringing a renewal of the blood libel throughout Russia.

1858 Edgard Mortara, a 7-year-old Jewish boy, is abducted in Bologna by Catholic conversionists (Mortara Case), an episode which aroused univeral indignation in liberal circles.

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, German agitator, coins the term Anti-Semitism (a misnomer).

1881 - 1884 Pogroms sweep southern Russia, beginning of mass Jewish emigration. The Russian word pogrom becomes international.

1882 Blood libel in Tiszaeszlar, Hungary aroused public opinion throughout Europe.

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

1882 May. A series of "temporary laws" by Czar Alexander III of Russia ("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."

1885 Germany expels about 10,000 Russian Jews, refugees of 1881 - 1884 pogroms.

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 US Congress eases immigration restrictions for Jews from Russian Empire.

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

1894 The Dreyfus Affair in France.

1895 Alexander C. Cuza organizes the Alliance Anti-semitique Universelle in Bucharest, Romania.

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).

20th century

1903 The Kishinev pogrom: 49 Jews murdered.

1905 First appearance of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Russia.

1911 Blood libel trial of Menahem Mendel Beilis in Kiev.

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

1918 - 1920 Masses of Jewish civilians (70,000 to 250,000 by various estimates) murdered in pogroms during Russian Civil War, especially in Ukraine. (The total death toll is estimated at 7,000,000.) Some Jews flee to Palestine.

1919 Hungarian pogroms claim lives of 3000 Jewish communists.

1920 Henry Ford begins a series of anti-Semitic articles based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in his The Dearborn Independent.

1920 Apr. Arabs assault old (non-Zionist) Jewish communitiy in Jerusalem for 3 days. 6 Jews dead, 200 injured. The Haganah evacuates 300 from the Old City. After quelling the violence, British arrest Jewish leadership, and Jewish immigration is halted.

1921 Britain proclaims that all of Palestine east of the Jordan River is forever closed to Jewish settlement, but not to Arab settlement.

1921 May. Arab mob attacks Jews in Jaffa. 47 unarmed Jews murdered. 48 attackers killed by Jewish defenders and British police.

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

1925 Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.

1926 First Arabic edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

1929 Aug. 23. The ancient Jewish community of Hebron destroyed. The Hebron Massacre

1930 The British government issues the 'White Paper' and reverses their support of the Balfour Declaration. They announce an absolute limit of only 75,000 on future Jewish immigration to Palestine.

1933 - 1941 Persecution of Jews in Germany rises until they are stripped of their rights not only as citizens, but also as human beings. [2]

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

1935 Nuremberg Laws introduced. Jewish rights rescinded.

1936 The Arab revolt led by Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini, a Nazi collaborator. The "revolt" was primarily concerned with attempted ethnic cleansing of Egypt and Palestine from Jews.

1937 Discrimination against Jews in Polish universities.

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

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

1939 Anti-Jewish laws introduced in Protectorate Czechoslovakia.

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

1938 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.

1938 Evian Conference: 31 country refuses to accept Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany.

1939 S.S. St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees from Germany, is turned back by the United States.

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

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

1946 July 4. Out of about 200 Jews who returned home from the death camps, 42 massacred and 80 wounded in Kielce pogrom. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

Anti-Semitism after creation of modern Israel

1948 - 1952 Jewish culture in USSR suppressed and prominent Jewish intellectuals shot or sent to GULAG.

1952 Prague Trials (Slánský)

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

1956 The 1956 Suez War.

1964 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.

1968 Fresh wave of anti-Semitism in Poland. Most of the remaining Jews of Poland emigrate.

1969 Jews executed in Iraq.

21st century

2000 Sep. The al-Aqsa Intifada begins. The Arabs use mass terror against Israeli civilians.

2003 Dec. 2. A UN draft resolution condemning anti-Semitism is cancelled.

See also

• Timeline of Jewish history
• History of ancient Israel and Judah
• Christianity and anti-Semitism
• Arabs and anti-Semitism
• Israel
• History of Palestine

External Links

• Anti-Semitism: What Is It?
• Never Again: The Holocaust Timeline
• MidEastWeb: Israel-Arab Conflict Timeline
• Islamic Antisemitism And Its Nazi Roots
• United Nations and Israel
• The U.N.'s Dirty Little Secret
• Anti-Semitism in the United Nations
• United Nations Watch: Anti-Semitism in the United Nations
• Arabs torpedo UN anti-Semitism resolution
• Timeline for the History of Judaism

Books

• ISBN 0706513274 Anti-Semitism, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1974.
• ISBN 1559724366 But Were They Good for the Jews?, by Elliot Rosenberg, Birch Lane Press, 1997.
• ISBN 047146502X The Case for Israel, by Alan Dershowitz
• ISBN 078796851X The New Anti-Semitism, by Phyllis Chesler
• ISBN 0060542462 Never Again?: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism, by Abraham Foxman