History of antisemitism

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This is a 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 world's oldest hatred.

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

c. 250 BCE Egyptian writer Manetho alleges that Moses was not a Jew, but an Egyptian renegade priest, 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. He is eventually expelled by the Maccabees, who were led by Judas Maccabeus. Jews celebrate Hanukkah in commemoration of their victory.

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.

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

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)

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 Historia (book 5). He picks apart and rejects several myths of ancient anti-Semitism (including that of the donkey's head in the Holy of Holies); instead, his explanation for his view that Jews "regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies" turns on an analysis of the extreme differences between monotheistic Judaism and the polytheism common throughout the Roman world.

117-138 Roman emperor Hadrian bans Judaism and crushes the revolt lead by Bar Kokhba. Judea is wiped off the map, Jews are left dispersed and stateless. (See Hadrian in Judea).

c. 170 Melito of Sardis accuses the Jews of deicide, publishing a sermon On the Passion, in which he blames the Jews for the persecution and death of Jesus and absolves Pontius Pilate and the Romans from guilt or responsibility and thus encourages them to convert.

201 to 500

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 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.

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.

501 to 800

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. 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.

535 Council of Clermont, Gaul bans Jewish judges and prohibits Jews from holding administrative positions.

538 Third Council of Orleans, Gaul prohibits Jews from appearing in the streets during Easter: "their appearance is an insult to Christianity". A Merovinian king Childbert approves the measure.

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

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

610-620 Visigothic Spain After many of his anti-Jewish edicts were ignored, king Sisebut 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.

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 clergymen 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 Egica 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.

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 Christianity.

801 to 1100

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

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.

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.

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.

1096 The First Crusade. The Crusaders massacre Jews in several Central European cities, most notably in Rhineland (over 5,000 Jews murdered). In May, Count Emich of Leiningen, on his way to join the Crusade, 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. 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."

1101 to 1200

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

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

1121 A letter from Baghdad describes decrees regulating Jewish clothes: "two yellow badges, one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead with the word dhimmi on it. He also has to wear a belt round his waist. The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes." (Paul Johnson, History of the Jews p.204-5)

1143 150 Jews killed in Ham, France.

1144 March 20 (Passover). Jews of Norwich are accused with both ritual murder and blood libel 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 The first Blood libel in Blois, France: 31 Jews burned at the stake.

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 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.

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.

1201 to 1300

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). 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 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 additon to Yellow badge Jews were already forced to wear.

1274 March. St. Thomas Aquinas writes in a letter to the Duchess of Brabant: "...in consequence of their sin, Jews were destined to perpetual servitude, so that sovereigns of state may treat Jewish goods as their own property, save for the sole proviso that they do not deprive them of all that is necessary to sustain life". Since this letter is not widely published, and then only in Latin, it is difficult to verify the authenticity of the quotation. In light of the fact that St. Thomas wrote over 6,000 pages of text in his Summa Theologica alone, one wonders why this obscure letter is used. On the question of whether Jewish children should be baptized against the will of their parents, Aquinas writes in his Summa Theologica: "Injustice should be done to no man. Now it would be an injustice to Jews if their children were to be baptized against their will, since they would lose the rights of parental authority over their children as soon as these were Christians. Therefore these should not be baptized against their parents' will." It is doubtful that Aquinas was promoting the idea of punishment for deicide, as implied by the fragment of the letter to the Duchess, since he nowhere else, in his many volumes of writings, ever hints at such an idea. It is more likely that the context of the letter to the Duchess was in regard to the complex question of whether it is lawful to deprive someone of property acquired through unlawful practices, such as usury. Another theory is that Aquinas was writing in response to a generally held principle of Kammerknehtschaft, or "Jewish servitude", common throughout Europe at the time of the Crusades. Originally intended as a protective measure bny the Holy Roman emperors against mob violence directed at Jews, it came to mean possession in the feudal sense. The idea is said to have been granted formal religious recognition by Pope Innocent III, who spoke frequently of the "eternal servitude" of the Jews, although no sources are cited. It is also proposed that the idea was apparently adopted in a moderated form by Aquinas, who cautioned the Ducchess to act in moderation regarding the Jews she possessed.

1275 King Edward I of England passes anti-Jewish statute forcing Jews over the age of seven to wear an indentifying 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.

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.

1301 to 1400

1305 - 1320 Pastoureaux (Shepherds), participants of the Crusade, attack the Jews of 120 localities in southwest France. 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.

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 violentce.

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 Strassburg 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.

1401 to 1500

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.

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.

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

1475 A student of John of Capistrano, Franciscan Bernardino de Fletre, conducts a mission at Trent and accuses that the Jews murdered a 2-year old boy. The entire community is arrested, many executed, the rest expelled.

1481 The Spanish Inquisition 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.

1494 June 29, Fire destroys a part of Cracow. The Jews are accused of setting the fire. King Jan Olbracht of Poland orders them to leave the city. In addition, all non-christians were banned from settling in the city. Most of them move to Kazimierz, which became the first Polish ghetto. Jews were confined there until 1868.

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.

1501 to 1700

1506 Apr. 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 slaughter any Jew they could find. The countrymen hear about the massacre and join in. Over 2,000 marranos killed in three days.

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

1516 The first ghetto in Europe established in Venice.

1519-1546 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". Later in pamphlet About the Jews and Their Lies, 1544 he calls to "Set their synagogues on fire... Their homes should be likewise broken down... Their rabbis must be forbidden to teach under the threat of death". His sermon Admonition against the Jews, 1546 contains accusations of ritual murder, black magic, and poisoning of wells. Luther recognized no obligation to protect the Jews.

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

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

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, and soon after, all the Jews are expelled.

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. The Talmud is confiscated and publicaly burned in Rome on Rosh Hashanah, starting a wave of Talmud burning throughout Italy.

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.

1563 Feb. 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 killed.

1590 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 to exile.

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, 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.

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.

1701 to 1800

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 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 peronal 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 readmition 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 annuled. 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

1801 to 1900

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 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 univeral 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 regards 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, an equivalent of German Judenhass (Jew-hate).

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 Blood libel in Tiszaeszlar, 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."

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 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.

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).

1901 to present

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.

1918-1920 Masses of Jewish civilians (70,000 to 250,000 by various estimates) were murdered in pogroms during Russian Civil War, especially in Ukraine. The Red Army, White Army, Green Army, as well as various gangs, attack Jews for being revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries, unpatriotic pacifists or warmongers, religious zealots or godless atheists, capitalist exploitators or profiteers ("meshochnik").

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 bourgeousie... to restore the Palestine state." Hebrew language is banned, Judaism is suppressed, along with other religions.

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

1920 The Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920. The Arab assault on old Yishuv, incited by Haj Amin Al-Husseini, continues for 4 days. After quelling the violence, British blame the Zionists and arrest their leadership. Jewish immigration is halted. See also Riots in Palestine of May, 1921.

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

1925 Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.

1929 Aug. 23. The ancient Jewish community of Hebron destroyed in the Hebron#1929 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. [1]

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

1935 Nuremberg Laws introduced. Jewish rights rescinded.

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.

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

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. Kristallnacht and The World's Response

1938 Evian conference: 31 country refuses to accept Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany (with exception of Dominican Republic). Most find temprary 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 Feb. The US Congress 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 (ha-Shoah). 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.

1944, March 24 The tragedy in Markowa happenned.

1946 July 4. The Kielce pogrom. Out of 200 Holocaust survivors, 40 Jews were murdered, 80 wounded. There were also killed 2 non-Jewish Poles. Alleged provocation of the Soviet security forces. The pogrom were used in propaganda to reason communist rule in Poland.

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 July Solomon Mikhoels, actor-director of the Moscow State Yiddish Theater AKA GOSET and chairman of Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee is killed in suspicious car accident. 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 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.

1967-1991 The rise of Zionology in the USSR. 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.

1985 October 7. The Achille Lauro hijacking.

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.

2002 The Kenyan hotel bombing.

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.

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)