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Timeline of Jewish history
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This is a timeline of the development of Jews and Judaism. All dates are given according to the Common Era, not the Hebrew calendar.
See also Jewish history which includes links to individual country histories. For the history of persecution of Jews, see Antisemitism, History of antisemitism and Timeline of antisemitism.
Post-Biblical history
200 BCE–100 CE: Throughout this era the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is gradually canonized. Jewish religious works that were written after the time of Ezra were not canonized, although many became popular among many groups of Jews.
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Encyclopedia
This is a timeline of the development of Jews and Judaism. All dates are given according to the Common Era, not the Hebrew calendar.
See also Jewish history which includes links to individual country histories. For the history of persecution of Jews, see Antisemitism, History of antisemitism and Timeline of antisemitism.
Biblical period
Post-Biblical history
200 BCE–100 CE: Throughout this era the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is gradually canonized. Jewish religious works that were written after the time of Ezra were not canonized, although many became popular among many groups of Jews. Those works that made it into the Greek translation of the Bible (the Septuagint) became known as the deuterocanonical books.
1st century BCE
63 BCE: The Romans intervene in a civil war in Judea, which becomes a Roman province, see Iudaea Province.
40–4 BCE: Herod the Great, appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate.
1st century
6 CE: Census of Quirinius
10 CE: Hillel the Elder, considered the greatest Torah sage, dies, leading to the dominance of Shammai till 30, see also Hillel and Shammai.
30–70 CE
- Schism within Judaism during the Second Temple era. A sect within Hellenised Jewish society starts Jewish Christianity, see also Rejection of Jesus.
66–70
- The Great Jewish Revolt against Roman occupation ended with destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin was relocated to Yavne by Yochanan ben Zakai, see also Council of Jamnia.
70–200: Period of the Tannaim, rabbis who organized and elucidated the Jewish oral law. The decisions of the Tannaim are contained in the Mishnah, Beraita, Tosefta, and various Midrash compilations.
73: The fall of Masada.
2nd century
120?: Rabbi Tarfon possibly advocated burning the Christian Gospels
131–135: The Roman emperor Hadrian, among other provocations, renames Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina". Bar Kokhba (Bar Kosiba) leads a doomed Jewish revolt against Rome in response to Hadrian's actions. In the aftermath of the revolt, Hadrian renamed the province of Judea as Syria Palaestina and forbid Jews to set foot in Jerusalem, except for Tisha B'av.
3rd century
200: The Mishnah, the standardization of the Jewish oral law as it stands today, is redacted by Judah haNasi in Eretz Israel.
220–500: Period of the amoraim, the rabbis of the Talmud.
4th century
315–337: Roman Emperor Constantine I enacts new restrictive legislature. Conversion of Christians to Judaism is outlawed, congregations for religious services are curtailed, but Jews are also allowed to enter Jerusalem on the anniversary of the Temple's destruction.
351: Another Jewish revolt directed against Gallus Caesar.
358: Because of the increasing danger of Roman persecution, Hillel II creates a mathematical calendar for calculating the Jewish month. After adopting the calendar, the Sanhedrin in Tiberias is dissolved.
361–363: The last pagan Roman Emperor, Julian, allows the Jews to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt" and to rebuild the Second Temple
5th century
438: The Empress Eudocia removes the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site and the heads of the Community in Galilee issue a call "to the great and mighty people of the Jews": "Know that the end of the exile of our people has come"!
450: Redaction of Talmud Yerushalmi (Talmud of Jerusalem)
6th century
550: The main redaction of Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) is completed under Rabbis Ravina and Ashi. To a lesser degree, the text continues to be modified for the next 200 years.
550–700: Period of the savoraim, the sages in Persia who put the Talmud in its final form. Jews at this time in Israel were living under the oppressive rule of the Byzantines under whom there were two more Jewish revolts and three Samaritan revolts. Jews gain autonomy in Jerusalem after the revolt in 613, but are subsequently expelled in 628.
7th century
c. 7th century: the Khazars (a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia whose King and members of the upper class adopted Judaism) founded the independent Khazar kingdom in the southeastern part of today's Europe.
7th century
The rise and domination of Islam among largely pagan Arabs in the Arabian peninsula results in the almost complete removal and conversion of the ancient Jewish communities there.
8th century
700–1250: Period of the Gaonim (the Gaonic era). Jews in southern Europe and Asia Minor lived under the often intolerant rule of Christian Kings and clerics. Most Jews lived in the Muslim Arab realm (Andalusia, North Africa, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen). Despite sporadic periods of persecution, Jewish communal and cultural life flowered in this period. The universally recognized centers of Jewish life were in Jerusalem and Tiberias (Syria), Sura and Pumbeditha (Iraq). The heads of these law schools were the Gaonim, who were consulted on matters of law by Jews throughout the world. During this time, the Niqqud is invented in Tiberias.
711: Muslim armies invade and occupy most of Spain (At this time Jews made up about 8% of Spain's population). Under Christian rule, Jews had been subject to frequent and intense persecution, but this was alleviated under Muslim rule. Some mark this as the beginning of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain.
760: The Karaites reject the authority of the oral law, and split off from rabbinic Judaism.
9th century
846: In Sura, Iraq, Rav Amram Gaon compiles his siddur (Jewish prayer book.)
871: An incomplete marriage contract dated to October 6 of this year is the earliest dated document found in the papers of the Cairo Geniza.
10th century
900–1090: The Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. Abd-ar-Rahman III becomes Caliph of Spain in 912, ushering in the height of tolerance. Muslims granted Jews and Christians exemptions from military service, the right to their own courts of law, and a guarantee of safety of their property. Jewish poets, scholars, scientists, statesmen and philosophers flourished in and were an integral part of the extensive Arab civilization. This ended with the invasion of Almoravides in 1090.
940: In Iraq, Saadia Gaon compiles his siddur (Jewish prayer book).
11th century
1013–1073: Rabbi Yitchaki Alfassi (from Morocco, later Spain) writes the Rif, an important work of Jewish law.
1040–1105: Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi) writes important commentaries on almost the entire Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and Talmud.
1095–1291: Christian Crusades begin, sparking warfare with Islam in Palestine. Crusaders temporarily capture Jerusalem in 1099. Tens of thousands of Jews are killed by European crusaders throughout Europe and in the Middle East.
12th century
1100–1275: Time of the tosafot, Talmudic commentators who carried on Rashi's work. They include some of his descendants.
1107: Moroccan Almoravid ruler Yoseph Ibn Tashfin expels Moroccan Jews who do not convert to Islam.
1135–1204: Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, aka Maimonides or the Rambam is the leading rabbi of Sephardic Jewry. Among his many accomplishments, he writes an influential code of law (The Mishneh Torah) as well as, in Arabic, the most influential philosophical work (Guide for the Perplexed) in Jewish history.
1141: Yehuda Halevi issues a call to the Jews to emigrate to Palestine and eventually dies in Jerusalem.
13th century
1250–1300: The life of Moses de Leon, of Spain. He publishes to the public the Zohar the 2nd century C.E. esoteric interpretations of the Torah by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his disciples. This begins the modern form of Kabbalah (esoteric Jewish mysticism).
1250–1550: Period of the Rishonim, the medieval rabbinic sages. Most Jews at this time lived in lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea or in Western Europe under feudal systems. With the decline of Muslim and Jewish centers of power in Iraq, there was no single place in the world which was a recognized authority for deciding matters of Jewish law and practice. Consequently, the rabbis recognized the need for writing commentaries on the Torah and Talmud and for writing law codes that would allow Jews anywhere in the world to be able to continue living in the Jewish tradition.
1267: Nahmanides (Ramban) settles in Jerusalem and builds the Ramban Synagogue.
1270–1343: Rabbi Jacob ben Asher of Spain writes the Arba'ah Turim (Four Rows of Jewish Law).
1290: Jews are expelled from England by Edward I by the Statute of Jewry.
14th century
1300: Rabbi Levi ben Gershom, aka Gersonides. A 14th century French Jewish philosopher best known for his Sefer Milhamot Adonai ("The Book of the Wars of the Lord") as well as for his philosophical commentaries.
1306–1394: Jews are repeatedly expelled from France and readmitted, for a price.
1343: Jews persecuted in Western Europe are invited to Poland by Casimir the Great.
15th century
1478:King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain institute the Spanish Inquisition.
1486: First Jewish prayer book published in Italy.
1488–1575: Rabbi Yosef Karo spends 20 years compiling the Beit Yosef, an enormous guide to Jewish law. He then writes a more concise guide, the Shulkhan Arukh, that becomes the standard law guide for the next 400 years. Born in Spain, Yosef Karo lives and dies in Safed.
1488: Obadiah ben Abraham, commentator on the Mishnah, arrives in Jerusalem and marks a new epoch for the Jewish community.
1492: The Alhambra Decree: Approximately 200,000 Jews are expelled from Spain, The expelled Jews relocate to the Netherlands, Turkey, Arab lands, and Judea; some eventually go to South and Central America. However, most emigrate to Poland. In later centuries, more than 50% of Jewish world population lived in Poland. Many Jews remain in Spain after publicly converting to Christianity, becoming Crypto-Jews.
1492: Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire issued a formal invitation to the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal and sent out ships to safely bring Jews to his empire.
1493: Jews expelled from Sicily. As many as 137,000 exiled.
1496: Jews expelled from Portugal and from many German cities.
16th century
1501: King Alexander of Poland readmits Jews to Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
1516: Ghetto of Venice established, the first Jewish ghetto in Europe. Many others follow.
1525–1572: Rabbi Moshe Isserles (The Rama) of Cracow writes an extensive gloss to the Shulkhan Arukh called the Mappah, extending its application to Ashkenazi Jewry.
1534: King Sigismund I of Poland abolishes the law that required Jews to wear special clothes.
1534: First Yiddish book published, in Poland.
1534–1572: Isaac Luria ("the Arizal") teaches Kabbalah in Jerusalem and (mainly) Safed to select disciples. Some of those, such as Ibn Tebul, Israel Sarug and mostly Chaim Vital, put his teachings into writing. While the Sarugian versions are published shortly afterwards in Italy and Holland, the Vitalian texts remain in manuscripti for as long as three centuries.
1547: First Hebrew Jewish printing house in Lublin.
1550: Moses ben Jacob Cordovero founds a Kabbalah academy in Safed.
1567: First Jewish university Jeshiva was founded in Poland.
1577: A Hebrew printing press is established in Safed, the first press in Palestine and the first in Asia.
1580–1764: First session of the Council of Four Lands (Va'ad Arba' Aratzot) in Lublin, Poland. 70 delegates from local Jewish kehillot meet to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community.
17th century
1621–1630: Shelah HaKadosh writes his most famous work after emigrating to the Land of Israel.
1623: First time separate (Va'ad) Jewish Sejm for Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
1626–1676: False Messiah Sabbatai Zevi.
1633: Jews of Poznan granted a privilege of forbidding Christians to enter into their city.
1648: Jewish population of Poland reached 450,000 (i.e. 4% of the 11000000 population of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is Jewish), Bohemia 40,000 and Moravia 25,000. Worldwide population of Jewry is estimated at 750,000.
1648–1655: The Ukrainian Cossack Bohdan Chmielnicki leads a massacre of Polish gentry and Jewry that leaves an estimated 65,000 Jews dead and a similar number of gentry. The total decrease in the number of Jews is estimated at 100,000.
1655: Jews readmitted to England by Oliver Cromwell.
18th century
1700–1760: Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Ba'al Shem Tov, founds Hasidic Judaism, a way to approach God through meditation and fervent joy. He and his disciples attract many followers, and establish numerous Hasidic sects. The European Jewish opponents of Hasidim (known as Mitnagdim) argue that one should follow a more scholarly approach to Judaism. Some of the more well-known Hasidic sects today include Bobover, Breslover, Gerer, Lubavitch (Chabad) and Satmar Hasidim.
1700: Rabbi Yehuda HeHasid makes aliyah to Palestine accompanied by hundreds of his followers. A few days after his arrival, Rabbi Yehuda dies suddenly.
1720: Unpaid Arab creditors burn the synagogue unfinished by immigrants of Rabbi Yehuda and expel all Ashkenazi Jews from Jerusalem. See also Hurba Synagogue
1720–1797: Rabbi Elijah of Vilna, the Vilna Gaon.
1729–1786: Moses Mendelssohn and the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement. He strove to bring an end to the isolation of the Jews so that they would be able to embrace the culture of the Western world, and in turn be embraced by gentiles as equals. The Haskalah opened the door for the development of all the modern Jewish denominations and the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, but it also paved the way for many who, wishing to be fully accepted into Christian society, converted to Christianity or chose to assimilate to emulate it.
1740: Parliament of Great Britain passes a general act permitting Jews to be naturalized in the American colonies. Previously, several colonies had also permitted Jews to be naturalized without taking the standard oath "upon the true faith of a Christian."
1740: Ottoman authorities invite Rabbi Haim Abulafia (1660-1744), renowned Kabbalist and Rabbi of Izmir, to come to the Holy Land. Rabbi Abulafia is to rebuild the city of Tiberias, which has lain desolate for some 70 years. The city’s revival is seen by many as a sign of the coming of the Messiah.
1740–1750: Thousands immigrate to Palestine under the influence of Messianic predictions. The large immigration greatly increases the size and strength of the Jewish Settlement in Palestine.
1747: Rabbi Abraham Gershon of Kitov (d. 1761) is the first immigrant of the Hasidic Aliyah. He is a respected Talmudic scholar, mystic, and brother-in-law of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (founder of the Hasidic movement). Rabbi Abraham first settles in Hebron. Later, he relocates to Jerusalem at the behest of its residents.
1759: Followers of Jacob Frank joined ranks of Polish szlachta (gentry) of Jewish origins.
1772–1795: Partitions of Poland between Russia, Kingdom of Prussia and Austria. Main bulk of World Jewry lives now in those 3 countries. Old privileges of Jewish communities are denounced.
1775–1781: American Revolution; guaranteed the freedom of religion.
1789: The French revolution. In 1791 France grants full right to Jews and allows them to become citizens, under certain conditions.
1790: In the USA, President George Washington sends a letter to the Jewish community in Rhode Island. He writes that he envisions a country "which gives bigotry no sanction...persecution no assistance". Despite the fact that the US was a predominantly Protestant country, theoretically Jews are given full rights. In addition, the mentality of Jewish immigrants shaped by their role as merchants in Eastern Europe meant they were well-prepared to compete in American society. So far, their number is limited.
1791: Russia creates the Pale of Settlement that includes land acquired from Poland with a huge Jewish population and in the same year Crimea. The Jewish population of the Pale was 750,000. 450,000 Jews lived in the Prussian and Austrian parts of Poland.
1798: Rabbi Nachman of Breslov travels to Palestine.
1799: While French troops were in Palestine besieging the city of Acre, Napoleon prepared a Proclamation making Palestine an independent Jewish state, but his unsuccessful attempt to capture Acre prevented it from being issued.
19th century
1800–1900: The Golden Age of Yiddish literature, the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, and the revival of Hebrew literature.
1808–1840:Large-scale aliyah in hope of Hastening Redemption in anticipation of the arrival of the Messiah in 1840.
1820–1860: The development of Orthodox Judaism, a set of traditionalist movements that resisted the influences of modernization that arose in response to the European emancipation and Enlightenment movements; characterized by continued strict adherence to Halakha.
1830: Greece grants citizenship to Jews.
1831: Jewish militias take part in the defense of Warsaw against Russians.
1837: Moses Haim Montefiore is knighted by Queen Victoria, the first Jew to receive an English Knighthood.
1837 earthquake devastates Jewish communities of Safed and Tiberias.
1838–1933: Rabbi Yisroel Meir ha-Kohen (Chofetz Chaim) opens an important yeshiva. He writes an authoritative Halakhic work, Mishnah Berurah.
Mid 1800s: Beginning of the rise of classical Reform Judaism.
Mid-1800s: Rabbi Israel Salanter develops the Mussar Movement. While teaching that Jewish law is binding, he dismisses current philosophical debate and advocates the ethical teachings as the essence of Judaism.
Mid-1800s: Positive-Historical Judaism, later known as Conservative Judaism, is developed.
1841: David Levy Yulee of Florida is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first Jew elected to Congress.
1851: Norway allows Jews to enter the country. They are not emancipated until 1891.
1858: Jews emancipated in England.
1860: Alliance Israelite Universelle, an international Jewish organization is founded in Paris with the goal to protect Jewish rights as citizens.
1860–1875: Moshe Montefiori builds Jewish neighbourhoods outside the Old City of Jerusalem starting with Mishkenot Sha’ananim.
1860–1864: Jews are taking part in Polish national movement, that was followed by January rising.
1860–1943: Henrietta Szold: educator, author, social worker and founder of Hadassah.
1861: The Zion Society is formed in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
1862: Jews are given equal rights in Russian-controlled Congress Kingdom of Poland. The privileges of some towns regarding prohibition of Jewish settlement are revoked.
1867: Jews emancipated in Hungary.
1868: Benjamin Disraeli becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Though converted to Christianity as a child, he is the first person of Jewish descent to become a leader of government in Europe.
1870–1890: Russian Zionist group Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) and Bilu (est. 1882) set up a series of Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel, financially aided by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild. In Rishon LeZion Eliezer ben Yehuda revives Hebrew as spoken modern language.
1870: Jews emancipated in Italy.
1871: Jews emancipated in Germany.
1875: Reform Judaism's Hebrew Union College is founded in Cincinnati. Its founder was Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the architect of American Reform Judaism.
1877: New Hampshire becomes the last state to give Jews equal political rights.
1878: Petah Tikva is founded by religious pioneers from Jerusalem, led by Yehoshua Stampfer.
1880: World Jewish population around 7.7 million, 90% in Europe, mostly Eastern Europe; around 3.5 million in the former Polish provinces.
1881–1884, 1903–1906, 1918–1920: Three major waves of pogroms kill tens of thousands of Jews in Russia and Ukraine. More than two million Russian Jews emigrate in the period 1881–1920.
1881: On December 30-31, the First Congress of all Zionist Unions for the colonization of Palestine was held at Focsani, Romania.
1882–1903: The First Aliyah, a major wave of Jewish immigrants to build a homeland in Palestine.
1886: Rabbi Sabato Morais and Alexander Kohut begin to champion the Conservative Jewish reaction to American Reform, and establish The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as a school of 'enlightened Orthodoxy'.
1890: The term "Zionism" is coined by an Austrian Jewish publicist Nathan Birnbaum in his journal Self Emancipation and was defined as the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.
1895: First published book by Sigmund Freud.
1897: In response to the Dreyfus affair, Theodore Herzl writes Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), advocating the creation of a free and independent Jewish state in Israel.
1897: The Bund (General Jewish Labor Union) is formed in Russia.
1897: First Russian Empire Census: 5,200,000 of Jews, 4,900,000 in the Pale. The lands of former Poland have 1,300,000 Jews or 14% of population.
1897: The First Zionist Congress was held at Basel, which brought the World Zionist Organization (WZO) into being.
20th century
1902: Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schechter reorganizes the Jewish Theological Seminary and makes it into the flagship institution of Conservative Judaism.
1903: St. Petersburg's Znamya newspaper publishes a literary hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Kishinev Pogrom caused by accusations that Jews practice cannibalism.
1905: Albert Einstein's Annus Mirabilis Papers are published. 1905 Russian Revolution accompanied by pogroms.
1907–1972: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the most significant Jewish theologians of the twentieth century.
1910s–1980s: The visual art of Marc Chagall, often dealing with Jewish cultural and historical topics, makes him a world-renowned painter and designer.
1915: Yeshiva College (later University) and its Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Rabbinical Seminary is established in New York for training in a Modern Orthodox milieu.
1917: The British defeat the Turks and gain control of Palestine. The British issue the Balfour Declaration 1917 which gives official British support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". Many Jews interpret this to mean that all of Palestine was to become a Jewish state.
1917 February: The Pale of Settlement is abolished, and Jews get equal rights. The Russian civil war leads to over 2000 pogroms with tens of thousands murdered and hundreds of thousand made homeless.
1918–1939: The period between the two World Wars is often referred to as the "golden age" of hazzanut (cantors). Some of the great Jewish cantors of this era include Abraham Davis, Moshe Koussevitzky, Zavel Kwartin (1874-1953), Jan Peerce, Josef "Yossele" Rosenblatt (1882–1933), Gershon Sirota (1874–1943), and Laibale Waldman.
1920: At the San Remo conference Britain receives the League of Nations' British Mandate of Palestine.
1920s-Present: A variety of Jewish authors, including Gertrude Stein, Allen Ginsberg, Saul Bellow, Adrienne Rich and Philip Roth, sometimes drawing on Jewish culture and history, flourish and become highly influential on the Anglophone literary scene.
1921: British military administration of the Mandate is replaced by civilian rule.
1921: Britain proclaims that all of Palestine east of the Jordan River is forever closed to Jewish settlement, but not to Arab settlement.
1921: Polish-Soviet peace treaty in Riga. Citizens of both sides are given rights to choose the country. Hundred thousands of Jews, especially small businesses forbidden in the Soviets, move to Poland.
1922: Reform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise established the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. (It merged with Hebrew Union College in 1950.)
1923: Britain gives the Golan Heights to the French Mandate of Syria. Arab immigration is allowed; Jewish immigration is not.
1924: 2,989,000 Jews according to religion poll in Poland (10,5% of total). Jewish youth consisted 23% of students of high schools and 26% of students of universities.
1926: Generally, prior to World War I, there were no chassidic yeshivot in Europe, but on Lag Ba'Omer 1926, the Rabbi Shlomo Chanoch Hacohen Rabinowicz, the fourth Radomsker Rebbe said, "The time has come to found yeshivos where the younger generation will be able to learn and toil in Torah.", leading to the founding of the "Kesser Torah" yeshivot throughout Poland.
1930: World Jewry: 15,000,000. Main countries USA(4,000,000), Poland (3,500,000 11% of total), Soviet Union (2,700,000 2% of total), Romania (1,000,000 6% of total). Palestine 175,000 or 17% of total 1,036,000.
1930s–1940s: The Marx Brothers, a former American Vaudeville act, make a series of successful films and become arguably the most famous comic entertainers of all time.
1933: Hitler takes over Germany; his anti-Semitic sentiments are well-known, prompting numerous Jews to emigrate.
1937: Adin Steinsaltz born, author of the first comprehensive Babylonian Talmud commentary since Rashi in the 11th century.
1939: The British government issues the 'White Paper'. The paper proposed a limit of 10,000 Jewish immigrants for each year between 1940-1944, plus 25,000 refugees for any emergency arising during that period.
1938–1945: The Holocaust (Ha Shoah).
1940s-Present: Various Jewish filmmakers, including Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and the Coen Brothers, frequently draw on Jewish philosophy and humor, and become some of the most artistically and popularly successful in the history of the medium.
1945–1948: Post-Holocaust refugee crisis. British attempts to detain Jews attempting to enter Palestine illegally.
1946–1948: The violent struggle for the creation of a Jewish state in the British mandate of Palestine is intensified by Jewish defense groups: Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi (group).
November 29, 1947: The United Nations approves the creation of a Jewish State and an Arab State in the British mandate of Palestine.
May 14, 1948: The State of Israel declares itself as an independent nation. Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Union's UN ambassador, calls for the UN to accept Israel as a member state. The UN approves.
May 15, 1948: 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon and Egypt invade Israel. The attack fails. See also 1949 Armistice Agreements and Immigration to Israel from Arab lands.
1948–1949: Almost 250,000 Holocaust survivors make their way to Israel. "Operation Magic Carpet" brings thousands of Yemenite Jews to Israel.
1956: The 1956 Suez War Egypt blockades the Gulf of Aqaba, and closes the Suez canal to Israeli shipping. Egypt's President Nasser calls for the destruction of Israel. Israel, England, and France go to war and force Egypt to end the blockade of Aqaba, and open the canal to all nations.
1964: Jewish-Christian relations are revolutionized by the Roman Catholic Church's Vatican II.
1966: Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888-1970) becomes the first Hebrew writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
May 16, 1967: Egyptian President Nasser demands that the UN dismantle the UN Emergency Force I (UNEF I) between Israel and Egypt. The UN complies and the last UN peacekeeper is out of Sinai and Gaza by May 19.
1967 May: Egyptian PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser closes the strategic Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and states that Egypt is in a state of war with Israel. Egyptian troops group in the Sinai.
June 5, 1967-11: The Six-Day War.
September 1, 1967: The Arab Leaders meet in Khartoum, Sudan. The Three No's of Khartoum: No recognition of Israel. No negotiations with Israel. No peace with Israel.
1968: Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan formally creates a separate Reconstructionist Judaism movement by setting up the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.
Mid-1970s to present: Growing revival of Klezmer music (The folk music of European Jews). ,
1972: Mark Spitz sets the record for most gold medals won in a single Olympic Games (seven) in the 1972 Summer Olympics the site of the Munich massacre.
1973 Oct. 6-24: The Yom Kippur War. Syria, Egypt and Morocco launch a surprise attack against Israel. Subsequently, OPEC reduces oil production, driving up oil prices and triggering a global economic crisis.
1975: President Gerald Ford signs legislation including the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which ties U.S. trade benefits to the Soviet Union to freedom of emigration for Jews.
1975: United Nations adopts resolution equating Zionism with racism. Rescinded in 1991.
1976: Israel rescues hostages taken to Entebbe, Uganda.
September 18, 1978: At Camp David, near Washington D.C., Israel and Egypt sign a comprehensive peace treaty, The Camp David Accord, which included the withdrawal of Israel from the Sinai.
1978: Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer receives Nobel Prize
1979: Prime Minister Menachem Begin and President Anwar Sadat are awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
1979–1983: Operation Elijah: Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry.
1982 June–December: The Lebanon War. Israel invades Southern Lebanon to drive out the PLO.
1983: American Reform Jews formally accept patrilineal descent, creating a new definition of who is a Jew.
1984–1985: Operations Moses, Joshua: Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry by Israel.
1986: Elie Wiesel wins the Nobel Peace Prize
1986: Nathan Sharansky, Soviet Jewish dissident, is freed from prison.
1987: Beginning of the First Intifada against Israel.
1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall between East and West Germany, collapse of the communist East German government, and the beginning of Germany's reunification (which formally began in October 1990).
1990: The Soviet Union opens its doors to the three million Soviet Jews who had been held as virtual prisoners within their own country. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews choose to leave the Soviet Union and move to Israel.
1990–1991: Iraq invades Kuwait, triggering a war between Iraq and Allied United Nations forces. Israel is hit by 39 Scud missiles from Iraq.
1991: Operation Solomon: Rescue of the remainder of Ethiopian Jewry in a twenty four hour airlift.
October 30, 1991: The Madrid Peace Conference opens in Spain, sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union.
September 13, 1993: Israel and PLO sign the Oslo Accords.
1994: The Lubavitcher (Chabad) Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, dies.
October 26, 1994: Israel and Jordan sign an official peace treaty. Israel cedes a small amount of contested land to Jordan, and the countries open official diplomatic relations, with open borders and free trade.
December 10, 1994: Arafat, Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres share the Nobel Peace Prize.
November 4, 1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated.
1996: Peres loses election to Benyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu (Likud party).
1999: Ehud Barak elected Prime Minister of Israel.
21st century
May 24, 2000: Israel unilaterally withdraws its remaining forces from its security zone in southern Lebanon to the international border, fully complying with the UN Security Council Res. 425.
2000 July: Camp David Summit.
2000, Summer: Senator Joseph Lieberman becomes the first Jewish-American to be nominated for a national office (Vice President of the United States) by a major political party (the Democratic Party).
September 29, 2000: The al-Aqsa Intifada begins.
2001: Election of Ariel Sharon as Israel's Prime Minister.
2001: Jewish Museum of Turkey is founded by Turkish Jewry
2004: Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast builds its first synagogue, Birobidzhan Synagogue, in accordance with halakha.
March 31, 2005: The Government of Israel officially recognizes the Bnei Menashe people of North-East India as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, opening the door for thousands of people to immigrate to Israel.
2005 July: Jordan Farmar becomes only Jew in the National Basketball Association
2005 August: The Government of Israel withdraws its military forces and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.
2005 December: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon falls into a coma; Deputy Premier Ehud Olmert takes over as Acting Prime Minister
2006 March: Ehud Olmert leads the Kadima party to victory in Israeli elections, becomes Prime Minister of Israel.
2008 December: Israeli armed forces (IDF) launch Operation Cast Lead (???? ????? ??????) with the officially stated objective of defending Israel from Hamas rocket fire. This operation consists initially of daily bombing of Hamas military sites, later accompanied by a ground invasion. Palestinian civilian infrastructure is heavily damaged. UN buildings struck by IDF bombs. There is evidence that the IDF use phosphorus bombs. After 23 days there are at least 1,259 Palestinians killed, at least half of which are civilians; 13 Israelis are killed, including 4 friendly fire and 3 civilians.
See also
External links
- The Jewish Agency
- , a parallel history of intellectual contributions and advances by Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers
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