Jewish history time line

[Robert Kaiser <kaiser...>]

Jewish History Timeline - by Robert D. Kaiser

Compiled from a number of sources, including books by Abba Eban,
Chaim Potok, and Martin Gilbert.


3000 B.C.E.    Ancient Sumerian civilization.  To the north lies
the Akkadians.  (The Sumerians called their land Kengir, and their
language Emegir.)

3000  - 2700 B.C.E.      Egypt's Early Dynastic period.  Egypt is
first united under a single ruler (either Menes or Narmer.)
Egypt is known as "The Two Lands".  Lower Egypt is the region of
the Nile Delta, while Upper Egypt is in the south.

2900 B.C.E.    Sumerian golden age of primitive democracy.

2700 - 2250 B.C.E.  The Old Kingdom of Egypt.  Third and Fourth
dynasties.

2600 B.C.E.    Cheops reigns in Egypt.  Time of Sumerian folk hero
Gilgamesh.

2300 B.C.E.    Sumer is conquered by the Akkadian King Sargon.

2100 B.C.E.    Amorites invade Canaan.

2000 B.C.E. - 1600 B.C.E.  Somewhere in this time frame Terah and
his son Abram (Abraham) move from the Sumerian city of Ur to the
city of Haran.  Soon after, Abram, Lot and their families later
move to Canaan.  The time of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs.

2000 - 1800 B.C.E.       The Middle Kingdom of Egypt.  Amenemhet
founds the twelfth dynasty. 

1800 B.C.E.    Egypt's second intermediate period.  The country
splinters back in to the Two Lands.

1800 B.C.E.    Sumer and Akkad conquered by the Amorite King of
Babylon, Hamurrabi.

1700 B.C.E.    Egypt is conquered by Asian tribes known as the
Hyksos.

1660 B.C.E.    Probable time of Joseph is in Egypt.

1600 - 1100 B.C.E.       The New Kingdom of Egypt.  The Hyksos are
driven out of Egypt, and Egypt is reunified.

1440 B.C.E.    Egyptian reign of Amenhotep II.  First mention of
Hapiru (Hebrew ?) in Egyptian texts.

1365 B.C.E.    Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) comes to power.  He
unsuccessfully tries to promote a primitive monotheism with the Sun
god 'Re' as creator.  His successor was the famous Tutankhamun
(King Tut).


1315 B.C.E.    Egypt's 19th dynasty begins.  Ramses I, Seti I. 
Moses is born.  He would possibly become a prince of the royal
court of Seti I.

1300 B.C.E.    Ramses II reigns.  Probable time of Hebrew
enslavement in Egypt.  Other estimates set this time frame even
before 1500 B.C.E.

1280 B.C.E.  The Hebrew Exodus from Egypt.  The revelation at Mount
Sinai.

1240 B.C.E.  Joshua leads the Hebrews in conquering the land of
Canaan.

1200 B.C.E.    The Hittite empire is conquered by allied tribes
from the north.  The northern, coastal, Canaanites [called the
Phoenicians by the Greeks] are temporarily displaced, but return
when the invading tribes show no inclination to settle.

     The Egyptians called the Horde that swept across Asia Minor
and the Mediterranean the Sea Peoples.  At the head of this
alliance of Sea Peoples were the peleshet, known in the Bible as
the Philistines.  They possibly originated on the island of Crete.

     The Bronze Age ends.  The Iron Age begins.

1185 B.C.E.    The Sea Peoples invade Egypt, but are repelled.  The
Peleshet are deflected northward, and settle in Canaan, in the
cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod.

1140 B.C.E.    Canaanite tribes try to destroy the Israelite tribes
of Northern and Central Canaan.  The Israelite response is led by
Barak, and the prophet Devorah.  The Canaanites are resoundly
defeated.

1055 - 1015  The Kingdom of Saul, first King of Israel.

1015 - 960   The Kingdom of David

960 - 922    The Kingdom of Solomon     
957 - 950    First Temple built.


922 B.C.E.  The Kingdom divides.

     Judah,  the southern Kingdom, has Jerusalem as its capital,
and is populated mainly by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. 
Israel, the northern Kingdom has Samaria as its capital, and is
mainly comprised of the other tribes.


850 - 722 B.C.E.  Territories north of Israel are conquered by
Assyria.


722 B.C.E.  Israel (Northern Kingdom) annexed by Assyria.

650 B.C.E.     King Ashurbanipal rules the Assyrian capitol city of
Nineveh, in Mesopotamia.

587 B.C.E.  Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, seizes
Jerusalem.  The First Temple is destroyed.  The date is the 9th of
Av - Tisha B'av.

586 B.C.E.  Conquest of Judah (Southern Kingdom) by Babylon.


722 - 586 B.C.E

The First Dispersion - Diaspora.  Jews taken as slaves, or flee to
Egypt Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia.


550 B.C.E. Babylonian Empire falls

538 B.C.E.  Cyrus the Great becomes King of Persia.

550 - 333 B.C.E.  Persian Empire rules over Israel.

537 B.C.E.  Cyrus allows Shesbazzar, a prince from the tribe of
Judah, to bring Babylonian Jews back to Jerusalem.

520 - 515 B.C.E.  Under the spiritual leadership of the Prophets
Haggai and Zechariah, the Second Temple is constructed.  At this
time the Holy Land is a subdistrict of a Persian province.

332 B.C.E  The Empire of Alexander the Great includes Israel.

270 B.C.E  Ptolemaic Empire includes Israel.

198 B.C.E.  Armies of the Seleucid King Antiochus III (Antiochus
the Great) oust Ptolemy V from Judea and Samaria.

180 B.C.E.  Antiochus IV ascends the Seleucid throne.

168 B.C.E.  Under the reign of Antiochus IV, the Temple is looted,
Jews are massacred, and Judaism is outlawed.  (Antiochus IV is also
known as Antiochus Epiphanies).


The Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom 168 - 63 B.C.E.

167  Antiochus IV orders an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. 
Mattathias, and his five sons John, Simon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and
Judas lead a rebellion against Antiochus.  Judah becomes known as
Judah Maccabee (Judah The Hammer).

166  Mattathias dies, and Judah takes his place as leader.

165  The Jewish revolt against Syria is successful.

142  Syrians recognize Jewish independence.

139  Roman Senate recognizes Jewish independence

130  Syrians besiege Jerusalem, but withdraw.

96   Eight year civil war begins.

83   Consolidation of the Kingdom in territory east of the Jordan
River.

63   End of the Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom when it is conquered by
Rome.  Twelve thousand Jews massacred as Romans enter Jerusalem. 
The Priests of the Temple are struck down at the Altar.

37 - 4 B.C.E.  Reign of King Herod (Herod The Great).  Herod
expands the Second Temple, and rebuilds Israel.

26 - 36 C.E.  Reign of Pontius Pilate.  Rome begins to retract
Jewish autonomy.


The Revolt of the Zealots against Roman rule  66 - 73 C.E.

62 C.E.  Romans deprive Jews of citizenship.

66 C.E.  Roman soldiers loot Jerusalem, which is then seized by a
sect of Jews called the Zealots.  Roman military reinforcements
from Syria are defeated by the Zealots.

67 C.E.  In the North, the Roman Emperor Vespasian lands from
Antioch and receives the submission of Jews from Ptolemais to
Sepphoris.  The Jewish garrison at Jodeptah is massacred after a
two month siege.  By the end of this year Jewish resistance in the
North has been crushed.

70 C.E.  Romans occupy Jerusalem.  Titus, son of the Roman Emperor,
destroys the Second Temple on the 9th of Av, Tisha B'av.   Over
100,000 Jews die during the siege, and almost 100,000 are taken to
Rome as slaves.

73 C.E.  Last Jewish resistance is crushed by Rome.  At the
mountain fortress of Masada, the last defenders commit suicide
rather than be captured and be sold into slavery.


Under the Roman Empire 100 - 300 C.E.
     By 300 C.E. Jews had settled in every part of the Roman Empire
except Britain.  Eventually they were given freedom of religion,
and were allowed to practice law in disputes between Jews.  Jews
were exempt from military service.  There were probably three
million Jews in 300 C.E.
The Jews under Islam

750 - 1900 C.E.  Islam conquers Asia Minor, the Arabian Peninsula,
Israel, North Africa, and Spain.

     Under Muslim rule, Jews often found greater toleration than
under Christianity.  However, despite many decades of prosperity,
influence, trade, and toleration, the Jews living in the Arab and
Muslim world faced the continual danger of anti-Jewish
discrimination, violence, and persecution.  From Spain to Arabia
this took the form of confinement to ghettos, punitive taxation,
enforced wearing of special clothes and other humiliations, and
repeated outbreaks of looting and killing. 
Representative occurrences include:


Granada - 1066   More than five thousand Jews killed in Arab riots

Algiers - 1805   Forty Jews murdered

Morocco - 1033   Fez - More than six thousand Jews massacred
          1232   Jews massacred and persecuted throughout Morocco.
          1864 - 1880:  More than five hundred Jews murdered in
          sixteen years, often in broad daylight in the main
          streets.
          1890: Sefrou - The Jewish quarter is pillaged by Muslims
          after a flood in which fifty four Jews died.

Tunis - 800:  Jews forced to pay an additional annual tax.
        1145:  Jews are forced to convert to Islam or leave the
        country.
        1250:  Jews forced to wear special clothing.
        1869:  Eighteen Jews murdered within a few months.

1864 C.E.  Jerba - Arab bands pillage the Jewish communities, burn
and loot the synagogues, and rape Jewish women.


The Khazar Jewish Kingdom   700-1016 C.E.

     The Khazars were a nomad people from central Asia who lived in
the area that is today Khazakistan - a former republic of the
Soviet Union.  In about 700 C.E, their King, Bulan, was converted
to Judaism.  A later King, Obadiah, greatly strengthed Judaism,
inviting rabbis into the Kingdom and building synagogues.

     The Supreme Court consisted of two Jews, two Christians, two
Muslims, and a heathen.  Religious toleration was maintained for
the Kingdom's three hundred years.

970 C.E.  Russians began attacking the Khazars and drove them into
the Crimea.

1016 C.E.  A joint Russian-Byzantine force destroys the Kingdom.

Zionism  1860 - 1939 C.E.

1861  The Zion Society formed in Frankfurt, Germany.

1894  At the Dreyfus trial, a Jewish journalist from Vienna,
Theodore Herzl, realizes that as a nation, the Jews will never be
safe without a homeland.  Theodore Herzl becomes the founder of
modern political Zionism.

1896  Herzl publishes "Jew's State", urging Jews to seek their
national home in Palestine.  Immediate impact on Russian Jewry.

1897  The First Zionist Congress in Basel urges "a publicly and
legally assured home in Palestine" for Jews.  Subsequent Congresses
met through 1931.

1904  Herzl finds Pope Pious X unsympathetic towards the idea of a
Jewish National Home.

1917  The Balfour Declaration gives British support for "the
establishment in Palestine for a national home for the Jewish
people".

1920  At the San Remo conference in Italy, the Palestine Mandate is
assigned to Britain.  Palestine at this time includes all of
Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, part of the Golan Heights, and all of
Jordan.

1921  Britain goes back on its word to the Jews.  All of Palestine
east of the Jordan river is forever closed to Jewish settlement,
but not to Arab settlement.  This territory, Transjordan, fully 3/4
of Palestine, is given to the Emir Abdullah.

1923  Britain gives the Golan Heights to the French mandate of
Syria.  Arab immigration is allowed, Jewish immigration is not.

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

1938 Kristallnacht - Night of The Broken Glass.

1939  World War II begins when Germany invades Poland.


1941 - 1945  Shoah.  Over six million Jews perish as the world
looks on and does nothing.  The United States, England, Russia, and
Arab nations refuse to accept Jewish refuges, or allow Jews to
escape to Palestine.  The United States actually tightens its quota
system in 1941, ensuring the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
Jews.  The only place that allows Jewish refugees to enter is
Shanghai, China.


The British Mandate of Palestine  1920 - 1948

1920  Britain receives a League of Nations Mandate over Palestine.

     During the twenty eight years of British rule Arabs are
allowed unlimited immigration to build their numbers in Palestine,
but they oppose the same rights for Jews, even during the Shoah. 
Armed Arab attacks on Jewish settlements are frequent.  In 1936 the
British propose a partition between Jewish and Arab areas, which is
accepted by the Jews, but rejected by the Arabs.


1939  The British announce an absolute limit of only 75,000 on
future Jewish immigration to Palestine, thus ensuring that most of
the Jews of Europe will die in the Holocaust.  Arabs are allowed
unlimited immigration.

     Repeated Arab assaults and attacks lead to the formation of
Jewish self defense groups.  Two of these groups, the Stern gang
and the Irgun, resort to terrorism.  Arab terrorism continues
unabated.  British authorities continue to deny rights to Jews, and
hunt down members of the Stern and Irgun gangs.  Arab terrorists
are often ignored, or allowed to operate as they wish.


1947  The United Nations approves a plan which partitions the
western quarter of Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state, keeping
the eastern three quarters exclusively Arab.  It was accepted by
the Jews, but rejected by the Arabs.


1948  May 15.  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.


1948  May 15.  The moment Israel is born, Syrian, Iraqi, and
Egyptian troops invade Israel, publicly stating that they would
destroy Israel and all Jews living in it.  Israel, heavily
outnumbered and unprepared, miraculously triumphs.  The miracle of
Chanukah, "The many delivered into the hands of the few" is
repeated".

     Despite the Arabs total refusal to recognize Israel, offer
peace, or even negotiate, Israel unilaterally withdraws from all
territories occupied during the war.


1955 - 1956  Arab terrorism against Israel from Egypt increases. 
Egypt blockades the Gulf of Aqaba, and closes the Suez canal to
Israeli shipping.  Egypt's President Nassar calls for the
destruction of Israel.  Terrorism continues, and the Jewish state
is pushed to war.  Israel, England, and France fight Egypt and
force Egypt to end the blockade of Aqaba, and once again open the
canal to all nations.  Once again, despite Egypt's refusal to
recognize the State of Israel, Israel unilaterally withdraws from
Egypt.



1967  June 5-11  The Six Day War

1959 - 1967  Arab terrorists infiltrate Israel with approval of
Egyptian and Jordanian governments.  Jewish farms in northern
Israel are constantly attacked by artillery from Syrian positions
on the Golan Heights.  The UN refuses to condemn the Arab attacks.

1967  May 17 - Egyptian President Nasser demands that the UN
dismantle the UN Emergency force between Israel and Egypt. 
Incredibly, the UN complies, leaving Israel open to Egyptian
attack.

1967  May 20  - Nasser closes the strategic straits of Tiran to
Israeli shipping.  Arab nations now begin to encircle Israel with
over 250,000 Arab troops, 2,000 tanks, and 700 fighter planes and
bombers.  Nassar and other Arab leaders call for the complete
destruction of Israel and all the Jews living in it.  The Arab plan
for another Holocaust is evidenced by the motto "Push the Jews into
the sea".

1967 June - Nasser publicly states that Egypt is in a state of war
with Israel.  Egyptian troops group in the Sinai, ready to invade
Israel.

1967 June 5 - The Israeli air force undertakes a pre-emptive strike
against the air forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, successfully
destroying 391 planes on the ground and 60 more in the air.

     Israeli diplomats tell Jordan that they have no quarrel with
Jordan, and that if they stay out of the war, Israel will not fight
their army.  King Hussein of Jordan, however is led by Egypt to
believe that the Arabs will certainly prevail, and so Hussein
orders the Jordanian army to attack Israel.

1967 June 7 - Israeli forces enter and reunify Jerusalem.  The
Israeli flag is raised over all Jerusalem at 10:15am.  The Temple
Mount and Western Wall are again in Jewish hands after 1900 years
of exile.  By June 11 the Arab forces are routed, and Israel holds
territory in the Golan, the West Bank, and all of the Sinai up to
the Suez canal.

     As the Arabs withdraw from Jerusalem, they destroy every
synagogue in the city with explosives.  It is discovered that
during the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem, the Arabs had dug up
Jewish graveyards, and used the tombstones to line latrines and
build roads.


     Israel offers a peace agreement to the Arabs, and offers to
return all territory in exchange for a peace treaty.  The Arabs
reject Israel, refusing to negotiate, compromise, or even accept
the existence of the Jewish state.


The Yom Kippur War  October 6-24 1973
1973  October 6 - Syria launches a surprise attack against Israel
and invades the Golan Heights at the same time as Egypt attacks
Israeli forces in the Sinai.  They are joined by forces from
Morocco, Iraq, and Jordan.

     Syria attacks civilians and farming villages, and kills at
least fifty seven Israeli prisoners of war known to have been
captured alive.

1973 October 24 - Israeli forces recover from initial disarray, and
force out the invading Arab armies.  Henry Kissinger helps
negotiate a cease fire agreement.  Israel unilaterally withdraws
from Egyptian territory near Cairo and from Syrian territory near
Syria, but holds onto the Sinai and Golan Heights.  The Arabs
refuse to recognize the State of Israel.


The Camp David Accord
September 18, 1978     At Cammp David, near Washington D.C., Israel
and Egypt sign a comprehensive peace treaty which included the
withdrawal of Israel from the Sinai.


The Lebanon War  1982

1981  Heavily armed forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization
occupy and control large areas of Southern Lebanon.  Terrorism
against Israel increases.  The PLO eventually attacks Israel with
rockets and artillery.  The Lebanese, due to continued civil war
since 1975, have no central government, and are powerless to stop
the PLO.  The UN,  once again, decides not to help Israel.  The
terrorism and bombings continue.

June 6, 1982   Israel invades Southern Lebanon, and drives out the
PLO.  At first, some Lebanese welcome the Israelis, but as the
occupation grows from weeks to months, popular resentment against
Israel grows.  Israeli citizens are also unhappy with the war, as
losses are heavy, and the goals are not clear.

Within six months after the war begins, Israel withdraws from
Lebanon, but leaves troops behind in a ten mile wide security zone
along the Israeli-Lebanese border.  With their allies, the South
Lebanon Army, Israel hopes to prevent future assaults.


1990      Iraq invades Kuwait, triggering a war between Iraq and
Allied United Nations forces.  Israel is hit by 30 Scud missiles
from Iraq.

1991 October 30     The Madrid Peace Conference opens in Spain,
sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union.

1993      Israel and the PLO sign a peace agreement, in which both
parties mutually recognize each other.

1994      Israel and Jordan sign peace treaty.  Israel cedes a
small amount of contested land to Jordan, and the countries open
official diplomatic relations.