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1492
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Jews are expelled from Spain. Columbus, with conversos
Jews aboard, reaches the New World. |
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1500s
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Rise of Kabbalah in Safed, Palestine.
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1628
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First Jews settle in Barbados, an English colony. By 1710 there are two synagogues on the island.
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1648-49
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Chmielnicki cossack massacres in Poland.
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1650
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Twelve Jewish families granted permission to settle in Curacao. Jews settle in Jamaica, permitted to own land and practice their religion.
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1654
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Jews expelled from Brazil; twenty-three land in New Amsterdam.
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1655
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Jews allowed to resettle in England from which they had been barred since 1290.
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1700s
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Rise of Hasidism in Russia and Poland.
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1732
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Congregation Mickve Israel, oldest synagogue in Western Hemisphere, built in Curacao.
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1760
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Jewish merchants and their families settle in New Orleans.
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1791
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Jews granted citizenship in France. Beginning of Jewish Emancipation in Europe.
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1820s
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Rise of Reform Judaism in Germany.
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1840
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Jews in Damascus, Syria, are accused of blood libel, arousing world reaction.
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1858
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Edgardo Mortara, a little boy, is abducted in Italy after forced conversion, creating world-wide protests.
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1868
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Benjamin Disraeli becomes English prime minister. Queen Victoria makes him Earl of Beaconsfield.
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1881
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Czar Alexander II assassinated in St. Petersburg, Russia. Pogroms and persecution of Jews follows, and immigration to America is accelerated. Two million Eastern European Jews will emigrate to America through 1914.
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1894
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French staff officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason and imprisoned on Devil's Island in the Caribbean. He is later exonerated.
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1896
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Theodore Herzl founds political Zionism; First World Zionist Congress is held.
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1917
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Balfour Declaration pledges British support for Jewish national homeland. United States enters world War I against Germany. Russian Revolution.
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1919
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Jewish delegations to the Paris Peace Conference after World War I seek minority rights for European Jews.
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1922
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British Mandate on Palestine (Land of Israel) approved by League of Nations.
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1929
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Arab rioters kill sixty-seven Jewish settlers in Hebron, British Mandate Palestine.
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1931
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Three million Jews live in Poland, making it the largest Jewish population outside the U.S.
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1933
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Rise of Adolph Hitler. German Nazis proclaim general boycott of all Jewish businesses.
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1935
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Germans pass Nuremberg Laws restricting legal and civil rights of German Jews.
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1939
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Germany invades Poland, starting World War II. Steamship St. Louis, carrying
907 Jewish German refugees, is turned back by U.S. and Cuba. U.S. Jewish population
estimated at 4,770,000.
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1940
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Nazis establish ghettos in Poland.
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1941
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Einsatzgruppen (special units) follow German troops into Soviet Union, perpetuating systematic murder.
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1942
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Nazi leaders refine the "Final Solution" -- the genocide of the Jewish people -- at Wannsee Conference.
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1945
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Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal estimates that 6,000,000 Jews have been murdered by the Nazis.
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1947
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Ancient scrolls, some dating from 22 B.C.E., are discovered at Qumram near the
Dead Sea. UN approves partition of British Mandate Palestine into Jewish and
Arab states.
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1948
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Israel is founded as a nation and is recognized by the United States.
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1950s
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Hundreds of thousands of Jews from Europe and Arab lands come to Israel.
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1956
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Sinai campaign by Israel, France, and England.
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1960
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Adolph Eichmann stands trial in Israel for crimes against the Jews and humanity during WorId War II.
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1967
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Israel is victorious over Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq in Six Day War.
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1969
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Golda Meir elected Prime Minister of Israel.
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1970
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Soviet Jews agitate for right to emigrate.
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1973
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Egypt and Syria attack Israel on the Day of Atonement, starting the Yom Kippur War, which Israel wins.
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1978
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Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
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1985
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Operation Moses, airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
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1987
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Uprising of Palestinian Arabs, known as the Intifada, begins on Judea, Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza.
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1989
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Soviet Union permits Jews to emigrate on their first application for visa.
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1991
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Breakup of Soviet Union leads to rise of nationalism and outbreaks of anti-Semitism.
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1992
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Operation Solomon brings almost all Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
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1993
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Israel signs Agreement with the PLO.
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1994
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Israel-Jordanian Peace Treaty.
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