Birth of Aharon David Gordon
Aharon David Gordon, one of the founders of Hapoel Hatzair, the Jewish Labor movement, was born into a religious family in Troyanov near Zhytomyr, which was then part of the Russian empire.
Pope Pius IX Protests Emancipation for Jews in Italy
Pope Pius IX writes to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, to protest the Grand Duke’s decision to grant levels of emancipation to Jews in the Grand Duchy.
Zionist Intellectual Max Nordau Is Born in Hungary
Max Nordau is born Simon Maximilian Sudfeld in Pest, Hungary to an Orthodox Jewish family. Nordau’s most notable contribution to early Zionism is The Basel Plan – the first official blueprint for the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine.
9 Jews Freed After Damascus Blood Libel
September 6, 1840 The nine surviving Damascus Jews accused of killing a Franciscan Capuchin friar and his servant to harvest the blood are freed by order of Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman pasha who controls an…
Allahdad: Jews Are Forcibly Converted, Massacred in Mashhad, Iran
The tensions between the local Shiite population and Jews erupt in the northeast Iranian city of Mashhad.
Chaim Nahman Bialik Is Born in Ukraine
Chaim Nahman Bialik, famed Zionist poet, is born in the village of Radi, near Zhitomir in Volhynia (Northwest Ukraine).
French National Assembly Debates Citizenship for Jews
Following the French Revolution and the August 26, 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, the issue of Jewish rights is debated in the French National Assembly for three days with no conclusion.
Amsterdam Jews Excommunicate Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza’s ideas about Judaism are rejected by the Amsterdam Jewish community, eventually leading to his excommunication. He goes on to become one of the most important philosophers of the Jewish Enlightenment, which seeks to reconcile the world of Jewish faith with secular, empirical reality.
Sultan Questions Number of Synagogues in Safed
Sultan Murad III orders an investigation into the number of synagogues in Safed in the Land of Israel, then under Ottoman Control.
Jews Are Ousted From Safed
Ottoman Sultan Murad III issues a firman (a royal decree) ordering that 1,000 Jews from Safed be registered and sent to live in Famagusta, Cyprus.
Pope Paul IV Orders Jews of Rome Into a Ghetto
Pope Paul IV issues the papal decree Cum Nimis Absurdum, which subjects Jews under his dominion to a myriad of restrictions and humiliations, most notably forcing them to live in ghettos.
Massacre of Jews in Cordoba Takes Place
A riot breaks out against the conversos or marranos–Jews who had publicly converted to Christianity but continued to practice Judaism behind closed doors.
Archduke Orders All Austrian Jews Arrested
Austrian Archduke Albert V ordered that all his Jewish subjects were to be imprisoned and their possessions confiscated following libelous accusations against an influential member of Viennese Jewish community.
Jews Expelled from England
Following decades of exploitation and persecution that included heavy taxation and attempts at forced conversion, King Edward I of England issues an expulsion order for the Jews of England.
Charter of Duke Frederick II of Austria Is Issued
In 1244, the Duke issues a charter extending rights to Jews. His goal is to build the region’s economy. The charter encourages Jewish money-lending and Jewish migration to an outlying area. It also guarantees Jewish safety.
Maimonides Is Born
Moses Ben Maimon, known as Maimonides or Rambam, is born in Cordoba, Spain, into a distinguished family (some sources give the year of his birth as 1138).
