A History of Persecution

70 CE: Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Titus. 1,100,000 Jews were killed and 97,000 taken into slavery and captivity.

115: Rebellion of the Jews in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cyrene and Cyprus. Jews and Romans inflicted many barbaric atrocities on each other, causing the death of several hundreds of thousands of Romans and Jews.

132-35: The Bar Kochba rebellion (Bar Kochba was a false Messiah). After the revolt was defeated, religious persecutions began, and many died for their faith. Thousands were killed, sold into slavery or taken into captivity.

135: Roman Emperor Hadrian commences persecution of the Jews: Jerusalem established as a pagan city; erection of Jupiter temple on temple mountain (Moriah) and temple to Venus on Golgotha. Jews were forbidden to practice circumcision, the reading of the Law, eating of unleavened bread at Passover or any Jewish festival, infringement of this edict brought the death penalty.

315: Constantine the Great established "Christianity" as the State religion throughout the Roman Empire; Issued many anti-Jewish laws.

379-95: Theodosius the Great expelled Jews from any official gate position or place of honor. Permitted the destruction of their synagogues if by so doing, it served a religious purpose.

613: Persecution of the Jews in Spain; all Jews who refused to be baptised had to leave the country. A few years later the remaining Jews were dispossessed, declared as slaves and given to pious "Christians" of position. All children 7 years or over were taken from parents & given to receive a "Christian" education.

628-638: King Dagobert expelled all Jews from France.

694-711: Jewish property confiscated, Judaism outlawed, and Jewsenslaved by Visigothic rule in Spain.

795-816: Pope Leo III introduced public disputations between Jews and Christians, resulting in forced conversions to Christianity.

632-633: The Roman Emperor Heraclius I forced Jews to be baptized or face death in Byzantine Empire.

1012: Henry II of Germany expelled the Jews from Mainz.

1096: Bloody persecutions of the Jews at the beginning of the First Crusade in Germany. Along the cities on the Rhine River alone, 12,000 Jews were killed. The Jews were branded second only to Moslems as the enemies of Christendom.

1099: Crusaders entered Jerusalem, and massacred Jews an Muslims living there.

1121: Jews driven out of Flanders (now part of Belgium). They were not to return nor to be tolerated until they repented of the guilt of killing Jesus Christ.

1130: The Jews of London had to pay compensation of 1 million marks for allegedly killing a sick man.

1145-1153: Second Crusade. Jews purchased protection in fortified castles of noblemen, but were betrayed to mobs.

1170: Third Crusade. Jews were accused of blood libel and massacred.

1198-1216: Fourth Crusade, against Jews. Pope Innocent III demanded that Christian rulers make the Jews atone for the sin of deicide.

1290: Jews were expelled from England.

1306 and 1322: Jews were expelled from France.

1370: Jews were blamed for having defiled the "Host" (wafer used in the Mass) in Brussels. The accused were burned alive. Again, all Jews were banned from Flanders and until the year 1820, every 15 years a feast was kept to celebrate the event.

1391: Persecutions in Spain. In Seville and 70 other Jewish communities, the Jews were cruelly massacred and their bodies dismembered.

1394: Second banishment of Jews from France.

1453: The Franciscan monk, Capistrano, persuaded the King of Poland to withdraw all citizens’ rights of the Jewish people.

1478: The Spanish Inquisition directed against the Jews.

1492: The banishment of Jews from Spain. 300,000 Jews who refused to be "baptized" into the Church of Rome left Spain penniless. Many migrated to the Muslim country, Turkey, where they found tolerance and a welcome.

1497: Banishment of the Jews from Portugal. King Manuel, generally friendly to the Jews, under pressure from Spain instigated forced baptism to keep the Jews. 20,000 Jews desired to leave the country. Many were ultimately declared slaves.

1516: First Ghetto established in Venice.

1540: Banishment of Jews from Naples and 10 years later, from Genoa and Venice.

1542: Martin Luther wrote "Against the Jews and Their Lies", which called Jews children of the Devil.

1670: Jews expelled from France.

1794: Restriction of Jews in Russia, Jewish men were forced to serve 25 years in the Russian military. Many hundreds of thousands of Jews left Russia.

1846-78: All former restrictions against Jews in Vatican State reinforced by Pope Pius IX.

1903: Renewed restrictions of Jews in Russia. Frequent pogroms (massacres): general impoverishment of Russian Jewry.

1933: Commencement of persecution of Jews in Hitler Germany. Inception of the systematic destruction of 6,000,000 Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe.

1946-1952: Jews still killed in Poland (1946), Libya (1948), and Prague (1952). USSR accused 9 doctors (mostly Jewish) of plot to assassinate Soviet leaders.

1956: Jews were deported from Egypt.

1979-1989: Anti-Semitism in America, with more than 6,400 acts of anti-Semitic vandalism, bombings, attempted bombings, arsons, attempted arsons, cemetery desecrations, and harassment. These were committed by the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi groups, and Skinheads.

1990: Pamyat, a nationalist movement in Eastern Europe began, its sole purpose to eliminate Jews and Jewish influence from the Russian empire.

This list was derived from a chart compiled by David Levy, and other sources.

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