This timeline of antisemitism chronicles events in the history of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as members of a religious and ethnic group. It includes events in Jewish history and the history of antisemitic thought, actions which were undertaken in order to counter antisemitism or alleviate its effects, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.
Some authors prefer to use the terms anti-Judaism or religious antisemitism in reference to religious sentiments against Judaism which were prevalent before the rise of racial antisemitism in the 19th century. For events which specifically pertain to expulsions and exoduses of Jews, see Jewish refugees.
__NOTOC__ Antiquity Century C.E.: 1st2nd3rd 4th5th6th7th 8th9th 10th11th12th 13th14th15th16th 17th18th19th 20th21st
Antiquity Note: Several of the following events took place earlier than the term "antisemitism" is generally applied. Some even took place when the Israelites and Judeans practiced an early, non-monotheistic form of Judaism known as Yahwism, First Temple Judaism, or First Temple Israelite religion. However, these events feature heavily in the history detailed in the Old Testament, which was foundational to the later establishment of Second Temple Judaism, following the return of the Israelites from Babylon after it was conquered by the Persian Empire.
In The Pentateuch (Five Books of Moses)
Since Abraham is considered the first patriarch of the Jewish people and the first Jew, the first recorded cases of Jew-hatred were against him. The Midrash refers to stories of Abraham as a child in Ur, but the first event as described in the Book of Genesis, chapter 23, describing hatred towards Abraham and the future Jewish people are seen in the negotiations between Abraham and Ephron, son of Zohar, the Hittite, concerning the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. Abraham's wife, Sarah, had died and Abraham wanted to buy the field and the cave located in it as a burial place. Ephron, the owner, who did not want the Jewish people to own any part of the Holy Land did not negotiate in good faith. In the end he had little choice but to sell and received much more than the going rate. This was the first Jewish acquisition of property in the land promised to Abraham for his descendants. Ephron's unwillingness to sell and subsequent extortion is traditionally attributed to Jew-hatred.
Laban's treatment of his nephew Jacob, exploiting 20 years of labor, exchanging Leah for Rachel in marriage, his begrudging Jacob's acquisition of flocks and his subsequent pursuit and searching Jacob's belongings is understood as the next instance of Jew-hatred (Genesis 29-31).
In Jewish tradition, Esau, Jacob's brother is one archetypal manifestation of a desire to destroy the Jewish people (Genesis 25,19-34; 27; 32,3-16), often associated with the Roman Empire and its Christian successors. Another archetype of an eternal enemy of the Jewish people is the people of Amalek and their desire to kill the Jewish people to the last man (Exodus 17,8-16).
Other examples of incidents interpreted as hate of the Jewish people are Pharaoh and the Egyptians enslaving the Hebrews (Genesis 39-50; Exodus), the Baal-Peor episode (Numbers 25: 6-8, 14-15) and the sunsequent war against the Midianites (Numbers 25:17, 31).
In Later Parts of the Bible
740 BCE During the Assyrian captivity (or the Assyrian exile), several thousand Israelites of ancient Samaria are resettled as captives by Assyria. The Northern Kingdom of Israel is then conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
586 BCE During the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II, the Neo-Babylonian Empire destroys the temple in Jerusalem and captures the Kingdom of Judah, expelling as many as 10,000 families to Babylon. Judeans are seen here by the Babylonians as a uniform group, marking the beginning of collective persecution.. This First Destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile lasted 70 years until the fall of the Babylonian Empire to the Persian king Koresh (כורש), usually identified as Cyrus, and his declaration allowing the Jews to return to Judaea and to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem as described in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
475 BCEthe exact time frame covered by the Book of Esther is disputed Haman is said in the Book of Esther to attempt genocide against the Jews. The Book of Ester is considered fictional by many historians, but archeological discoveries in Iraq since 2003, a better understanding of the period and reevaluation of the historical background has resulted in a wider acceptance of the historicity of the text.בנימין לאו: אסתר - קריאה במגילה is one example of that. It alludes to a history of conquest by non-Levantine groups for the people of Judea.. The Jew-hating element in the narrative is the unexplained hatred of Haman and his ilk toward the Jewish people as a whole in a period when the Jews were spread out over many of the countries of the Persian-Median Empire as well as being generally accepted in society. By a series of incidents, the planned extermination of the Jewish people was avoided, the implicit cause being Divine intervention without being explicitly mentioned.
175 BCE–165 BCE The Deuterocanonical First and Second Books of the Maccabees record that Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempts to erect a statue of Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem and persecutes Jews who follow Jewish law, especially circumcision, sabbath and holidays and dietary laws. He arrests a mother and her seven sons and tries to force them to eat pork. When they refuse, he tortures and kills the sons one by one. The Talmud tells a similar story,Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Gittin Folio 57 as do 4 Maccabees and Josippon.Gerson D. Cohen, Hannah and Her Seven Sons at Jewish Virtual Library The festival of Hanukkah commemorates the uprising of the Maccabees against this attempt.
139 BCEGnaeus Cornelius Scipio Hispanus expels all Jews from the city of Rome.
63 BCE 12,000 Jews are killed by the Romans and many more are sent into the diaspora during Pompey's conquest of the East.Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 1:149-151
59 BCE Cicero criticizes Jews, claiming they are too influential in public assemblies. He also refers to Jews and Syrians as "races born to be slaves".
First century
19 CE Roman Emperor Tiberius expels Jews from Rome. Their expulsion is recorded by the Roman historical writers Suetonius, Josephus, and Cassius Dio.
38 CE Thousands of Jews killed by mobs in the Alexandrian pogrom, as recounted by Philo of Alexandria in Flaccus. Synagogues are defiled, Jewish leaders are publicly scourged, and the Jewish population, a substantial part of the city's population since its founding by Alexander the Great, is confined to one quarter of the city.. The first century also saw the rise of Judeophobic polemics among writers in the Hellenistic world, e.g. Appion known from Josephus' defence in Against Apion.
50 CE Jews are ordered by Roman Emperor Claudius "not to hold meetings", in the words of Cassius Dio (Roman History, 60.6.6). Claudius later expelled Jews from Rome, according to both Suetonius ("Lives of the Twelve Caesars", Claudius, Section 25.4) and Acts 18:2.
66 CE Under the command of Tiberius Julius Alexander, Roman soldiers killed about 50,000 Jews in the Alexandria riot.
66–73 CE The First Jewish–Roman War against the Romans is crushed by Vespasian and Titus. Titus refuses to accept a wreath of victory, because there is "no merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their own God." (Philostratus, Vita Apollonii). The events of this period were recorded in detail by the Jewish–Roman historian Josephus. His record is largely sympathetic to the Roman point of view and it was written in Rome under Roman protection; hence it is considered a controversial source. Josephus describes the Jewish revolt as being led by "tyrants", to the detriment of the city, and he describes Titus as having "moderation" in his escalation of the Siege of Jerusalem (70).
70 CE Against a background of oppressive rule by Roman governors, Jewish socioeconomic divides, nationalist aspirations, and rising religious and ethnic tensions, Jewish opposition to Roman interference culminated in the Great Jewish RevoltFirst Jewish–Roman War during Passover of the year 70 CE, the siege and subsequent fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple and the expulsion of the Jews. Over 1,000,000 Jews perished and an additional 97,000 are taken as slaves.. Judaea Capta coinage minted and spread all over Roman Empire to humiliate the Jews.
70 CE Pogrom against jews in Damascus
94 CE Fabrications of Apion in Alexandria, Egypt, including the first recorded case of blood libel. Juvenal writes anti-Jewish poetry. Josephus picks apart contemporary and old antisemitic myths in his work Against Apion.
96 CE Titus Flavius Clemens, nephew of the Roman Emperor Vespasian and supposed convert to Judaism is put to death on charges of atheism.
100 CE Tacitus writes anti-Jewish polemic in his Histories (book 5). He reports on several old myths of ancient antisemitism (including that of the donkey's head in the Holy of Holies), but the key to his view that Jews "regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies" is his analysis of the extreme differences between monotheistic Judaism and the polytheism common throughout the Roman world.
Second century
115–117 Thousands of Jews are killed during civil unrest in Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrenaica, as recounted by Cassius Dio.
119 Roman Emperor Hadrian bans circumcision, making Judaism de facto illegal.
132–135 Crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt. According to Cassius Dio 580,000 Jews are killed. Hadrian orders the expulsion of Jews from Judea, which is merged with Galilee in order to form the province of Syria Palaestina. Although large Jewish populations remain in Samaria and Galilee, with Tiberias as the headquarters of exiled Jewish patriarchs, this is the start of the Jewish diaspora. Hadrian constructs a pagan temple to Jupiter at the site of the Temple in Jerusalem, builds Aelia Capitolina among the ruins of Jerusalem.
136 In an attempt to wipe out the Jewish character of the land, Hadrian renames Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina and builds a Roman monument over the site of the Temple Mount. Jews are banned from living and visiting Jerusalem and Judea is renamed Syria Palestina, referring to the Greek words for both the Levant as well as the region at the time.. The name Palaestine was taken from a by then ancient and extinct enemy of the Jews, the Philistines as a scorn and a sign of Jewish defeat.
167 Earliest known accusation of Jewish deicide (the notion that Jews were held responsible for the death of Jesus), made in a sermon On the Passover, attributed to Melito of Sardis.
175 Apollinaris the Apologist writes two books against the Jews.
Third century 259 The Jewish community of Nehardea is destroyed.
Fourth century 306 The Synod of Elvira bans intermarriage and sexual intercourse between Christians and Jews and forbids Jews and Christians from eating together.
315 Constantine I enacts various laws regarding the Jews: Jews are not allowed to own Christian slaves or to circumcise their slaves. Conversion of Christians to Judaism is outlawed. Congregations for religious services are restricted, but Jews are also allowed to enter the restituted Jerusalem on the anniversary of the Temple's destruction.
325 Jews are expelled and banned from Jerusalem.