About Jewishness

During the Middle Ages (5th to 16th century), Jews divided into distinct regional groups which today are generally addressed according to two primary geographical groupings: the Ashkenazi of Northern and Eastern Europe and Sephardic Jews of Iberia, North Africa and the Middle East. These groups have parallel histories sharing many series of persecutions and forced expulsions, which finally culminated in events in the 20th century that led to the State of Israel.

5th century

483 The Empress Eudocia, the wife of the Emperor Theodosius II, removes the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site and the heads of the Community in Galilee issue a call "to the great and mighty people of the Jews": "Know that the end of the exile of our people has come"!
Eudocia displayed a positive attitude toward Jerusalem's Jewish population. Following the reign of Julian the Apostate, anti-Jewish legislation had intensified and there was a rash of attacks on synagogues in the empire. Eudocia, in contrast, permitted the Jewish community in Palestine to renew the pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the Sukkot festival.

6th century

500-523 Yosef Dhu Nuwas,the last King of Himyarite Kingdom (Modern Yemen) is converting to Judaism, upgrading already existing Yemenese Jewish center. His kingdom has fallen in war against Axum and the Christians, yet was later restored in the 7th century as a vassal kingdom of Sassanid Persia until the Muslim conquest.

7th century

613 Spanish decree that Jews should be converted or expelled
Soon after upholding the edict of compulsory baptism for children of mixed marriages, King Sisebut instituted what were to become an unfortunate recurring phenomenon in Spanish official policy, in issuing the first edicts against the Jews of expulsion from Spain. Following his 613 decree that the Jews either convert or be expelled, some fled to Gaul and North Africa, while as many as 90,000 converted. Many of these conversos, as did those of later periods, maintained their Jewish identities in secret. During the more tolerant reign of Suintila (621-631), however, most of the conversos returned to Judaism, and a number of the exiled returned to Spain

613 Jews led by Benjamin of Tiberias gain autonomy in Jerusalem after the revolt in 613 as a joint military campaign with ally Sassanid Empire under Khosrau II, but are subsequently annihilated and expelled in 628, leaving Israel (part of Syria Palaestina province) empty of Jewish presence for the first time since Babylonian exile.

614-628 Persian occupation - Byzantine-Sassanid War
The local resistance to the Persians in Syria and Palestine was not strong, although local elites constructed defensive fortification, but they could not stop the Persians by themselves. Thus, local elites generally tried to negotiate with the Persians. The cities of Damascus, Apamea, and Emesa fell quickly in 613, giving the Persians a chance to strike further south. Nicetas, Heraclius' cousin, continued to resist the Persians, but was defeated at Adhri'at, although he managed to win a small victory near Emesa, where both sides suffered heavy casualties: some 20,000 reportedly died. More seriously, however, the weakness of the resistance enabled the Persian to capture Jerusalem in three weeks, despite its diehard resistance. Somewhere between 57,000 and 66,500 people were slain; another 35,000 were enslaved, including the Patriarch Zacharias.

630 Palestine conquered by Muslim Arab Empire
The rise and domination of Islam among largely pagan Arabs in the Arabian peninsula results in the almost complete removal and conversion of the ancient Jewish communities there, and sack of Syria-Palaestina from the hands of Byzantines.
In the 630s this empire conquered Palestine and it remained under the control of Islamic Empires for most of the next 1300 years.

638 Siege of Jerusalem
Jerusalem had been well-fortified after Heraclius recaptured it from the Persians. After the Byzantine defeat at Yarmouk, Sophronius repaired its defenses.
It began when the Rashidun army, under the command of Abu Ubaidah, besieged Jerusalem in November 636. After six months, the Patriarch Sophronius agreed to surrender, on condition that he submit only to the Rashidun caliph. In April 637, Caliph Umar traveled to Jerusalem in person to receive the submission of the city.
The Muslim conquest of the city solidified Arab control over Palestine, control which would not again be threatened until the Crusades in the late 11th through the 13th centuries. Thus, it came to be regarded as a holy site by Islam, as well as Christianity and Judaism. After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, Jews were allowed to live and practice their religion freely in Jerusalem by Caliph Umar - after nearly 500 years of expulsion from the Holy Land by the Romans. Jerusalem remained under the Muslim rule until it was captured by Crusaders in 1099.

The Khazars (a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia whose King and members of the upper class would adopt Judaism at 740CE) founded the independent Khazar kingdom in the southeastern part of today's Europe. The Khazarate would last until 10th century, being overrun by Russians, and finally conquered by Russian and Byzantian forces in 1016.

8th century

700-1250 Period of the Gaonim (the Gaonic era). Jews in southern Europe and Asia Minor lived under the often intolerant rule of Christian Kings and clerics. Most Jews lived in the Muslim Arab realm (Andalusia, North Africa, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen). Despite sporadic periods of persecution, Jewish communal and cultural life flowered in this period. The universally recognized centers of Jewish life were in Jerusalem and Tiberias (Syria), Sura and Pumbeditha (Iraq). The heads of these law schools were the Gaonim, who were consulted on matters of law by Jews throughout the world. During this time, the Niqqud is invented in Tiberias.

711 Muslim armies invade and occupy most of Spain
At this time Jews made up about 8% of Spain's population. Under Christian rule, Jews had been subject to frequent and intense persecution, but this was alleviated under Muslim rule. Some mark this as the beginning of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain.
Until 1248 the Iberian Peninsula was occupied by the Moors. In 1492 the last Muslim resistance was conquered by the Spanish king and in that same year the Jews were expelled.

10th century

900-1090 The Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain
Abd-ar-Rahman III becomes Caliph of Spain in 912, ushering in the height of tolerance. Muslims granted Jews and Christians exemptions from military service, the right to their own courts of law, and a guarantee of safety of their property. Jewish poets, scholars, scientists, statesmen and philosophers flourished in and were an integral part of the extensive Arab civilization. This ended with the invasion of Almoravides in 1090.

11th century

1012 Jews are expelled from Germany. Most of them go to Poland (Lodz)
Emperor Henry II expelled the Jews, probably in reaction to an anti-Christian pamphlet which was produced by a new convert to Judaism, Wecelin (a former Cleric and Deacon). The Jews were allowed to return the following year.

1016 Khazar Jews are expelled from the Crimea. They go to Russia, or south, to Constantinople
The indefatigable traveller, Ibn Masudi, gave the followingreport in 954: "The population of the Khazar capital consists of Moslems, Christians, Jews, and pagans. The king, his court, and all members of the Khazar tribe profess the Jewish religion, which has been the dominant faith of the country since the time of the Caliph Haroun-al-Rashid. Many Jews who settled among the Khazars came from all the cities of the Muslims and the lands of Byzantium, the reason being that the king of Byzantium persecuted the Jews of his empire in order to force them to adopt Christianity." Apparently nothing the Jews of Khazaria did was sufficient to restrain the emerging power of the Russians. (...) The Russians,with the help of Byzantium, finally crushed it in 1016 and thus the Jewish kingdom of Khazaria came to an end. What happened to the Khazar Jews is an intriguing historic mystery. It is, however, certian that of those who remained in Khazaria most were baptized by force. The rest were dispersed: some of them fled into northern Hungary where in time they, too, were absorbed by the local Christian population. To this very day there are villages in northern Hungary that bear such names as Kozar and Kozardie. It is also widely believed that many Khazar Jews, escaping from baptism, found their way into Poland. There, by inter-group blending, they soon became indistinguishable from other Jews. It is also significant that Tshagataish, the language of the Khazar Jews, a Turkish dialect, is still spoken in Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania by the Karaites, the Jewish sectarians whose homeland was originally in the Crimea. Even more significant is the fact that Tshagataish is spoken by the few surviving Jewish Krimtchaki of the Crimea."

1095-1291 Christian Crusades begin, sparking warfare with Islam in Palestine.
Crusaders temporarily capture Jerusalem in 1099. Tens of thousands of Jews are killed by European crusaders throughout Europe and in the Middle East.
The Crusades were a series of military conflicts conducted by Christian knights for the defence of Christians and for the expansion of Christian domains. Generally, the crusades refer to the campaigns in the Holy Land against Muslim forces sponsored by the Papacy. There were other crusades against Islamic forces in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily, as well as the campaigns of Teutonic knights against pagan strongholds in Eastern Europe.
The Holy Land had been part of the Roman Empire, and thus Byzantine Empire, until the Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries. Thereafter, Christians had generally been permitted to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land until 1071, when the Seljuk Turks closed Christian pilgrimages and assailed the Byzantines.

1095-1096 Attacks on Jews in the Rhineland
The preaching of the First Crusade ignited violence against Jews, which some historians call "the first Holocaust". At the end of 1095 and beginning of 1096, months before the departure of the official crusade in August, there were attacks on Jewish communities in France and Germany. In May 1096, Emicho of Flonheim attacked the Jews at Speyer and Worms. Other unofficial crusaders from Swabia, led by Hartmann of Dillingen, along with French, English, Lotharingian and Flemish volunteers, led by Drogo of Nesle and William the Carpenter, as well as many locals, joined Emicho in the destruction of the Jewish community of Mainz at the end of May. In Mainz, one Jewish woman killed her children rather than see them killed; the chief rabbi, Kalonymus Ben Meshullam, was also killed.
Emicho's company then went on to Cologne, and others continued on to Trier, Metz, and other cities. Peter the Hermit may have been involved in violence against the Jews, and an army led by a priest named Folkmar also attacked Jews further east in Bohemia. Emicho's army eventually continued into Hungary but was defeated by the army of King Coloman. His followers dispersed; some eventually joined the main armies, although Emicho himself went home.
Many of the attackers seem to have wanted to force the Jews to convert, although they were also interested in acquiring money from them. Physical violence against Jews was never part of the church hierarchy's official policy for crusading, and the Christian bishops, especially the Archbishop of Cologne, did their best to protect the Jews, as they were theologically required to do. Nevertheless, some of them also took money in return for their protection. The attacks may have originated in the belief that Jews and Muslims were equally enemies of Christ, and enemies were to be fought or converted to Christianity. Godfrey of Bouillon had extorted money from the Jews of Cologne and Mainz, and many of the Crusaders wondered why they should travel thousands of miles to fight non-believers when there were already non-believers closer to home.

1096-1192 Jews are expelled from Germany and go to Poland and Lithuania
The First Crusade began an era of massacres of Jews in Germany. The wild excitement of Crusading, to which the Germans had been driven by exhortations to take the cross, first broke upon the Jews, the nearest representatives of an execrated opposition faith. Entire communities, like those of Trier, Worms, Mainz, and Cologne, were slain, except where the slayers were anticipated by the deliberate self-destruction of their intended victims. The Jewish community of Speyer was saved by the bishop. About 12,000 Jews are said to have perished in the Rhenish cities alone between May and July 1096.

1099 Siege of Jerusalem
On 7 June 1099 the crusaders reached Jerusalem, which had been recaptured from the Seljuks by the Fatimids of Egypt only the year before. The final assault on Jerusalem began on 13 July with Raymond's troops attacking the south gate and the other contingents attacking the northern wall. Initially the Provencals at the southern gate made little headway, while the contingents at the northern wall fared better with a slow but steady attrition of the defence. On 15 July, a final push was launched at both ends of the city, and eventually the inner rampart of the northern wall was captured. In the panic that ensued, the defenders abandoned the walls of the city at both ends, allowing the Crusaders to finally enter.
The massacre which followed the capture of Jerusalem has attained particular notoriety, as a "juxtaposition of extreme violence and anguished faith". The eyewitness accounts from the crusaders themselves leave little doubt that there was great slaughter in the aftermath of the siege.
The slaughter continued for the rest of the day; Muslims were indiscriminately killed, and Jews who had taken refuge in their synagogue were murdered when it was burnt down by the Crusaders. The following day, in a particularly cold-blooded atrocity, Tancred's prisoners in the mosque were slaughtered. Nevertheless, it is clear that some Muslims and Jews survived the massacre, either escaping or being taken prisoner to be ransomed.

12th century

1107 Moroccan Almoravid ruler Yoseph Ibn Tashfin expels Moroccan Jews who do not convert to Islam
Ali, the son of Yoseph ibn Tashifin, Almoravide leader and founder of the city of Marrakesh, decreed the death penalty for any Jews living in the city. At the same time, one of his military leaders and two of his physicians were Jewish.

1182 Jews are expelled from France and go to the Provence, then under Catalan rule
The First Crusade led to nearly a century of accusations (blood libel) against the Jews, many of whom were burned or attacked in France. Immediately after the coronation of Philip Augustus on March 14, 1181, the King ordered the Jews arrested on a Saturday, in all their synagogues, and despoiled of their money and their vestments. In the following April, 1182, he published an edict of expulsion, but according the Jews a delay of three months for the sale of their personal property. Immovable property, however, such as houses, fields, vines, barns, and wine-presses, he confiscated. The Jews attempted to win over the nobles to their side, but in vain. In July they were compelled to leave the royal domains of France (and not the whole kingdom); their synagogues were converted into churches. These successive measures were simply expedients to fill the royal coffers. The goods confiscated by the king were at once converted into cash.


13th century

1248 Jews are expelled from Germany and go to Poland (Lodz)
The Christians brought accusations against the Jews to argue that the Jews had deserved their fate. Alleged crimes, like desecration of the host, ritual murder, poisoning of wells, and treason, brought hundreds to the stake and drove thousands into exile. Jews were alleged to have caused the inroads of the Mongols, even though they suffered equally with the Christians.


1250-1550 Period of the Rishonim, the medieval rabbinic sages
Most Jews at this time lived in lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea or in Western Europe under feudal systems. With the decline of Muslim and Jewish centers of power in Iraq, there was no single place in the world which was a recognized authority for deciding matters of Jewish law and practice. Consequently, the rabbis recognized the need for writing commentaries on the Torah and Talmud and for writing law codes that would allow Jews anywhere in the world to be able to continue living in the Jewish tradition.

1290 Jews are expelled from England by Edward I after the banning of usury in the 1275 Statute of Jewry.
After the failed experiments in legislation which Edward I made from 1269 onward, there was only one option left: If the Jews were not to have intercourse with their fellow citizens as artisans, merchants, or farmers, and were not to be allowed to take interest, the only alternative was for them to leave the country. He immediately expelled the Jews from Gascony, a province still held by England and in which he was traveling at the time; and on his return to England (July 18, 1290) he issued writs to the sheriffs of all the English counties ordering them to enforce a decree to the effect that all Jews should leave England before All Saints' Day of that year. They were allowed to carry their portable property; but their houses escheated to the king, except in the case of a few favoured persons who were allowed to sell theirs before they left. Between 4,000 and 16,000 Jews were expelled. They emigrated to countries such as Poland that protected them by law.

1299-November 1, 1922 Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman regime has always been very friendly to the Jews and allowed them significant autonomy.
The history of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey covers the 2,400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in Asia Minor since at least the 4th century BCE and many Spanish and Portuguese Jews expelled from Spain were welcomed to the Ottoman Empire (including regions part of modern Turkey) in the late 15th century. Despite emigration during the 20th century, modern day continues to have a small Jewish population.

14th century

1306-1394 Jews are repeatedly expelled from France and readmitted, for a price. Most of them seek refuge in Spain and Italy
Toward the middle of 1306 the treasury was nearly empty, and the king, as he was about to do the following year in the case of the Templars, decided to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. He condemned the Jews to banishment, and took forcible possession of their property, real and personal. Their houses, lands, and movable goods were sold at auction; and for the king were reserved any treasures found buried in the dwellings that had belonged to the Jews.

1343 Jews persecuted in Western Europe are invited to Poland by Casimir the Great
King Casimir was favorably disposed toward Jews. On 9 October 1334, he confirmed the privileges granted to Jewish Poles in 1264 by Boleslaw V the Chaste. Under penalty of death, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of enforced Christian baptism. He inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish cemeteries.
Although Jews had lived in Poland since before the reign of King Casimir, he allowed them to settle in Poland in great numbers and protected them as people of the king.

1348 Jews are expelled from Germany. Most of them go to Poland (Lemberg)
When the Black Death swept over Europe in 1348–49, Christians accused Jews of poisoning wells. In the wake of this accusation, a general slaughter began throughout the empire, which triggered a massive exodus east to Poland. Nonrestrictive government policies and public attitudes towards Jews helped the Jewish immigrants to Poland to form the foundations of what would become the largest Jewish community in Europe.

1349-1360 Jews are expelled from Hungary and go to Poland
Under the foreign kings who occupied the throne of Hungary on the extinction of the house of Arpad, the Hungarian Jews suffered many persecutions; and at the time of the Black Death (1349) they were expelled from the country. Although the Jews were immediately readmitted, they were again persecuted, and were once more expelled in 1360 by King Louis the Great of Anjou (1342-1382) on the failure of his attempt to convert them to Catholicism. They were graciously received by Alexander the Good of Moldavia and Dano I of Wallachia, the latter affording them special commercial privileges.
When, some years later, Hungary was in financial distress, the Jews were recalled.

1350 Jews are expelled from Crimea and go to Russia, due to the Black Death Pogroms.

1394 Jews are expelled from the Provence (then under French rule)
On September 17, 1394, Charles VI suddenly published an ordinance in which he declared, in substance, that for a long time he had been taking note of the many complaints provoked by the excesses and misdemeanors which the Jews committed against Christians; and that the prosecutors, having made several investigations, had discovered many violations by the Jews of the agreement they had made with him. Therefore he decreed as an irrevocable law and statute that thenceforth no Jew should dwell in his domains. According to the "Religieux de St. Denis", the king signed this decree at the instance of the queen. The decree was not immediately enforced, a respite being granted to the Jews in order that they might sell their property and pay their debts. Those indebted to them were enjoined to redeem their obligations within a set time; otherwise their pledges held in pawn were to be sold by the Jews. The provost was to escort the Jews to the frontier of the kingdom. Subsequently the king released the Christians from their debts.

The Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1683

15th century

1420 Jews are expelled from Lyon. Most of them go to Spain.
All Jews were expelled from Lyons, including the refugees from Paris who were expelled 20 years earlier. The only Jews left in France remained in Provence (until 1500) and in the possessions of the Holy See.

1478-1833 Spanish Inquisition, mostly targeting "New Christians" (crypto-Jews)

1481 February 12, FIRST AUTO DA FE (Seville, Spain)
Six Marrano men and six women were burned alive for allegedly practicing Judaism. The Auto da Fe (Act of Faith) combined the Judicial ceremony of the Inquisition with vociferous sermons. An individual could be denounced for having lapsed back into his old religion or committing heresy. Although the Inquisition and the Auto da Fe was used on anyone accused of heresy, its main victims were Jews. The inquisition accused people of backsliding or heresy for actions such as not eating pig (for whatever reason), washing hands before prayer, changing clothes on the Sabbath, etc. Over two thousand Auto da Fes are said to have taken place in the Iberian Peninsula and its colonies. The number of victims in Spain alone is estimated at 39,912, many of whom were burned alive. Some were burned in effigy. Others, convicted posthumously, were dug up and burned - and the property they left was confiscated from their heirs. Approximately 340,000 people, many of them Jews, suffered at the hands of the Inquisition, although the vast majority were given lesser punishments. The last Auto da Fe was held in 1790.

1486 First Jewish prayer book published in Italy

1492 The Alhambra Decree: Approximately 200,000 Jews are expelled from Spain
The expelled Jews relocate to the Netherlands, Turkey, Arab lands, and Judea; some eventually go to South and Central America. However, most emigrate to Poland. In later centuries, more than 50% of Jewish world population lived in Poland. Many Jews remain in Spain after publicly converting to Christianity, becoming Crypto-Jews.
1492 Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire issued a formal invitation to the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal and sent out ships to safely bring Jews to his empire.

1493 Jews expelled from Sicily
As many as 137,000 exiled. Most of them settle in Napels, Rome and Livorno. Muslim Moors had ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula since the first invasion in 711. By the late Middle Ages, Christian kings had begun to wage war on the Moors and recapture some of the peninsula. After the marriage of King Ferdinand of Aragon to Queen Isabella of Castille, the Moors were finally forced out of Granada in 1492, completing the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.
Jewish life had flourished in Spain, and Muslims, Christians, and Jews had coexisted peacefully throughout Al-Andalus.
In 1492, as part of an attempt to maintain Catholic orthodoxy and purify their kingdom of Moorish influence, Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the forced expulsion or conversion of all Jews on pain of death. The date of the expulsion was extended from September 18, 1492 to January 12, 1493, in order to allow the extortion of opportunist tax levies.
Witnesses recounted the sight of the Jews of waving from the departing ships at their former neighbours as they were borne away. Many Sicilian Jews fled to neighboring Calabria where the Spanish Inquisition caught up with them again fifty years later.

1495 Jews expelled from Lithuania
Many go to the Crimea and Russia. The favorable attitude toward the Jews which had characterized the Lithuanian rulers for generations was unexpectedly and radically changed by a decree promulgated by Alexander in April, 1495. By this decree all Jews living in Lithuania proper and the adjacent territories were summarily ordered to leave the country.
The expulsion was evidently not accompanied by the usual cruelties; for there was no popular animosity toward the Lithuanian Jews, and the decree was regarded as an act of mere willfulness on the part of an absolute ruler. Some of the nobility, however, approved Alexander's decree, expecting to profit by the departure of their Jewish creditors, as is indicated by numerous lawsuits on the return of the exiles to Lithuania in 1503. It is known from the Hebrew sources that some of the exiles migrated to the Crimea, and that by far the greater number settled in Poland, where, by permission of King John Albert, they established themselves in the towns situated near the Lithuanian boundary.

1496 Jews expelled from Portugal and from many German cities
In 1496, under the pressure of the newly born Spanish State, the Church and also the Christian people, King Manuel I of Portugal decreed that all Jews had to convert to Christianity or leave the country. Hard times followed for the Portuguese Jews, with the massacre of 5000 individuals in Lisbon (1506), the forced deportation to São Tomé and Príncipe (where there is still today a Jewish presence), and the later and even more relevant establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1536.

1497 Exodus of Jews from Portugal to Brazil, Holland, Germany and North Africa
Most Portuguese Jews, thousands, would eventually leave the country to Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Constantinople (Istanbul), France, Morocco, Brazil, Curaçao and the Antilles. In some of these places their presence can still be witnessed, like the use of the Ladino language by some Jewish communities in Turkey, the Portuguese based dialects of the Antilles, or the multiple Synagogues built by what was to be know as the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (such as the Amsterdam Esnoga).
Many Jews did stay in Portugal, however. A significant number converted to Christianity as a mere formality, practicing their Jewish faith in secret. These Crypto-Jews were known as New Christians, and would always be under the constant surveillance of the Inquisistion - many, if not most of these, would eventually leave the country in the centuries to come and again embrace openly their Jewish faith (such was the case, for example, of the family of Baruch Spinoza).

16th century

1501 King Alexander of Poland readmits Jews to Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Alexander reversed his position just as the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, as well as from Austria, Hungary and , thus stimulating Jewish immigration to the much more tolerant Poland. Indeed, with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Poland became the recognized haven for exiles from western Europe; and the resulting accession to the ranks of Polish Jewry made it the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish people.
The most prosperous period for Polish Jews began following this new influx of Jews with the reign of Zygmunt I (1506–1548), who protected the Jews in his realm.

1516 Ghetto of Venice established, the first Jewish ghetto in Europe. Many others follow.
The Venetian Ghetto was the area of Venice in which Jews were compelled to live under the Venetian Republic. It is from its name, in the Venetian language, that the word "ghetto", used in many languages, is derived.

1516-1922 Israel under Ottoman rule
After the Ottoman conquest, the name "Palestine" disappeared as the official name of an administrative unit, as the Turks often called their (sub)provinces after the capital. Following its 1516 incorporation in the Ottoman Empire, it was part of the vilayet of Damascus-Syria until 1660. It then became part of the vilayet of Saida (Sidon), briefly interrupted by the 7 March 1799 – July 1799 French occupation of Jaffa, Haifa, and Caesarea. During the in 1799, Napoleon prepared a proclamation declaring a Jewish state in Palestine.

1534 King Sigismund I of Poland abolishes the law that required Jews to wear special clothes
During the time from the rule of Sigismund I the Old until the Nazi Holocaust, Poland would be at the center of Jewish religious life.

1536-1821 Portuguese Inquisition, mostly targeting "New Christians" (crypto-Jews)
The Inquisition held its first Auto da fé in Portugal in 1540. Like the Spanish Inquisition, it concentrated its efforts on rooting out converts from other faiths (overwhelmingly Judaism) who did not adhere to the strictures of Catholic orthodoxy; like in Spain, the Portuguese inquisitors mostly targeted the Jewish New Christians, conversos, or marranos. The Portuguese Inquisition expanded its scope of operations from Portugal to the Portuguese Empire, including Brazil, Cape Verde, and Goa. According to Henry Charles Lea between 1540 and 1794 tribunals in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Évora burned 1,175 persons, another 633 were burned in effigy and 29,590 were penanced, but documentation of at least fifteen between 1580-1640 - the period of the Iberian Union - disappeared, so the real numbers must be higher. The Portuguese inquisition was extinguished in 1821 by the "General Extraordinary and Constituent Courts of the Portuguese Nation" .

1550 France welcomes Jews again, if they are converted
Crypto-Jews arrive from Spain and Portugal and are called "New Christians". King Henry II invites the "new christians" to come to live in Bordeaux, then a depopulated city as a result of the war with England.

1567 First Jewish university Yeshiva was founded in Krakow, Poland.

1567 Huguenots (French Protestants) start to emigrate from France and go to Holland and England
Some converted Jews take this opportunity to start a new life there, as "Huguenots". Soon more than 25% of the Amsterdam populations consists of French Huguenots, and probably quite a few crypto-Jews among them.

1580 First session of the Council of Four Lands (Va'ad Arba' Aratzot) in Lublin, Poland
70 delegates from local Jewish kehillot meet to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community. The Council of Four Lands (Va'ad Arba' Aratzot) in Lublin, Poland was the central body of Jewish authority in Poland from 1580 to 1764. Seventy delegates from local kehillot met to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community. The "four lands" were Greater Poland, Little Poland, Ruthenia and Volhynia.
The terms "Council of Three Lands" and "Council of Five Lands" and more have also been used for the same body. In 1623 the Jewish communities from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania withdrew from the "Council of Four Lands" and established the "Council of the Land of Lithuania".