Parallel histories
What happened in the homeland—and the diaspora? Follow events in the land alongside Jewish life beyond it. Select several tracks to see how persecution, return, politics and diplomacy interacted.
Homeland Diaspora Diplomacy
Jewish homeland Jewish diaspora Antisemitism & persecution Holocaust Jewish return Zionism Empires & rulers Diplomacy & statehood Wars & conflict
Showing 58 of 58 events
c. 1208 BCE Homeland · Jewish homeland
A people called Israel The Merneptah Stela contains the earliest widely accepted extra-biblical reference to Israel in Canaan.
The inscription does not establish later borders or prove every biblical narrative. It does establish that a group called Israel was known in the region.
Evidence status: Broadly established c. 1000–722 BCE Homeland · Jewish homeland · Empires & rulers
Israel and Judah Israelite and Judahite polities developed in the southern Levant, with Jerusalem central to Judah.
722 BCE Homeland · Jewish homeland · Empires & rulers · Wars & conflict
Assyria conquers northern Israel The northern kingdom fell and Assyria deported part of its population.
587/586 BCE Homeland · Jewish homeland · Jewish diaspora · Empires & rulers · Wars & conflict
Babylon destroys Jerusalem Babylon conquered Judah, destroyed the First Temple and deported part of the population.
539 BCE onward Homeland · Jewish homeland · Jewish return · Empires & rulers
Persian rule permits return After conquering Babylon, the Persian Empire permitted Judean return and restoration.
c. 515 BCE–70 CE Homeland · Jewish homeland · Empires & rulers
Second Temple period Jerusalem again became the centre of Jewish religious and political life under successive empires.
c. 140–63 BCE Homeland · Jewish homeland · Empires & rulers
Hasmonean Jewish sovereignty A Jewish dynasty governed much of the region after revolt against Seleucid rule.
63 BCE Homeland · Jewish homeland · Empires & rulers · Wars & conflict
Roman intervention Rome brought Judaea into its sphere and later imposed direct rule.
70 CE Homeland · Jewish homeland · Jewish diaspora · Wars & conflict
Second Temple destroyed Roman forces captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple.
132–135 CE Homeland · Jewish homeland · Jewish diaspora · Empires & rulers · Wars & conflict
Bar Kokhba revolt and repression The revolt ended in severe destruction, restrictions and major displacement.
Late antiquity–1800s Homeland · Jewish homeland · Jewish return
Jews never completely disappeared from the land Jewish communities continued or re-formed under Roman, Byzantine, Muslim, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman rule.
630s CE Homeland · Arab/Palestinian history · Empires & rulers
Early Muslim conquest Arab Muslim armies took the region from Byzantine rule.
1096 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Wars & conflict
Rhineland massacres Crusading mobs attacked Jewish communities in western European cities.
1099–1517 Homeland · Jewish homeland · Arab/Palestinian history · Empires & rulers
Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk rule Control of the homeland shifted between Latin Christian and Muslim powers.
1290 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution
Jews expelled from England Edward I ordered Jews to leave England.
1391 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution
Anti-Jewish violence in Iberia Mass violence and forced conversions devastated Jewish communities across parts of Spain.
1492 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution
Expulsion from Spain The Alhambra Decree required practising Jews to convert or leave.
1517–1917 Homeland · Jewish homeland · Arab/Palestinian history · Empires & rulers
Ottoman rule in the homeland The land formed part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuries.
1648–1649 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Wars & conflict
Khmelnytsky-era massacres War and revolt devastated many Jewish communities in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Before the 1880s Homeland · Jewish homeland · Jewish return
The Old Yishuv Long-established Jewish communities lived especially in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias.
1840 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution
Damascus Affair Jews in Damascus faced torture and accusation through a blood libel.
1881–1884 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Zionism
Pogroms in the Russian Empire Waves of anti-Jewish violence accelerated emigration and political organising.
1882 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Zionism
Pinsker publishes Auto-Emancipation Leon Pinsker argued that Jews needed collective self-emancipation rather than dependence on emancipation granted by others.
1882–1903 Homeland · Jewish return · Jewish homeland · Zionism
First Aliyah A substantial immigration wave established new Jewish agricultural communities.
1894–1906 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Zionism
Dreyfus Affair A Jewish French army officer was wrongly convicted amid public antisemitism.
1896 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Zionism
Herzl publishes The Jewish State Herzl argued that the “Jewish question” required a political and territorial solution.
1897 Diplomacy · Zionism · Diplomacy & statehood
First Zionist Congress Delegates in Basel adopted a programme for a publicly secured Jewish home in Palestine.
1903 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Zionism
Kishinev pogrom Violence in Kishinev became an international symbol of Jewish vulnerability in the Russian Empire.
1905–1906 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Wars & conflict · Zionism
A further wave of Russian pogroms Revolutionary unrest brought another wave of organised and mob violence against Jewish communities.
1904–1914 Homeland · Jewish return · Jewish homeland · Zionism
Second Aliyah Another immigration wave strengthened Hebrew labour, communal institutions and new settlements.
1917 Diplomacy · Zionism · Diplomacy & statehood · Empires & rulers
Balfour Declaration Britain supported the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
1918–1921 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Wars & conflict
Pogroms during the Russian Civil War Competing armies and militias killed large numbers of Jews across Ukraine and neighbouring regions.
1922–1948 Homeland · Zionism · Arab/Palestinian history · Diplomacy & statehood · Empires & rulers
British Mandate Britain administered Palestine under a League of Nations mandate amid competing national movements.
1933 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution
Nazis take power The Nazi state began excluding Jews from public life and progressively stripping their rights.
1935 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution
Nuremberg Laws Nazi law deprived German Jews of citizenship and prohibited relationships classified as “racial mixing.”
1937 Diplomacy · Arab/Palestinian history · Zionism · Diplomacy & statehood
Peel Commission proposes partition A British commission recommended separate Arab and Jewish political entities and discussed population transfer.
1938 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution
Kristallnacht Nazi authorities orchestrated mass attacks on synagogues, businesses and Jewish homes.
1939 Diplomacy · Jewish return · Zionism · Arab/Palestinian history · Diplomacy & statehood
British White Paper restricts immigration Britain sharply limited Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine on the eve of the Holocaust.
1941 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Wars & conflict
Farhud in Baghdad A violent anti-Jewish pogrom struck Baghdad during a political crisis.
1941–1945 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Wars & conflict · Zionism
The Holocaust Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered six million European Jews.
1945 onward Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Jewish return · Diplomacy & statehood
Jewish survivors in displaced-persons camps Many Holocaust survivors remained in Europe without secure homes or destinations.
1946 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution
Kielce pogrom A mob killed Jews in postwar Poland after the Holocaust.
1947 Diplomacy · Zionism · Arab/Palestinian history · Diplomacy & statehood
UN recommends partition Resolution 181 recommended an Arab state, a Jewish state and an international regime for Jerusalem.
Dec 1947–May 1948 Homeland · Arab/Palestinian history · Zionism · Wars & conflict
Arab attacks follow the UN vote After the Arab leadership rejected partition, Arab forces and foreign volunteers attacked Jewish communities while Britain still governed.
14 May 1948 Diplomacy · Zionism · Diplomacy & statehood
Israel declares independence Jewish leaders declared the State of Israel as the British Mandate ended.
15 May 1948 Homeland · Arab/Palestinian history · Diplomacy & statehood · Wars & conflict
Neighbouring Arab armies enter Regular forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon entered the former Mandate.
1948–1949 Homeland · Zionism · Wars & conflict
Israel survives the invasion The new state held off five invading Arab armies.
Feb–Jul 1949 Diplomacy · Arab/Palestinian history · Diplomacy & statehood · Wars & conflict
Armistice agreements end the war Israel signed armistices with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
1948 onward Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Antisemitism & persecution · Jewish return
Jews return from across the Middle East and North Africa Israel welcomed large Jewish populations from ancient communities across the region.
6 Oct 1973 Homeland · Diplomacy & statehood · Wars & conflict
Israel withstands the Yom Kippur attack Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a coordinated surprise attack on Israeli forces in Sinai and the Golan Heights.
1949–1952 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Jewish return
Magic Carpet and Ezra & Nehemiah Airlifts brought the Jewish communities of Yemen and Iraq to Israel.
June 1967 Homeland · Wars & conflict · Jewish homeland
Six-Day War; Jerusalem reunited After the closure of the Straits of Tiran and the expulsion of UN peacekeepers, Israel won a six-day war and reunited Jerusalem.
4 July 1976 Diplomacy · Wars & conflict
Operation Entebbe Israeli commandos rescued hostages held at Entebbe, Uganda, about 4,000 km from Israel.
26 March 1979 Diplomacy · Diplomacy & statehood
Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat signed the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab state.
1984 & 1991 Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Jewish return
Operations Moses and Solomon Israel airlifted Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) home, including more than 14,000 in about 36 hours in 1991.
1989–2000s Diaspora · Jewish diaspora · Jewish return
The great aliyah from the former USSR After decades of refusenik struggle, around a million Jews from the Soviet Union and its successor states moved to Israel.
26 October 1994 Diplomacy · Diplomacy & statehood
Israel–Jordan Peace Treaty Israel and Jordan signed a full peace treaty at the Arava crossing.
15 September 2020 Diplomacy · Diplomacy & statehood
The Abraham Accords Israel normalised relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, later joined by Morocco and Sudan.