Editing Timeline of Jewish history (section)

== Early Modern Era ==

===16th century===
;1501: King [[Alexander of Poland]] readmits Jews to [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]].

;1506
: [[Lisbon massacre]]: [[Dominican Order|Dominican friars]] promised absolution for sins committed over the previous 100 days to those who killed the Jews of Lisbon, and a crowd of more than 500 people (many of them sailors from the [[County of Holland|counties of Holland]] and [[County of Zeeland|Zeeland]], and the [[Kingdom of Germany]]) gathered, persecuted, tortured, killed, and burnt at the stake hundreds of Jews. Women and children were beaten to death. Some Portuguese families saved their jewish neighbors by hiding them.

;1511: Printing of Jewish books by mechanical press began by [[Daniel Bomberg]].<ref>[[Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph|Gedaliah ibn Jechia]] the Spaniard, ''Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah'', Jerusalem 1962, p. 275 (in Hebrew)</ref>

;1516: [[Venetian Ghetto]] established, the first Jewish ghetto in Europe. Many others follow.

;1525–1572: Rabbi [[Moshe Isserles]] (The Rema) of [[Kraków]] writes an extensive commentary to the [[Shulkhan Arukh]] called the ''Mappah'', extending its application to [[Ashkenazi]] Jewry.

;1534: King [[Sigismund I the Old|Sigismund I of Poland]] abolishes the law that required Jews to wear [[yellow badge|special clothes]].

;1534: First [[Yiddish]] book published, in Poland.

;1534–1572: [[Isaac Luria]] ("the Arizal") teaches [[Kabbalah]] in Jerusalem and (mainly) Safed to select disciples. Some of those, such as [[Ibn Tebul]], [[Israel Sarug]] and mostly [[Chaim Vital]], put his teachings into writing. While the Sarugian versions are published shortly afterwards in Italy and Holland, the Vitalian texts remain in manuscripti for as long as three centuries.

;1547: First Hebrew Jewish printing house in [[Lublin]].

;1550: Jews expelled from [[Genoa]], Italy.

;1550: [[Moses ben Jacob Cordovero]] founds a Kabbalah academy in Safed.

;1567: First [[yeshiva]] is founded in Poland.

;1577: A Hebrew printing press is established in Safed, the first press in Palestine and the first in Asia.

;1580–1764: First session of the [[Council of Four Lands]] (''Va'ad Arba' Aratzot'') in Lublin, [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland]]. 70 delegates from local Jewish ''kehillot'' meet to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community.

===17th century===
;1621–1630: [[Shelah HaKadosh]] writes his most famous work after emigrating to the Land of Israel.

;1623: First time separate (''Va'ad'') Jewish Sejm for [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]].

;1626–1676: False [[Messiah]] [[Sabbatai Zevi]].

;1627: Kingdom of Beta Israel in what is now modern day Ethiopia collapses and loses autonomy.

;1633: Jews of [[Poznań]] granted a privilege of forbidding Christians to enter into their city.

;1648: Jewish population of Poland reached 450,000 (4% of the 11,000,000 population of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth being Jewish), 40,000 in Bohemia, and 25,000 in Moravia. Worldwide population of Jewry is estimated at 750,000.

;1648–1655: The [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] [[Cossack]] [[Bohdan Chmielnicki]] leads a massacre of Polish gentry and Jewry that leaves an estimated 65,000 Jews dead and a similar number of gentry. The total decrease in the number of Jews is estimated at 100,000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.virtual.co.il/communities/wjcbook/poland/ |title=Virtual Jerusalem - Jewish Communities of the World |access-date=2005-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990129001314/http://www.virtual.co.il/communities/wjcbook/poland/ |archive-date=1999-01-29 }}</ref>

;1655: Jews readmitted to England by [[Oliver Cromwell]].

;1660: [[1660 destruction of Safed]].<ref name=peters>{{cite book|author=Joan Peters|title=From time immemorial: the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5EkgDJsaGhMC|year=1985|publisher=JKAP Publications|isbn=978-0-9636242-0-8|page=178}}</ref>

;1679: Jews of Yemen expelled to [[Mawza Exile|Mawza]]

===18th century===
;1700–1760: Israel ben Eliezer, known as the [[Baal Shem Tov]], founds [[Hasidic Judaism]], a way to approach God through meditation and fervent joy. He and his disciples attract many followers, and establish numerous [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic]] sects. The European Jewish opponents of Hasidim (known as [[Misnagdim]]) argue that one should follow a more scholarly approach to Judaism. Some of the more well-known Hasidic sects today include Bobover, Breslover, Gerer, Lubavitch (Chabad) and Satmar Hasidim.

;1700: Rabbi [[Judah HeHasid (Jerusalem)|Judah HeHasid]] makes [[aliyah]] to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] accompanied by hundreds of his followers. A few days after his arrival, Rabbi Yehuda dies suddenly.

;1700: [[Sir Solomon de Medina]] is knighted by William III, making him the first Jew in England to receive that honour.

;1720: Unpaid Arab creditors burn the synagogue unfinished by immigrants of Rabbi Yehuda and expel all Ashkenazi Jews from Jerusalem. ''See also [[Hurva Synagogue]]''

;1720–1797: Rabbi Elijah of [[Vilna]], the [[Vilna Gaon]].

;1729–1786: [[Moses Mendelssohn]] and the [[Haskalah]] (Enlightenment) movement. He strove to bring an end to the isolation of the Jews so that they would be able to embrace the [[Western culture|culture of the Western world]], and in turn be embraced by gentiles as equals. The Haskalah opened the door for the development of all the modern Jewish denominations and the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, but it also paved the way for many who, wishing to be fully accepted into Christian society, converted to Christianity or chose to assimilate to emulate it.

;1740: [[Parliament of Great Britain]] passes a general act permitting Jews to be naturalized in the American colonies. Previously, several colonies had also permitted Jews to be naturalized without taking the standard oath "upon the true faith of a Christian."

;1740: Ottoman authorities invite Rabbi Haim Abulafia (1660–1744), renowned Kabbalist and Rabbi of Izmir, to come to the Holy Land. Rabbi Abulafia is to rebuild the city of Tiberias, which has lain desolate for some 70 years. The city's revival is seen by many as a sign of the coming of the Messiah.<ref name="autogenerated1">Morgenstern, Arie. "''Dispersion and Longing for Zion, 1240–1840''". Azure. {{cite web |url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/culture/dispersion.html |title=Culture &#124; Dispersion and the Longing for Zion, 1240-1840 |access-date=2008-02-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011105728/http://www.jafi.org.il/education/culture/dispersion.html |archive-date=2007-10-11 }}</ref>

;1740–1750: Thousands immigrate to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] under the influence of Messianic predictions. The large immigration greatly increases the size and strength of the Jewish Settlement in Palestine.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

;1747:Rabbi [[Abraham Gershon of Kitov]] ([[Kuty]]) (1701–1761) is the first immigrant of the Hasidic Aliyah. He is a respected Talmudic scholar, mystic, and brother-in-law of [[Baal Shem Tov|Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov]] (founder of the Hasidic movement). Rabbi Abraham first settles in [[Hebron]]. Later, he relocates to Jerusalem at the behest of its residents.<ref>''Encyclopedia Judaica'', vol. 9, pp. 514. Gershon of Kitov</ref>

;1759: Followers of [[Jacob Frank]] joined ranks of Polish [[szlachta]] (gentry) of Jewish origins.

;1772–1795: [[Partitions of Poland]] between [[Russia]], Kingdom of [[Prussia]] and [[Austria]]. Main bulk of World Jewry lives now in those 3 countries. Old privileges of Jewish communities are denounced.

;1775–1781:  [[American Revolution]]; guaranteed the [[freedom of religion]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/declara1.html|title=Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents|access-date=23 November 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630050357/http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/declara1.html|archive-date=30 June 2007}}</ref>

;1775: Mob violence against the Jews of Hebron.<ref name=dolan>{{cite book|author=David P. Dolan|title=Holy war for the promised land: Israel's struggle to survive|url=https://archive.org/details/holywarforpromis00dola|url-access=registration|year=1991|publisher=Thomas Nelson Incorporated|isbn=978-0-8407-3325-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/holywarforpromis00dola/page/60 60]}}</ref>

;1789: The [[French Revolution]]. In 1791 France grants full right to Jews and allows them to become citizens, under certain conditions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/rev891.html |title=The French Revolution |access-date=2002-11-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021001122324/http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/rev891.html |archive-date=2002-10-01 }}</ref>

;1790: In the US, President [[George Washington]] sends a letter to the Jewish community in [[Rhode Island]]. He writes that he envisions a country "which gives bigotry no sanction...persecution no assistance". Despite the fact that the US was a predominantly [[Protestant]] country, theoretically Jews are given full rights. In addition, the mentality of Jewish immigrants shaped by their role as merchants in Eastern Europe meant they were well-prepared to compete in American society.

;1791: Russia creates the [[Pale of Settlement]] that includes land acquired from Poland with a huge Jewish population and in the same year [[Crimea]]. The Jewish population of the Pale was 750,000. 450,000 Jews lived in the Prussian and Austrian parts of Poland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/pale.html|title=The Pale of Settlement|access-date=23 November 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021201224108/http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/pale.html|archive-date=1 December 2002}}</ref>

;1798: Rabbi [[Nachman of Breslov]] travels to Palestine.

;1799: While French troops were in Palestine besieging the city of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], Napoleon prepared a Proclamation [[Napoleon and the Jews|requesting Asian and African Jews to help him conquer Jerusalem]], but his unsuccessful attempt to capture Acre prevented it from being issued.

;1799: Mob violence on Jews in [[Safed]].<ref name="dolan" />