Editing Timeline of Jewish history (section)

===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.