This Day, June 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
JUNE 5 In History70: Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem. 1191 After conquering Cyprus, Richard the Lionheart and his Crusaders set sail for “the Holy Land.” This crusading...
View ArticleThis Day, June 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
JUNE 6 In History1242: Two dozen wagonloads of Talmudic volumes and 200 other rabbinic manuscripts were burned at Paris. 1247: Pope Innocent IV contacts the king of Navarre. In a dispatch he requested...
View ArticleThis Day, June 7, In Jewish by Mitchell A. Levin
JUNE 7 In History421: Theodosius II, the Emperor whose code sought to reinforce Christianity as the state religion at the expense of Judaism, married Aelia Eudocia Augusta, a pagan who converted so...
View ArticleThis Day, June 8, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
June 8 In History 65 CE: Jewish insurgent forces captured the fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem. This battle marked the outbreak of the Jewish revolt against Rome. This revolt would end with the...
View ArticleThis Day, June 9, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
JUNE 9 In History68: The Emperor Nero died in Rome. Nero had appointed four governors of Judea each of whom was crueler and greedier than his predecessor. The Jewish Revolt in 66 was caused, in part,...
View ArticleThis Day, July 16, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 16 In History622: The Prophet Mohammed begins his Hijra from Mecca to Medina. This marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. The importance of this to Jewish history should require no...
View ArticleThis Day, July 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 17 In History1203: The Knights of the Fourth Crusade capture Constantinople forcing the Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus to flee from his capital into exile. Unlike other Crusades, the...
View ArticleThis Day, July 18, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 18 In History64: During the reign of Emperor Nero, the Great Fire begins in Rome. After the fire, Nero avoided the initial inclination to blame the blaze on the Jews. Instead, he targeted the...
View ArticleThis Day, July 19, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 19 In History64: During the reign of Nero, The Great Fire at Rome comes to end. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Jews had been living in Rome since the second century before the Common Era...
View ArticleThis Day, July 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 20 In History356 BCE: In Macedonia, King Philip II and Queen Olympia give birth to Alexander the Great. You can draw a straight line from Alexander’s Hellenization of Asia Minor to Chanukah to...
View ArticleThis Day, July 21, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 21 In History285: Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler. This was part of an attempt to shore up the imperial authority. In another such step, Diocletian “ordered all the people …to...
View ArticleThis Day, July 22, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 22 In History1099: During the First Crusade Godfrey of Bouillon elected first Defender of the Holy Sepulcher of The Kingdom of Jerusalem. Having driven out the Muslims and Jews (including the...
View ArticleThis Day, July 23, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 23 In History501: A violent earth quake hit Eretz Yisrael. The town of Akko was totally destroyed. 636: Following the Battle of Yarmuk Arabs took control of most of Eretz Yisrael from the...
View ArticleThis Day, July 24, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 24 In History1148: Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade. The Second Crusade gained nothing for the Christians. The failure of the crusade may help explain“the...
View ArticleThis Day, July 25, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 25 In History306: Constantine I was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops. Under the rule of Constantine, Christianity would in effect become the official religion the Roman Empire. This was the...
View ArticleThis Day, July 26, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 26 In History412: “Emperors Theodosius II and Honorius ban compulsion of public service or court appearances for Jews on the Sabbath or any other Jewish holy day. Thus all legal issues involving...
View ArticleThis Day, July 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 27 In History1192: As Richard the Lionheart and Saladin continued their conflict during the Third Crusade, Saladin laid siege to Jaffa.1214: French King Phillip II defeats the forces headed by...
View ArticleThis Day, July 28, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 28 In History 450:Theodosius II the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor from 408 to 450 passed away. His reign was not a good period for the Jews people. In 425 “on the death of the Jewish Patriarch...
View ArticleThis Day, July 29, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 29 In History1099: Pope Urban II, the man behind the First Crusade, passed away. Considering the impact of the Crusades on the Jews of Europe, his impact on Jewish history is self-obvious.1336:...
View ArticleThis Day, July 30, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
July 30 In History762:Caliph Al Mansur founded the city of Baghdad. By the start of the 10th century wealthy Jewish merchants were playing the role of “court bankers” and were reportedly lending funds...
View Article