Historical Timeline

Note:  These earliest dates (B.C.) are not without differences of opinion.  They are offered as a general guideline, there being somewhat of an agreement as to their general accuracy.  Investigation into the timeline is still ongoing.

Israel's beginnings:

2035 B.C. - Abraham born.

1960 B.C. - Abraham leaves Haran for Canaan.

1935 B.C. - Isaac born.

1875 B.C. - Jacob born.

1767 B.C. - Joseph sold to Egyptians.

1745 B.C. - Jacob and family move to Egypt.

Egyptian bondage and the Exodus under Moses:

1610 B.C. - Moses born.

1530 B.C. - The Exodus from Egypt.  Israel crosses the Red Sea.
                - The Law is given to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Israel given The Promised Land:

1490 B.C. - The Hebrews enter Canaan.

980 B.C. - David becomes King of Israel.

930 B.C. - The first Temple completed in Jerusalem.

900 B.C. - The nation is divided into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

Assyrian & Babylonian captivities and the Return:

722 B.C. - Israel (Northern Kingdom) conquered by Assyria.

586 B.C. - Judah (Southern Kingdom) conquered by Babylon.  Jerusalem destroyed, including the first Temple (on the 9th of Av), and the Jews exiled to Babylon.

538 B.C. - The exiles return to Jerusalem from Babylon.

516 B.C. - The second Temple dedicated.

445-444 B.C. - Nehemiah rebuilds The walls of Jerusalem.

350 B.C. - Persians capture Jerusalem.

332 B.C. - Jerusalem conquered by Alexander the Great.  Hellenistic rule in the area begins.

170 B.C. - The King of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes, plunders Jerusalem.

168 B.C. - Antiochus Epiphanes ransacks Jerusalem and prohibits the practice of Judaism, triggering the Maccabean revolt.

165 B.C. - Hasmonean Jews, led by the Maccabees, recapture Jerusalem and rededicate the Temple, now celebrated annually at Hanukah. 

80 B.C. - The Maccabees defeated by the Romans.

63 B.C. - Jerusalem conquered by Pompey, who makes Jerusalem a Roman province.

37 B.C. - Herod appointed King in Jerusalem by Rome.

20 B.C. - Herod begins restoration of the 2nd Temple.

4 B.C. - The birth of Jesus.

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30 A.D. Jesus crucified.

66-73 - The Jewish revolt against the Romans.

66 - Jewish Zealots capture Masada from the Romans.

Worldwide Dispersion/Diaspora:

70 - Jerusalem destroyed, including the second Temple (on the 9th of Av), by the Romans who begin expelling the Jews from The Land.

73 - Masada, the last stronghold of the Jewish rebellion, falls to the Romans.

132-135 - The Bar-Kokhba uprising against Rome temporarily wins Jerusalem back.

135 - The Bar Kokhba revolt is defeated by the Romans (on the 9th of Av), who kill over 580,000 Jews.
        - Jerusalem is rebuilt and renamed Aelia Capitolina, from which all Jews are banned.  
        - Judea is renamed Syria Palestina (Palestine), from which all Jews are banned.

136 - The Temple area in Jerusalem was plowed under by the Romans on the 9th of Av.

306 - The Spanish Synod of Elvira forbids Christians to eat with Jews or to intermarry with them.

324 - Jerusalem under Byzantine rule.

326 - Queen Helena, the mother of Byzantine Emperor Constantine, visits Jerusalem and starts building churches, including The Church of The Holy Sepulchre.

362 - Julian the Apostate allows Jews to return to Jerusalem.

395 - The Roman Empire is partitioned into Eastern and Western divisions.  Palestine comes under the Eastern division.

570 - Birth of Mohammed.

614 - Jerusalem conquered by Persians.

624 - Mohammed executes all Jewish males in Medina, levies a tax on all Jews in Khybar, and changes the prayer direction of his followers from Jerusalem to Mecca.

627 - Mohammed executes all Jewish men in Qurayzah and sells their women and children as slaves.

629 - Jerusalem is retaken by the Byzantines.  Jews are banned from Jerusalem by Bishop Modestos, the Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem.

632 - Death of Mohammed.

633 - Jews are banned from Jerusalem by Bishop Sophronius, the Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem.

636 - Muslim conquest of Jerusalem.

638 - Muslim conquest of Palestine.

650 - The compilation of Mohammed's Koran is completed.

691 - The Dome of the Rock is completed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

701 - The Al Aqsa Mosque is completed on the Temple Mount.

747 - An earthquake hits Jerusalem, collapsing part of the Dome of the Rock.

771 - Another earthquake hits Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

813 - Another earthquake hits Jerusalem.

969 - Egyptian Fatimids take control of Jerusalem.

1012 - The Jews are expelled from part of the Rhineland.

1033 - Another earthquake hits Jerusalem.

1066 - Jews enter Britain for the first time.

1077 - Jerusalem captured by the Turks.

1095 - The Crusades declared by Pope Urban II on the 9th of Av.

1096 - The Crusaders massacre Jews in the Rhineland.

1099 - The First Crusade captures Jerusalem.  The Jews fight alongside the Arabs, defending Jerusalem from the Crusaders.

1144 - Anti-Jewish riots in England.

1146 - Christians volunteering to fight in the Second Crusade were decreed to be released from all debts owed to Jews.

1168 - A Jewish massacre in England.

1170 - The Third Crusade.  Jews were accused of the infamous "Blood Libel" and massacred.

1181 - Another Jewish massacre in England.

1182 - King Phillip of France expelled Jews, confiscated their property, turned synagogues into churches, and forced Jews to wear identification badges.

1187 - The Muslim, Saladin, takes Jerusalem from the Crusaders.

1189 - Jewish massacres throughout England at the coronation of Richard the Lionhearted.

1190 - Another Jewish massacre in England.

1192 - Richard the Lionheart fails to re-conquer Jerusalem.

1212 - 300 English and French Rabbis settle in Jerusalem.

1215 - The Fourth Lateran Council requires Jews to wear distinctive clothing for easy identification, and bars them from holding civil office.

1222 - The Synod of Oxford, England requires Jews to wear an identifying patch.

1229 - Crusaders conquer Jerusalem.

1239 - Muslims re-conquer Jerusalem.

1240 - The Paris Disputation.

1242 - The burning of the Talmud in Paris on the 9th of Av.

1243 - Crusaders re-conquer Jerusalem.

1244 - Jerusalem sacked by Tartars.

1247 - Jerusalem conquered by Egyptian Mamelukes.

1255 - A Massacre of Jews in England.

1259 - Jerusalem sacked by the Mongols.

1264 - Jewish persecution sweeps England.

1276 - The Jews expelled from upper Bavaria.

1278 - Jews arrested throughout England and their property confiscated, 300 hanged.

1288 -  Massacre of local Jews in Troyes, France.

1290 - On the 9th of Av, King Edward I signed the edict to expel all Jews from England.  16,000 left, beginning 350 years of Jewish exile from England.  

1306 - Phillip the Tall expelled 100,000 Jews from France and confiscated their property.

1322 - The Spanish Synod of Valladolid demands intolerance toward the Jews.

1329 - The Spanish Synod of Tarragona demands intolerance toward the Jews.

1335 - The Synod of Salamanca forbids employment of Jewish doctors.

1347 - Jerusalem conquered by the Mamelukes again.

1348-49 - Anti-Jewish riots in Poland.

1351-1353 - The bubonic plague hits Jerusalem.

1391 - Anti-Jewish riots and massacres in Spain, 50,000 Jews murdered in Castile.  The Jews required to wear distinctive clothing for identification.

1394 - The Jews again expelled from France.

1407 - Anti-Jewish riots in Poland.

1421 - The Jews in Vienna had their possessions confiscated, their children forcibly converted.  270 Jews were burned at the stake.

1424 -  The Jews expelled from Cologne.

1432 - The Jews expelled from Saxony.

1435 - The Jews expelled from Spires and Zurich.

1438 -  The Jews expelled from Mainz.

1439 - The Jews expelled from Augsburg.

1442 - The Jews expelled from Bavaria.

1454 - The Jews expelled from the crown cities of Moravia.

1478 - The Inquisition established to exterminate heretics, including Jews.

1485 - The Jews expelled from Perugia, Italy.

1486 - The Jews expelled from Vicenza, Italy.

1489 - The Jews expelled from Milan and Lucca, Italy.

1490 - The Jews expelled from Geneva, Switzerland.  Hebrew Bibles burned by the Inquisition in Spain.

1492 - 300,000 Jews expelled from Spain.  Christopher Columbus watched them leaving in ships as he was leaving to discover the New World.

1494 - The Jews expelled from Florence and all Tuscany.  Anti-Jewish riots in Poland.

1495 - The Jews expelled from Cracow and Lithuania.

1497 - The Jews expelled from Portugal, Sicily, and Sardinia.

1502 - The Jews expelled from Rhodes

1506 - The Jews again expelled from Portugal.

1516 - The first Jewish ghetto in Venice.  

1517 - Jerusalem surrenders to Ottoman Sultan Selim, the beginning of 400 years of Ottoman rule.

1541 - The Jews expelled from Naples.  Suleiman the Magnificent completes the walls around Jerusalem. 
        - Jerusalem's Golden Gate is sealed to prevent The Messiah's entrance. 

1543 - Martin Luther writes his 200-page pamphlet, "Against the Jews and Their Lies".

1555 - In Spain, all copies of the Jewish Scriptures in Spanish are seized and burned.
        - Pope Paul IV forces all of the Jews in Rome into a ghetto on the left bank of the Tiber River, surrounded by a wall, and locked at night.  This was the last ghetto in western Europe to be abolished, in 1848.

1556 - Earthquake in Jerusalem.

1593 - Pope Clement VIII banished Jews from the Vatican State.

1648 - 100,000 Jews massacred in Poland and 700 Jewish communities destroyed in the Ukraine.

1654 - The first Jews come to America.

1670 - The Jews expelled from France again after Blood Libel charges.

1719 - Rhode Island excludes Jews from voting and from holding public office.

1775 - Pope Pius VI issues edict to suppress the Jewish religion.

1791 - Tsarist Russia confines the Jews to the "Pale of Settlement" between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.
        - Emancipation of the Jews in France.

1798 - Napoleon Bonaparte visits the Holy Land.

1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte encouraged the return of the Jews to their land in Palestine.

1831 - Jerusalem conquered by Mohammed Ali of Egypt.

1838 - British Consulate opened in Jerusalem.

1840 - Jerusalem again under Turkish control.  
        - In Damascus, anti-Jewish pogroms initiated by the Roman Catholic Franciscans.
        - British foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, strongly recommended to the Ottoman government ruling Palestine that they should encourage the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine.

1844 - First official census confirms a Jewish majority in Jerusalem.

1854 - The Crimean War begins over disputes regarding Jerusalem.

1861 - The Zion Society is formed in Frankfurt, Germany.

1861-1865 - During the American Civil War, Jews of both North and South were accused of aiding the enemy, smuggling, profiteering, and draft-dodging.

1867 - Mark Twain visits Palestine.

1879 - The word "anti-Semitism" was coined by Wilhelm Marr in Germany.

Moving toward the Restoration of the Nation of Israel:

1871-1882 - The first Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine.

1881-1884 - Russian pogroms kill tens of thousands of Jews, causing hundreds of thousands of Jews to flee.

1881-1924 - 2,500,000 Jews flee persecution in Eastern Europe.  Many come to the USA, some migrate to Palestine.

1881-1882 - "Hovevei Zion" (Lovers of Zion) organization established in Russia to encourage Jewish emigration to the Promised Land.

1881 - Eliezer Ben Yehuda, "The Father of Modern Hebrew", moves to Palestine and promotes the Hebrew language.
        - "Hibbat Zion", a Jewish Zionist movement established.

1882 - The First Aliya (the Hebrew word for "Ascending"); 12,000 Russian Jewish refugees move to Palestine.
        - Leon Pinsker publishes "Autoemancipation", calling for the establishment of a Jewish Nation.
        - The first International Anti-Jewish Congress meets in Dresden.

1885 - Nathan Birnbaum coins the term, "Zionism" in a periodical.

1890 - The Hebrew Language Committee is founded by Eliezer Ben Yehuda.

1891 - Over 10,000 Jews expelled from Moscow.  110,000 Jews flee Russia due to persecution.
        - The "Blackstone Memorial": a petition presented to President Benjamin Harrison by preacher William E. Blackstone and signed by 413 prominent Americans, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, called for American support for giving "Palestine back to the Jews".

1892 - 137,000 Jews flee Russia due to persecution.

1894-1895 - In Paris, Jewish army captain, Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason in a rigged trial, touching off a wave of French anti-Semitism.  The trial is covered by a Jewish Austrian journalist, Theodor Herzl, who is moved by it to seek a Zionist solution to anti-Semitism.

1896 - February 14, Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl publishes "The Jewish State", a book proposing a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a solution to European anti-Semitism.

1897 - August 29, The First Zionist Congress opens in Basel, Switzerland, during which Theodor Herzl writes, "Today I founded the Jewish State."
         - The World Zionist Organization is founded and Theodor Herzl is elected it's president.

1898 - The Second Zionist Congress, during which the colors of the Jewish prayer shawl, blue stripes on white, are proposed for the Zionist flag.

1899 - The Third Zionist congress, adopts a complete constitution.

1900 - The Fourth Zionist Congress.

1901 - The Fifth Zionist Congress.
        - The Jewish National Fund is established to buy land in Palestine.

1903 - The Sixth Zionist Congress.
        - The spurious "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" is first published in Russia to justify anti-Semitic actions.

1903-1906 - More anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia.

1904-1914 - The Second Aliya; made up of Jews escaping pogroms in Russia and Poland.

1904 - The death of Theodor Herzl.
        - The book "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" produced by Russian Secret Police to imply a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world.

1905 - The Seventh Zionist Congress.
        - More than 400 Jews are massacred in 4 days in Odessa, Russia.
        - Henry Ford publishes his anti-Jewish beliefs in a series of newspaper articles entitled, "The International Jew".

1907 - The Eighth Zionist Congress.

1908 - The Zionist Organization opens an office in Jaffa.

1909 - Tel Aviv is founded, the first modern Jewish city.
        - The first Hebrew High School is formed in Jerusalem.
        - The Ninth Zionist Congress.
        - The first Kibbutz, Degania, is founded on the shores of Lake Kinnerret (The Sea of Galilee).

1911 - The Tenth Zionist Congress.

1913 - The Eleventh Zionist Congress.

1914 - World War I starts on the 9th of Av.

1915 - The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacy organization, was reorganized and espoused anti-Semitism.

1917 - The Ottoman Empire collapses, British rule in Palestine begins and General Allenby enters Jerusalem.
        - November 2, Britain issues the Balfour Declaration, endorsing a Jewish state in Palestine.

1918 - General Allenby defeats the Turks at Meggido, ending 400 years of Turkish rule in Palestine.
        - Adolph Hitler, while in a sanitarium recovering from a mustard gas poisoning, hears voices telling him that the Jews are the source of all evil.

1919-1923 - The Third Aliya; 20,000 Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland.

1919 - All Jewish religious communities in Russia are dissolved, their property is confiscated, most of their synagogues are closed, and the study of Hebrew is banned.

1920 - Adolph Hitler begins using the terms, "extirpation", "annihilation", and "extermination" concerning the Jews.  
        - Arab Anti-Jewish massacre and rapes in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem.
        - At the San Remo Conference in Italy, the Allied Powers award Britain administration of the Mandate of Palestine on the condition that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 be implemented.

1921 - The Twelfth Zionist Congress.
        - Arabs murder and pillage Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and other towns in Palestine.
        - Jewish immigration to Palestine suspended by the British.
        - Adolph Hitler becomes president of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in Germany.

1921 - Britain divides Palestine, creating the nation of TransJordan in the area east of the Jordan River (77% of Palestine).

1922 - June 30, A joint resolution of the United States Congress endorses the concept of the Jewish national home.
        - July 24, The League of Nations confirms the Britain Mandate of Palestine, citing the Balfour Declaration of 1917 in it's preamble and includes the responsibility to help "secure the establishment of the Jewish national home" in it's articles.
        - American colleges and medical schools limit the number of Jews admitted.

1923 - The Thirteenth Zionist Congress.
        - Britain separates the Golan Heights from it's Mandate and gives it to the French Mandate of Syria.

1924-1930 - The Fourth Aliya; 80,000 Polish Jews immigrate to Palestine.

1925 - The Fourteenth Zionist Congress.  Hebrew University opens in Jerusalem.

1927 - The Fifteenth Zionist Congress.

1929 - The Sixteenth Zionist Congress.
        - After 1929, Henry Ford provides the finances to carry the early Nazi Party through it's initial difficult years.
        - August 23, Arab attack on the Jewish community in Hebron.

1931 - The Seventeenth Zionist Congress.

1932 - First issue published of "The Palestine Post" newspaper (later called "The Jerusalem Post").
        - The King David Hotel is opened in Jerusalem.

1933/34 - The German parliament gives full powers to Adolph Hitler.

1933-1945 - The Holocaust.

1933-1939 - The Fifth Aliya; mainly from Germany.

1933 - The Eighteenth Zionist Congress.
        - Dachau concentration camp is opened for the confinement of "undesirables" - mostly Jews.

1935 - The Nineteenth Zionist Congress.
        - Adolph Hitler reclassifies the Jews as "untermensch" (sub-human), depriving them of citizenship.
        - The Nuremberg Laws exclude Jews from public life, German citizenship, and certain occupations.

1936 - Germans vote in favor of Adolph Hitler by 98.8%.
        - April 15, The "Arab Revolt" begins

1937 - The Twentieth Zionist Congress.
        - The Peel Commission recommends partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

1938 - Aliya B; illegal immigration of Jews from Europe begins.
        - Nov. 9th: Kristallnacht, "The Night of Broken Glass".  7,000 Jewish shops looted, 267 synagogues burned down.

1939-1945 - World War Two

1939 - May 17, Britain issues the "White Paper", restricting Zionist activity in Palestine, limiting future Jewish immigration to 75,000, and reneging on it's promise of supporting a Jewish State.
        - Twenty-first Zionist Congress.
        - Nazi Germany adopts a master plan to liquidate all Jews in Europe.

1941 - The Germans first use gas chambers at Auschwitz.
        - Jews in German territories required to wear a yellow star for identification.

1942 - In Berlin on January 20, the establishment of the "Final Solution" to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
        - On the 9th of Av, the first killings at the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland.

1945 - December 2, initiation of the Arab League Boycott on the Jewish community in Palestine.
        - January 27, Auschwitz Death Camp liberated.

1946 - The Twenty-second Zionist Congress.
        - Thousands of Nazi war criminals flee into Arab countries, primarily Egypt and Syria.
        - July 22, The King David Hotel in Jerusalem bombed by the Irgun.

1947 - February 14, Britain turns responsibility for Palestine over to the U.N.
        - November 29, UN Resolution 181 calls for partition of the land into a Jewish state and an Arab State, and the internationalization of Jerusalem.  Even though their portion comprised only a small percentage of the original Mandate, and most of that was desert, it was accepted by the Jews; but rejected by the Arabs.
        - 15,000 Romanians and Bulgarians make Aliya.

The State of Israel:         

1948 - May 14, Britain leaves Palestine and the Jews declare their independence, which starts the next day.  The United States is the first nation to recognize the new State of Israel - 13 minutes after their Declaration of Independence.
         - The War of Independence starts immediately after Israel's Declaration of Independence.  Israel is invaded by five Arab nations as 750,000 Jews living in Arab countries are forced to flee to Israel.

1948-1951 - 1,000,000 Jews move to Israel, mostly from Europe and Arab countries.

1949 - January 25, David Ben-Gurion elected Prime Minister in Israel's first national election.
        - Israel's Knesset moves to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
        - Israel declares Jerusalem it's capital.

1949-1950 - Operation Magic Carpet brings the entire Jewish community of Yemen to Israel, numbering about 49.000 people.

1950 - Israel's Knesset passes the "Law of Return", giving citizenship to any Jew in the world who moves to Israel.
        - May, Operation Ali Baba begins, bringing 113,000 Jews to Israel from Iraq.

1950-1952 - Operation Ezra and Nehemiah brings 130,000 Jews from Iraq to Israel.

1951 - King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated on the Temple Mount by Arab extremists. 

1955-1957 - 162,000 Jews come to Israel from Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.

1956 - The Sinai War, lasting 100 hours.  The Jews deported from Egypt.

1958 - On Israel's 10th anniversary it has 2,000,000 citizens.

1958-1960 - 27,500 Jews come to Israel from Romania.

1959 - October 10, creation of the terrorist organization, Fatah.

1961-1964 - Another 215,000 Jews come to Israel from Morocco and Tunisia.

1964 - June 2, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) founded - 3 years before Israel gains the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War.

1965 - The Roman Catholic Church exonerates modern Jews from guilt in the murder of Jesus Christ.

1967 - The Six-Day War (June 5-10).  Israel gains control of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, and the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, along with Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank").  Immediately after the war, Israel offered to negotiate the return of land for peace - but the Arab governments refused to talk to them.
        - Israel's Knesset formally annexes East Jerusalem, including the Old City, into the State of Israel.
        - In Hebron, the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are opened to non-Muslims for the first time in 700 years.
        - In August, Arab leaders gather at the Khartoum Conference and adopt the policy of "The Three No's": No peace with Israel, No negotiations with Israel, and No recognition of Israel.
        - November 22, the UN Security Council adopts Resolution 242, which includes calling for Arab countries to recognize Israel.

1968-1976 - 100,000 Jews come to Israel from the Soviet Union.

1969 - February, Yassir Arafat becomes Chairman of the PLO.

1972 - Palestinian terrorists massacre all 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

1973 - The Yom Kippur War.
        - October 22, the UN Security Council adopts Resolution 338, which reaffirms Resolution 242 and calls for negotiations between Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

1975 - November 10, The UN General Assembly declares "Zionism is Racism" in Resolution 3379.

1977 - May 17, Menachem Begin elected Prime Minister in Israel.
        - November 19, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem.

1978 - September 17, Camp David accords signed.

1979 - March 26, Israel and Egypt sign peace treaty.

1980 - The Knesset passes the Basic Law, "Jerusalem: Capital of Israel".

1981 - June 7, Israel destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor.
        - October 6, Islamic Extremists assassinate Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. 

1982 - June 6, Start of the Lebanon war, "Operation Peace for Galilee".

1984-1985 - Operation Moses airlifts 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.  This operation was motivated by the large number of Ethiopian Jews who were actually walking across Sudan to reach Israel.

1987 - Start of the Intifada.

1989-1999 - 870,000 Russian Jews immigrate to Israel as the Soviet Union collapses.

1991 - Operation Solomon: massive airlift of 19,000 Jews from Ethiopia to Israel, 14,325 of them arriving in one day (May 24th).
        - The UN repeals the "Zionism is Racism" resolution 3379 from 1975.

1993 - the Oslo Peace Accord.

1994 - October 26, Israel and Jordan sign peace agreement.

1995 - November 4th, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by an Israeli extremist who rejects any concessions to the Palestinians.

1997 - June 10, U.S. Congress recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's "United Capital". 

1999-2002 - More than 10,000 Jews come to Israel from Argentina.

2000 - September 29, start of the second Intifada.

2004-2006 - 10,000 Jews come to Israel from France as anti-Semitism flares up there.

2004 - October 13, The Sanhedrin, a Jewish religious tribunal of 71 sages, re-established in Tiberius for the first time in over 1,600 years, now meeting monthly in Jerusalem.
        - November 11, Yassir Arafat dies in a Paris hospital.

2006 - Israel now has the largest Jewish population of any nation in the world, finally surpassing the USA.

2007 - July 15-19, The first-ever international gathering of Kohanim (Priests) and Levites in Jerusalem - "the first family reunion of the Jewish priestly dynasty in nearly 2,000 years". 

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