The famous Jewish mediaeval traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Jerusalem in the year 1170, found there a community of not more than 200 Jews living “at the very end of the city near the Tower of David.” Source: Political Report of the Executive of the Jewish Agency. Submitted to the Twenty-First Zionist Congress and […]
The prominent medieval Jewish commentator and leader Maimonides (1135-1204) wrote in a letter in 1165 that he “entered the Great and Holy House [and] prayed there.” On the night of the first day [Sunday] of the week, the fourteenth day of the month of Iyar, I set off to sea [from North Africa]. On Shabbat, […]
Inheritance Laws concerning Jewish Converts to Christianity “If a son, a daughter, or a grandson, one or many, of a Jew or of a Samaritan, shall cross over in a better judgment from the darkness of their proper superstition to the light of the Christian religion, their parents, namely father and mother, grandfather or grandmother, […]
Prohibition of Jews from State Service and the Legal Profession “ … [S]ince it behooves that the religious populace shall not be depraved by any superstition, we order that the Manichaeans, all the heretics or schismatics and astrologers, and every sect hostile to the Catholics must be expelled from the very sight of the various […]
“After the defeat of Bar Kokhba by the Romans in 135 C.E., Jews were banned from Jerusalem. Only in 425 C.E., when the Jews of the Galilee wrote to Byzantiane empress Aelia Eudocia, seeking permission to pray by the ruins of the Temple. Permission was granted and they were officially permitted to resettle in Jerusalem.” […]
Prohibition of Building New Synagogues and Protection of Old Synagogues What we legislated recently concerning the Jews and their synagogues shall remain in force, namely, that they shall never be permitted to build new synagogues, neither shall they dread that the old ones shall be seized from them. Let them know, indeed, that the other […]
Protection of Jews and Synagogues “Known and divulged to all are our decrees and those of our ancestors, in which we suppressed the arrogance and the audacity of the abominable pagans, as well as of the Jews and the heretics. We want the Jews to know, however, that we take with pleasure the occasion of […]
Christian Protection of Synagogues “It seems right that in the future none of the synagogues of the Jews shall either be indiscriminately seized or put on fire. If there are some synagogues that were seized or vindicated to churches or indeed consecrated to the venerable mysteries in a recent undertaking and after the law was […]
Exclusion of Jews from the Military “The entrance to State Service shall be closed from now on to those living in the Jewish superstition who attempt to enter it. We concede therefore to all those who took the oath of the Service, either among the Executive Agents or among the Palatins [executives in the financial […]
Primary Sources August 1198, Forced Conversion of the Jews of Aden The Great Game 1611 – East India Company established a cotton factory in India Aug 11, 1840, Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonby August 11, 1840 Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonby 1842 Abraham Benisch to Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Viscount Canning- Scheme April 15, […]