Strength in Unity.
Resilience in Faith.

OUR UNBREAKABLE CHAIN

Our history is a chain stretched across millennia and continents, yet its anchor has never moved from the Land of Israel. Each link represents a generation that persevered through exile, resisted empires, and kept our story alive. Our history is one of resilience, resistance, and an eternal return to our ancestral homeland. As you trace this timeline, you follow that unbreakable chain, witnessing a story of survival and homecoming that is without parallel.

Ancient Roots & Sovereignty

13th Cent. BCE

Merneptah Stele

Earliest known extra-biblical reference to 'Israel', proving our ancient presence in the land. (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt)

9th Cent. BCE

Tel Dan Stele

First archaeological reference to the 'House of David', confirming the Davidic dynasty. (Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

8th Cent. BCE

Kingdom of Judah-Assyrian Inscription

The only Assyrian cuneiform inscription from the First Temple period discovered next to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, providing rare physical evidence of ties between the Kingdom of Judah and the Assyrian Empire. (IAA)

8th Cent. BCE

Siloam Inscription

An ancient Hebrew inscription carved into Jerusalem’s water tunnel records a Judean engineering feat tied to King Hezekiah and the scriptural account (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:3-4) of diverting water. Now held in Istanbul, it confirms a continuous Jewish presence in the land — yet Turkey refuses Israel’s request for its return, keeping it off-display and fueling heritage denial.

7th Cent. BCE

Ketef Hinnom Scrolls

Oldest known fragments of biblical text, containing the Priestly Blessing. (Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

167-160 BCE

Maccabean Revolt

Jewish warriors defeat the Greek Empire, rededicate the Temple, and secure religious freedom.

66-73 CE

The Great Revolt

A massive uprising against the Roman Empire, culminating in the destruction of the Second Temple.

66 CE to 136 CE

The Devastation of Judea

The brutal Roman victory under Emperor Hadrian resulted in what the Roman historian Cassius Dio recorded as the death of 580,000 Jewish soldiers, with countless more perishing from famine and disease. 985 towns were destroyed. This cataclysm marked the definitive beginning of the great exile, as Jews were sold into slavery and forbidden from entering Jerusalem, which was renamed Aelia Capitolina.

132-136 CE

Bar Kokhba Revolt

The final, defiant Jewish war against Rome. Jewish warriors briefly recaptured Jerusalem for two years, minting coins declaring 'Freedom for Jerusalem' before being ultimately crushed. Some of these coins can be found at the Jewish Museum in New York.

Exile & Perseverance

70 CE

The Jewish Diaspora Consolidates, Not Begins

Following the destruction of the Second Temple, hundreds of thousands of Jews were sold into slavery or fled. This moment amplified and dispersed an already-existing Judean people long present across the Roman world, whose communities remained legally distinct and tethered to Jerusalem through law, practice, and remittances. This phase of exile did not sever the chain to the land — it exported it — laying the foundation for both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewry as external continuations of the same people rooted in Judea.

800 - 1900 CE

Return to Zion

From the early medieval period to the 19th century, leading Jewish scholars viewed themselves in exile and expressed deep spiritual yearning for return to the Land of Israel. Figures like Saadia Gaon, Rashi, Maimonides, Judah Halevi, and Nahmanides emphasized Israel’s centrality—often linking return to messianic redemption. By the 1800s, thinkers like Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai and Zvi Hirsch Kalischer began advocating for a practical return, setting the stage for Theodor Herzl’s political Zionism.

1290-1497 CE

The Great Expulsions

A wave of ethnic cleansing across Europe. Jews were expelled from England (1290), France (1394), Spain (1492), and Portugal (1497), forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, leaving behind their property and centuries of history.

1791-1917

The Pale of Settlement

The Russian Empire confined its Jewish population to a vast territory known as the Pale of Settlement, where, despite seeking safety and community, they faced restricted rights, limited movement, and severe economic oppression, leading to intense poverty and persecution.

4,899,300

Jews confined to the Pale by 1897

1881-1921

Pogroms & Flight

Waves of violent, state-sponsored anti-Jewish riots sweep through the Pale of Settlement. The massacres lead to the exodus of over two million Jews, who seek safe haven in America and Ottoman and British Palestine, sparking the First Aliyah.

1939-1945

The Shoah

The systematic, industrial-scale genocide of six million Jews—approximately two-thirds of European Jewry—by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. ~6,000,000 of ~9,500,000 murdered.

Modern Return & Rebirth

1920-1948

Anti-Imperial Resistance

Groups like the Haganah and Irgun fight British rule to re-establish the state of Israel.

1948-1970s

The Forgotten Exodus

Nearly a million Jews are forced to flee Arab and Muslim lands following the establishment of Israel.

1948 CE

State of Israel

After 2,000 years, the Jewish people reclaim sovereignty in their ancestral homeland.

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Menitch Hadshot ( מנתח חדשות )

Menitch Hadshot—our News Analyzer. Paste the URL of a news article to get an instant, AI-driven analysis of potential bias, loaded language, and factual omissions related to Israel and Jewish issues.