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  • Period
    • Prehistory3000000 BCE - 5001 BCE
    • Antiquity5000 BCE - 399 CE
    • Middle Ages400 CE - 1500 CE
    • Age of Reason1500 CE - 1879 CE
    • Modern Times1880 CE - 1980 CE
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  • he
  • Login
  • Register
  • Period
    • Prehistory3000000 BCE - 5001 BCE
    • Antiquity5000 BCE - 399 CE
    • Middle Ages400 CE - 1500 CE
    • Age of Reason1500 CE - 1879 CE
    • Modern Times1880 CE - 1980 CE
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
    • English subscription
  • News
  • Past Issues
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
  • Holidays Archive
    • Holidays Archive
    • Festivals of Tishrei
    • Hanukkah
    • Tu BiShvat
    • Purim
    • Pesach
    • Holocaust
    • Independence Day
    • Lag baOmer
    • Jerusalem Day
    • Shavuot
    • Tisha B’Av
  • en
  • he
  • -3000000
  • -2900000
  • -2800000
  • -2700000
  • -2600000
  • -2500000
  • -2400000
  • -2300000
  • -2200000
  • -2100000
  • -2000000
Prehistory
  • -1900000
  • -1800000
  • -1700000
  • -1600000
  • -1500000
  • -1400000
  • -1300000
  • -1200000
  • -1100000
  • -1000000
  • -900000
Prehistory
  • -800000
  • -700000
  • -600000
    • 500000 BCE :

      Flints Galore
  • -500000
    • 500000 BCE :

      Flints Galore
  • -400000
  • -300000
  • -200000
  • -100000
    • 60000 BCE :

      Not Just Cave Dwellers
    • 20000 BCE :

      Rhinos in Samaria
    • 7000 BCE :

      Masking Death Prehistoric City
    • 3000 BCE :

      What would you like, Egyptian or Philistine ?
    • 2000 BCE :

      4,000 Year Old Jerusalem Tomb: a Treasure Trove of Decapitated Toads
    • 1150 BCE :

      Where did the Philistines come from?
    • 1100 BCE :

      Is This Ziklag?
    • 1000 BCE :

      Babylonian Deluge
    • 800 BCE :

      Horses in the rain Ruin of Samaria!
    • 750 BCE :

      Which Isaiah? How many clerks ?
    • 650 BCE :

      Temple Off the Mount
    • 590 BCE :

      Stamped by the Mayor
    • 586 BCE :

      Signs of Destruction
    • 516 BCE :

      Who are You, Samaritans?
    • 480 BCE :

      Esther – the Persian Version
    • 460 BCE :

      Nehemiah on the Wall
    • 200 BCE :

      Forgotten Archive
    • 167 BCE :

      A Brief History of the Hasmoneans
    • 164 BCE :

      Pools and Palaces
    • 160 BCE :

      Fighting for Heart and Soul The Youngest Maccabee
    • 150 BCE :

      Telltale Tremor
    • 141 BCE :

      Cast a Giant Shadow
    • 110 BCE :

      A Dig Full of Holes
    • 100 BCE :

      אוצר ממצולות ים Anonymous Hasmonean
    • 20 BCE :

      Mystery of Caesarea’s Disappearing Port Jerusalem Potters
    • 18 BCE :

      Paving the Past
    • 0 BCE :

      Nabateans in the Bible Lords of the Desert Pilgrim City
  • 0
  • 100000
  • 200000
Prehistory
  • -5000
  • -4980
  • -4960
  • -4940
  • -4920
  • -4900
  • -4880
  • -4860
  • -4840
  • -4820
  • -4800
Antiquity
  • -4780
  • -4760
  • -4740
  • -4720
  • -4700
  • -4680
  • -4660
  • -4640
  • -4620
  • -4600
  • -4580
Antiquity
  • -4560
  • -4540
  • -4520
  • -4500
  • -4480
  • -4460
  • -4440
  • -4420
  • -4400
  • -4380
  • -4360
Antiquity
  • -4340
  • -4320
  • -4300
  • -4280
  • -4260
  • -4240
  • -4220
  • -4200
  • -4180
  • -4160
  • -4140
Antiquity
  • -4120
  • -4100
  • -4080
  • -4060
  • -4040
  • -4020
  • -4000
  • -3980
  • -3960
  • -3940
  • -3920
Antiquity
  • -3900
  • -3880
  • -3860
  • -3840
  • -3820
  • -3800
  • -3780
  • -3760
  • -3740
  • -3720
  • -3700
Antiquity
  • -3680
  • -3660
  • -3640
  • -3620
  • -3600
  • -3580
  • -3560
  • -3540
  • -3520
  • -3500
  • -3480
Antiquity
  • -3460
  • -3440
  • -3420
  • -3400
  • -3380
  • -3360
  • -3340
  • -3320
  • -3300
  • -3280
  • -3260
Antiquity
  • -3240
  • -3220
  • -3200
  • -3180
  • -3160
  • -3140
  • -3120
  • -3100
  • -3080
  • -3060
  • -3040
Antiquity
  • -3020
    • 3000 BCE :

      What would you like, Egyptian or Philistine ?
  • -3000
    • 3000 BCE :

      What would you like, Egyptian or Philistine ?
  • -2980
  • -2960
  • -2940
  • -2920
  • -2900
  • -2880
  • -2860
  • -2840
  • -2820
Antiquity
  • -2800
  • -2780
  • -2760
  • -2740
  • -2720
  • -2700
  • -2680
  • -2660
  • -2640
  • -2620
  • -2600
Antiquity
  • -2580
  • -2560
  • -2540
  • -2520
  • -2500
  • -2480
  • -2460
  • -2440
  • -2420
  • -2400
  • -2380
Antiquity
  • -2360
  • -2340
  • -2320
  • -2300
  • -2280
  • -2260
  • -2240
  • -2220
  • -2200
  • -2180
  • -2160
Antiquity
  • -2140
  • -2120
  • -2100
  • -2080
  • -2060
  • -2040
  • -2020
    • 2000 BCE :

      4,000 Year Old Jerusalem Tomb: a Treasure Trove of Decapitated Toads
  • -2000
    • 2000 BCE :

      4,000 Year Old Jerusalem Tomb: a Treasure Trove of Decapitated Toads
  • -1980
  • -1960
  • -1940
Antiquity
  • -1920
  • -1900
  • -1880
  • -1860
  • -1840
  • -1820
  • -1800
  • -1780
  • -1760
  • -1740
  • -1720
Antiquity
  • -1700
  • -1680
  • -1660
  • -1640
  • -1620
  • -1600
  • -1580
  • -1560
  • -1540
  • -1520
  • -1500
Antiquity
  • -1480
  • -1460
  • -1440
  • -1420
  • -1400
  • -1380
  • -1360
  • -1340
  • -1320
  • -1300
  • -1280
Antiquity
  • -1260
  • -1240
  • -1220
  • -1200
  • -1180
  • -1160
    • 1150 BCE :

      Where did the Philistines come from?
  • -1140
  • -1120
    • 1100 BCE :

      Is This Ziklag?
  • -1100
    • 1100 BCE :

      Is This Ziklag?
  • -1080
  • -1060
Antiquity
  • -1040
  • -1020
    • 1000 BCE :

      Babylonian Deluge
  • -1000
    • 1000 BCE :

      Babylonian Deluge
  • -980
  • -960
  • -940
  • -920
  • -900
  • -880
  • -860
  • -840
Antiquity
  • -820
    • 800 BCE :

      Horses in the rain Ruin of Samaria!
  • -800
    • 800 BCE :

      Horses in the rain Ruin of Samaria!
  • -780
  • -760
    • 750 BCE :

      Which Isaiah? How many clerks ?
  • -740
  • -720
  • -700
  • -680
  • -660
    • 650 BCE :

      Temple Off the Mount
  • -640
  • -620
Antiquity
  • -600
    • 590 BCE :

      Stamped by the Mayor
    • 586 BCE :

      Signs of Destruction
  • -580
  • -560
  • -540
  • -520
    • 516 BCE :

      Who are You, Samaritans?
  • -500
    • 480 BCE :

      Esther – the Persian Version
  • -480
    • 480 BCE :

      Esther – the Persian Version
    • 460 BCE :

      Nehemiah on the Wall
  • -460
    • 460 BCE :

      Nehemiah on the Wall
  • -440
  • -420
  • -400
Antiquity
  • -380
  • -360
  • -340
  • -320
  • -300
  • -280
  • -260
  • -240
  • -220
    • 200 BCE :

      Forgotten Archive
  • -200
    • 200 BCE :

      Forgotten Archive
  • -180
    • 167 BCE :

      A Brief History of the Hasmoneans
    • 164 BCE :

      Pools and Palaces
    • 160 BCE :

      Fighting for Heart and Soul The Youngest Maccabee
Antiquity
  • -160
    • 160 BCE :

      Fighting for Heart and Soul The Youngest Maccabee
    • 150 BCE :

      Telltale Tremor
    • 141 BCE :

      Cast a Giant Shadow
  • -140
  • -120
    • 110 BCE :

      A Dig Full of Holes
    • 100 BCE :

      אוצר ממצולות ים Anonymous Hasmonean
  • -100
    • 100 BCE :

      אוצר ממצולות ים Anonymous Hasmonean
  • -80
  • -60
  • -40
    • 20 BCE :

      Mystery of Caesarea’s Disappearing Port Jerusalem Potters
  • -20
    • 20 BCE :

      Mystery of Caesarea’s Disappearing Port Jerusalem Potters
    • 18 BCE :

      Paving the Past
    • 0 BCE :

      Nabateans in the Bible Lords of the Desert Pilgrim City
  • 0
  • 20
    • 40 CE :

      Wanton Destruction on a Calamitous Scale Golden Nostalgia
  • 40
    • 40 CE :

      Wanton Destruction on a Calamitous Scale Golden Nostalgia
    • 44 CE :

      King’s Canopy in Shilo
Antiquity
  • 60
    • 62 CE :

      The Pilgrims’ Progress
    • 66 CE :

      Don’t Call Me Joseph Dead Sea DNA
    • 67 CE :

      Romans on the Roofs of Gamla
  • 80
  • 100
  • 120
    • 130 CE :

      Backs to the Western Wall
    • 132 CE :

      Bar Kokhba in Jerusalem
  • 140
  • 160
  • 180
    • 200 CE :

      Bathing Rabbis
  • 200
    • 200 CE :

      Bathing Rabbis
  • 220
  • 240
    • 250 CE :

      Trio in Togas
  • 260
Antiquity
  • 280
    • 300 CE :

      Washed Out by the Rain
  • 300
    • 300 CE :

      Washed Out by the Rain
  • 320
  • 340
    • 350 CE :

      זה השער
  • 360
  • 380
    • 400 CE :

      Blessed Wine
  • 400
    • 400 CE :

      Blessed Wine
  • 420
  • 440
  • 460
  • 480
    • 500 CE :

      Shofar – Blasting Away Pilgrims’ Riches Playing with Water? Byzantine Cistern in Jerusalem Playground
Antiquity
  • 400
    • 400 CE :

      Blessed Wine
  • 410
  • 420
  • 430
  • 440
  • 450
  • 460
  • 470
  • 480
  • 490
    • 500 CE :

      Shofar – Blasting Away Pilgrims’ Riches Playing with Water? Byzantine Cistern in Jerusalem Playground
  • 500
    • 500 CE :

      Shofar – Blasting Away Pilgrims’ Riches Playing with Water? Byzantine Cistern in Jerusalem Playground
Middle Ages
  • 510
  • 520
  • 530
    • 539 CE :

      Georgians in Ashdod
  • 540
  • 550
  • 560
  • 570
  • 580
  • 590
  • 600
  • 610
Middle Ages
  • 620
    • 630 CE :

      The Fire of Faith
  • 630
    • 630 CE :

      The Fire of Faith
  • 640
  • 650
  • 660
  • 670
  • 680
  • 690
  • 700
  • 710
    • 717 CE :

      What’s a Jewish Menorah doing on early Islamic coins and vessels ?
  • 720
Middle Ages
  • 730
  • 740
  • 750
  • 760
  • 770
  • 780
  • 790
    • 800 CE :

      Whose Head is it Anyway? Potter’s Treasure
  • 800
    • 800 CE :

      Whose Head is it Anyway? Potter’s Treasure
  • 810
  • 820
  • 830
Middle Ages
  • 840
  • 850
  • 860
  • 870
  • 880
  • 890
  • 900
  • 910
  • 920
  • 930
  • 940
    • 950 CE :

      Cave of Revenge
Middle Ages
  • 950
    • 950 CE :

      Cave of Revenge
  • 960
  • 970
  • 980
  • 990
  • 1000
  • 1010
  • 1020
  • 1030
  • 1040
  • 1050
Middle Ages
  • 1060
  • 1070
  • 1080
  • 1090
    • 1096 CE :

      Heroes on the Walls of Haifa
    • 1099 CE :

      Heroes on the Walls of Haifa
  • 1100
  • 1110
  • 1120
  • 1130
  • 1140
  • 1150
  • 1160
Middle Ages
  • 1170
  • 1180
    • 1187 CE :

      Locking Horns at the Battle of Hattin
  • 1190
  • 1200
  • 1210
  • 1220
  • 1230
  • 1240
  • 1250
  • 1260
  • 1270
    • 1280 CE :

      Z-rated: For Forties Plus
Middle Ages
  • 1280
    • 1280 CE :

      Z-rated: For Forties Plus
    • 1286 CE :

      Mystery of the Zohar Zohar Unzipped
  • 1290
    • 1300 CE :

      Ancient Ring in the Flowerbed
  • 1300
    • 1300 CE :

      Ancient Ring in the Flowerbed
  • 1310
  • 1320
  • 1330
  • 1340
  • 1350
    • 1354 CE :

      Ready for Elijah
  • 1360
  • 1370
  • 1380
    • 1390 CE :

      Divinely Plagued
Middle Ages
  • 1390
    • 1390 CE :

      Divinely Plagued
  • 1400
  • 1410
  • 1420
  • 1430
  • 1440
  • 1450
  • 1460
  • 1470
    • 1475 CE :

      A Widow in Print
  • 1480
  • 1490
    • 1496 CE :

      Once Bitten, Twice Shy – Portuguese Jewry
Middle Ages
  • 1500
    • 1501 CE :

      Portuguese Messiah at the Stake
  • 1510
    • 1520 CE :

      Salonika’s Mystic Quartet
  • 1520
    • 1520 CE :

      Salonika’s Mystic Quartet
    • 1526 CE :

      Who Was David Ha-Reuveni?
  • 1530
    • 1533 CE :

      Kabbalists in Salonika
  • 1540
  • 1550
  • 1560
  • 1570
  • 1580
  • 1590
  • 1600
Age of Reason
  • 1610
  • 1620
    • 1630 CE :

      The Price of Dissent
  • 1630
    • 1630 CE :

      The Price of Dissent
  • 1640
  • 1650
  • 1660
    • 1667 CE :

      Was ‘The Jewish Bride’ Really Jewish? Messianic Mania
  • 1670
    • 1675 CE :

      Topsy Turvy
  • 1680
  • 1690
    • 1700 CE :

      Newton’s Fourth Law In the Service of the Czar Haman’s Pockets Trying to Belong
  • 1700
    • 1700 CE :

      Newton’s Fourth Law In the Service of the Czar Haman’s Pockets Trying to Belong
  • 1710
Age of Reason
  • 1720
  • 1730
  • 1740
  • 1750
  • 1760
  • 1770
  • 1780
    • 1790 CE :

      Groping for Truth
  • 1790
    • 1790 CE :

      Groping for Truth
  • 1800
    • 1806 CE :

      Napoleon’s Jewish Court
  • 1810
    • 1812 CE :

      Red Rose of Petra
  • 1820
    • 1827 CE :

      A Soul Divided
Age of Reason
  • 1830
    • 1832 CE :

      Blackface Minstrel Shows
    • 1840 CE :

      With Thanks from Damascus
  • 1840
    • 1840 CE :

      With Thanks from Damascus
    • 1842 CE :

      Charlotte Rothschild – First Jewish Female Artist
    • 1845 CE :

      The Angry Convert
    • 1848 CE :

      Jewish? French? Italian!
    • 1850 CE :

      Matza – More Than Just Crumbs
  • 1850
    • 1850 CE :

      Matza – More Than Just Crumbs
    • 1852 CE :

      Mum’s the Word Mum’s the Word
    • 1860 CE :

      Written Off
  • 1860
    • 1860 CE :

      Written Off
    • 1868 CE :

      Hungarian Schism
    • 1870 CE :

      A Man unto Himself The Kaiser’s Cap
  • 1870
    • 1870 CE :

      A Man unto Himself The Kaiser’s Cap
    • 1873 CE :

      Boy Wonders
    • 1875 CE :

      The Many Faces of Maurycy Gottlieb Shtreimel Variations: The History of a Hat
    • 1877 CE :

      Off the Boat
    • 1880 CE :

      Fastest Jew in the West
  • 1880
    • 1880 CE :

      Fastest Jew in the West
    • 1881 CE :

      The Jewish Girl who Set the Wild West Ablaze
    • 1882 CE :

      When Etrogim Briefly Grew on Trees
    • 1883 CE :

      Kafka – Too Short A Story
    • 1884 CE :

      The Original Zionist Congress
    • 1886 CE :

      Place in the Sun
    • 1887 CE :

      Marc Chagall – the Surrealist Jew
    • 1889 CE :

      New York – A Community in Flux
    • 1890 CE :

      PIONEER POET
  • 1890
    • 1890 CE :

      PIONEER POET
    • 1892 CE :

      When Shakespeare Spoke Yiddish
    • 1894 CE :

      Herzl’s Psychodrama Egypt’s Jewish Molière The Too Jewish Missionary
    • 1895 CE :

      Zionist with Cello
    • 1897 CE :

      The Jewish Father of French Impressionism The Congress that Founded the Jewish State The Pied Piper of Yom Kippur
    • 1900 CE :

      Healing Minds with Sigmund Freud
  • 1900
    • 1900 CE :

      Healing Minds with Sigmund Freud
    • 1906 CE :

      The Saga of a Budapest Family Sukka
    • 1908 CE :

      The Jewish American Secret Police
    • 1909 CE :

      black wedding
    • 1910 CE :

      One Hundred Good Years
  • 1910
    • 1910 CE :

      One Hundred Good Years
    • 1913 CE :

      Planting Seedlings Mark Gertler – Nothing but Art
    • 1914 CE :

      Did Jew Know? Tomorrow’s War Ticket to Riches
    • 1915 CE :

      Albert Einstein’s Quantum Leap Forgotten Jews of Bisan
    • 1916 CE :

      Amedeo Modigliani – Jewish Expressionism
    • 1917 CE :

      The Gateway The Viscount of Megiddo Return of the Spies Guard Down Long Before Balfour
    • 1918 CE :

      Luboml City Post Dying in Vain
    • 1920 CE :

      Isidor Kaufmann – Jewish Ritual Beauty My Son, the Gangster The Fourth Commandment and the Eighteenth Amendment
  • 1920
    • 1920 CE :

      Isidor Kaufmann – Jewish Ritual Beauty My Son, the Gangster The Fourth Commandment and the Eighteenth Amendment
    • 1921 CE :

      Make Art, Not War
    • 1924 CE :

      God Save the Dutch Queen It Takes a (Hasidic) Village
    • 1927 CE :

      Painter of Jerusalem Breaking the Sound Barrier No Business Like Show Business
    • 1929 CE :

      Painting Propaganda
    • 1930 CE :

      The Wedding That Wasn’t
  • 1930
    • 1930 CE :

      The Wedding That Wasn’t
    • 1933 CE :

      Haifa and Salonika – the Jewish Ports
    • 1935 CE :

      Gefilte Jazz
    • 1936 CE :

      Megilla with a Secular Twist
    • 1940 CE :

      A Beautiful Mind 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Hedy Lamarr
Age of Reason
  • 1880
    • 1880 CE :

      Fastest Jew in the West
    • 1881 CE :

      The Jewish Girl who Set the Wild West Ablaze
    • 1882 CE :

      When Etrogim Briefly Grew on Trees
    • 1883 CE :

      Kafka – Too Short A Story
    • 1884 CE :

      The Original Zionist Congress
    • 1886 CE :

      Place in the Sun
    • 1887 CE :

      Marc Chagall – the Surrealist Jew
    • 1889 CE :

      New York – A Community in Flux
    • 1890 CE :

      PIONEER POET
  • 1890
    • 1890 CE :

      PIONEER POET
    • 1892 CE :

      When Shakespeare Spoke Yiddish
    • 1894 CE :

      Herzl’s Psychodrama Egypt’s Jewish Molière The Too Jewish Missionary
    • 1895 CE :

      Zionist with Cello
    • 1897 CE :

      The Jewish Father of French Impressionism The Congress that Founded the Jewish State The Pied Piper of Yom Kippur
    • 1900 CE :

      Healing Minds with Sigmund Freud
  • 1900
    • 1900 CE :

      Healing Minds with Sigmund Freud
    • 1906 CE :

      The Saga of a Budapest Family Sukka
    • 1908 CE :

      The Jewish American Secret Police
    • 1909 CE :

      black wedding
    • 1910 CE :

      One Hundred Good Years
  • 1910
    • 1910 CE :

      One Hundred Good Years
    • 1913 CE :

      Planting Seedlings Mark Gertler – Nothing but Art
    • 1914 CE :

      Did Jew Know? Tomorrow’s War Ticket to Riches
    • 1915 CE :

      Albert Einstein’s Quantum Leap Forgotten Jews of Bisan
    • 1916 CE :

      Amedeo Modigliani – Jewish Expressionism
    • 1917 CE :

      The Gateway The Viscount of Megiddo Return of the Spies Guard Down Long Before Balfour
    • 1918 CE :

      Luboml City Post Dying in Vain
    • 1920 CE :

      Isidor Kaufmann – Jewish Ritual Beauty My Son, the Gangster The Fourth Commandment and the Eighteenth Amendment
  • 1920
    • 1920 CE :

      Isidor Kaufmann – Jewish Ritual Beauty My Son, the Gangster The Fourth Commandment and the Eighteenth Amendment
    • 1921 CE :

      Make Art, Not War
    • 1924 CE :

      God Save the Dutch Queen It Takes a (Hasidic) Village
    • 1927 CE :

      Painter of Jerusalem Breaking the Sound Barrier No Business Like Show Business
    • 1929 CE :

      Painting Propaganda
    • 1930 CE :

      The Wedding That Wasn’t
  • 1930
    • 1930 CE :

      The Wedding That Wasn’t
    • 1933 CE :

      Haifa and Salonika – the Jewish Ports
    • 1935 CE :

      Gefilte Jazz
    • 1936 CE :

      Megilla with a Secular Twist
    • 1940 CE :

      A Beautiful Mind 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Hedy Lamarr
  • 1940
    • 1940 CE :

      A Beautiful Mind 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Hedy Lamarr
    • 1942 CE :

      Flowing But Not Forgotten All-American Rebbe
    • 1943 CE :

      Fight for the Spirit Spark of Rebellion Drawing for Dear Life
    • 1945 CE :

      Damned If You Do Lights, Camera, Zionism!
    • 1946 CE :

      Escape Room
    • 1947 CE :

      United Nations Vote – 29 November 1947
    • 1948 CE :

      Posting Independence The Battle on the Hill Sky-Heist Scent of Freedom The Best Defense Cable Car to Jerusalem
    • 1949 CE :

      Shmuel Zanwil Kahane and the Legend of the Holy Ashes
    • 1950 CE :

      Lost in Eilat Eilat’s Treasures Strength in Numbers The Shrine on the Mountain Voice Behind the Iron Curtain
  • 1950
    • 1950 CE :

      Lost in Eilat Eilat’s Treasures Strength in Numbers The Shrine on the Mountain Voice Behind the Iron Curtain
    • 1951 CE :

      Curator or Creator
    • 1952 CE :

      The Night of the Murdered Poets
    • 1955 CE :

      The Hitchhikers’ Guide to Jew York
    • 1957 CE :

      Shmuel Zanwil Kahane’s Map of Holy Sites
    • 1960 CE :

      Jewish as Can Be
  • 1960
    • 1960 CE :

      Jewish as Can Be
    • 1967 CE :

      1967 Declassified Comments Through Lions’ Gate De-Classified Comments New Life in Jerusalem’s Old City
  • 1970
    • 1973 CE :

      Faith Under Fire
  • 1980
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The Price of Dissent

Dutch Independence
Culture Shock
In Pursuit of Truth
Public Humiliation
Far from Fame
The Perils of Ostracism
By: Motti Benmelech

A converso who returned to his roots, Uriel da Costa found the Judaism practiced in Amsterdam a far cry from the faith he’d encountered in the Bible. The community’s response to his puzzled objections forced him back into hiding, this time among Jews // Moti Benmelech

Amsterdam, Holland’s greatest city, epitomizes liberalism and freedom. The famous coffee shops of the De Wallen neighborhood, the red-light district, the free-flowing alcohol at the many breweries, and the general “anything goes” atmosphere attract millions of tourists in their twenties – and even younger – to this canal-riven city annually.

Tolerance has characterized Amsterdam ever since its golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries. Though its fervent Calvinists condemned all manner of luxury and frivolity, the city gained a reputation for open-mindedness verging on lawlessness. That ideology was rooted not in the puritan Calvinist population but rather in the town’s growing community of Portuguese conversos.

The rulers of seven provinces united to throw off the yoke of Spanish dominion. Map in the shape of the Leo Belgicus, the lion of the Low Countries – surrounded by the region’s leadersClaes Jansz Visscher, 1650

The rulers of seven provinces united to throw off the yoke of Spanish dominion. Map in the shape of the Leo Belgicus, the lion of the Low Countries – surrounded by the region’s leaders

Dutch Independence

Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, Amsterdam was the prosperous capital of a global empire. For close to a hundred years, it was also the world’s financial center.

Originating as a federation of seven provinces in 1581, the Dutch republic had no official religion or absolute ruler. Its only unifying factor was the urge to shake off Spain’s despotic rule, adopting a relatively liberal constitution that later inspired the U.S. Constitution.

The golden age of Dutch art was launched by the rise of Holland’s middle class. Syndics of the Drapers’ GuildRembrandt von Rijn, 1662 Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The golden age of Dutch art was launched by the rise of Holland’s middle class. Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild

With no inherited aristocracy to speak of, Dutch society rested on its middle classes and wealthy merchants, residents of its fast-developing port cities. The Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, became the world’s first public company by issuing bonds and stock options to the Dutch people. The firm was also the first global conglomerate, with its peak market value matching that of today’s Apple, Amazon, and Google combined. As for culture, Dutch masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Peter de Hogh were the brightest stars in an artistic pantheon whose workshops depicted the everyday, bourgeois life of the upper middle class.

Much of the Netherlands’ success stemmed from its liberalism and religious tolerance. After the revolt of the United Provinces in 1568, Spain invaded the southern Low Countries – modern-day Belgium and Luxembourg – conquering the vital western European port of Antwerp and launching hostilities that continued on and off for over half a century. Protestant England helped block the Spaniards’ advance northward. Non-Catholics under Spanish rule were subjected to heavy taxation and religious persecution, resulting in a mass exodus of wealthy Calvinist merchants, who abandoned the southern ports for those of the freer north. Many settled in Amsterdam, then a sleepy seaside town. They were followed by more waves of religious refugees: French Huguenots, English Puritans, and the well-endowed offspring of New Christians – conversos – from Portugal.

Simultaneously, the Netherlands became a colonial power, conquering much of the East Indies (now Indonesia), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Formosa (Taiwan), and Malacca (Malaysia). Amsterdam thus came to offer extensive economic opportunities for both investors and entrepreneurs.

Most of Holland’s major 17th-century battles were fought at sea. Flames envelop a Spanish ship in Battle of Gibraltar 1607Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen, 1621 Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Most of Holland’s major 17th-century battles were fought at sea. Flames envelop a Spanish ship in Battle of Gibraltar 1607

Culture Shock

The first New Christians arrived in Amsterdam in the late 1500s and were allowed to practice freely as Jews. By 1610, they numbered five hundred, and a decade later their ranks had doubled. Throughout the 17th century, Amsterdam became a center for descendants of Spanish and Portuguese conversos. Their community was rich not only materially but in study halls and Talmudic academies. Its homegrown rabbis served Sephardic congregations all over western Europe and in the New World.

Among the conversos converging on Amsterdam was young Gabriel da Costa Fiuza, who’d followed a tortuous path from Portugal. Born around 1583 in Porto, Gabriel was the son of a well-to-do Christian merchant and tax collector and his New Christian wife. Da Costa held a clerical post in Porto and studied canonical law at the University of Coimbra. Directly exposed to the biblical text, he began doubting Christian dogma, eventually rejecting it entirely and resolving to become a Jew.

After the death of Gabriel’s father in 1608, the Da Costas encountered financial and legal difficulties and left Portugal. As the departure of any New Christian required a host of permits and paperwork, the family exited secretly, reaching Amsterdam in April 1615. The Da Costas identified as Jews on arrival, and Gabriel took the Hebrew name Uriel. Together with his brother Abraham and their mother, Uriel continued up the coast to Hamburg, where they joined the fast-growing community of ex-conversos. Two younger brothers remained in Amsterdam.

For many Portuguese conversos, returning to Judaism was no simple matter, since they had neither knowledge nor family traditions to lean on. All they knew was largely superficial and based on limited familiarity with the Bible. Furthermore, their understanding of Judaism was shaped by the Christian way of thinking with which they’d grown up. Thus, they related to Judaism as a creed rather than a way of life. As crypto-Jews, they’d long separated what they considered the private personal phenomenon of their inner religious belief, from their outward behavior, assuming that what you thought was more important than what you did. Thus, even now as Jews, they prioritized dogma over deed.

"The Marranos" by Moses Maimon, oil on canvas, 1893  Original hanging at the Hebrew Home for the Aged, Riverdale, New York, USAJewish Encyclopedia

“The Marranos” by Moses Maimon, oil on canvas, 1893. Original hanging at the Hebrew Home for the Aged, Riverdale, New York, USA

Encountering rabbinic Judaism, with its emphasis on halakhic minutiae, the returning conversos were not always enthusiastic. As outsiders, they had trouble grasping the logic of Jewish law and finding its basis in the Bible. Some accepted every ritual detail nonetheless. Others chose selective conformity, toeing the line just enough to remain within the community while maintaining their own lifestyle. Still others groped toward some kind of compromise between Jewish and Christian outlooks, reinterpreting Jewish law along the way.

The concurrent emergence of rationalism –and the advent of skepticism – also shaped this process. Such thinking was as threatening for Calvinist Dutch society as it was for the community of returning crypto-Jews. In 1615, Dutch theologian and lawyer Hugo Grotius demanded that every Jew requesting residence in Holland swear belief in the Creator, Providence, and the immortality of the soul. Likewise, testimony delivered before the Inquisition tribunal in Lisbon in 1617 claimed that a certain converso from Amsterdam who’d reembraced Judaism was an “Epicurean or atheist who believes in no religion at all” (Yosef Kaplan, An Alternative Path to Modernity: The Sephardi Diaspora in Western Europe, p. ??).)Uriel da Costa was no exception to this struggle. Normative Judaism wasn’t what he’d expected, as he wrote in his Latin autobiography, Exemplar Humanae Vitae (Example of a Human Life):

I had not been [in Amsterdam] many days before I observed that the customs and ordinances of the modern Jews were very different from those commanded by Moses. Now if the Law was to be strictly observed, according to the letter, as it expressly declares, it must be very unjustifiable in the Jewish doctors [i.e., rabbis] to add to it inventions of a quite contrary nature. (Uriel da Costa, Examination of Pharisaic Traditions, appendix 3, Uriel da Costa’s own account of his life, trans. John Whiston [London, 1740; reprint, Brill, 1993], p. 557)

Torn between his interpretation of Scripture and his need to belong. Uriel da CostaLéon Bakst, oil on canvas, 1893

Torn between his interpretation of Scripture and his need to belong. Uriel da Costa

In Pursuit of Truth

Unlike his fellow ex-conversos, Da Costa didn’t hide his opinions. He wrote to the parnasim (trustees) of the Jewish community in Venice, enumerating his reservations about rabbinic Judaism. His harshest criticism was directed against the Oral Law, which he saw as no more than a human fabrication.

If so, having shown that there is no law or interpretation apart from the Written Law, which is from God, it emerges that what is known as the Oral Law in the above-mentioned literature is of human origin and can be contradicted […]. And if indeed it is evident that these are of human composition, it would be great apostasy to treat them as divine law and say we’re obligated to observe all the rules in the Talmud just as [we’re bound to observe] the law of Moses. (quoted by Rabbi Leon of Modena, Magen Ve-tzina, p. 3a [Hebrew]

Da Costa aimed his choicest barbs at the manufacture of tefillin and mezuzot, the art of circumcision and the accompanying rite of metzitza (oral suction), the extra day of festivals observed outside the land of Israel, and the annulment of vows.

Venetian communal leaders passed Da Costa’s comments on to Rabbi Leon of Modena, who denounced them as heresy, warning his Hamburg colleagues that the author would be excommunicated unless he recanted. Modena carried out his threat in the summer of 1618 in Venice’s Ashkenazic synagogue, writing a treatise titled Magen Ve-tzina (Shield and Shelter) to deflect Da Costa’s criticisms.

Beyond the Pale

By challenging the soul’s immortality, Da Costa offended both Christians and Jews. Suspected of atheism as well as heresy, he was arrested in Amsterdam in May 1624, jailed, and released only after paying a steep fine – in addition to his brothers’ posting a surety of twelve hundred gulden. All copies of his tract were forfeit, and burned in Amsterdam. Indeed, the text was thought to have been lost, until a copy was discovered in the Copenhagen Royal Library in the early 1990s.

Though the excommunication pronounced in Venice and Hamburg was evidently never enforced in Amsterdam, da Costa left the city, settling with his wife and mother in Utrecht, where he lived in isolation for four years. Shunned by the rest of his family, he returned to Amsterdam only in October 1628, when his mother died and was buried in the Portuguese Jewish cemetery in Ouderkerk, just outside the city. Only the intervention of Da Costa’s brothers secured a Jewish burial; many claimed that, as a resident in the heretic’s home, this woman should be denied a resting place among them.

Meanwhile, Uriel began inquiring about rejoining the Portuguese Jewish community. Although there’s no proof that he officially recanted, Da Costa definitely lived in Amsterdam from 1629 onward, where he held an account at the city’s Wisselbank and was a member of a Jewish charitable society. His personal views, however, remained unchanged. As he put it in his Exemplar Humanae Vitae: “How much better will it be to return [outwardly] to their communion and to conform to their ways, [lit., like an ape among the apes] in compliance with the proverb that directs us ‘at Rome, to do as they do at Rome’?” (Da Costa, pp. 558–9).

Da Costa didn’t last long within the communal framework. In 1632, the Amsterdam Jewish authorities adopted the ban issued in Venice, and he sank once more beneath the burden of his “heresy.” What prompted this new attack on his reputation? Da Costa’s autobiography accuses his family of alleging that he disregarded Jewish dietary laws. Similarly, claims this work, two non-Jews testified that he’d advised them against converting to Judaism. In any case, the author never renounced his controversial opinions; in fact, they only strengthened over the years.

Public Humiliation

The saga came to its tragic conclusion in 1639. Da Costa’s wife had died in 1630, and his lonely isolation persuaded him to reattempt reconciliation with the Jewish community. This time, however, as the excommunication edict had been confirmed in Amsterdam, no oral retraction of his “errors” would suffice. He had to undergo an official ceremony, which he described in appalling detail.

The United Talmud Torah Congregation’s new synagogue was jam-packed with “men and women out of curiosity to be spectators” (Da Costa, p. 560). At the podium, Da Costa confessed all his sins, recanted, and asked forgiveness, vowing never again to diverge from the rulings of the community’s rabbis. He was then told to strip to the waist and blindfold himself, and his hands were tied to one of the platform’s support beams. Though over fifty, Da Costa was subjected to thirty-nine lashes – “it being a precept of their law that the number of stripes shall not exceed forty. For these very scrupulous and religious gentlemen take due care not to offend by doing too much. During the time of my whipping they sang a psalm” (ibid., p. 560).

Maurycy Gottlieb’s representation of a barefoot de Costa beating his breast while recanting his “heresy” before the entire congregation Courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Maurycy Gottlieb’s representation of a barefoot de Costa beating his breast while recanting his “heresy” before the entire congregation

Finally, clothed once more, Da Costa was made to lie over the synagogue threshold and the entire congregation trampled him as it walked out.

This indignity was more than he could bear:

Now let anyone who has heard my story judge how decent a spectacle it was to see an old man, a person of no mean rank, and who was moreover exceedingly modest, stripped before a numerous congregation of men, women and children and scourged by order of his judges and those such as rather deserved the name of abject slaves. (ibid.)

Da Costa never recovered from his ordeal. He fell into a deep depression, and in April 1640, he shot himself. One account claims he was aiming for his nephew, who’d denounced him as a heretic to the leaders of the community. On the writing table behind him, Uriel had left his Exemplar Humanae Vitae, the only extant source of information regarding his excommunication in Amsterdam and the shameful proceedings by which it was dissolved. The community records mention nothing of his case.

Exemplar was published in the 17th century by Dutch theologian Philip von Limborch, in an appendix to his disputation with Jewish thinker Isaac Orobio de Castro. The fact that a document detailing such an inhumane Jewish ceremony was printed as part of an anti-Semitic debate made it immediately suspect. Researchers assumed the description was exaggerated to cast Jews in an unfavorable light.

Recently, however, historian Yosef Kaplan highlighted an unusual entry in the United Talmud Torah Congregation’s Book of Verdicts, depicting the removal of a ban of excommunication from one Abraham Mendes, whose offense was adultery. Held the same year as Da Costa’s public humiliation, this procedure was quite similar:

Moreover, he shall mount the teva and read the declaration which the Gentlemen of the Mahamad have imposed on him and he will be given public malqut (39 stripes) before the congregation. Then he will prostrate himself at the foot of the stairs [at the exit to the synagogue] so that all the congregation may step over him. (cited in Yosef Kaplan, “The Social Functions of the ‘Herem’ in the Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century,” in J. Michman, ed., Dutch Jewish History, vol. 1 [Jerusalem: The Institute for Research on Dutch Jewry, 1984], pp. 141–3)

Portuguese descendants’ gravestones in the Ouderkerk Jewish cemetery feature Latin characters as well animal and human figures, flouting Jewish custom. Headstones of Mordehay and Sarah Franco Mendes and Mosses and Rachel Maghado Photo: HT Delmar, Courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Portuguese descendants’ gravestones in the Ouderkerk Jewish cemetery feature Latin characters as well animal and human figures, flouting Jewish custom. Headstones of Mordehay and Sarah Franco Mendes and Mosses and Rachel Maghado

Far from Fame

Unlike his younger and much more famous contemporary Benito Spinoza (1632–1677), whose Bible criticism might well owe something to Da Costa’s influence, Uriel left no lasting impact. Examination of Pharisaic Traditions vanished almost totally except for references by Rabbi Leon of Modena, Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel, and other writers who cited Da Costa only to refute him. A few Christian authors quoted him too, hoping to link Sephardic Jewry to the Sadducees.

Yet the Enlightenment recast Uriel da Costa as a tragic hero, a free spirit and free thinker whose death was a protest against religious tyranny. Both Voltaire (1694-1778) and German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) saw him as a harbinger of philosophical deism, and he became the subject of novels and plays. A German drama, Uriel by Karl Gutzkow (1811–1178), was translated into Hebrew and Yiddish and staged in Jaffa in April 1905 with considerable success. Israel Zangwill’s Children of the Ghetto, published in 1897, was inspired by Da Costa’s life story as well; Abraham Frumkin produced a Yiddish translation in 1907. As for other art forms, Samuel Hirszenberg painted an imaginary meeting between Da Costa and a youthful Spinoza in 1901, and an Uriel Acosta suite was composed by Karol Rathaus in 1936.

Da Costa’s personal tragedy reflects the complexity of Jewish society in the early modern period. Shaken by the radical shifts in belief and attitude that would alter the Western world forever, Amsterdam’s converso community was at once fiercely conservative yet home to diverse opinions and practices. Uriel da Costa far from typified the Sephardic enclaves of Amsterdam, Hamburg, Livorno, London, and Bordeaux. If anything, he was an outlier on the spectrum they represented, compelled to speak out yet desperate to belong. Spinoza’s individualism – a product of the decades following Uriel’s death – was beyond him. Having wrenched himself away from the Portuguese Christian society in which he’d matured, da Costa couldn’t survive without alternative social support. So he had to accept the framework of the Amsterdam Jewish community, and the severity of its rejection was his downfall.

Further reading

Herman P. Salomon and Isaac S. D. Sassoon, eds., Examination of Pharisaic Traditions (Brill, 1993); Yosef Kaplan, An Alternative Path to Modernity: The Sephardi Diaspora in Western Europe (Brill, 2000).

Uriel Acosta and Spinoza, Samuel Hirszenberg, 1901Diaspora Museum Collection

Uriel Acosta and Spinoza, Samuel Hirszenberg, 1901

The Perils of Ostracism

Though excommunication was a powerful social tool, Amsterdam’s Portuguese Jews discovered its limitations

With no other means of enforcement at its disposal, the Jewish community had but one means of policing its members both socially and religiously: the herem. The right to impose this ban was one of the privileges granted the Jews by the Dutch authorities. Hugo Grotius specifically stated as much in a document regulating the status of Jews in Holland:

The masters of the Jews or those who are appointed to that end among them, will have the right to excommunicate and ostracise Jews whose way of life or opinions are evil. (Yosef Kaplan, An Alternative Path to Modernity: The Sephardi Diaspora in Western Europe , p. 133)

Yet Grotius limited these abilities, stating that the municipal authorities of Amsterdam would serve as a court of appeal:

Nonetheless, anyone who wishes to complain that he was excommunicated even though he was innocent, should submit his complaint to the local authorities, who will investigate the matter and decide according to the laws of the Old Testament. (ibid. p.133-4)

Grotius’ detailed outline of Jewish rights and privileges in Holland was not officially accepted, but in practice, things in Amsterdam ran along the lines he’d suggested.

The Amsterdam Jewish community made frequent use of the ban during the 17th century. Between 1622 and 1683, no fewer than forty of its members were excommunicated. These included the Del Sotto family, which had attempted to take over the community leadership, and Isaac Penhamacor and his son, who’d refused to pay communal dues in protest against the way the congregation’s finances were run. Even Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel was placed in herem for a day for disregarding a community warden’s instructions.

Spinoza, Excommunicated (1907) was one of Samuel Hirszenberg’s last paintings, while his imagined portrait of da Costa and a young Spinoza was among his firstCourtesy of the University of Pennsylvania

Spinoza, Excommunicated (1907) was one of Samuel Hirszenberg’s last paintings, while his imagined portrait of da Costa and a young Spinoza was among his first

In the end, the ease with which bans were imposed in Amsterdam proved their undoing. On 26 Tammuz 5437 (July 26, 1677), Dr. Joseph Abravanel Barbosa of the Portuguese Jewish community was ostracized for buying chickens from an Ashkenazic butcher. Incensed, Barbosa turned to the municipal authorities, who duly ordered the ban revoked. The Portuguese leadership retaliated by expelling the doctor from the congregation. Once again, the consequences were unexpected: a number of respected Jews immediately cancelled their membership too.

Realizing they’d set a dangerous precedent, and facing a heavy loss of synagogue dues, community leaders pointed out that all such defectors wouldn’t be buried in the Portuguese cemetery, nor could their family members recite Kaddish in the Portuguese synagogue. In addition, ex-members wouldn’t be included in a prayer quorum. Some of those who’d asked to leave promptly changed their minds, including Barbosa, but others continued the struggle to disassociate from the congregation.

By the second half of the 17th century, the ban was used for political and financial ends rather than as a religious weapon. Yet this application only encouraged disgruntled parties to turn their back on the community, weakening it dramatically.

In January 1683, the Amsterdam authorities forbade the Portuguese congregation to ostracize its members without municipal permission. Though this requirement was later cancelled, it shows how abuse of religious authority can backfire.

Age of Reason

1630
CE

Tags

Amsterdam, Dutch, Edict of Expulsion (Spain), Espinoza, excommunication, Holland, Rembrandt, Spinoza, Uriel Da Costa
By: Motti Benmelech

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