Well. It's About Damned Time

Olmert to quit in September

Great Article from the Huffington Post

William Bradley: 13 Things To Know About The 3rd Straight Mac Attack Ad

McSpin-a-Lie has struck again. Ain't he great, folks? And this is who people want as their president?!

But... But... The WEATHER!

When my wife and I decided to leave LA because of the high cost of living and really crappy Jewish day schools (with all the money floating around there, with all the choices of schools, it was a question not of which school is the best fit for my children; it was, rather, a question of which school SUCKED the LEAST), people started saying how awful it was that we were leaving LA. "Where are you going?" they'd ask. "The Midwest," we'd answer. "The MIDWEST?!?! But it's so COLD there!" would invariably be the incredulous response.

Many people who live in LA or want to move there are there because the weather is just so fantastic. Except it's not. They get (even closer to the ocean, and certainly in the valleys) unbelievable heat waves that make the summer humidity in the Midwest look like a cakewalk. And they have NO seasons. Especially, no Autumn. And the cost of living there is just INSANE.

So, my wife sent me this email. It's about one other problem with living in LA:

"Earlier this year, scientists calculated that
California faces a 99.7 percent chance of a
magnitude-6.7 quake or larger in the next 30 years."

But...the weather!

GO WIFE!! :)

For anyone who doesn't know, earthquakes are relatively common in LA, and most of them usually measure under 5.0 on the Richter Scale. But every so often, they get a big one. San Francisco had one DURING the World Series in 1989. LA had a huge one with the Northridge earthquake in 1994. That one was BAD. People died. Homes collapsed. And it measured 6.7 on the Richter Scale.

But... THE WEATHER!!! Bah on the weather. At least one can prepare for bad weather, be it a blizzard or a hurricane. You just CAN'T prepare for an earthquake. I know. I've lived through them. By the time you get under a desk or doorpost, it's usually over. Certainly, if it's in the middle of the night an it jolts you awake.

I'll take bad weather over earthquake country any time, any day, any way. Hands down, no contest.

And for that people pay up to (sometimes OVER) $1,000,000 (yes, that's ONE MILLION DOLLARS) for a lousy little three bedroom house?! For a bit of sunshine?

"Revenue Enhancemets"

Funny. I've asked several conservative friends of mine why they'll vote for McCain over Obama, and the answer, invariably, has been "because in our experience, Obama, a Democrate will raise taxes, and McCain, a Republican won't and Democrats have a track record of raising taxes while Republicans always cut them."

What a stupid, un-researched, idiotic answer.

Here's what's happened. In the last 28 years, we've had (alas) twenty years of Republican catastrophes and eight years of Democratic rule. I don't care what Clinton did in his personal life, who he did and where. He WAS a good president who was hounded day and night by assholes like Ken Starr, who was hired and paid WAY too much money to go after Clinton for anything and everything. And Clinton did NOT raise taxes. In fact, part of the reason he got elected to office was because Bush 41 (the dad) actually BROKE his campaign promise and DID raise taxes. Bush 

reneged on his promise not to raise taxes (see below).

Clinton, on the other hand, 

signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 in August 1993, which passed Congress without a Republican vote. It cut taxes for fifteen million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses,^[44] and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers.^[45] Additionally, through the implementation of spending restraints, it mandated the budget be balanced over a number of years.

expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low income workers ^{[24] and passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 in August 1993, which passed Congress without a Republican vote. and passed the It cut taxes for fifteen million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses,[44] and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers.[45]} 

In fact, part of that bill was to actually balance the budget BY SPENDING LESS!!!

Reagan, on the other hand, did INDEED raise taxes, despite popular belief. It's just that HE called them "REVENUE ENHANCEMENT," not tax hikes.

And now it's McLiar's turn:

Now comes Republican candidate John McCain, eager to reassure conservatives he's no tax raiser, yet also intent on letting voters know he will "do the hard things," as he often said in the primaries.

"I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table" when it comes to Social Security, he said over the weekend.

*SNIP* (And don't worry, I'm not taking anything here out of context or tailoring it to my own purporses.)

"We hope you will clarify where you stand on this important issue and reaffirm your commitment to eschew all tax increases," wrote Pat Toomey, the group's president.

McCain provided his answer in Sparks, Nev., on Tuesday, when a girl asked him whether he would ever raise taxes.

"No" was the answer, a paragon of simplicity in contrast to the parsing by aides seeking to explain his earlier remarks.

Regardless of his answer, McCain's underlying problem is a lack of trust among economic conservatives in his own party. There's no surprise in that. Citing deficit concerns, he voted against the tax cuts the current President Bush pushed through Congress in 2001.

Now, with red ink headed into record territory, he favors a permanent extension of the same cuts he once opposed, saying anything else would be a tax increase.

Democrats call that a politically motivated flip-flop. By any name, it seems to make Toomey nervous.

And the more the campaign denies it, my dear conservative friends, the more there is to fear:

Challenging Reagan for the presidential nomination in 1980, Bush had deemed it "voodoo economics" to claim taxes could be cut without increasing the deficit. It was at the core of the supply-side economics Reagan championed and, not surprisingly, conservatives were slow to warm to the vice president.

Eight years later, he was still trying to make amends when he delivered his speech accepting the nomination at the party convention.

"The Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I'll say no, and they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll push again, and I'll say to them, 'Read my lips: No new taxes,'" Bush said to applause that night.

He won the White House but, within two years, Congress pushed him to raise taxes and he said yes as part of a deal with Democrats to reduce deficits. Without the support Reagan could fall back on, Bush then lost at the polls in 1992, in part because conservatives abandoned him out of anger at his reversal.

Fearful of the same treatment, McCain's aides worked overtime to contain the damage.

"He's said again and again that he's not going to raise taxes," spokesman Tucker Bounds told Fox News, a statement of fact that stopped short of a promise not to do so in the future.

Bounds also said Social Security was a different kind of debate and to "really take this challenge on, we're going to have to be honest."

In conclusion, he added: "There is no imaginable circumstance where John McCain would raise payroll taxes. It's absolutely out of the question."

Anyone ever hear the phrase "methinks thou doth protest too much?" And there's an awful lot of protesting going on here. Especially considering the Republican Party's anti-Republican Party Big Government and Lots of Spending policies, the money's going to have to come from SOMEWHERE. Where's it going to come from? The poor and working class? How much longer, in this depressed economy (yes, folks, despite numerous protestation and rosy outlooks, it IS a depression, and the Federal Reserve HAS admitted it, at least internally), do they think that'll work before a real revolution gets underway? You can only stamp and stomp on people so far, you know...

So, I'm not exactly sure why my conservative friends insist that Democrats ALWAYS raise taxes, and Republican NEVER do. It's just a lie, pure and simple.

And again, when Obama talks about raising taxes, it's for the wealthy, who SHOULD be taxed more. He has stated again and again (and we have no reason to doubt him as he has ALWAYS championed the working, poorer classes) he will lower taxes for the less privileged and raise them for the rich.

My heart goes out to the rich. Those poor, suffering souls. They had it so good under Reaganomics' "trickle down" because NOTHING EVER TRICKLED DOWN!!

Send Karl Rove to JAIL!!!

Send Karl Rove to Jail!

Great video presentation, especially at the end, where Scott McClellan is asked if he would trust Rove to tell the truth if he (Rove) were NOT under oath and McClellan says that based on his own experience, he would NOT!!

Partial List of Christian Persecution of Jews Over the Last 1,800 Years

Ok, I know this is a REALLY LONG post, but I didn't actually write it, which means I didn't actually spend all that much time on it. Sources for the following information follow the information itself. After seeing this list, seriously, while I understand not all Christians are bad (in fact, some are pretty darned good!), why on Earth would I, or ANY Jew, want ANYTHING to do with a religion that has done THIS to us?! How is this Emes to a Jew in ANY way?!

I don't know how many readers I have out there (in fact, I mainly maintain my blog for myself), but I know I have at least a few out there (thanks, guys and gals!), and if you can think of other events to add to the list, please put them in the comments section and I promise to include them!

Again, please keep in mind I'm compiling this information, and plan to use it as a handout, for missionaries who come knocking on my door. My intent will be to simply hand them the list, with the question at the end, "Now, then, do you HONESTLY think I would EVER want ANYTHING to do with a religion that has done THIS to MY people?! Let me answer that for you: A clue: NO!!!"

Date	Place	Event
250 C.E.	Canhage	Expulsion
224 C.E.	Italy	Forced Conversion
325 C.E.	Jerusalem	Expulsion
351 C.E	Persia	Book Burning
357 C.E.	Italy	Property Confiscation
379 C.E.	Milan	Synagogue Burning
415 C.E.	Alexandria	Expulsion
418 C.E.	Minorca	Forced Conversion
469 C.E.	Ipahan	Holocaust
489 C.E.	Antioch	Synagogue Burning
506 C.E.	Daphne	Synagogue Burning
519 C.E.	Ravenna	Synagogue Burning
554 C.E.	Diocese of Clement (France)	Expulsion
561 C.E.	Diocese of Uzes (France)	Expulsion
582 C.E	Merovingia	Forced Conversion
612 C.E.	Visigoth Spain	Expulsion
628 C.E.	Byzantium	Forced Conversion
629 C.E.	Merovingia	Forced Conversion
633 C.E.	Toledo	Forced Conversion
638 C.E.	Toledo	Stake Burnings
642 C.E.	Visigothic Empire	Expulsion
653 C.E.	Toledo	Expulsion
681 C.E.	Spain	Forced Conversion
693 C.E.	Toledo	Jews Enslaved
722 C.E.	Byzantium	Judaism Outlawed
855 C.E.	Italy	Expulsion
876 C.E.	Sens	Expulsion
897 C.E.	Narbonne	Land Confiscation
945 C.E.	Venice	Ban on Sea Travel
1009 C.E.	Orleans	Massacre
1012 C.E.	Rouen, Limoges & Rome	Massacre
1012 C.E.	Mayence	Expulsion
1021 C.E.	Rome	Jews Burned Alive
1063 C.E.	Spain	Massacre
1095 C.E.	Lorraine	Massacre
1096 C.E.	Northern France & Germany	1/3 of Jewish Population Massacred
1096 C.E.	Hungary	Massacre
1096 C.E.	Ralisbon	Massacre
1099 C.E.	Jerusalem	Jews Burned Alive
1100 C.E.	Kiev	Pogrom
1140 C.E.	Germany	Massacres
1146 C.E.	Rhine Valley	Massacre
1147 C.E.	Wurzburg	Massacre
1147 C.E.	Belitz (Germany)	Jews Burned Alive
1147 C.E.	Carenton, Ramenu & Sully (France)	Massacres
1171 C.E.	Blois	Stake Burnings
1181 C.E.	France	Expulsion
1181 C.E.	England	Property Confiscation
1188 C.E.	London & York	Mob Attacks
1190 C.E.	Norfolk	Jews Burned Alive
1191 C.E.	Bray (France)	Jews Burned Alive
1195 C.E.	France	Property Confiscation
1209 C.E.	Beziers	Massacre
1215 C.E.	Rome	Jews Forced to Wear Badges
1215 C.E.	Toulouse (France)	Mass Arrests
1218 C.E.	England	Jews Forced to Wear Badges
1231 C.E.	Rome	Inquisition Established
1236 C.E.	France	Forced Conversion/Massacre
1239 C.E.	London	Massacre & Property Confiscation
1240 C.E.	France	Talmud Confiscated
1240 C.E.	England	Book Burning
1240 C.E.	Spain	Forced Conversion
1242 C.E.	Paris	Talmud Burned
1244 C.E.	Oxford	Mob Attacks
1255 C.E.	England	Public Hangings
1261 C.E.	Canterbury	Mob Attacks
1262 C.E.	London	Mob Attacks
1264 C.E.	London	Mob Attacks
1267 C.E.	Vienna	Jews Forced to Wear Horned Hats
1270 C.E.	Weissenberg, Magdeburg, Armstadt, Coblenz, Singzig, and Erfurt	Jews Burned Alive
1278 C.E.	Genoa (Spain)	Mob Attacks
1283 C.E.	Mayence & Bacharach	Mob Attacks
1285 C.E.	Munich	Jews Burned Alive
1290 C.E.	England	Expulsion
1298 C.E.	Franconia, Bavaria & Austria	100,000 Jews slaughtered
1306 C.E.	France	Expulsion
1308 C.E.	Strasbourg	Jews Burned Alive
1320 C.E.	Toulouse & Perpigon	120 Communities Massacred & Talmud Burned
1321 C.E.	Teruel	Public Executions
1328 C.E.	Estella	5,000 Jews Slaughtered
1348 C.E.	France & Spain	Jews Burned Alive
1348 C.E.	Switzerland	Expulsion
1349 C.E.	Worms, Strasbourg, Oppenheim, Mayence, Erfurt, Bavaria & Swabia	Jews Burned Alive
1349 C.E.	Heilbronn (Germany)	Expulsion
1349 C.E.	Hungary	Expulsion
1354 C.E.	Castile (Spain)	12,000 Jews Slaughtered
1368 C.E.	Toledo	8,000 Jews Slaughtered
1370 C.E.	Majorca., Penignon & Barcelona	Mob Attack
1377 C.E.	Huesca (Spain)	Jews Burned Alive
1380 C.E.	Paris	Mob Attack
1384 C.E.	Nordlingen	Mass Murder
1388 C.E.	Strasbourg	Expulsion
1389 C.E.	Prague	Mass Slaughter & Book Burning
1391 C.E.	Castille, Toledo, Madrid, Seville, Cordova, Cuenca & Barcelona	Forced Conversions & Mass Murder
1394 C.E.	Germany	Expulsion
1394 C.E.	France	Expulsion
1399 C.E.	Posen (Poland)	Jews Burned Alive
1400 C.E.	Prague	Stake Burnings
1407 C.E.	Cracow	Mob Attack
1415 C.E.	Rome	Talmud Confiscated
1422 C.E.	Austria	Jews Burned Alive
1422 C.E.	Austria	Expulsion
1424 C.E.	Fribourg & Zurich	Expulsion
1426 C.E.	Cologne	Expulsion
1431 C.E.	Southern Germany	Jews Burned Alive
1432 C.E.	Savory	Expulsion
1438 C.E.	Mainz	Expulsion
1439 C.E.	Augsburg	Expulsion
1449 C.E.	Toledo	Public Torture &. Burnings
1456 C.E.	Bavaria	Expulsion
1453 C.E.	Franconia	Expulsion
1453 C.E.	Breslau	Expulsion
1454 C.E.	Wurzburg	Expulsion
1463 C.E.	Cracow	Mob Attack
1473 C.E.	Andalusia	Mob Attack
1480 C.E.	Venice	Jews Burned Alive
1481 C.E.	Seville	Stake Burnings
1484 C.E.	Cuidad Real, Guadalupe, Saragossa & Teruel	Jews Burned Alive
1485 C.E.	Vincenza (Italy)	Expulsion
1486 C.E.	Toledo	Jews Burned Alive
1488 C.E.	Toledo	Stake Burnings
1490 C.E.	Toledo	Public Executions
1491 C.E.	Astorga	Public Torture & Execution
1492 C.E.	Spain	Expulsion
1495 C.E.	Lithuania	Expulsion
1497 C.E.	Portugal	Expulsion
1499 C.E.	Germany	Expulsion
1506 C.E.	Lisbon	Mob Attack
1510 C.E.	Berlin	Public Torture & Execution
1514 C.E.	Strasbourg	Expulsion
1519 C.E.	Regensburg	Expulsion
1539 C.E.	Cracow & Portugal	Stake Burnings
1540 C.E.	Naples	Expulsion
1542 C.E.	Bohemia	Expulsion
1550 C.E.	Genoa	Expulsion
1551 C.E.	Bavaria	Expulsion
1555 C.E.	Pesaro	Expulsion
1556 C.E.	Sokhachev (Poland)	Public Torture & Execution
1559 C.E.	Austria	Expulsion
1561 C.E.	Prague	Expulsion
1567 C.E.	Wurzburg	Expulsion
1569 C.E.	Papal States	Expulsion
1571 C.E.	Brandenburg	Expulsion
1582 C.E.	Netherlands	Expulsion
1593 C.E.	Brunswick	Expulsion
1597 C.E.	Cremona, Pavia & Lodi	Expulsion
1614 C.E.	Frankfort	Expulsion
1615 C.E.	Worms	Expulsion
1619 C.E.	Kiev	Expulsion
1635 C.E.	Vilna	Mob Attack
1637 C.E.	Cracow	Public Torture & Execution
1647 C.E.	Lisbon	Jews Burned Alive
1648 C.E.	Poland	1/3 of Jewry Slaughtered
1649 C.E.	Ukraine	Expulsion
1649 C.E.	Hamburg	Expulsion
1652 C.E.	Lisbon	Stake Burnings
1654 C.E.	Little Russia	Expulsion
1656 C.E.	Lithuania	Expulsion
1660 C.E.	Seville	Jews Burned Alive
1663 C.E	Cracow	Public Torture &. Execution
1664 C.E.	Lemberg	Mob Attack
1669 C.E.	Oran (North Africa)	Expulsion
1670 C.E.	Vienna	Expulsion
1671 C.E.	Minsk	Mob Attacks
1681 C.E.	Vilna	Mob Attacks
1682 C.E.	Cracow	Mob Attacks
1687 C.E.	Posen	Mob Attacks
1712 C.E.	Sandomir	Expulsion
1727 C.E.	Russia	Expulsion
1738 C.E.	Wurtemburg	Expulsion
1740 C.E.	Liule Russia	Expulsion
1744 C.E	Bohemia	Expulsion
1744 C.E.	Livonia	Expulsion
1745 C.E.	Moravia	Expulsion
1753 C.E.	Kovad (Lithuania)	Expulsion
1757 C.E.	Kamenetz	Talmud Burning
1761 C.E.	Bordeaux	Expulsion
1768 C.E.	Kiev	3,000 Jews Slaughtered
1772 C.E.	Russia	Expulsion
1775 C.E.	Warsaw	Expulsion
1789 C.E.	Alsace	Expulsion
1801 C.E.	Bucharest	Mob Attack
1804 C.E.	Russian Villages	Expulsion
1808 C.E.	Russian Countryside	Expulsion
1815 C.E.	Lubeck & Bremen	Expulsion
1820 C.E.	Bremes	Expulsion
1843 C.E.	Austria & Prussia	Expulsion
1850 C.E.	New York City	500 People, Led by Police, Attacked &. Wrecked, Jewish Synagogue
1862 C.E.	Area under General Grant's Jurisdiction in the United States	Expulsion
1866 C.E	Galatz (Romania)	Expulsion
1871 C.E.	Odena	Mob Attack
1887 C.E.	Slovakia	Mob Attacks
1897 C.E.	Kantakuzenka (Russia)	Mob Attacks
1898 C.E.	Rennes (France)	Mob Attack
1899 C.E.	Nicholayev	Mob Attack
1900 C.E.	Konitz (Prussia)	Mob Attack
1902 C.E.	Poland	Widespread Pogroms
1904 C.E.	Manchuria, Kiev & Volhynia	Widespread Pogroms
1905 C.E.	Zhitomir (Yolhynia)	Mob Attacks
1919 C.E	Bavaria	Expulsion
1915 C.E.	Georgia (U.S.A.)	Leo Frank Lynched
1919 C.E.	Prague	Wide Spread Pogroms
1920 C.E.	Munich & Breslau	Mob Attacks
1922 C.E.	Boston, MA	Lawrence Lowell, President of Harvard, calls for Quota Restrictions on Jewish Admission
1926 C.E.	Uzbekistan	Pogrom
1928 C.E.	Hungary	Widespread Anti-Semitic Riots on University Campuses
1929 C.E.	Lemberg (Poland)	Mob Attacks
1930 C.E.	Berlin	Mob Attack
1933 C.E.	Bucharest	Mob Attacks
1938-45 C.E.	Europe	Holocaust
	Source: P.E. Grosser & E.G. Halperin, Anti-Semitism: Causes and Effects, New York: Philosophical Library, 1978
	SimpleToRemember.com - Judaism Online

In this next list, some events overlap with the events listed above, but I thought it'd be worth listing again as the events below have a little more detail accompanying them.

Persecution of Jews by Christians:

Initial persecution of Jews was along religious lines. Persecution would cease if the person converted to Christianity.

	306: The church Synod of Elvira banned marriages, sexual intercourse and community contacts between Christians and Jews. 3,4
	315: Constantine published the Edict of Milan which extended religious tolerance to Christians. Jews lost many rights with this edict. They were no longer permitted to live in Jerusalem, or to proselytize.
	325: The Council of Nicea decided to separate the celebration of Easter from the Jewish Passover. They stated: "For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people...We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews...our worship follows a...more convenient course...we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews...How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded."
	337: Christian Emperor Constantius created a law which made the marriage of a Jewish man to a Christian punishable by death.
	339: Converting to Judaism became a criminal offense.
	343-381: The Laodicean Synod approved Cannon XXXVIII: "It is not lawful [for Christians] to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety." 5
	367 - 376: St. Hilary of Poitiers referred to Jews as a perverse people who God has cursed forever. St. Ephroem refers to synagogues as brothels.
	379-395: Emperor Theodosius the Great permitted the destruction of synagogues if it served a religious purpose. Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire at this time.
	380: The bishop of Milan was responsible for the burning of a synagogue; he referred to it as "an act pleasing to God."
	415: The Bishop of Alexandria, St. Cyril, expelled the Jews from that Egyptian city.
	415: St. Augustine wrote "The true image of the Hebrew is Judas Iscariot, who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew can never understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus."
	418: St. Jerome, who created the Vulgate translation of the Bible wrote of a synagogue: "If you call it a brothel, a den of vice, the Devil's refuge, Satan's fortress, a place to deprave the soul, an abyss of every conceivable disaster or whatever you will, you are still saying less than it deserves."
	489 - 519: Christian mobs destroyed the synagogues in Antioch, Daphne (near Antioch) and Ravenna.
	528: Emperor Justinian (527-564) passed the Justinian Code. It prohibited Jews from building synagogues, reading the Bible in Hebrew, assemble in public, celebrate Passover before Easter, and testify against Christians in court. 3
	535: The "Synod of Claremont decreed that Jews could not hold public office or have authority over Christians." 3
	538: The 3rd and 4th Councils of Orleans prohibited Jews from appearing in public during the Easter season. Canon XXX decreed that "From the Thursday before Easter for four days, Jews may not appear in the company of Christians." 5 Marriages between Christians and Jews were prohibited. Christians were prohibited from converting to Judaism. 4
	561: The bishop of Uzes expelled Jews from his diocese in France.
	612: Jews were not allowed to own land, to be farmers or enter certain trades.
	613: Very serious persecution began in Spain. Jews were given the options of either leaving Spain or converting to Christianity. Jewish children over 6 years of age were taken from their parents and given a Christian education
	692: Cannnon II of the Quinisext Council stated: "Let no one in the priestly order nor any layman eat the unleavened bread of the Jews, nor have any familiar intercourse with them, nor summon them in illness, nor receive medicines from them, nor bathe with them; but if anyone shall take in hand to do so, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed, but if a layman, let him be cut off." 5
	694: The 17th Church Council of Toledo, Spain defined Jews as the serfs of the prince. This was based, in part, on the beliefs by Chrysostom, Origen, Jerome, and other Church Fathers that God punished the Jews with perpetual slavery because of their responsibility for the execution of Jesus. 5
	722: Leo III outlawed Judaism. Jews were baptized against their will.
	855: Jews were exiled from Italy
	1050: The Synod of Narbonne prohibited Christians from living in the homes of Jews.
	1078: "Pope Gregory VII decreed that Jews could not hold office or be superiors to Christians." 6
	1078: The Synod of Gerona forced Jews to pay church taxes
	1096: The First Crusade was launched in this year. Although the prime goal of the crusades was to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims, Jews were a second target. As the soldiers passed through Europe on the way to the Holy Land, large numbers of Jews were challenged: "Christ-killers, embrace the Cross or die!" 12,000 Jews in the Rhine Valley alone were killed in the first Crusade. This behavior continued for 8 additional crusades until the 9th in 1272.
	1099: The Crusaders forced all of the Jews of Jerusalem into a central synagogue and set it on fire. Those who tried to escape were forced back into the burning building.
	1121: Jews were exiled from Flanders (now part of present-day Belgium)
	1130: Some Jews in London allegedly killed a sick man. The Jewish people in the city were required to pay 1 million marks as compensation.
	1146: The Second Crusade began. A French Monk, Rudolf, called for the destruction of the Jews.
	1179: Canon 24 of the Third Lateran Council stated: "Jews should be slaves to Christians and at the same time treated kindly due of humanitarian considerations." Canon 26 stated that "the testimony of Christians against Jews is to be preferred in all causes where they use their own witnesses against Christians." 7
	1180: The French King of France, Philip Augustus, arbitrarily seized all Jewish property and expelled the Jews from the country. There was no legal justification for this action. They were allowed to sell all movable possessions, but their land and houses were stolen by the king.
	1189: Jews were persecuted in England. The Crown claimed all Jewish possessions. Most of their houses were burned.

	1205: Pope Innocent III wrote to the archbishops of Sens and Paris that "the Jews, by their own guilt, are consigned to perpetual servitude because they crucified the Lord...As slaves rejected by God, in whose death they wickedly conspire, they shall by the effect of this very action, recognize themselves as the slaves of those whom Christ's death set free..."
	1215: The Fourth Lateran Council approved canon laws requiring that "Jews and Muslims shall wear a special dress." They also had to wear a badge in the form of a ring. This was to enable them to be easily distinguished from Christians. This practice later spread to other countries.
	1227:  The Synod of Narbonne required Jews to wear an oval badge. This requirement was reinstalled during the 1930's by Hitler, who changed the oval badge to a Star of David.
	1229: The Spanish inquisition starts. Later, in 1252, Pope Innocent IV authorizes the use of torture by the Inquisitors.
	1236: Pope Gregory ordered that church leaders in England, France, Portugal and Spain confiscate Jewish books on the first Saturday of Lent. 1
	1259: A "synod of the archdiocese in Mainz ordered Jews to wear yellow badges." 1
	1261: Duke Henry III of Brabant, Belgium, stated in his will that "Jews...must be expelled from Brabant and totally annihilated so that not a single one remains, except those who are willing to trade, like all other tradesmen, without money-lending and usury." 2
	1267: The Synod of Vienna ordered Jews to wear horned hats. Thomas Aquinas said that Jews should live in perpetual servitude.
	1290: Jews are exiled from England. About 16,000 left the country.
	1298: Jews were persecuted in Austria, Bavaria and Franconia. 140 Jewish communities were destroyed; more than 100,000 Jews were killed over a 6 month period.
	1306: 100,000 Jews are exiled from France. They left with only the clothes on their backs, and food for only one day.
	1320: 40,000 French shepherds went to Palestine on the Shepherd Crusade. On the way, 140 Jewish communities were destroyed.
	1321: In Guienne, France, Jews were accused of having incited criminals to poison wells. 5,000 Jews were burned alive, at the stake.
	1338: The councilors of Freiburg banned the performance of anti-Jewish scenes from the town's passion play because of the lethal bloody reactions against Jews which followed the performances. 9
	1347 +: The Black Death originated in the Far East. China, Mongolia, India, central Asia, and southern Russia have all been suggested as the source. 10 Mongol invaders brought it to Caffa in the Crimea (modern-day Fedodosiya). Defenders from the city later spread the disease throughout many Mediterranean ports. 11 Rats initially carried the Black Death; theyr fleas spread the disease from the rats to humans. As the plague worsened, the germs spread from human to human. In five years, the death toll had reached 25 million. In England, two centuries passed before its population levels recovered from the plague. People looked around for someone to blame. They noted that a smaller percentage of Jews than Christians caught the disease. This was undoubtedly due to the Jewish sanitary and dietary laws, which had been preserved from Old Testament times. Rumors circulated that Satan was protecting the Jews and that they were paying back the Devil by poisoning wells used by Christians. The solution was to torture, murder and burn the Jews. "In Bavaria...12,000 Jews...perished; in the small town of Erfurt...3,000; Rue Brulée...2,000 Jews; near Tours, an immense trench was dug, filled with blazing wood and in a single day 160 Jews were burned." 5 In Strausberg 2,000 Jews were burned. In Maintz 6,000 were killed...; in Worms 400..." 3
	1354: 12,000 Jews were executed in Toledo.
	1374: An epidemic of possession broke out in the lower Rhine region of what is now Germany. People were seen "dancing, jumping and [engaging in] wild raving." This was triggered by enthusiastic revels on St. John's Day - an Christianized version of an ancient Pagan seasonal day of celebration which was still observed by the populace. The epidemic spread throughout the Rhine and in much of the Netherlands and Germany. Crowds of 500 or more dancers would be overcome together. Exorcisms were tried, but failed. Pilgrimages to the shrine of St. Vitus were tried, but this only seemed to exacerbate the problem. Finally, the rumor spread that God was angry because Christians had been excessively tolerant towards the Jews. God had cursed Europe as He did Saul when he showed mercy towards God's enemies in the Old Testament. Jews "were plundered, tortured and murdered by tens of thousands." The epidemic finally burned itself out two centuries later, in the late 16th century. 4
	1391 : Jewish persecutions begin in Seville and in 70 other Jewish communities throughout Spain.
	1394 : Jews were exiled, for the second time, from France.
	1431 +: The Council of Basel "forbade Jews to go to universities, prohibited them from acting as agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians, and required that they attend church sermons." 5
	1434: "Jewish men in Augsburg had to sew yellow buttons to their clothes. Across Europe, Jews were forced to wear a long undergarment, an overcoat with a yellow patch, bells and tall pointed yellow hats with a large button on them." 1
	1453 : The Franciscan monk, Capistrano, persuaded the King of Poland to terminate all Jewish civil rights.
	1478: Spanish Jews had been heavily persecuted from the 14th century. Many had converted to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisition was set up by the Church in order to detect insincere conversions. Laws were passed that prohibited the descendants of Jews or Muslims from attending university, joining religious orders, holding public office, or entering any of a long list of professions.
	1492 : Jews were given the choice of being baptized as Christians or be banished from Spain. 300,000 left Spain penniless. Many migrated to Turkey, where they found tolerance among the Muslims. Others converted to Christianity but often continued to practice Judaism in secret.
	1497: Jews were banished from Portugal. 20 thousand left the country rather than be baptized as Christians.
	1516: The Governor of the Republic of Venice decided that Jews would be permitted to live only in one area of the city. It was located in the South Girolamo parish and was called the "Ghetto Novo." This was the first ghetto in Europe. Hitler made use of the concept in the 1930's.
	1523: Martin Luther distributed his essay "That Jesus Was Born a Jew. " He hoped that large numbers of Jews would convert to Christianity. They didn't, and he began to write and preach hatred against them. Luther has been condemned in recent years for being extremely antisemitic. The charge has some merit; however he was probably typical of most Christians during his era.
	1539: A passion play was forbidden in Rome because it prompted violent attacks against the city's Jewish residents. 9
	1540: Jews were exiled from Naples.
	1543: In his 20's, Martin Luther, had expected Jews to convert to Christianity in large numbers. Distressed by their reluctance, he developed a hatred for Jews, as expressed in his letters to Rev. Spalatin in 1514, when he was 31 years of age. He wrote:

"I have come to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme God and his King Christ, as all the prophets have predicted....For they are thus given over by the wrath of God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as Ecclesiastes says, for every one who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction." ₆

In 1543, he wrote "On the Jews and their lies, On Shem Hamphoras" :

"...eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God's anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!...What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews?

	First, their synagogues or churches should be set on fire,...
	Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed... They ought to be put under one roof or in a stable, like Gypsies.
	Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught.
	Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more...
	Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews...
	Sixthly, they ought to be stopped from usury. All their cash and valuables of silver and gold ought to be taken from them and put aside for safe keeping...
	Seventhly, let the young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the axe, the hoe, the spade, the distaff, and spindle and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses as in enjoined upon Adam's children...

To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden - the Jews." ₇

	1550: Jews were exiled from Genoa and Venice.
	1555-JUL-12: A Roman Catholic Papal bull, "Cum nimis absurdum," required Jews to wear badges, and live in ghettos. They were not allowed to own property outside the ghetto. Living conditions were dreadful: over 3,000 people were forced to live in about 8 acres of land. Women had to wear a yellow veil or scarf; men had to wear a piece of yellow cloth on their hat. 8
	1582: Jews were expelled from Holland.
	1648-9: Chmielnicki Bogdan led an uprising against Polish rule in the Ukraine. The secondary goal of Bogdan and his followers was to exterminate all Jews in the country. The massacre began with the slaughter of about 6,000 Jews in Nemirov. Other major mass murders occurred in Tulchin, Polonnoye, Volhynia, Bar, Lvov, etc. Jewish records estimate that a total of 100,000 Jews were murdered and 300 communities destroyed.

Persecution of Jewish Physicians by the Church:

Medicine in Europe during the Middle Ages found itself restricted by the Christian Church. The church taught that it was irreligious to seek a natural cure from a physician when one could obtain supernatural help from a priest. Some church leaders criticized medical schools because they taught that diseases and disorders came from natural means and not from the evil efforts of Satan.

With medicine in such ill repute among Christians, much of the leadership by the 10th century was provided by Jews and Muslim scholars. Jews were largely responsible for founding the medical Schools at Salerno and Montpellier in the 10th century.

Pope Eugene IV, Nicholas V and Calixtus III forbade Christians from using the services of a Jewish physician. The Trullanean Council in the 8th century; Béziers Council & Alby Council in the 13th century; Avignon council & Salamanca Council in the 14th century,  the Synod of Bamberg in the 15th century; the Council of Avignon in the 16th century, etc. also ordered Christians to not seek healing from Jewish physicians and surgeons. This continued even into the 17th century when the city of Hall in Würtemberg (in what is now Germany) granted some privileges to a Jewish physician "on account of his admirable experience and skill." The clergy of Hall complained that "it were better to die with Christ than to be cured by a Jew doctor aided by the devil."

The conversion from religiously-based to racially-based persecution:

Prior to 1800 CE: Persecution was directed at followers of Judaism because of their religious beliefs; it has been referred to as anti-Judaism. CE, Jews could escape oppression by converting to Christianity, and being baptized. The Christian church taught in past centuries that all Jews (past, present and future) were responsible for Jesus' death. The Church also believed that some Jews must be allowed to live, because the biblical book of Revelation indicated that they had a role to play in the "end times." They concluded that it was acceptable to make Jews' lives quite miserable.

Since about 1800: "...Nationalism became a dominant value in the Western and Arab worlds...antisemitism increasingly focused on the Jews' peoplehood and nationhood." ₁₅Persecution became a form of racism, and has generally been called "anti-Semitism" -- a word "created by an antisemite, Wilhelm Marr [in 1879]. Marr's intention was to replace the German word Judenhass (Jew-hatred) with a term that would make Jew-haters sound less vulgar and even somewhat scientific." ₁₅ The word, (variously spelled antisemite, anti-Semite and anti-semite). It is not a particularly good choice, because the root word "Semitic" refers to a group of languages, not to a single language or to a race, people or nation. However, it is in near-universal usage.

Antisemitism: Persecution of Jews along Racial Lines:

Subsequent attacks against Jews tended to be racially motivated. They were perpetrated primarily by the state. The Jewish people were viewed as a separate people or race.

	1806: A French Jesuit Priest, Abbe Barruel, had written a treatise blaming the Masonic Order for the French Revolution. He later issued a letter alleging that Jews, not the Masons were the guilty party. This triggered a belief in an international Jewish conspiracy in Germany, Poland and some other European countries later in the 19th century.
	1819: During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many European Jews lobbied their governments for emancipation. They sought citizenship as well as the same rights and treatment as were enjoyed by non-Jews. This appears to have provoked sporadic anti-semites to engage in anti-Jewish violence. The rioters cried "Hep! Hep!." The origin(s) of this cry are not clear. Jews and their property were attacked first in Wuerzburg, Germany during 1819-AUG. The rioting spread across Germany and eventually reached as far as Denmark and Poland.17
	1840: A rumor spread in Syria that some Jews were responsible for the ritual killing of a Roman Catholic monk and his servant. As a result of horrendous treatment, some local Jews confessed to a crime that they did not commit. This "Damascus Affair" spurred early Zionist writers like Hess to promote the Zionist cause. 17 More details.
	1846 - 1878: Pope Pius IX restored all of the previous restrictions against the Jews within the Vatican state. All Jews under Papal control were confined to Rome's ghetto - the last one in Europe until the Nazi era restored the church's practice. On 2000-SEP-3, Pope John Paul II beatified Pius IX; this is the last step before sainthood. He explained: "Beatifying a son of the church does not celebrate particular historic choices that he has made, but rather points him out for imitation and for veneration for his virtue."
	1858: Edgardo Mortara was kidnapped, at the age of six, from his Jewish family by Roman Catholic officials after they found out that a maid had secretly baptized him. He was not returned to his family but was raised a Catholic. He eventually became a priest.
	1873: The term "antisemitism" is first used in a pamphlet by Wilhelm Marr called "Jewry's Victory over Teutonism."
	1881: Alexander II of Russia was assassinated by radicals. The Jews were blamed. About 200 individual pogroms against the Jews followed. ("Pogrom" is a Russian word meaning "devastation" or "riot." In Russia, a pogrom was typically a mob riot against Jewish individuals, shops, homes or businesses. They were often supported and even organized by the government.) Thousands of Jews became homeless and impoverished. The few who were charged with offenses generally received very light sentences. 1
	1893: "...anti-Semitic parties won sixteen seats in the German Reichstag." 2
	1894: Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an officer on the French general staff, was convicted of treason. The evidence against him consisted of a piece of paper from his wastebasket with another person's handwriting, and papers forged by antisemitic officers. He received a life sentence on Devil's Island, off the coast of South America. The French government was aware that a Major Esterhazy was actually guilty. 3 The church, government and army united to suppress the truth. Writer Emile Zola and politician Jean Jaurès fought for justice and human rights. After 10 years, the French government fell and Drefus was declared totally innocent. The Dreyfus Affair was world-wide news for years. It motivated Journalist Theodor Herzl to write a book in 1896: "The Jewish State: A Modern Solution to the Jewish Question." The book led to the founding of the Zionist movement which fought for a Jewish Homeland. A half century later, the state of Israel was born.
	1903: At Easter, government agents organized an anti-Jewish pogrom in Kishinev, Moldova, Russia. The local newspaper published a series of inflammatory articles. A Christian child was discovered murdered and a young Christian woman at the Jewish Hospital committed suicide. Jews were blamed for the deaths. Violence ensured. The 5,000 soldiers in the town did nothing. When the smoke cleared, 49 Jews had been killed, 500 were injured; 700 homes looted and destroyed, 600 businesses and shops looted, 2000 families left homeless. Later, it was discovered that the child had been murdered by its relatives and the suicide was unrelated to the Jews. 4
	1905: The Okhrana, the Russian secret police in the reign of Czar Nicholas II, converted an earlier antisemitic novel into a document called the "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion." 16 It was published privately in 1897. A Russian Orthodox priest, Sergius Nilus, published them publicly  in 1905. It was promoted as the record of "secret rabbinical conferences whose aim was to subjugate and exterminate the Christians." 5 The Protocols were used by the Okhrana in a propaganda campaign that was associated with massacres of the Jews. These were the Czarist Pogroms of 1905.
	1915: 600,000 Jews were forcibly moved from the western borders of Russia towards the interior. About 100,000 died of exposure or starvation.
	1917: "In the civil war following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the reactionary White Armies made extensive use of the Protocols to incite widespread slaughters of Jews." 5  Two hundred thousand Jews were murdered in the Ukraine alone.
	1920: The Protocols reach England and the United States. They are exposed as a forgery, but are widely circulated. Henry Ford sponsored a study of international activities of Jews. This led to a series of antisemitic articles in the Dearborn Independent, which were published in a book, "The International Jew." The Protocols were sold on Wal-Mart's online bookstore until they were removed on 2004-SEP-21.
	1920: The defeat of Germany in World War I and the continuing economic difficulties were blamed in that country on the "Jewish influence." One antisemitic poster has been preserved from that era. 6 It shows a German, presumably Christian woman, a male Jew with distorted facial features, a coffin and the word "Deutschland" (Germany)
	1920's, 1930's: Hitler had published in Mein Kampf in 1925, writing: "Today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." The Protocols are used by the Nazis  to whip up public hatred of the Jews  in the 1930's. Widespread pogroms occur in Greece, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Rumania, and the USSR. Radio programs by many conservative American clergy, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, frequently attacked Jews. Reverend Fr. Charles E Coughlin was one of the best known. "In the 1930's, radio audiences heard him rail against the threat of Jews to America's economy and defend Hitler's treatment of Jews as justified in the fight against communism." (12) Other conservative Christian leaders, such as Frank Norris and John Straton supported the Jews. 7 Discrimination against Jews in North America is widespread. Many universities set limits on the maximum number of Jewish students that they would accept. Harvard accepted all students on the basis of merit until after World War I when the percentage of Jewish students approached 15%. At that time they installed an informal quota system. In 1941, Princeton had fewer than 2% Jews in their student body. Jews were routinely barred from country clubs, prestigious neighborhoods, etc. 8
	1933: Hitler took power in Germany. On APR-1, Julius Streicher organized a one-day boycott of all Jewish owned busienss in the country. This was the start of continuous oppression by the Nazis culminating in the Holocaust (a.k.a. Shoah). Jews "were barred from civil service, legal professions and universities, were not allowed to teach in schools and could not be editors of newspapers." 2 Two years later, Jews were no longer considered citizens.
	1934: Various laws were enacted in Germany to force Jews out of schools and professions.
	1935: The Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws restricting citizenship to those of "German or related blood." Jews became stateless.
	1936: Cardinal Hloud of Poland urged Catholics to boycott Jewish businesses.
	1938: On NOV-9, the Nazi government in Germany sent storm troopers, the SS and the Hitler Youth on a pogrom that killed 91 Jews, injured hundreds, burned 177 synagogues and looted 7,500 Jewish stores. Broken glass could be seen everywhere; the glass gave this event its name of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. 9
	1938: Hitler brought back century-old church law, ordering all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David as identification. A few hundred thousand Jews are allowed to leave Germany after they give all of their assets to the government.
	1939: The Holocaust, the Shoah -- the systematic extermination of Jews in Germany -- begins. The process only ended in 1945 with the conclusion of World War II. Approximately 6 million Jews (1.5 million of them children), 400 thousand Roma (Gypsies) and others were slaughtered. Some were killed by death squads; others were slowly killed in trucks with carbon monoxide; others were gassed in large groups in Auschwitz, Dacau, Sobibor, Treblinka and other extermination camps. Officially, the holocaust was described by the Nazis as subjecting Jews "to special treatment" or as a "solution of the Jewish question." Gold taken from the teeth of the victims was recycled; hair was used in the manufacture of mattresses. In the Buchenwald extermination camp, lampshades were made out of human skin; however, this appears to be an isolated incident. A rumor spread that Jewish corpses were routinely converted into soap. However, the story appears to be false. 10
	1940: The Vichy government of France collaborated with Nazi Germany by freezing about 80,000 Jewish bank accounts. During the next four years, they deported about 76,000 Jews to Nazi death camps; only about 2,500 survived. It was only in 1995 that a French president, Jacques Chirac, "was able to admit that the state bore a heavy share of responsibility in the mass round-ups and deportations of Jews, as well as in the property and asset seizures that were carried out with the active help of the Vichy regime." 11
	1941: The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC estimates that 13,000 Jews died on 1941-JUN-19 during a pogrom in Bucharest, Romania. It was ordered by the pro-Nazi Romanian regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu. The current government has admitted that this atrocity happened, but most Romanians continue to deny that the Jews were killed on orders from their own government. 12
	1941: Polish citizens in Jedwabne in northeastern Poland killed hundreds of Jews, by either beating them to death or burning them alive in a barn. According to the Associated Press: "The role played by Polish citizens was suppressed for nearly six decades until publication of a book by a Polish emigre historian, Jan Tomasz Gross. After release of the book in 2000, the Polish government launched an investigation. 'The role of the Poles was decisive in conducting the criminal act,' [prosecutor Radoslaw] Ignatiew, said. The book, 'Neighbours,' sparked national soul-searching among Poles, many of whom could not believe that anybody but the Nazis would have committed the atrocity." 13
	1942: The Nazi leaders of Germany, at the Wannsee conference, decided on"the final solution of the Jewish question" which was the attempt to exterminate every Jew in Europe. From JUL-28 to 31, almost 18,000 Russian inhabitants of the Minsk ghetto in what is now Belarus were exterminated. This was in addition to 5,000 to 15,000 who had been massacred in earlier pogroms in that city. This was just one of many such pogroms during World War II.14
	1945: The Shoah (Holocaust) ended as the Allied Forces over-ran the Nazi death camps.
	1946: Even though World War II ended the year before, antisemitic pogroms continued, particularly in Poland, with the deaths of many Jews. Source: 2000 year history of Jewish persecution at Religious Tolerance