Family history is more than a series of names and dates.  Knowing about the events that occurred during our ancestors’ lifetimes helps us to gain a better understanding of their world and the decisions they made that shaped their lives.   This timeline integrates key events in world and Jewish history with important dates in the history of Hungarian Jews and the history of my family. 

8                  Emperor Tiberius claims lands west of the Danube for Rome

70                    Romans destroy the Second Temple in Jerusalem and bring about 5,000 captives to Rome

103                    Trajan divides the province creating Pannonia Inferior with its capital at Aquincum

203                    Groups of Jews begin to settle in Pannonia

600                  Founding of the Khazar kingdom

711                  Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain begins with Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula

850                 Jewish Kabars and Khazars arrive in the Carpathian Basin with the Magyars

1035                Natan ben Yechiel, the first ancestor known by the Kahan name, is born in Rome

1092                Council of Szabolcs issues the first anti-Jewish laws in Hungary

1095                Beginning of the Crusades

1135                Birth of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides)

1141                Yehuda HaLevi urges Jews to return to Palestine

1241                Mongols invade Hungary

5 Dec 1251     King Bela IV issues grants extensive rights to Jews in Hungary

1279                Synod of Buda requires Hungarian Jews to wear an identifying red patch

1290                King Edward I expels Jews expelled from England

1291                King Endre III grants full rights to the Jews of Pressburg (Bratislava)

1306                First of several Jewish expulsions from France

1343                Casimir the Great invites Jews to settle in Poland

1347-51          Black Plague kills about a third of Europe’s population

1349                Jews are expelled from Hungary and then readmitted

1360                King Lajos I expels Jews from Hungary after failed attempt to force conversion

1360                Jews expelled from Hungary settle in Austria, Moravia, and Poland

1492                About 200,000 Jews are expelled from Spain; Bayezid II invites them to settle in Ottoman

                           Empire

1516                Ghetto of Venice, the first in Europe, is established

29 Aug 1526         Turks defeat the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohacs

1579                Gershon Shaul ben Natan HaLevi (Yom Tov) Lipmann-Heller is born in Wallerstein, Baveria

18 June 1623         Prince Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania grants privileges to Spanish Jews from Turkey

1630                 Jews settle in Recife, Brazil

1648                 Chmelinitzki massacres 100,000 Jews in Poland

1654                 Following Portuguese recapture of Brazil, 23 Jews, mostly refugees from Recife arrive in New

                           York and establish Congregation Shearith Israel, the first in North America

1655-56             Dutch West India Company allows Jews to trade, travel, and own property in New Netherland

1670                    Leopold I expells the Jews from Vienna at the instigation of his Spanish wife Maria Teresa

August 1690      Habsburgs expel Jews from Sopron after taking over all of Hungary

1712                    Jews are expelled from Esztergom

abt 1720             Yosef Heller-Kahana, who grew up to become the rabbi of Kalusz, Galicia, is born

1726                 Charles III decrees only one Jewish male in each family in Austrian provinces can marry

                            resulting in significant migration into northwestern part of Hungary

1730               Jews build a synagogue in Lower Manhattan, the first in the present U.S.

1738               Jewish census (Conscriptio Judaeorum) counts 11,621 Jews in Hungary, 

                            two-thirds of whom are immigrants, primarily from Moravia

1743                Rabbi Matityahu Gunsburg of Belgrade is elected to be rabbi of Obuda; Yehuda ben Yosef

                          Kahan (Kuntras HaSfeikos) is born in Kalusz, Galicia

2 Dec 1763    Congregation Jeshuat Israel of Newport, R.I., the second oldest in the U.S., dedicates the

                            country’s oldest standing synagogue

22 Sept 1772       Prussia, Russia, and Austria divide Poland making most of Galicia part of Austria-Hungary

4 July 1776       Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia

1776-83           American Revolution

1780                 Jewish population of Hungary reaches 46,166 as Joseph II becomes Emperor

13 Mar 1783        Emperor Joseph II grants substantial rights of Hungarian Jews

1783                 Jews are granted permission to return to Buda and settle in Pest.  First kosher restaurant

                            opens in Pest

1789                 French Revolution; Joseph II requires Jews to serve in the Austro=Hungarian military

1791                 France grants rights to Jews and allows them to become citizens subject to some conditions

1784                 Jews are granted permission to settle in Szeged

23 July 1787     Emperor Joseph II decrees that all Jews must select a German family name

1787                 First synagogue in Pest is established in a rented building and a kosher restaurant is opened

1802                 Rabbi Yehuda ben Yosef Kahana is appointed rabbi of Sziget, Maramaros, Hungary  

1816                 Izak (Benyamin Yitzhak haKohen) Kohn is born in Tarnoka, Zemplen, Hungary

1828                 Hungarian Land Census for Vamfalu lists Jew Berko among the five Jewish household heads

                            of household

abt 1840              Dov Berisch ben Yehuda haKohen Kahan is born in Sziget, Maramaros, Hungary

abt 1842              Miksa (Meier Shlomo haLevi) Neuman is born in Szobrancz, Ung, Hungary

abt 1844              Markusz (Mordechai ben Avraham haLevi) Moskovits and Ottilie Polacsek are born in

                                    Ung or Zemplen megye, Hungary

1846                 Sali (Sara) Kohn is born in Zbegnyo, Zemplen, Hungary

1848                 Many Hungarian Jews join the fight for freedom from Austria.

28 July 1849     National Assembly meeting in Szeged votes to emancipate Hungarian Jews

abt 1852              Moshe Gershon Berkovics is born in Szatmar, Hungary

abt 1854              Shprinze Grosz is born in Szatmar, Hungary

1858                 British Jews are emancipated

1865                 Avigdor Avraham ben Natan Nata Segal Neumann dies in Sobrance leaving a widow and son

25 Nov 1867      Hungarian Parliament approves the Act of 1867 granting full rights to Hungarian Jews

20 Nov 1868      Avigdor Avraham ben Meier Neumann born in Sobrance.

1877                 New Hampshire becomes the last state in US to grant Jews equal political rights

2 Nov 1876      Hermina (Chana) Moskovits is born in Kisosztro, Ung megye, Hungary

15 May 1878      Zlate (Lottie) Berkovics is born in Avas-Ujvaros, Szatmar megye, Hungary

1 April 1882        Eszter Solymosi disappears leading to Tiszaeszlar “blood libel”

19 June 1903      Heinrich (Chaim) Kahan sails from Hamburg on the SS Pennsylvania

25 August 1903   Elemer Albert (Arye Leib ben Avigdor Avraham haLevi) Neumann is born in Kereszt, Hungary

13 Oct 1909         Liilie Ann (Chana Leah) Kahn is born at 814 East 9th Street, New York, N.Y.

28 June 1914       Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austro-Hungarian throne, is assassinated in Sarajevo

                                    leading to the start of World War I.

31 Oct 1918      New nation of Czechoslovakia is created and Transylvania becomes part of Romania  with the

                            dissolution of Austro-Hungary

11 Nov 1918     World War I ends

1919                      Miklos Horthy comes to power after initiating a series of pogroms called the White Terror

4 June 1920       Hungary loses more than two-thirds of its territory and about two-thirds of its inhabitants

                                with the signing of the Treaty of  Trianon in Versailles, France

1920                  Horthy’s government passes a series of anti-Jewish measures including the Numerus

                             Clausus, a quota limiting Jews to no more than 5 percent of the enrollment in universities.

Nov-Dec 1920    Miksa, Lajos, and Elemer Neumann leave Michalovce for New York City

15 Sept 1935        Nuremberg Race Laws strip German Jews of most rights

1938                   Hungary restricts the number of Jews in professions, administration, and commerce to 20

                               percent of all positions

15 Oct 1938        Nazis invade Sudetenland

2 Nov 1938        First Vienna Accord forces Czechoslovakia to cede almost 19,000 square miles of formerly

                                Hungarian territory back to Hungary.

9-10 Nov 1938     Kristallnacht

1939                      Anti-Jewish quotas reduce the number of  Hungarian Jews in professions, administration,

                                and commerce to 5 percent of all positions

15 March 1939    Nazis take over Czechoslovakia

19 April 1939            Slovakia passes anti-Jewish laws including Aryanization of Jewish-owned businesses

1 Sept 1939            Nazis invade Poland

November 1940    Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania join the Axis

1940                        Second Vienna Accord returns part of Transylvania to Hungary.

July-Aug 1941        Hungary deports 20,000 Jews from Ruthenia to Kamenets-Podolsk where they are

                                     murdered.

7 Dec 1941            Pearl Harbor is bombed followed by US entering war

24 March 1942  Deportation of Slovak Jews to Auschwitz begins

December 1942    Soviets overrun Hungarian troops at the River Don in Russia

19 March 1944    Nazi forces invade Hungary.

5 April 1944           Nazis order Hungarian Jews to wear yellow Star of David, close Jewish businesses, bar

                                 use of public transit or visits to public places, and impose other restrictions

20 April 1944           Kosice Jews are imprisoned in two camps at the brick factory.

15 May 1944           Deportation of  Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz begins.

22 May 1944           The last of four transports of Sighet Jews leaves for Auschwitz.

4 June 1944           The fifth and last trainload of Kosice Jews departs for Auschwitz where some 12,000 of

                                  them will perish

6 June 1944              D-Day landings at Normandy

24 July 1944            Soviet troops liberate Majdanek concentration camp

15 Oct 1944             Arrow Cross Party-Hungarian Movement takes over the Hungarian government.

27 Dec 1944             Soviet troops begin the Battle of Budapest

18 Jan 1945           Soviet Army captures Budapest

26 Jan 1945            Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz

12 April 1945           Allied troops liberate Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen

8 May 1945               Victory in Europe (V-E) Day

15 May 1948           Establishment of the State of Israel as an independent nation.

References:

American Jewish History 1492-2004 <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/haventohome/timeline/_flash/timeline.swf>

Jordan Auslander, Genealogical Gazetteer of the Kingdom of Hungary, Avotaynu, 2005.

Randolph L. Braham, Genocide and Retribution: The Holocaust in Hungarian-Ruled Northern Transylvania, Springer, 1983.

Ladislau Gyemant, The Jews of Transylvania in the Age of Emancipation, 1790-1867, Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish History, Editura Enciclopedica, Bucuresti, 2000.

History of the Jews in Hungary, Wikipedia  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Hungary>

The History Place-Holocaust and World War Two in Europe Timelines <http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html> <http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm>

Erno Marton, “The Family Tree of Hungarian Jewry”, Hungarian Jewish Studies, ed. Randolph L. Braham, World Federation of Hungarian Jews, New York, 1966.

Pinkas HaKehillot (Romania), Vol. 1, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 1969.

Pinkas Hakehillot Slovakia, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 2003. <http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_slovakia/slo495.html>

Raphael Patai, The Jews of Hungary, Wayne State University Press, 1996.

Peter Ujvari, Magyar Zsido Lexikon, Budapest, 1929.  <http://mek.oszk.hu/04000/04093/html/index.htm>

Copyright Vivian Kahn, 2008