The following timeline may serve as a brief overview of Jewish history. Many of the time periods, especially prior to the Common Era, are approximations. The dating system used differs somewhat from the traditional Jewish dating system for ancient history, and there may be discrepancies by as much as 150 years. However, this divergence disappears with the beginning of the Common Era.
| 2000–1700 B.C.E. | The Age of the Patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. |
| 1700–1300 B.C.E. | Israelites enter Egypt, are enslaved, and become populous. |
| 1250 B.C.E. | Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt. |
| 1250–1200 B.C.E. | Israelite conquest of Canaan. |
| 1020 B.C.E. | Saul is anointed the first king of Israel. |
| 1000–961 B.C.E. | David reigns as the second king of Israel, with Jerusalem as his capital. |
| 961–922 B.C.E. | Solomon rules as the third king of Israel and builds the First Temple. |
| 922 B.C.E. | The Ten Northern Tribes secede and form the kingdom of Israel, leaving the kingdom of Judah. |
| 726–722 B.C.E. | The northern kingdom of Israel is conquered by the Assyrians and the Ten Tribes are exiled into oblivion. |
| 587–586 B.C.E. | The southern kingdom of Judah falls to the Babylonians; the First Temple is destroyed; much of the Jewish population is deported to Babylonia. |
| 538 B.C.E. | Cyrus's edict permits the Jews to return to Judea. |
| 515 B.C.E. | The Second Temple is completed in Jerusalem. |
| 332 B.C.E. | Alexander the Great occupies Israel. |
| 167–164 B.C.E. | Maccabean (Hasmonean) revolt against Antiochus IV. The Temple is seized and rededicated. |
| 37 B.C.E. to 4 C.E. | Herod rules Judea with the support of Rome. |
| 6 C.E. | Rome assumes direct rule over Judea. |
| 66–72 C.E. | Jews revolt against Rome. |
| 70 C.E. | Destruction of the Second Temple marks the beginning of the Diaspora. |
| 73 C.E. | The fall of Masada. |
| 132–135 | Jewish revolt led by Bar Kokhba against Rome. |
| 200 | Compilation of Mishnah. |
| c. 390 | Jerusalem (Palestinian) Talmud is completed. |
| c. 450–500 | Babylonian Talmud is completed. |
| 762 | The Karaites break with Rabbinic Judaism. |
| 1066 | Jews settle in England. |
| 1096 | Crusaders massacre the Jews in the Rhineland. |
| 1135–1204 | The life of Moses Maimonides. |
| 1144 | Ritual murder charges at Norwich. |
| 1146 | Beginning of persecution of Jews in Muslim Spain. |
| 1171 | First Blood Libel charge brought in France. |
| 1182–1198 | Expulsion of Jews from France. |
| 1240 | Paris Disputation and burning of the Talmud. |
| 1280–1290 | Completion of the Zohar by Moshe de Leon. |
| 1290 | Expulsion of Jews from England. |
| 1348–1349 | Accused of causing the Black Death, many Jews are massacred in |
| central Europe and France. | |
| 1394 | Final expulsion of Jews from France. |
| 1481 | Spanish Inquisition begins. |
| 1492 | Jews expelled from Spain. |
| 1497 | Jews expelled from Portugal. |
| 1516 | First ghetto in Venice. |
| 1564 | Rabbi Josef Karo completes the Shulkhan Arukh. |
| 1736–1760 | Ba'al Shem Tov founds the Hasidic movement. |
| 1770–1880 | Haskalah movement. |
| 1791 | Emancipation of Jews in France. |
| 1804 | Tsar Alexander I establishes the Pale of Settlement. |
| 1827 | Tsar Nicholas I orders Jews to be conscripted in the army. |
| 1830s | German Jews begin to immigrate to the United States. |
| 1840s | Reform Movement begins in Germany. |
| 1848 | Full rights granted to German Jews. |
| 1866 | Emancipation of Swiss Jews. |
| 1867 | Final Emancipation of Jews of Austria-Hungary. |
| 1870 | Final Emancipation of Italian Jews. |
| 1881–1882 | Waves of pogroms begin in Russia. |
| 1881–1924 | Mass migration of Eastern European Jews to the United States. |
| 1882–1903 | First mass migration to Israel. |
| 1894–1899 | The Dreyfus Affair. |
| 1897 | Theodor Herzl convenes the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. |
| 1904–1914 | Second mass migration to Israel. |
| 1905 | “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” appears in print. |
| 1917 | Emancipation of the Jews in Russia. |
| 1917 | Lord Balfour writes the “Balfour Declaration”; Britain occupies Palestine. |
| 1922 | League of Nations establishes British mandate in Palestine. |
| 1929 | Arab riots in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine. |
| 1929–1939 | Almost 250,000 German and Austrian Jews arrive in Palestine. |
| 1933 | Hitler and Nazi Party come to power in Germany. |
| 1935–1939 | Anti-Jewish legislation enacted throughout many European countries. |
| 1939 | New White Paper severely limits Jewish immigration to Palestine. |
| 1939–1945 | Holocaust. Six million Jews die at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. |
| 1947 | United Nations General assembly votes in favor of the partition of Palestine. |
| 1948 | May 14, Declaration of Statehood by the State of Israel. |
| 1948 | Israel's War of Independence. |
| 1952 | Stalin orders the execution of Yiddish writers and poets in the USSR. |
| 1956 | The Sinai campaign. |
| 1967 | The Six-Day War. |
| 1973 | The Yom Kippur War. |
| 1979 | Signing of Israel-Egypt peace agreement. |
