April
18

 383: The Roman Emperors ended the exemption
Jewish religious leaders enjoyed from compulsory public service. “The order which Jewish men flatter
themselves with and which gives them immunity from the compulsory public
services of decuri…

December 1

500: (Kislev 4428): This is
the traditional date of the closing of the Talmudic era and the beginning of the Saboraic era. Saboraim is
“the title applied to the principals and scholars of the Babylonian academies
in the period immediately f…

November
29

800: Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope
Leo III. Leo and Charlemagne were allies. 
Charlemagne would exonerate Leo of the charges and Leo would crown
Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.&nbs…

November 22

1220: Frederick II, who would become the
protector of the Jews in Frankfurt in 1236, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor
today by Honorius III.

1280:
The 3-year reign of Pope Nicholas III whose bull Vineam sorce
encouraged conversion through…

November
15

1215: Pope Innocent III opened the convocation of the
Fourth Lateran Council, considered the most important council of the Middle
Ages. By its conclusion it issued seventy reformatory decrees. Among other
things, it encouraged creating sch…

November
13

354:  Birthdate of St. Augustine of
Hippo.  While St. Augustine may be held
in high regard by the Roman Catholic Church, he held the Jews in especially low
regard. In his famous work The City of God, Augustine reports that the
Je…

November 7

305 B.C.E.: Ptolemy, a Macedonian general who
had fought by the side of Alexander the Great, became King of Egypt.  Alexander’s empire broke into three parts
after his death.  Jerusalem and Judea
came under the sway of the Ptolemy…