September 10

134
CE: The great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiva, was taken captive by the Romans, and
executed five days later in Caesarea, Israel. Rabbi Akiva had been a
40-year-old shepherd who could not even read the Aleph-Bet. One day, he came across
a …

September
7

70: On the secular calendar the date on which a
Roman army under Titus occupied and plundered Jerusalem.

1191: The Crusader army led by King Richard the
Lionhearted defeated the army of Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf, north of Jaffa.
The …

September 2

44 BCE: Cicero delivers the
first of his fourteen Philippics (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He will
make 14 of them over the next several months. From a Jewish perspective it
might be proper to say “a pox on both of your houses.”&nbs…

August 28

388: Magnus
Maximus, an Hispanic usurper to the throne of the western Roman Empire passed
away. During his disputed reign Maximus issued an edict of which censured
Christians at Rome for burning down a Jewish synagogue which was condemned by…

August 26

1071:
The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Army at the Battle of Manzikert. This
battle took place during the successful conquest of Palestine, or as what the
Christians called the Holy Land which lasted until 1080. This left the Muslim
Tur…

August 23

634:
Umar began his reign as the second Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate. Umar
overturned the ban on Jews worshipping in Jerusalem. Not only did he clean the
Temple Mount of Filth, he encouraged the formation of Sanhedrin when he invited
“70…

August 17

986: During the days of
the First Bulgarian Empire, the army of Emperor Samuil of Bulgaria and his
brother defeat the Byzantines led by Basil II. 
The Bulgarian Empire had provided a haven for Jews escaping from the Byzantine
Army so th…