Timeline of Antisemitism: 1800 - 1900

1807 - Napoleon forces leading rabbis and leaders to disavow Jewish commitments and pledge allegiance to France alone.

1881 - Russia’s new czar Aleksandr III makes Jews the scapegoats for the assassination of his father. He vows to kill one-third of the country’s Jews, drive out another third, and convert the rest, beginning a series of pogroms that will spur the emigration of millions of Jews in the next 30 years.

1893 - Antisemitism mounts in France as Jews are blamed for the collapse in 1889 of the Panama Canal Co., whose bankruptcy has cost many French investors their savings.

1894 - A French court martial convicts Army captain Alfred Dreyfus, 35, of having passed military information to German agents. Dreyfus will later be proved innocent, but the Dreyfus case adds to the growing Antisemitism in France. Viennese journalist Theodore Herzl, 34, covers the trial and hears the Paris mob cry, "Death to the Jews!" This experience would influence Herzl to become the father of the Zionist movement which inspired the creation of the State of Israel.

1898 -"J’Accuse!" headlines the Paris newspaper L’Aurore January 18 over an open letter by novelist Emile Zola. His attack forces a new trial of Capt. Dreyfus. It is revealed that Dreyfus was the victim of an Antisemitic plot.