A chronological view of the figures, breakthroughs, and historic moments that have shaped Jewish life, and the modern world, since the late 18th century.
France becomes the first country to grant Jews full citizenship, opening the door to participation in modern civic life across Europe.
In Trier, Prussia, the philosopher whose work would reshape global political thought.
His performance of "St. Matthew Passion" in Berlin sparks the modern Bach revival.
In Freiberg, Moravia, the future founder of psychoanalysis.
With Jacob Davis, Strauss patents copper-riveted denim work pants, founding the company that gives the world its most-worn garment.
In Ulm, Germany, the future Nobel laureate who would reshape 20th-century physics.
The pamphlet that launches modern political Zionism.
Four papers in one year reshape physics: special relativity, the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, and E=mc².
Henrietta Szold founds Hadassah, which becomes the largest women's organization in America and a force for medical care in pre-state Palestine.
For the photoelectric effect, and the foundations of quantum theory.
Arrested by the Gestapo, then released, she escapes to Paris, beginning the long journey that would lead to "The Origins of Totalitarianism."
Working in exile in Sweden, Meitner provides the theoretical explanation for what would be called nuclear fission.
With composer George Antheil, a wartime invention that would later become the foundation of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.
Two years after her death in Bergen-Belsen, Otto Frank publishes his daughter's diary. It becomes one of the most-read books of the 20th century.
David Ben-Gurion proclaims Israel's independence on May 14, fulfilling Herzl's vision a half-century later.
Hannah Arendt publishes her landmark study of Nazism and Stalinism, a foundational text of postwar political theory.
Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is announced effective. Asked who owns the patent, he answers: "Could you patent the sun?"
Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, and Arthur Laurents reinvent the American musical.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby launch Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Hulk in rapid succession, building what becomes the Marvel universe.
Yom Kippur falls on Game 1 of the World Series. Koufax declines to pitch, a quiet act of identity remembered six decades later.
A record at the Munich Games that stands for 36 years.
Beginning the case-by-case work that reshapes American gender law over the next two decades.
For his decades of work as "a messenger to mankind."
Steven Spielberg's film wins seven Oscars and leads to the founding of the Shoah Foundation, preserving 55,000 survivor testimonies.
The second woman ever confirmed; she serves until her death in 2020.
Shared with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat for the Oslo Accords. Rabin is assassinated in Tel Aviv the following year.
With Larry Page at Stanford, the search engine that becomes the world's primary way of finding information.
From his Harvard dorm, what becomes the largest social platform in human history.
"For having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
Built on Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó's decades of research, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are administered worldwide.
Shared with Karikó for the mRNA discoveries that made the COVID vaccines possible.
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“No one is ever made poor by giving to charity.”