Rosh Hashanah 5758

SEPTEMBER

RCA releases a compact disc of classic Jewish songs.
Its cover image is over a package of kosher franks. It's
title: Hebrew National Kosher Classics. It's $15.98 retail
... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yassir Arafat meet face
to face for the first time ... The executive committee of
the Council of Jewish Federations unanimously votes to
form a partnership with the United Jewish Appeal ...
Switzerland announces that it will move toward lifting
its bank secrecy laws, which will allow for inquiries into
the whereabouts of Nazi gold and Jewish assets deposited
in the country during World War II ...
Israel's opening of a new entrance to an archaeological_
tunnel near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem triggers vio-
lent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians. Dozens are
killed and hundreds more wounded ... Former Vice
President Spiro Agnew dies.

OCTOBER

In England, two lesbians call off their commitment
ceremony after the rabbi due to conduct it was -ordered
not to officiate by London's Reform leadership ... On the
occasion of the 70th anniversary of the death of Erich
Weiss, better known as Harry Houdini, the master magi-
cian is inducted into the Jewish-American Hall of Fame
in Berkeley, Calif... A panel appointed by the Jewish
National Fund finds the organization innocent of allega-
tions of fraud, malfeasance and misappropriation of
funds. Accounting "inefficiencies" were cited, however ...
The U.S. Postal Service, in conjunction with the Israeli
Postal Authority, unveils a Chanukah stamp ...
President Clinton hosts a summit meeting with Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yassir Arafat ... Republican presi-
dential candidate Bob Dole calls for a school prayer
amendment to the Constitution in the final presidential
debate ... Israel and the world Jewish community mark
the first yahrzeit of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
... Israel's High Court of Justice rules that women are
entitled to equal worship at the Western Wall, allowing
the grass-roots group Women of the Wall to read from
the Torah and wear tallitot while praying there ...
Shannon Lucid, 53, returns to Earth after a record 188
days in space ...
Six-year-old Jonathan Prevette kisses a female class-
mate and is disciplined for sexual harassment ...
Baltimore Oriole Roberto Alomar spits on umpire John
Hirschbeck, and it becomes front-page news across
America.

NOVEMBER

A year after the assassination of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin, JN Israel correspondent Larry Derfner
suggests a national amnesia has overtaken Israelis.
"Israel's willed forgetting of Rabin's assassination has had

9/26
1997

76

The Year In Picture