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its effect," he writes. "It has weakened our resistance to
evil. We have become a less courageous people. Our soul
is smaller" ... A former employee's secret recording catch-
es Texaco treasurer Robert Ulrich saying, "I'm still hav-
ing trouble with Chanukah. Now we have Kwanzaa."
This, at the 1994 meeting of Texaco executives who con-
spired to illegally destroy documents subject to request in
a federal discrimination lawsuit ...
Three months after his appointment as head of the
Queens College (N.Y) Jewish studies program triggered a
national debate about the stewardship of ethnic studies
departments — and his abrupt resignation — Thomas
Bird has been named interim co-director of the program.
But this time, Mr. Bird, a Russian language professor
who is not Jewish, will share the director's title with two
Jewish colleagues ...
Bill Clinton snares 83 percent of the Jewish vote and
becomes the first Democratic president elected to two
full terms since Franklin Roosevelt. Johns Hopkins
University political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg says Mr.
Clinton's 50-41 percent victory was the result of a strong
economy, a lack of major foreign policy crises and a weak
GOP candidate in Bob Dole ... A study of Conservative
Jews indicates levels of educational attainment among
younger synagogue members are steadily rising ... Some
10,000 visitors descend on Secaucus, N.J., for Kosherfest
'96, the kosher food industry's premier trade show. Nu?
Kosher spring water and a line of Paul Prudhomme sea-
sonings certified by Star-K.
President Clinton names Stuart Eizenstat to coordi-
nate a probe into Nazi-Swiss cooperation during World
War II ... CIA members allege the agency has covered up
evidence Iraq used chemical weapons in the Gulf War.

DECEMBER

/-

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman praises
the Anti-Defamation League for resisting pressure to
cancel a speech by the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.
Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of
America, and David Bar-Illan, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's communications aide, described
Mr. Friedman's views as "anti-Zionist." Both say he
should not be given a platform, and a major free-speeech
hub-bub ensues ... The U.N. General Assembly over-
whelmingly adopts a resolution in support of the Middle
East peace process ...
American Jewish and Israeli officials welcome
President Clinton's new appointees: Madeleine Albright
for secretary of state and William Cohen for secretary of
defense ... The Union of American Hebrew
Congregations rejects a resolution that would have
rescinded a 23-year-old rabbinic policy against officiating
at interfaith weddings ... The Swiss National Bank pub-
licly acknowledges that it profited from its dealings with
Nazi Germany ... Kofi Annan of Ghana is named secre-
tary general of the United Nations, replacing Boutros
Boutros-Ghali ... President Clinton says Israeli settle-
ments are "absolutely" an obstacle to peace.

Oposite page, top:
At memorial services in November, a year after the assassination o Yitzhak Rabin,
grief swells up again, but so does dissent. Israelis disagree over how Rabin should be remembered
just as strenuously as they argued over his policies.

Opposite page, middle:
Flanked by his wife and daughter, William Jeffersonn Clinton takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.
Mr. Clinton snared 83 percent of the Jewish vote in becoming the first Democratic president elected
to two full terms since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Opposite page, bottom:
In September, Israelis protest the reopening of the Hasmonean Tunnel near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem,
calling for Mr. Netanyahu's resignation. The opening triggers violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians.
Dozens are killed and hundreds are wounded.

This page, top: We land on Mars.

This page above:
In February, former dissident and political prisoner Natan Sharansky visits Moscow for the first time since he
was allowed to leave the former Soviet Union.

5757 Hopes and fears.

9/26
1997

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