Year In Review
policies worry many, later steps
down as official leader of the party
Los Angeles — Federal prosecutors
say they will seek the death penalty
against Buford Furrow Jr., the white
supremacist accused of killing a
Filipino American mail carrier after
wounding five people at a Jewish
community center last August.
Jerusalem — Israel's interior min-
ister, Natan Sharansky, says his
ministry will recognize civil mar-
riages performed in foreign con-
sulates based in Israel.
MARCH 2000
Jerusalem — Pope John Paul II
arrives in Israel, the first papal visit
in 36 years.
New York — The Reform move-
ment passes a resolution affirming
the right of its movement's rabbis
to officiate at gay and lesbian
commitment ceremonies.
Jerusalem — The Knesset passes a
law granting equal rights to
women, including equality in the
workplace and the military, the
right of women over their bodies
and protection from violence and
sexual exploitation.
Top: Israel's Ehud Barak, U.S. President
Bill Clinton and the Palestinians'
Yasser Arafat worked overtime
at Camp David.
New York — The Birthright Israel
program announces plans to send
2,000 Jews to Israel this coming
summer after sending 6,000 stu-
dents during the winter. The pro-
gram, sponsored by Jewish philan-
Above: An Orthodox woman
chastises members of
Women at the Wall.
thropists, the Israeli government
and Jewish communities world-
wide, had more would-be travelers
than space available just weeks
after it began accepting applica-
tions toward the end of 1999.
APRIL 2000
New York — Holocaust denier
David Irving loses his libel lawsuit
against American academic
Deborah Lipstadt and publisher
Penguin Books.
Washington — Receiving the
Most Valuable Player award at the
27th Annual Reebok Classic bas-
ketball game, Orthodox Jewish
high school student Tamir
Goodman is slated to play for
Towson University in Maryland in
the fall, after earlier turning down
the University of Maryland's offer,
in part because of friction over his
refusal to play basketball on
Shabbat.
Pittsburgh — Richard Scott
Baumhammers goes on a shooting
spree, killing five minorities,
including one Jewish woman.
MAY 2000
Jerusalem — The Jewish Agency
for Israel flies 100 Falash Mum —
Ethiopians whose ancestors con-
verted from Judaism to
Christianity — from Ethiopia to
Israel. The group is the first to
arrive since Interior Minister Natan
Sharansky visited Ethiopia a month
before to assess the situation of the
thousands of Falash Mura who
have amassed in transit camps hop-
ing to emigrate to Israel.
Washington — Members of syna-
gogues, Jewish organizations and
Jewish mothers from across the
United States join the Million
Mom March in Washington to
press for gun control legislation.
Jerusalem — Israel's High Court
of Justice rules that women can
pray at the Western Wall while
wearing prayer shawls, marking a
victory in an 11-year effort by the
group Women of the Wall.
Jerusalem — After formally noti-
fying the United Nations of its
intention to withdraw its forces
from southern Lebanon by July,
Israel accelerates its withdrawal
from southern Lebanon when it
becomes evident that its ally in the
region, the South Lebanon Army,
has collapsed. More than 5,000
South Lebanon Army members
and their families are granted asy-
lum in Israel.
New York — Israel accepts an
invitation to join the United
Nations' Western Europe and
Others Group, giving the country
a stronger voice in U.N. affairs.
Israeli leaders and their backers
say they are concerned about
some of the membership condi-
tions — that Israel can only par-
ticipate in WEOG activities com-
ing out of the U.N.'s New York
headquarters and that Israeli rep-
Tour Guide To The New
9/29
2000
56
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