World
Year In Review
5764: Highs And Lows
A year of progress and setbacks in the Middle East and the world.
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ALANA KORNFELD
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
on property taken by the Nazis in the former East
Germany on the basis of legal technicalities.
New York
he year 5764 in review:
November 2003
T
October 2003
Some 59 percent of about 7,500 Europeans polled
named Israel as the gravest threat to world peace.
David Bar-Illan, a concert pianist, editor of the
Jerusalem Post and aide to former Prime Minister
Benjamin Netnayahu, dies in Jerusalem at age 73.
Pro-Palestinian activists converge on Ohio State
University for a conference of the Palestine Solidarity
Movement, while Jewish groups stage counterdemon-
strations.
first Jew to lead a major British political party.
Australia outlaws Hamas as a terrorist group.
The Polish government honors a woman who
smuggled 2,500 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Irena Sendler, 93, receives Poland's highest honor, the
Order of the White Eagle.
Two Istanbul synagogues are bombed, killing 24
people, mostly non-Jews. An organization affiliated
with Al-Qaida claims responsibility.
Laurence Tisch, former president of the UJA-
Federation of New York, dies in New York at age 80.
Under pressure following a JTA investigation of its
support for virulently anti-Israel groups, the Ford
Foundation announces new funding guidelines for its
Belarus' Jewish community protests a decision by the
country's education ministry to close a Jewish studies
institute.
Russian Jewish scientist Vitaly Ginzburg is awarded
the Nobel Prize in physics. Ginzburg is honored "for
pioneering contributions to the theory of supercon-
ductors and superfluids."
Twenty-one people are
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killed by an Islamic Jihad sui-
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Haifa restaurant. In retalia-
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tion, Israel bombs an empty
terrorist training camp in
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Syria, where Islamic Jihad is
headquartered.
Canadian media mogul
Israel "Izzy" Asper, a staunch
defender of Israel, dies in
Winnipeg at age 71.
Malaysian officials defend
the country's prime minister,
Mahathir Mohammed, who
said Jews rule the world and
called on Muslims to defeat
them.
Three American security
guards are killed when a U.S.
diplomatic convoy is bombed
in the Gaza Strip. The attack
leads to a severe diplomatic
rupture between the United
States and the Palestinian
Authority.
Jewish officials applaud the
Canadian government for
establishing April 18 as a
national Holocaust
ZAKA. disaster and rescue personnel evacuate the body of a victim from a bombed bus struck by a Palestinian suicide attack in Jerusalem
Remembrance Day.
An Oxford University profes- on Feb. 22. Brian Hendler/JTA
sor resigns after he is suspended ..
Financier and philanthropist George Soros creates
for rejecting a graduate student because he is Israeli.
grant recipients.
An Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip leaves more than
controversy when he says that the actions of Jews and
A small Holocaust museum in Indiana is destroyed
the Israeli government contribute to anti-Semitism.
1,200 Palestinians homeless, the United Nations says.
in a suspected arson.
Ahmed Qurei is sworn in as prime minister of the
U.N. officials say the weekend operation was the
The United States deducts $289.5 million from loan
Palestinian Authority, two months after his predeces-
largest demolition of houses since the Palestinians
guarantees to Israel because of construction in Israeli
launched the intifada three years ago.
sor, Mahmoud Abbas, resigned after a power struggle
settlements and on the West Bank security barrier.
with P.A. President Yasser Arafat.
Some 1,000 people in Belarus mark the 60th
A caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
An event billed as the first Jewish film festival in
anniversary of the liquidation of the Minsk Ghetto.
eating a Palestinian baby is named the best political car-
Central Europe opens in Poland. The Warsaw Festival
A German court rules that Holocaust-related prop-
toon of the year in England.
erty claims may be valid even if original ownership
of Films on Jewish Themes features 52 documentaries.
The Czech Republic's lower house of Parliament
Michael Howard is named leader of Britain's
documents cannot be found. The court's decision
approves a national Holocaust memorial day on Jan.
Conservative Party. Howard's election makes him the
overturns two lower-court rulings that blocked claims
27.
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9/10
2004
58
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