Hen dler/ JTA Year In Reveiw from page 87 FEBRUARY 2005 Washington — Resolutions praising Palestinian Authority elections pass overwhelmingly in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Washington — In his State of the Union address, President Bush proposes $350 million in U.S. aid for the Palestinians. Egypt — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declare an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire. New York — The Artscroll publishing house completes its 73-volume translation of the Talmud, a $23 million project that took more than 15 years. Roxbury, Conn. — Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, who is Jewish, best known for Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, dies at age 89. MARCH 2005 New York — Tens of thou- sands of Jews gather in Madison Square Garden and other loca- tions throughout the world to mark the end of the Daf Yomi, a seven-year cycle of Talmud study. Washington — President Bush nominates John Bolton as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, sparking a contentious political battle. Washington — The U.S. House of Representatives votes 389-43 to give $200 million in aid to the Palestinians. Paris — Attacks on French Jews and Muslims and their institutions have almost doubled — from 833 in 2004 to 1,565 — according to reports. Jerusalem — The Knesset votes down a bill that would have authorized a referendum on the Gaza Strip withdrawal plan. Jerusalem — The Knesset approves the 2005 state budget, marking a major political victory for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and removing the last legislative obstacle to his plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. New York — Columbia University issues a report investi- gating charges that pro- Palestinian professors bullied pro-Israel students. Jerusalem — An Israeli-Arab player scores a key goal in the 88 An Israeli settler cries out as he takes part in a farewell ceremony at the synagogue in Katif in the southern Gaza Strip on Aug. 21, 2005. final minutes of a World Cup qualifying match, helping Israel advance to the next round. APRIL 2005 Rome — Pope John Paul II, who made positive Jewish- Catholic relations a pillar of his papacy, dies at age 84. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany is selected to succeed him. Washington — Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national secu- rity adviser, pleads guilty to a misdemeanor for removing clas- sified documents from the National Archives. He later is fined $50,000 for the offense. Brookline, Mass. — Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow, who is Jewish, best known for such novels as Herzog and The Adventures of Augie March, dies at age 89. Crawford, Texas — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush at his ranch. Bush reportedly insists that Israel not expand settlements without negotiating with the Palestinians. Washington — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee fires two top employees — poli- cy director Steve Rosen and sen- ior Iran analyst Keith Weissman — due to allegations raised by an FBI investigation that they mishandled classified material. New York — The United Nations Commission on Human Rights condemns anti-Semitism in two separate resolutions. Jerusalem — Former Israeli President Ezer Weizman dies at age 80. Crawford, Texas — President Bush meets with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at Bush's ranch. Bush reportedly stresses the need for the Saudis to offer financial support to the Palestinian Authority. Beirut — Syria formally with- draws its troops from Lebanon, ending its 29-year occupation. London — Britain's Association of University Teachers votes to boycott two Israeli universities over Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. The boycott, which sparks out- rage in the Jewish world, is over- turned in May. MAY 2005 Jerusalem — Natan Sharansky resigns from Israel's government to protest the planned withdraw- al from the Gaza Strip and north- ern West Bank. Jerusalem — Israel freezes the hand-over of West Bank cities to the Palestinians after they ignore pledges to arrest wanted terror- ists and disarm terrorist groups. Moscow — Representatives of the Quartet pursuing Middle East peace — America, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — emphasize the need for a future Palestinian state to have territorial contigui- ty. The group also issues a state- ment supporting Israel's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Krakow, Poland — Some 18,000 marchers mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Berlin — Germany dedicates its new Holocaust memorial. Paris — A French appeals court finds Le Monde, the coun- try's leading daily newspaper, guilty of "racial defamation" for an article on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict that was harshly critical of Jews. Butner, N.C. — Israeli ambas- sador Daniel Ayalon visits Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in a U.S. prison for the first time. Jerusalem — First lady Laura Bush visits Jerusalem as part of a Middle East tour. New York — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon comes to New York, where he defends his Gaza withdrawal plans. Washington — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with President Bush at the White House. Bush offers $50 million in direct assistance. Washington — The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the con- stitutional right to religious accommodation for minorities in prisons, declaring the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 to be consti- tutional. Moscow — A Russian court sentences the Jewish oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, to nine years in jail after finding him guilty of six charges including tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement. JUNE 2005 New York — Hundreds of thousands of people march down Fifth Avenue in the annual Salute to Israel parade. Cordoba, Spain — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe holds its third annual Conference on Anti- Semitism and Other Forms of Intolerance. Washington— Former Nazi death-camp guard John Demjanjuk is deemed eligible for deportation from the United States. Demjanjuk was acquitted in Israel in 1993 of being "Ivan the Terrible one of the most notorious Nazi guards. New York — Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, the longtime chancel- lor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative movement's flagship institution, announces his retirement. Jerusalem — Israel apologizes to the United States after a dis- pute over Israeli arms sales to China. Boca Raton, Fla. — Rabbi Nahum Sarna, a leading Bible scholar at Brandeis University, dies at age 82. Washington — The U.S. Supreme Court rules that dis- plays of the Ten Commandments are permissible on state grounds but not in courthouses. Jerusalem — Israel and Egypt ink a $2.5 billion deal for Egypt to supply natural gas to the Jewish state. JULY 2005 Atlanta — The United Church of Christ calls on members to employ "economic leverage" against Israel. London — Four suicide September 29 2005 ITN