I World

(See page 22)

YEAR IN REVIEW

13

U.S. Secretary

of State

Condoleezza

Rice meets with

Israeli Prime

Minister Ehud

Olmert on Jan.

15 in Jerusalem.

Justin Sulsky
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

OCTOBER
Berlin — The remains of more than 50
people, many of them children, were
discovered in a mass grave in Menden,
Germany. Experts suspected the dead were
victims of the Nazis' so-called euthanasia
program, in which disabled people were
murdered.
Jerusalem — Israel said it would
continue air force flights over Lebanon.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz said the sur-
veillance flights were needed to track arms
shipments to Hezbollah combatants from
neighboring Syria, two months after a
cease-fire ended what would later be des-
ignated as Israel's Second Lebanon War.

NOVEMBER
Washington — The Democratic Party won
back the U.S. House of Representatives for
the first time since 1994 and also gained
control of the Senate. Sen. Joe Lieberman,
I-Conn., the Orthodox Jew who was the
Democrats' vice presidential nominee in
2000, kept his seat even though he lost
in the Democratic primary to liberal
Ned Lamont. Six new Jewish members of
Congress and two new Jewish senators
were elected. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
who has close ties to many Jewish groups,
was chosen speaker of the House.
Los Angeles — The United Jewish
Communities refocused its annual General
Assembly to focus on fundraising for
rebuilding Israel's north after the country's
war in Lebanon. By the time of the G.A.,
the UJC had raised $320 million for its
Israel Emergency Campaign. By the end
of the Jewish year, it has raised some $360
million.
Jerusalem —Talks on forming a unity
government in the Palestinian Authority
were suspended. Palestinians had hoped

34

September 13. 2007

that by bringing the more moderate
Fatah into the government, a Western aid
embargo imposed when Hamas came to
power in March could be removed. But
the Islamist terrorist group rejected donor
nations' conditions that it recognize Israel
and renounce terrorism.

DECEMBER
New York — The Conservative move-
ment's legal authorities approved a rab-
binic opinion allowing ordination of gay
and lesbian rabbis and sanctioning same-
sex unions. The move followed years of
internal debate over whether to reverse the
traditional ban on gay clergy. The Jewish
Theological Seminary's new chancellor,
Arnie Eisen, later announced it would
accept gay and lesbian students to its rab-
binical and cantorial schools.
Jerusalem — Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted a confer-
ence in Tehran for Holocaust revisionists,
including David Duke and members of
Neturei Karta, an ultra-Orthodox anti-
Zionist group. The two-day conference,
titled "The International Conference
to Review the Global Vision of the
Holocaust:' sparked international outrage.
New York — Casino mogul Sheldon
Adelson and his wife, Miriam, made their
first pledge of $5 million to help bank-
roll Birthright Israel trips. That gift was
followed by an additional $25 million
in February and another $30 million in
August.
New York — The U.N. Security Council
voted to sanction Iran over its nuclear
program. The resolution demanded that
Tehran end all research on uranium
enrichment and halt research and devel-
opment that can make or deliver atomic
weapons. The resolution, watered down to
meet Russian demands, did not permit the
use of force if Iran does not comply.

JANUARY
Jerusalem — Longtime Jerusalem mayor
Teddy Kollek died.
Waltham, Mass. — Former President
Jimmy Carter discussed his controversial
book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, at
Brandeis University. The book, published
in November, blamed Israel for the
failure of Middle East peace. It sparked
widespread debate and prompted 14
Jewish members of the Carter Center
board to resign in protest. Democratic
leaders had distanced themselves from
Carter's views.
Jerusalem — A Palestinian suicide
bomber killed three in an Eilat bakery.
Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aksa Military
Brigades, a Fatah-linked group, claimed
responsibility for the attack.

FEBRUARY
Jerusalem — Masorti Jews reached a com-
promise with the Israeli government over
the freedom of men and women to pray
together at an area of the Western Wall.
Israel's Conservative movement dropped
its Supreme Court appeal after the gov-
ernment agreed to enforce mixed groups'
ability to worship for free at a site at the
southern end of the Wall.
Jerusalem — U.S. Secretary of State
Condolezza Rice, Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas met in
Jerusalem. Olmert and Rice reiterated
the international preconditions for the
resumption of aid to the P.A.: renouncing
violence, recognizing Israel and adhering
to past peace accords.
New York — A Holocaust denier was
arrested in connection with a Feb. 1 attack
on Elie Wiesel while he was attending an
interfaith forum in San Francisco. Eric
Hunt apparently wanted to force Wiesel
to recant his wartime memoir Night. He
was extradited to California, where he pled

insanity and apologized to Wiesel in court.
Berlin — Vandals sprayed neo-Nazi
graffiti on a Jewish kindergarten in Berlin
and attempted to set fire to the building.
The incident marked a new level in attacks
on Jews in Germany.

MARCH
Jerusalem — The Israeli Arab minority
has a far greater birth rate than the Jewish
majority. Data released by the Industry
and Trade Ministry showed Jewish women
had an average of 2.69 children, compared
to Muslim women who give birth, on aver-
age, to 4 children.
Washington — Vice President Dick
Cheney told the AIPAC annual policy con-
ference that it was hypocritical for activ-
ists to demand tougher action on Iran
while not supporting the Iraq War.
Berlin — A German court sentenced
Germar Rudolf to two and a half years
in jail for anti-Jewish incitement and
Holocaust denial. He claimed in a 1991
article that the Nazis did not gas Jews at
Auschwitz. Rudolf was sentenced to 14
months by a German court in 1995, but
fled the country. He was extradited in
November 2005.

APRIL
New York — Liviu Librescu was one of
32 victims killed by a student gunman at
Virginia Tech. The engineering professor, a
Holocaust survivor and former Israeli, was
shot while blocking the doorway to his
classroom. He prevented the South Korean
gunman from entering and enabled all but
one of his students to escape through the
window.
Washington — U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., the speaker of the U.S. House
of Representatives, delivered a message
to Syrian leader Bashar Assad, saying
Israel is ready to talk peace. Israeli Prime
Minister Olmert immediately issued a

