Rewind
From Obama's election to operation Cast Lead, the year 5769 had its turmoil.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
W
ith Rosh Hashanah approach-
ing JTA has compiled a list of
the biggest stories of the past
Hebrew calendar year:
OCTOBER
> Tzipi Livni, who won Kadima Party
elections in September following Ehud
Olmert's resignation, fails to assemble
a coalition government and become
prime minister. President Shimon Peres
announces that Israel will hold new gen-
eral elections.
> An acid and feces attack at the
Budapest Jewish Theater just before Rosh
Hashanah revives concerns about increas-
ing anti-Semitism in Hungary.
Rabbi Julie Schonfeld is named the
new executive vice president of the
Conservative movement's Rabbinical
Assembly, becoming the first female rabbi
to serve in the chief executive position of
an American rabbinical association.
NOVEMBER
> Barack Obama is elected the first black
president of the United States with 78 per-
cent of the Jewish vote, in line with previ-
ous Democratic nominees.
> Months after being the target of the
largest immigration raid in American
history, the embattled kosher meat pro-
ducer Agriprocessors files for bankruptcy,
leaving kosher consumers in the lurch
and ushering in uncertain times for the
Jewish community of Postville, Iowa.
Subsequently the company is sold to a
Canadian firm.
tion's outreach to the Jewish community
regarding Israel-related issues.
casts a dark shadow over efforts to promote
tourism to the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
Israeli cities of Yavneh, Beersheva and
Kiryat Gat.
> Secular businessman Nir Barkat is
elected mayor of Jerusalem.
> Israel launches Operation Cast Lead to
curtail Hamas rocket fire from the Gaza
Strip into southern Israel.
> Pope Benedict XVI's decision to revoke
an excommunication order for a Holocaust-
denying bishop sparks an uproar and
prompts another round of anguish over the
state of Catholic-Jewish relations.
> Terrorists target the Chabad house in
Mumbai, India, killing its directors, Gavriel
and Rivka Holtzberg, and four others.
DECEMBER
> Israeli security forces forcibly evict
Jewish settlers from a disputed house
in Hebron, setting off a rampage of vio-
lence by some Jewish extremists against
Palestinians in the West Bank.
> The collapse of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi
scheme leads to the immediate collapse of
two Jewish organizations and sends shock
waves through the Jewish philanthropic
world.
> The Bush administration makes a
last-gasp push for Palestinian statehood
— or the nearest it can get to it — with
the apparent quiet encouragement of
President-elect Obama.
> The deadliest road accident in Israeli
history kills 24 Russian tour agents and
JANUARY
> Enduring an onslaught of massive anti-
Semitic and anti-Israel demonstrations in
Europe, Jewish communities throughout
the continent hold counter rallies to sup-
port Israel as it wages war against Hamas
in the Gaza Strip.
> The vandalism of a synagogue in
Caracas, Venezuela, further unsettles the
Jewish community, already on edge over
the harsh anti-Israel rhetoric of President
Hugo Chavez.
> Ari Folman's animated Lebanon War
film Waltz With Bashir wins the Golden
Globe for best foreign-language film, but
later fails to become the first Israeli movie
to take home an Oscar.
> Operation Cast Lead ends after
about 3 1/a weeks and leaves some 1,300
Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. Hamas
rockets during the war reach as far as the
42
September 17 - 2009
> In the Israeli elections, Tzipi Livni's
Kadima emerges as the largest single
party, but the right-wing parliamentary
bloc, led by Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu,
captures the majority of the Knesset seats.
Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu
vaults over Labor to become Israel's third-
largest political party, with 15 seats in the
Knesset. A month later, Yisrael Beiteinu
becomes Likud's first coalition partner,
and the controversial Lieberman — who
during the election campaign proposed
mandating loyalty oaths to the Jewish
state in a bid to curb Israeli Arab political
power — is named foreign minister.
MARCH
> Eleventh-hour negotiations to free
Gilad Shalit collapse.
i
`,11
'
> Three of the largest Jewish federations
in the country — New York, Atlanta and
Cleveland — announce substantial cut-
backs in staff, adding to concerns about
the health of the primary American Jewish
charitable network.
t.ipfolp
> The Obama administration organizes
the first-ever seder at the White House.
> Three new Jewish members are elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives; but
the Democratic tide is not strong enough
to send Congress its first rabbi, Jewish
Latina or Chinese Jew.
> Rahm Emanuel is tapped to become
White House chief of staff and will emerge
as a key point person in the administra-
FEBRUARY
> Wading into what has emerged as a
major partisan fight, Jewish organizations
in Washington line up with Democrats in
offering strong support for the $819 bil-
lion economic stimulus bill.
Bullet holes mar the entrance to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
in Washington after the shooting there June 10.
- Photo by Eric Fingerhut
> Benjamin Netanyahu's careful
articulations in his inaugural address
leave uncertain where he stands on a
Palestinian state, and between Israel and
governments overseas.
> The United States decides to seek to