... AJANUARY After five U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords nnounces she is resigning from Congress. years as a Names captiv IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is -re ease DECEMBER • Na'ama Margolis, 8, with her mother, says she is afraid to walk to her Modern Orthodo girls' school for fear that the haredi Orthodox men who protest outside of the school will hurt her. IA A JULY MAY Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak -President Obama speaking at a Shamir dies at 96. _White House reception honoring , Jewish American Heritage Month on May 31, 2012. (White House photo) - at the highlights of 5772. JTA Staff T he following is a review of the news highlights of the Jewish year 5772. September 2011 An Egyptian mob breaks into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and Israeli personnel are stuck inside for hours until Egyptian commandos arrive at the scene. Israeli Air Force jets evacuate the Israelis from the country. The attack exacerbates fears in Israel that it is losing a once-reliable ally to the south. The Palestinians submit their bid for statehood recognition to the U.N. Security Council. In speeches at the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama rejects the Palestinians' unilateral approach, saying that Israel's security concerns are legitimate and must be addressed. In dueling speeches in the same forum, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas 18 September 13 2012 trade charges of ethnic cleansing. Lauren Bush, granddaughter of the first President Bush and niece of the second, marries Ralph Lauren's son in a ceremony presided over by an ordained rabbi. Turkey expels Israel's ambassador to the country and downgrades diplomatic and military ties. A California court finds 10 students affiliated with the Muslim Student Union at the University of California, Irvine, guilty of two misdemeanor counts for disrupting a speech in February 2010 by Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren. Some 15 countries announce before the Durban Review Conference known as Durban III that they will boycott the pro- ceedings. The one-day session receives little attention amid all the goings-on at the United Nations. October Turkey agrees to accept Israel's help after initially rejecting assistance during an earthquake there that kills 430 people and injures 1,000. The terrorist organization Hamas releases Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit after the Israeli Cabinet approves a deal in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Cheering crowds greet Shalit when he finally returns to his family home in Mitzpe Hila after five years in captivity. Less than a week after the Shalit deal, Egypt agrees to release dual American-Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel in exchange for 25 Egyptians, and he reunites with his mother. The United States stops paying its dues to UNESCO following the U.N. cultural and scientific agency's vote to grant full membership to the Palestinians. A month later, UNESCO calls for emergen- cy donations because of the loss of U.S. funding. Israel also cuts tax payments to the Palestinian Authority. The New York Times reports that President Obama is considering grant- ing clemency to convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, but Vice President Joe Biden objects, telling the president that Pollard would be released "over my dead body." Biden subsequently agrees to meet with Jewish leaders to press the case for Pollard, a U.S. Navy civilian analyst who was convicted in 1987 and has been serv- ing life sentence in a federal prison. Five Jewish scientists win 2011 Nobel Prizes: Israeli professor Daniel Shechtman, chemistry; University of California physicist Saul Perlmutter, physics, with Johns Hopkins astronomer Adam Riess; and immunologists Ralph Steinman and Bruce Beutler, medicine. American Jewish clergy and orga- nizational leaders condemn an arson attack on a mosque in northern Israel by extremist West Bank Jewish settlers. A protest encampment in Lower Manhattan takes on an increasingly Jewish flavor as services are organized for Yom Kippur and a sukkah is installed for the holiday of Sukkot. Critics charge that the so-called Occupy movement, Year In Review on page 20