year in review

continued from page 85

In a survey of 5,847 European Jews, nearly one-third of respondents
say they "seriously considered emigrating" from Europe because of
anti-Semitism.

German authorities begin taking steps to identify the provenance
of more than 1,400 works of Holocaust-era art found in the Munich
home of Cornelius Gurlitt.

Joseph Paul Franklin is executed for killing a man at a St. Louis-area
synagogue in 1977. Franklin, 63, shot Gerald Gordon outside the
Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel synagogue as Gordon left a bar mitzvah.
Franklin also is convicted of seven other murders throughout the
United States and claims credit for 20 deaths between 1977 and 1980.

Forty families belonging to the haredi Orthodox extremist group Lev
Tahor consider fleeing their Quebec homes out of fears that Canadian
welfare authorities are poised to seize their children.

The United States and a coalition of world powers reach a six-month
agreement with Iran to curb the country's nuclear program in
exchange for some sanctions relief while negotiations for a final settle-
ment on Iran's nuclear program are conducted. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu pans the deal as a "historic mistake:' The deal
goes into effect on Jan. 20.

DECEMBER 2013

A

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STATE OF ISRAEL
MINISTER'S OFF

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement, in his office in
Jerusalem on Nov. 24, 2013, regarding the agreement reached in Geneva a few
hours earlier between Iran and six world powers.

Gal Gadot, an Israeli actress who is a former Miss Israel, is cast as
Wonder Woman in the upcoming film Batman vs. Superman.

Swarthmore's Hillel chapter becomes the first to join the so-called
Open Hillel movement, which challenges Hillel International's guide-
lines prohibiting partnerships with groups it deems hostile toward
Israel. Hillel boards at Vassar and Wesleyan soon follow suit.

The Union for Reform Judaism announces at its biennial conference
in San Diego that it has sold off half its headquarters in New York and
is investing $1 million from the proceeds to overhaul the movement's
youth programming.

The membership of the American Studies Association endorses a
boycott of Israeli universities. The controversial decision comes after
months of debate and prompts several American schools to with-
draw from the association in protest and dozens more to condemn the
move.

Jacob Ostreicher, a New York businessman held in Bolivia since 2011,
returns to the United States, in part thanks to efforts by actor Sean
Penn. Ostreicher was managing a rice-growing venture in Bolivia
when he was arrested on suspicion of money laundering and accused
of doing business with drug dealers.

The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association becomes
the third U.S. academic body in less than a year to recommend that its
members boycott Israeli universities.

The board at the Hillel chapter of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania openly

rejected guidelines on Israel debate adopted by the international umbrella group.

SOUTIEN TOTALAUXVAIRES QUENELLIERS !!

After being pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin, former
Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is released from prison and
leaves Russia, where he spent 10 years behind bars.

Philanthropist Edgar Bronfman dies in New York at 84. An heir to
the Seagram's beverage fortune, Bronfman was a longtime advocate
on behalf of Jewish causes, serving as the head of the World Jewish
Congress and financing many efforts to strengthen Jewish identity.

Amid a public debate in France over an allegedly anti-Semitic ges-
ture called the quenelle, the French media publish a photo of a man
performing it outside the Toulouse school where four Jews were
murdered. Several French cities later announce they have banned per-
formances by the comedian who popularized the salute, Dieudonne
M'bala M'bala.

continued on page 88

86 September 18 • 2014

French comedian Dieudonne demonstrating the quenelle, a vaguely Nazi-like gesture
whose popularity has soared in France.

