year in review

Read about the highs and lows of 5774 —

I JTA Staff

SEPTEMBER 2013

The United States and Russia reach a deal to rid Syria of its arsenal of
chemical weapons, promoting Jewish groups to suspend their efforts
lobbying for U.S. strikes against Damascus.

Rabbi Philip Berg, founder of the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles and
teacher of Jewish mysticism for A-list celebrities, dies at age 86.

William Rapfogel, the ousted leader of the Metropolitan Council on
Jewish Poverty in New York, is arrested on charges of grand larceny
and money laundering. Investigators later say the scheme involving
Rapfogel netted $9 million in illicit funds, including $3 million for
Rapfogel himself. Rapfogel pleads guilty the following April and is sent
to prison in July for three-and-a-half to 10 years.

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama says
the U.S. focus in the Middle East will be keeping Iran from obtaining
a nuclear weapon and advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace. Meanwhile,
in a meeting with U.S. Jewish leaders, Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas says he is more hopeful now for peace than he was
in the mid-2000s.

The U.S. Department of State negotiates with
Iran about its nuclear program.

The Foundation for Jewish Culture, a 53-year-old organization dedi-
cated to promoting Jewish culture and the arts, announces it is clos-
ing.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes the first U.S. Supreme Court jus-
tice to preside over a same-sex marriage, the wedding ceremony of
Michael Kaiser and John Roberts.

OCTOBER 2013

A landmark study of U.S. Jews by the Pew Research Center finds the
Jewish intermarriage rate has risen to 58 percent and that among the
22 percent of American Jews who describe themselves as having no
religion, two-thirds are not raising their children as Jews. The survey
also estimates the U.S. Jewish population at 6 8 million, roughly the
same estimate arrived at by Brandeis University researchers analyzing
350 separate population studies.

84 September 18 • 2014

A landmark study
of U.S. Jews
released by the
Pew Research
Center in October
finds the Jewish
intermarriage rate
has risen to 58
percent.

SHU TTERSTOCK

Larry Ellison, CEO of the technology company Oracle, is ranked as
the richest Jew in the United States, according to the Forbes 400 list
of the wealthiest Americans, which puts Ellison at No. 3. Other Jews
making the top 20 are Michael Bloomberg (10, $31 billion); Sheldon
Adelson (11, $28.5 billion); Sergey Brin (14, $24.4 billion); George
Soros (19, $20 billion); and Marc Zuckerberg (20, $19 billion).