and everything in between.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a pan-European
intergovernmental organization, overwhelmingly passes a resolution
calling male ritual circumcision a "violation of the physical integrity of
children" and putting it in the same class as female genital mutilation.
Israeli President Shimon Peres joins the chorus of voices protesting the
decision. In November, the group's leader assures Jews that the council
does not seek to ban Jewish ritual circumcision.

A day after meeting with President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu tells the U.N. General Assembly that Israel is ready
to go it alone against Iran should it come close to obtaining a nuclear
weapon.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Israeli sage who founded the Sephardic
Orthodox Shas political party and exercised major influence on Jewish
law, dies at age 93.

_

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is named the first recipient
of the Genesis Prize, a $1 million award for a renowned professional
capable of inspiring young Jews. The prize is funded by a consortium of
Jewish philanthropists from the former Soviet Union.

In October, New York City Mayor Michael

Bloomberg was named the first recipient of
the Genesis Prize, a $1 million award for a

renowned professional capable of inspiring

young Jews.

Arieh Warshel, a U.S. professor born and educated in Israel, and ex-
Weizmann Institute professor Michael Levitt are among the winners of
the 2013 Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Two Orthodox rabbis from the New York area and two accomplices
are arrested for allegedly kidnapping and beating men to force them to
grant their wives religious Jewish divorces, or gets.

Israeli forces discover a "terror tunnel" running from Gaza to an Israeli
kibbutz. The tunnel is full of explosives and ends near an Israeli kinder-
garten.

Janet Yellen is named head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, becoming the
third American Jewish central banker in a row and the first woman to
hold the post.

IDF SPOKESPERSON/FLASH 90

Movement leaders at the centennial conference of the United Synagogue
of Conservative Judaism in Baltimore agree that significant rejuvenation
is needed if Conservative Judaism is to reverse its negative trajectory.

NOVEMBER 2013

Semen Domnitser, the former Claims Conference employee who was
found guilty of leading a $57 million fraud scheme at the Holocaust res-
titution organization, is sentenced to eight years in prison. The scheme
entails falsifying applications to two funds established by the German
government to make restitution payments to Holocaust survivors.

continued on page 86

Israeli paratroopers inspecting the entrance of a tunnel they discovered in the northern Gaza
Strip, July 18, 2014.

September 18 • 2014

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