year in review

continued from page 88

Abraham Foxman announces he is stepping down as national direc-
tor of the Anti-Defamation League after 27 years in the post. Foxman,
a child survivor of the Holocaust and one of the highest profile
American Jewish leaders, says he will step down in July 2015.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, top
the Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of the top 50 U.S. donors to chari-
table causes in 2013. In December, the couple gave 18 million shares
of Facebook stock, valued at more than $970 million, to the Silicon
Valley Community Foundation.

Alice Herz-Sommer, the 110-year-old Holocaust survivor and con-
cert pianist whose life is the subject of a documentary that a week
later would win an Oscar, dies.

The Giymat Rosa Synagogue in Zaporizhia, in eastern Ukraine,
is firebombed, sustaining minor damage. The attack comes amid
growing turmoil in Ukraine following the overthrow of President
Viktor Yanukovych.

MARCH 2014

AIPAC leaders emphasize bipartisanship and mutual respect at the
group's annual policy conference in Washington. The conference
follows a bruising period in which the pro-Israel lobby had champi-
oned a new Iran sanctions bill, only to back down when it becomes
clear the bill lacked the necessary support from the White House
and congressional Democrats to pass.

Firebombs, such as the one being thrown here by a Palestinian youth toward Israeli
soldiers, were thrown at a East Ukrainian synagogue on Feb. 23.

In one of many low-level skirmishes over the course of months,
Israeli aircraft strike several targets in the Gaza Strip after
Palestinians fire rockets into Israel, sending Israelis into bomb shel-
ters.

David Hellman, a New York personal trainer, pleads guilty to using
violent means to force recalcitrant husbands to give their wives a
Jewish writ of divorce, or get. Hellman, who faces up to 20 years
in prison and a fine of $250,000, was one of 10 men arrested in
October 2013 in an FBI sting operation.

Yeshiva University is at risk of running out of unrestricted cash in
the near-term future, warns Moody's Investors Service, which says
deep and growing operating deficits are likely to continue at the uni-
versity due to "poor financial oversight and high expenses:' In May,
Y.U. will announce that the Montefiore Health System is assuming
operational control of Y.U.'s Albert Einstein School of Medicine.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is found guilty of
accepting bribes in the corruption case involving the Holyland real
estate development in Jerusalem. Olmert, who is convicted of receiv-
ing about $150,000 in bribes through his brother, Yossi, becomes the
first former Israeli prime minister to be convicted of taking a bribe.
The crime carries a possible sentence of 10 years in prison.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to the cheering audience as he arrives to
speak to the AIPAC meeting at the Washington Convention Center, Tuesday, March 4,
2014, in Washington.

APRIL 2014

Casino magnate and conservative backer Sheldon Adelson buys
another Israeli newspaper, Makor Rishon, making him the owner
of several of Israel's major right-wing media outlets and two of the
country's four major newspapers.

Mobilized by the death of Samuel Sommers — the 8-year-old son of
Rabbi Phyllis and Michael Sommers whose struggle with leukemia
was documented on a popular blog called Superman Sam — 73 rab-
bis shave their heads to raise $600,000 for pediatric cancer research.

American-Jewish contractor Alan Gross goes on a hunger strike to
protest his imprisonment in a Cuban jail and the lack of American
assistance. Later in the year, in ailing health and with no prospect of
release, Gross bids goodbye to his family during a prison visit.

An assembly line of rabbis get their heads shaved at the CCAR convention in Chicago.

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September 18 • 2014

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