year in review
continued from page 91
A vigil was organized
on May 25, 2014, by
the Jewish community
outside the Jewish
Museum of Belgium
in Brussels where a
gunman killed four
people the previous day.
sometimes stinging portrayals of Jewish life. In 2012, Roth announced
he was retiring.
The Jewish community of Sharon, Mass., is shocked as the rabbi of
Temple Israel, Barry Starr, resigns amid allegations that he used syn-
agogue discretionary funds to pay about $480,000 in hush money to
an extortionist to hide a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male.
Starr apologizes to the congregation in an email.
Far right parties make gains in European Parliament elections,
including Greece's Golden Dawn.
The European Union says it has banned the import of poultry and
eggs produced in West Bank settlements.
Pope Francis
touches the wall
that separates
Israel from
the West Bank
on his way to
celebrate a mass
in Manger Square
in Bethlehem, May
25, 2014.
A gunman kills four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in
Brussels. Several days later, Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old
French national of Algerian origin, is arrested in connection with
the attack.
Pope Francis travels to Israel and the West Bank, visiting the
Western Wall, Yad Vashem and the West Bank security fence, among
other sites.
JUNE 2014
Former Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin of the Likud party is elected
president of Israel, defeating Meir Sheetrit of Hatnua in a 63-53 run-
off vote. Rivlin formally succeeds Shimon Peres and becomes Israel's
10th president in late July.
Rep. Eric Cantor, the majority leader in the U.S. House of
Representatives and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in
American history, is upset in the Republican primary for Virginia's
7th Congressional District by a Tea Party challenger. Dave Brat, an
economics professor, wins handily after attacking Cantor for drifting
from conservative principles. Days later, Cantor resigns his post as
majority leader.
Weeks after leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Euroleague title, David
Blatt becomes the head coach of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. Blatt
had played for an Israeli kibbutz team in 1979 after his sophomore
year at Princeton and then competed for the U.S. team that won
the gold medal in the 1981 Maccabiah Games. He returned to play
nearly a decade professionally in Israel.
Three Israeli teenagers, Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal
Yifrach, are kidnapped in the West Bank from a hitchhiking post.
Israel responds with three weeks of intensive searches, including
mass arrests in the West Bank of Hamas members and the re-arrest
of dozens of Palestinians released as part of the Gilad Shalit prison-
er-exchange deal. Three weeks on, Israeli authorities find the teens'
bodies and announce that the boys were believed to have been killed
the night they were kidnapped. The incident sparks the revenge
killing by Jews of an Arab teen, riots and a surge of rocket fire from
the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces responds by launching
Operation Protective Edge — Israel's deadliest foray into Gaza since
its 2005 withdrawal — on July 8.
Israel announces that the suspect in the April 14 killing of Israeli
Police Superintendent Baruch Mizrachi is Ziad Awad, a West Bank
Palestinian released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) votes
310-303 to divest from three American companies that do business
with Israeli security services in the West Bank. Heath Rada, the
moderator of the assembly, says it's not a "reflection for our lack of
love for our Jewish sisters and brothers," but Jewish leaders say it
will have a "devastating impact" on their relations with the church.
continued on page 94
92
September 18 • 2014
JN
People gather for a vigil for the three missing Israeli teens outside of the Israeli
Consulate on June 16, 2014, in New York City. According to the Israeli defense
Forces (IDF), Gilad Shaar (16) Naftali Frenkel, (16) and Eyal Yifrach (19) have been
missing since late Thursday or Friday and were last seen around Gush Etzion.
Israeli soldiers have detained over 150 Palestinian suspects in the search for the
three teens.
The mother of Naftali
Fraenkel, Rachel
Fraenkel, cries over the
body of her son during
the joint funeral for
three murdered Jewish
teens in the Modiin
cemetery, on July 1,
2014.