year in review

Michael Douglas
speaking at the
announcement of the
Genesis Generation
Challenge winners
at the Bloomberg
Philanthropies

continued from page 80

Actor Michael Douglas is named the winner of the Genesis Prize. The
$1 million award, given by a consortium of philanthropists from the
former Soviet Union, is meant to recognize accomplished Jews who
demonstrate commitment to Jewish values.

Alberto Nisman — the indefatigable Argentine prosecutor collect-
ing evidence of culpability in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish
center in Buenos Aires — is found shot to death in his apartment, just
hours before he is to present evidence to Argentina's congress that he
said implicated his country's president and Jewish foreign minister in
a scheme to cover up Iran's role in the bombing. Argentine President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner first calls the death a suicide, then
a murder, while protesters hold rallies in Buenos Aires demanding
justice in the Nisman case. Months on, the mysterious circumstances
surrounding Nisman's death remain unresolved.

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is arrested on federal
corruption charges. One of the state's most powerful politicians and
high-profile Orthodox Jews, Silver soon steps down as speaker but
retains his Assembly seat while the investigation is ongoing.

House Speaker John Boehner invites Prime Minister Netanyahu to
address a joint session of Congress on Iran's nuclear program. The
move sparks a showdown with the Obama administration, which
says the invite breaks protocol by circumventing the White House
and is inappropriate, given that the Israeli leader is in the midst of an
election campaign. American Jews are deeply divided over whether
Netanyahu should speak to Congress over Obama's objections, and a
partisan row over the issue ensues.

The Conservative movement's flagship institution, the Jewish
Theological Seminary, announces plans to sell two dorms, some of its
air rights and potentially part of its library building in order to finance
an ambitious redevelopment project at its Manhattan campus.

Portugal's government adopts legislation that offers citizenship to
some descendants of Sephardic Jews, making Portugal the second
country in the world after Israel to pass a law of return for Jews.

Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to
the United States, defended Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
decision to address Congress on Iran
in March.

0

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver outside a federal courthouse after
his arraignment on bribery and corruption
charges, Jan. 22, 2015.

David Kraemer, a
professor of Talmud and
rabbinics who is also the
librarian of the Jewish
Theological Seminary, in
its rare book room

FEGS, a Jewish charity and one of the largest social service agencies
in the United States, abruptly shuts down after losing $19.4 million in
2014. The 3,000-employee agency, which is a major beneficiary of
UJA-Federation of New York, had said it served 12,000 people daily
in such areas as home care, job training and immigrant services. The
news comes just days after another major New York Jewish social ser-
vices agency, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, announces
it is looking to merge or partner with other organizations or perhaps
close altogether.

7i

0

February 2015

Brandeis University President Frederick Lawrence announces he will
step down at the end of the academic year. Lawrence led the histori-
cally nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored university for five years and was
the institution's eighth president.

82

September 10 • 2015

• •

Outside the FEGS
headquarters in
Manhattan