WE HIST SOCIETY 1500 R ST LINCOLN NE 6 8 5 0 8 - 1 6 S 1
Celebrating More Than 75 Years of Service VoLLXXV
No. 26
22 Adar, 5758
March 20,1998
Tom Osborne to speak at Sports Banquet Dr. Tom Osborne, legendary football coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, will be the honoree and guest speaker at the B'nai B'rith Charity Sports Banquet on Wednesday evening, May 13, at AkSar-Ben. Master of Ceremonies will be Omaha sports personality, WOWT's Dave Webber, according to Rich Juro, Chairman of the Banquet. "This year's event will honor Tom Osborne on his 25th anniversary as head of the Nebraska football program," said Juro; "We are looking forward to a fantastic night of celebration. This marks the 44th Annual Sports Banquet sponsored by Henry Monsky Lodge B'nai B'rith.
from Jeff: USY'ers Courtney Rabb, Purim Carnival Chairman: Tnlya Greenspoonand
Rachel Katskee enjoy the Megillah reading at Beth El. r < Tcm Osborne,
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The "Blues Brothers" make an appearance at Temple Israel in the form of Joel, Jeff and Aaron Passer.
Jennifer Afeyerson (left), Rita Paskowitz and Edythe Wolf perform a traditional Purim schplel at the JCC. (More photos on page 8)
Dave Webber The Lodge annually honors the Metro-area high school male and female student-athletes of the year with the Bert Render and Earl Siegel Memorial Awards. There will also be a silent auction which will be held from 6-7 p.m. during the social hour. The auction will include one-of-a-kind Cornhusker memorabilia. . ;'••. . . Charities benefiting from the Banquet include various B'nai B'rith programs and'Pacific Pals, Dr. Osborne and Dave Webber's honorariums have ' been designated' by them to'be given to the Teammates Youth Program in care of the Lincoln, Public Schools Foundation. Tickets are $90 and are available by calling the B'nai B'rith office at 3346443.
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building by Pam Monsky, Federation Communications Director
(compiled from information froni the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society) The campaign to raise funds for improvements to the Jewish Community Center is another link in a long chain of community members coming together to enhance the life of Omaha Jews. Community leaders Patty and Steve Nogg, and Marcia and Steve Pitlor have come to the forefront to lead the way so that our members, their children and their grandchildren will have a "Jewish neighborhood" well into the 21st Century. • Howard Kooper, Federation President, who, along with past Federation President Tom Felhnan, has spearheaded the major gifts campaign said, "We are creating a campus to ensure that Jewish continuity in Omaha survived just as our grandparents and great-grandparents did when they built the first Omaha JCC." In 1925, a dream was realized when the first Jewish Community Center of Omaha opened on 20th and Dodge St. Then, as now, Omaha Jews visualized a place where young and old would come together to learn and play in a Jewish environment.
The following passages are taken from the dedication book published to commemorate the opening of the first "J" 73 years ago.
establishment of the institution which we behold today, in all its magnificence and splendor. A symbol of the virile and vital Jewish spirit that pervades our community; the embodiment of the dreams and ambitions of Omaha Jewry; a physical arid tangible manifestation of community spirit and group cooperation and solidarity; all this and even more, is the Jewish Community Center. More than brick and mortar; more than a monument to architect's skill and builder's craft; more than a testimonial to unselfish and self sacrificing effort on the part of those who labored soenthusiastically and gave so generously that it might bebuilt-yea, more than a building—it is an institution with a soul. It^represents, and is.jhe physical manifesto; tionof the soul of'.our•community.
Our JCC still holds the same ideals for Omaha Jewry. Although we live in different times and the needs of the generations have, in many ways, For well nigh a quarter, of a century the Jewish changed, the Jewish Community Center remains people of Omaha have looked forward to this real- the "physical manifestation of the sou] of our comization of their hopes and aspirations, for twenty munity." _ ,' years or more we Jiavo planned and worked for the
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Jewish Press, Omaha, N E
March 20,1998
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS C
FRIDAY, MARCH 20 Temple Israel Minister's Institute, 10 a.m., at Temple Israel NCSY Jr. Shabbaton, March 20-21, at Beth Israel SATURDAY, MARCH 21 Temple Israel Grade 9 Shabbat Service & Lunch, 10:30 a.m., at Temple Israel
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SUNDAY, MARCH 22 Goodbye Brunch for the Bernsteins, 11 a.m. Ya'Chad Activities, 1 p.m. Beth El Club 56 Program, 12:15 p.m. MONDAY, MARCH 23 YES Program, 9:30 a.m. Boy Scouts, 7 p.m. Spring Jewish Learning Forums, 7:30 p.m. TUESDAY, MARCH 24 ADL Religion in the Public Schools Panel Discussion, 7:30 p.m. THURSDAY, MARCH 26 £ Walk-in Drop-in, 9:30 a.m. I Temple Israel Sisterhood Adult Education, p 9:30 a.m., at Temple Israel
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FRIDAY, MARCH 27 R u s s i a n Club,-lO a.m. - .; '•..
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: iBeth El USY Spring Conclave, March 27 •'-t..
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by Rabbi Lisa Freitag Beyt Shalom, guest columnist
P a r a s h a t Va'yak'heMP'kuday The literary description of an artist in Hebrew is hacham lev or he/she who contains a wise heart This attribution is no mere embellishment of J u d a i s m ' s biblical value placed on the Jew endowed with artistic talent. The spiritual value of artistry is most closely associated with the building of the mishkan (tabernacle) in the desert. Immediately following the apostasy of the Golden Calf, Moses convokes the whole community in. order to reiterate the divinely received injunction to build a portable tabernacle for their desert wanderings, a veritable traveling synagogue. In our weekly Torah portion, Moses begins his campaign to gather enough material and skill to build a structure that will serve as a meeting place between the people Israel and G-d. The description of the people's response is memorable. "And everyone who excelled in ability and everyone whose spirit moved him, came, bringing to the Lord his offering for his work of the Tent of Meeting and for all its service and for the sacral vestments (Exodus 35:21)." This verse reveals not only a high level of generosity but a devoted internal response to Moses' request. The people are moved to action. They have internalized the need for a sacred structure and have become a part of the artistic process of building it. The beauty of the verse lies in the versatility of the request from Moses and the response by the community. Moses requests that each member contribute according to their individual capacity and inclination. This invitation is met with a sense of validation and commitment on the part of the community. The text, in fact, reveals the community's eagerness to participate in the construction of the mishkan by recording the overabundance of material and skill that was donated for the service of building the mishkan. This spiritual importance of religious artistry is highlighted in the role of Bezalel. Endowed with artistic talent, he is described as a man with "a divine spirit of skill, ability and knowledge in every kind of craft." His talent is perceived to be a gift from G-d that must be used to carry out the tasks of the service of building the mishkan; As the artist in residence, Bezalel directed a crew pfiartists that were given the sacred task of building the first recorded synagogue in Jewish history. This project symbolized the beginning of the intersection between Jewish community and Jewish creativity. •• • ••• Imbued with a sense of commitment to the emerging Jewish community, Bezalel! his skilled crew and the entire Jewish people, embarked on their first creative project. In this way, religious expression was made manifest through the participation in the physical. Sparked by the Divine, each member of the Jewish community came forth to offer that which G-d imparted to each of them. All skills were needed and appreciated. Indeed, we are taught that the people needed this opportunity to express themselves. This generation of the Golden Calf was unstable and required generous attention to their spiritual dimension. It is said that "Bezalel came and healed the wound (Exodus Rabbah 48:5)." Through the creative process of serving the Divine, Bezalel gathered the collective strength of the Jewish people and directed it toward building a sacred community•..••• : , . ' By working together to create a sacred structure, the Ancient IsraeliteSfUncovered animportant path through which the Divine is experienced. Shabbat Shalom!
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''All events held at the JCC unless.otherwise Indicated. The ; Jewish Press la not responsible lor.the accuracy ol the above .; events. To keep calendar accurate or lor questions, cull Marlene ^ Hert at 334-w37.
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Omaha teens to kick off Israel's 50th Celebration On Saturday, May 2, Jewish teens from Omaha synagogues and Jewish youth organizations will kick off Israel's 60th Anniversary Celebration, with a community-wide Havdallah service at 9:30 p.m., followed by a "Coffee House Cafe" at the Jewish Community Center. All Omaha teens and adults are welcome. Havdallah, meaning "separation," is the ceremony that symbolically marks the end of Shabbat and the beginning of the week ahead. It includes lighting the Havdallah Candle, saying the kiddush over the wine, and the prayer over the spices. Also incorporated into the service will be poems, readings, songs and music that will enhance the traditional service and compliment Israel's 50th Anniversary. Those serving on the committee are Tiffany Eisenman, Jennie Gates, Zac Gonsher, Mendel Kurland, Whitney Taxman and Glenn Wigodsky. Assisting are Cantor Emil Berkovits, Hazzan Erik Contzius and JCAC Chairman Justin Cooper. Following the service will be the Israeli "Coffee House Cafe," with live e n t e r t a i n m e n t by the Jewish Rock 'n Roll group "Mah Tovu," (which means "how good" in Hebrew). This Denver-based band consists of Steve Brodsky, Kenny Chasen and Omaha native Josh Zweiback. A $3 cover charge for the Coffee House includes an assortment of coffee and a variety of flavors and toppings, Israeli desserts, and entertainment. Omaha teens who are planning the "Coffee House Cafe" include Lauren Brown, Ally Freeman, Ali Lerner, Lisa Pitlor, Nikki Romanik, Jeff Shyken, Jeff Katzman, Melissa Shapiro and Wendy Robertson. Assisting are Debbi Brown, Holly Friedman and Lisa Shkolnick.
'Rap with the Rabbis' to explore Jewish lifestyles .
by Barry Grossman
On March 29, 10 a.m.-noon, in the Milder Center at Temple Israel, an informative symposium will take place t h a t will explore t h e diversities : of Jewish1 practiceaiid lifestyles. ' •.••': "Rap with the Rabbis'1 is a panel of local rabbis who will offer their knowledge and experience on ways one can choose to express Judaism. Rabbis Debbie Stiel, Paul Drazen and Allan Gonsher will present the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox,1 aspects of Jewish lifestyles, respectively/ They will; also discuss the similarities and differences in'Wor-; ship practice, holiday observance, and ties to Israel. * The event is sponsored-by Temple Israel Outreach. • .•
Jewish Family Service plans Pesach Tzedakah Project by Jennifer Meyerson
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Three times a year, during Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah and Pesach, Jewish Family Service, along with Women's American ORT and other community volunteers, purchase, pack and deliver holiday foods to Jewish families in need. This holiday, we expect to help approximately 45 families enjoy a more traditional Seder with the Pesach food project on April 6 and 7. Non-perishable kosher for Passover food, as well as other rituals significant for the holiday, can be placed in the Tzedakah bin in the front lobby of the JCC, or brought to the Jewish Family Service office no later than April 6. Cash donations are also welcome and can be sent directly to JFS. If there are any questions, call me at 330-2024. , • . • ; : i « j f : a - \ n i o c - . ' : .
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BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE MOURNS THE PASSING OF Reb Yehoshua Zelig Katzman, z.I. '
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Beloved Father of • Rabbi Mendel Katzman Director of Chabad of Nebraska
May the family be consoled among the other mourners ofZion and Jerusalem. Rabbi Ho\vardvKutncr Rick Katzman, President
March 20,1998
Page 3
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
CANDLELIGHTING: 6:17 p.m.
TEMPLE ISRAEL Member of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations 7023 Cass Street, Omaha, NE G8132 556-6536 FRIDAY: Shabbat evening service, 8 p.m. Rabbi Stiel and Hazzan Contzius, w;iJ],[i?ffic.i.ate.iDr. Michael Cook, Professor of Judaeo-Christian Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, will speak on "Passover, The Last Supper, and Modern Church 'Seders:' a Mixed message for Christian/Jewish Relations?", : The Oneg Shabbat will be sponsored by the Temple Sisterhood. SITTER SERVICE Sitter service is available each Friday evening, Saturday mornings when there is a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and Sunday mornings when there is Religious School. Please make a reservation so we may plan accordingly. Cost is $2 per family if reservations are made prior to Friday. Drop-ins are $3 per family. There are no facilities for infants. SATURDAY: Shabbat morning service, 10:30 aan. Simcha B'Shabbat--An informal Shabbat service that includes study and discussion of a variety of Jewish texts. The regular Shabbat service will be held in the Sanctuary. ADULT EDUCATION WEDNESDAY, March 25: Adult B'nai Mitzvah class, 10 a.m. to noon. THURSDAY, March 26: Sisterhood Adult Education: 9:30-11:30 a.m.,, Hazzan Erik Contzius will teach "The World of Jewish Music;" 10:30-11:30 a.m., Rabbi Debbie Stiel will teach "Talmud for Beginners." 7:30-8:30 p.m., Beyond Midrash, led by Don Schwartz. "SHABBAT COMES TO YOU" Friday, March 27, 3:45 p.m.-Rabbi Stiel, along with the Temple Youth Group, will lead a Shabbat service at Remington Heights. BARMITZVAH Nigel Fielding Schneider, son of Jeanne and Bruce Schneider, will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah at the Shabbat morning service on Saturday, March 28.
CONGREGATION B'NAI JESHURUN SOUTH STREET TEMPLE Member of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations 2081S. 20th St., Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 435-8004
BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Member of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 1502 No. 52nd St., Omaha, NE 68104 556-6288 Services conducted by Cantor Leo Fettman.. Office hours: Monday through Thursday, 8 a,m. to 4:30 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m. to2 p.m.. FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat service, 6:20 pan. SATURDAY: Morning, services, 8:45 a.m.; Little People's Service, 10:15 a.m.; Jr. Congregation, 10:30 a.m. , Kiddush sponsored Sisterhood. Chumash class, 5:45 p.m.; Mincha, 6:15 p.m., followed by Shalosh Seudot, Ma'ariv and Havdalah. • SUNDAY: Services at 9 a.m. and 6:25 p.m. WEEKDAYS: Services at 7 a.m. and 6:25 p.m.
CHABAD HOUSE An Affiliate of the Worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch Movement 11923 Pacific, Omaha, NE 68144 Phone: 697-1124 E-MADLi--chabad@aol.com SATURDAY: Services, 9:30 a.m. Kiddush following services; Mesibos Shabbos, fun for kids, led by Chaya Arnold and Henchi Goldstein, 3:30-5 p.m. MONDAYS (throughout March): Mystical insights and the exchange of ideas on Jewish weekly events and Torah portions, 7-8:30 p.m., at Chabad House. WEDNESDAY: Mitzvah Munchkins class, 10am.-noon THURSDAY: Talmud Class, noon.
B'NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE 618 Mynster St, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503 322-4705 E-MAIL: docjeb€juno.com FRIDAY: No services B'nai Israel is planning a Passover buffet for Friday, April 17. More details to come.
TIFERETH ISRAEL Member of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Blvd., Lincoln, NE 68502 423-8569 Services are conducted by Rabbi Stanley M. Rosenbaum. Minyan on Monday and Thursday at 7:15 a.m. FRIDAY: Early services, 7 p.m. SATURDAY: Services, 9:30 a.m. FRIDAY, March 27: Hadassah meeting, 12:30 p.m.
Services officiated by Cantor Michael Weisser. TUESDAY: Adult Education, 7:30 pan. THURSDAY: Choir Practice, 7:30 p.m. FRIDAY: Shabbat services, 7:45 p.m.. SATURDAY: Torah study, 10 aan. SUNDAY: Hebrew School, 9 a.m.; Religious ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME School, 10 a.m.; Temple Youth Group (first and FRIDAY: third Sundays), noon. FRIDAY, March 27: Shabbat Hachinuch, 7:45 pan. , Services, 7 p.m., led by Nancy and Sheldon Rips. SATURDAY: SATURDAY, April 4: Dinner Theatre, Opjn., debut Shabbat services, 9 a.m., led by Phyllis Hoffman, of the South Street Temple Youth Group Orchestra. TKckets are $4 for adults, $2.50 for children age 5 and Kiddush will follow. under. OFFUTT SUNDAY, April 5: Passover workshop, 10 a.m.25th and Capehart, Omaha, NE noon--Exodus Walk. This event will be held instead of a Model Seder. 294-6051 Services conducted by Rabbi Ira Flax. Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m. BEYT SHALOM 4:30 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
An Affiliate of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation P.O. Box 241130, Omaha, NE 68124-5130 758-9233 http://pwl.netcom.com/~salmim
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The family of Rabbi Yehoshua Zelig Katzman will sit Shiva through Monday, March 23, at 629 Montgomery St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11225; phone: 718-756-4350
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. SATURDAY: Services, 10 a.m., T e r r y Salmi Bar Mitzvah; Potluck dinner and Havdalah, 6:30 pan., at the Regency Apartments Club'House (iO5thjustnorthof*Pacific). .V ' SUNDAYr. Religious School, 10 aan. (all grades), at the Jewish Community Center. " '•.'•'• ' T U E S D A Y ! "
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WEB-http^/omahafreenetorg/bethcl ^Office Hours:'Monday through'1Thursd'ay;'9 affli'i: to 5 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to4^p.m. ' •-',: . • .;'; Services are conducted by Rabbi Paul Drazen and Cantor Emil Berkovits. . '; - FRIDAY: Services,6p.m. ; 1 :V Jennifer Shkolnik, daughter of Lynn arid Gerald Shkolnick, will become a Bat Mitzvah Friday evening and Saturday morning. SATURDAY: Services, 9:30 a.m. Kiddush following services; Sitter service, 10 aan.; TSS (Torah Siddur Skills), 10 a.m.; Shabbat Story Time, first and third Saturday, 11 ajrt; K'tantan, second and fourth Saturday, 11 a.m.; Minha-Ma'ariv and Havdalah, 6:25 p.m. SUNDAY: Services, 9 a.m.; Consecration ceremony for third grade Talmud Torah students, 12:15 pan., Reception will follow. WEEKDAYS: Services, 6:55 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
B'nai Mitzvah Jennifer Cooper, daughter, of Rose and Harvey Cooper, will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on Saturday, March 28, at Beth El Synagogue. A seventh-grade superior honor roll student at Kiewit Middle School, she excels at ballet, jazz and piano, and enjoys all sports. Her mitzvah pro\ ject is Yachad, a Jewish youth group with special needs program. Grandparents are Mania and Zalman Friedman and the late Bertha and Albert Cooper.
Women to explore meaning of Mikvah Chabad Women of Worth will meet March 24 at noon at the home of Lisa Epstein, 1336 N. 129 Ave. Circle. According to Shani Katzman, they will "explore'the meaning of Mikvah," a ritual bath that is at the core and foundation of Jewish married life. The lecture is open to all women in the community. For information and reservation, call 496-9159. •
Unified Tzedakah effort planned by Susan Drazen, Jewish Educational Services .
During the week of March 22-29, students of Friedel Jewish Academy, JCC Child Development Center, Beyt Shalom Reconstructionist Religious School, Beth El Synagogue Talmud Torah, and the Temple Israel Religious school will once again-participate in their unified Tzedakah effort, Mihyah 5758. Mihyah means support. Through Mihyah 5758, students will help support life through contributions to the Omaha Area Food Bank and Jewish Family Service's holiday food program. The project is jointly sponsored by the Nebraska Council of Jewish Educators, Jewish Educational Services and participating schools. 333
FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat services Friday nights at 7:30 pan., at 3012 S; 119th St. in Omaha. Rabbi'Lisa Freitag officiates at all Services this w e e k e n d ,
BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California, Omaha, NE 68154
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Religious School, 4 p.m. (grades 4-8) at the JCC.
REMINDER: Third In a series o f The Hebrew Bible and Modern Dilemmas" 7 Monday, March 23,7:30-9 p.m. Topic is T h e Bible and Spare Parts-" Cloning, Genetic Engineering, Transplants and Organ Donations, with Dr. Ira Fox, Director of Transplant Research, UNMC, and Rabbi Paul Drazen, Beth El Synagogue. Free and open to the public Call Glorlann Levy, 334-6403
H6LLO
ISRAEL' YOU!
Volunteer to introduce OPS 6th graders to Israel. Training:
Sunday, March 22 7:30 p.m. For details, call Sara at
496-4604
Page 4
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Editorial
March 20,1998
Vouchers, school prayer and the Jewish community would authorize $45 million of public funds over five years just for 2000 school children in the nation's capital. The Educational Savings Account Plan, Senate Bill 1133, would allow parents to put away $2000, tax-free, for "education related" expenses, including tuition. And adding insult to injury, Ernest Istook, (ROK) has again introduced HJR #78 in the House of Representatives, allowing prayer in school. The Jewish community has traditionally supported public education and has also made a commitment to supporting Jewish education by allocating UJA/Federation Campaign dollars to our religious schools and day schools. While Jewish education is expensive, using tax dollars to subvent this enterprise seems self-defeating. Instead, we should work to improve public education for everyone in order to have a wellinformed citizenry capable of supporting themselves and their families. And we should improve Jewish education by offering scholarships, raising standards and salaries of Jewish educational professionals and funding creative and compelling programs to attract parents and their children to the beauty of our Jewish heritage. National organizations, from the ADL-CRC to NCJW to B'riai B'rith, have repeatedly stated, "Public funds for public schools." We agree.
Once again, the United States Congress is taking up the issues of vouchers and school prayer. The voucher issue, sometimes disguised as Educational Savings Accounts or scholarships for inner city youth, purports to allow poor parents to get their children out of inadequate public schools and send them to private or parochial schools instead. Supporters argue that this "competition" will force public schools to improve their educational offerings. That's a fallacious argument. Private and parachiol schools will continue to take only those students who meet their requjremerits...by gender, religion and behavioral and academic standards. They will not have to take handicapped children or those with special needs. And if the voucher doesn't cover the full cost, private schools don't have to provide scholarships. So who will benefit from this program? Public schools won't, as they'll lose tax dollars and be left with the students no private or parochial school wants. Certainly not the poor parents, who probably can't make up the difference in tuition costs, uniforms and fees. And certainly not the rest of the taxpayers who will see tax revenue (now being used to eliminate the federal deficit) redirected to private educational institutions. House Bill 1502, called the DC Voucher Bill would
Our Man in Israel
Battle of the food giants
Haifa—Though overshadowed by the multiple confrontations here: Israel versus Palestinians, religious versus secular, Sephardi versus Ashkeriazi, socialists versus free market advocates and others~the battle between the two food giants is marked by a distinctive drama and a bitterness of its own, with the Israeli consumer serving for the most part as beneficiary. The two giants, who are familiar to every Israeli, are Elite and Osem. Elite, whose name is associated primarily with chocolate and coffee, has for years almost monopolized those markets. The name Osem automatically brings to mind the variety of macaronis, spaghettis and other pastas, which it markets. For years the two operated on parallel non-competitive lines. Both have prospered, and chalk up annual sales in the hundreds . of millions. ': Ambitions know no limitB, and one bright day Elite decided to import from Italy an attractive line of pastas, in obvious competition with Osem. The latter, not to be outdone, announced a line of imported coffees, and the battle royal was on. PresB, radio, television and the advertising agencies prospered in the great promotional campaigns that ensued. Osem objected to the imports from Italy, which it claimed were subsidized by the Italian government, and threatened that as a result of price-cutting, hundreds of Osem employees would be fired. Inexorable economic factors came into play. Osem withdrew its competitive but highly unprofitable coffee line, and only recently Elite, under new management, announced that it was discontinuing its pasta imports. End of the battle? Not at all! For some time, Osem has marketed a Mexican Style snack, Amigos. It was not a great seller,-but there was sufficient demand for the company to keep producing and selling it. Suddenly, Osem announced a major advertising campaign for the promotion of Amigos, and large sums of money have been budgeted to boost its sales. Why all of a sudden? It appears that Osem learned that Elite had
by Carl Alpert
giving it franchise to :produce and market the Mexican-style snack 'Doritos,' which is very popular in America^ The new battle is on, and no means are being spared to capture the market. Sale of snacks come to about $200 million a year. In the meantime, Osem has been subject to attack from an unexpected quarter. Another of its popular snacks is called Apropo, and like most, perhaps all Osem products, enjoys the kashrut approval of the haredi food supervisors. The haredim constitute an important segment of the food consuming market. Major ingredients of Apropo are imported from General Mills in the U.S.) all/perfectly .kosher.' Btrt another small company here has begun to market a snack which, to a large extent, looks like and tastes like Apropo. The . company, Meshubachymaintains/' that I t imports its ingredients from abroad, arid markets its products, called La Nash and Pepito in bags which do not look/like Ap'r6pd at allHowever, General JMUIB filedla complaint with the Tel Aviv,-District Court, requesting a court order to Meshubach to cease marketing La Nash and to confiscate all of the snacks already made, on the grounds that it is a "steal" from them. Apparently the little company is operated by haredim, and they turned to their religious authorities. The haredi Court of Justice served a demand on Osem that the court case be withdrawn at once. General Mills has refused. Further, the haredi court sternly rebuked Osem for the fact that the legal proceedings were filed in a civil court, rather than in the haredi Court of Justice and there was a hint that kashrut approval on all its products might be at stake. This problem was solved when the court ruled that neither La Nash nor Pepit could be considered an imitation of Apropo. And now Osem, despite its previous complaint about Elite's import of pastas from Italy, is itself launching a major campaign to sell Nestle's chocolate, which it imports. Indeed a challenge to Elite. • There's never a dull day in the food business here.
THE JEWISH PRESS (Founded in 1920) The role of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to involve Jews in meeting Jewish communal needs locally, nationally and in Israel. Centers of Excellence of the Federation arc: Community Relations, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Education and Library Services, Jewish Family Service, Jewish Senior Services. The Jewish Press is a Constitutional Committee of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. The Jewish Press (USPS 276620) is published weekly on Friday for $26 per calendar year U.S.; $30 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Deadline for copy, ads and photos is : Thursday, noon, eight days prior to publication. . Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Sond address changes to The Jewish Press, 333 So, 132nd St., Omaha, NE.68154; Telephone 402-334-6448; FAX 402-334-5422; Eimn'I <jshpress@aol.com> . .
Slevo Levlnger Chairman Carol Katzman Editor-in-Chief Morris Mallne Editor Emeritus Maureen LaPour . Managing Editor Larry Axelrod Advertising Manager Sheryl Friedman Bookkeeper George Schaplro Volunteer .
Medical News Youth with Canavan's Disease waits in hope by Lenn Zonder Connecticut Jewish Ledger
Asher Gluckman turned nine last month. His parents, Howard and Sylvia Gluckman, 12,000 miles from their home in Johannesburg, South Africa, threw a double-birthday celebration for Asher and his friend Jacob Sonntag of Harrison, N.Y. who turned two years old. Asher and Jacob both have Canavan's Disease. The birthday party was held in the Ronald McDonald House, the Gluckman family's temporary home since arriving from South Africa in January. They have been waiting for the FDA to approve Asher for the synthetic-gene therapy created by Drs. Matt During and Paola Leone, at the nearby Yale Medical School in New Haven, the only school in the United States authorized to administer the protocol. "We first learned about the research at Yale through a story in the Connecticut Jewish Ledger," Howard recalled. The story was about two Connecticut girls who received the therapy along with Jacob at Yale-New Haven Hospital. A second group involving as many as 11 others, including Asher, are expected to get approval this month. The first test for a Canavan's diagnosis is to test the patient's blood to identify the mutant gene that causes Canavan's. The Gluckmans, like the other 500 known Canavan families, hope genetic gene therapy is the beginning of a longer and more useful life for their children. (Editor's note: The Jewish Press published
an article about Gerson Brickner, son of Debbie Duitch and Avi Brickner, who is afflicted by Canavan's Disease. He is the grandson of Jack and Jean Duitch, who were also forwarded a copy of the original article. After e-mailing it to daughter, Debbie, Gerson was tested and placed on the list far the third group.) Medical procedure produces baby free of Tay-Sachs disease by Leslie Kate Jewish Bulletin of Northern California
SAN FRANCJSCO (JTA) - Neil and Ann Wolff are both carriers of Tay-Sachs disease. But with the help of .a relatively new. technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, the Wolffs' 4month-old daughter, Rachel, is free of the genetic disorder, which afflicts a disproportionate number of Ashkenazi Jews. .' When both members of a couple are carriers, there is a 25 percent chance of conceiving a child with Tay-Sachs, which attacks the central nervous system. Before Rachel's conception, the couple aborted two'fetuses shown by amniocentesis to have the disease. "We were very much at the end of our rope," says Ann Wolff, 38. "We were overwhelmed with the loss and grief and disappointment. We were really ready to give up on having children." Instead, they turned to the genetic diagnosis, a procedure they had unsuccessfully tried after their first abortion. Performed at only a handful of clinics around the country, the procedure involves developing embryos outside the mother's body and screening them for certain genetic diseases before implanting them in the uterus. Fewer than 100 children worldwide have been born with the help of the technique. There is no treatment or cure for Tay-Sachs, named after two doctors who identified the syndrome in the late 19th century. Most victims of the disease, which destroys the braiitand causes the body to shut down, die by age 5. •"•• " . JEWISH PRESS COMMITTEE Lloyd Roitstein, Vice C h a i r m a n ; Fred Tichauer, Treasurer; Joanie Jacobson, Secretary; Elyce Azriel; Jill Belmont; Bob Birt; Steve Danon; Bob Eisenberg; Linda Lachin; Sheryl Lee; George Schapiro; Howard Silber. .. Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Committee, the Jewish Federation of Omaha or the Omaha Jewish Community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit letters and articles for space arid content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashr^ith of any product or establishment.
March 20,1998
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 5
'Religion in our Public Schools' panel discussion to be held at the JCC by Debbi Brown, Assistant Director, ADL/CRC
The Anti-Defamation League/Community Relations Committee, Jewish Family Services, and National Council of Jewish Women Omaha Section will co-sponsor a panel discussion Tuesday, March 24, 7:30 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center. The topic is "Religion In Our Public Schools." Panelists will include: Rabbi Paul Drazen has been' the rabbi of Beth El Synagogue since 1982. Some of his community involvement includes Jewish Education and L/ibrary Services, Nebraska Rabbinical Council, Great Plains Religious Media, Human Values Committee, Millard School District Clergy Advisory Panel and City of Omaha: Omaha 2000 Advisory Committee. Linda Gjere, Director of Communications for the Nebraska Synod, ELCA, assists the Bishop in the specific coordination, development and administration of the synodical communications ministries and public relations. She edits The Nebraska Lutheran quarterly newspaper and acts as its general news correspondent. Professor B. Collin Mangrum is Professor of Law, Creighton University and author of numerous articles on evidence and church and state, coauthor of Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 18301900, and of Mangrum on Nebraska Evidence. Mangrum filed an amicus curie brief in the Mergens vs. Westside case and counseled the
Lynne M. Popp, M.S. in L.D. Learning Disability Specialist
Mergens' attorney regarding oral arguments in the Supreme Court. Bob Wolfson is Executive Director of the Plains States Region of the Anti-Defamation League/Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Omaha for 10 years. Under his leadership, programs such as the Prejudice Elimination Workshop, and A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE Institute have brought the ADL/CRC to state and national prominence. Mr. Wolfson is a Creighton University Law School graduate, and has served as an administrative law judge for the Nebraska Equal Opportunities Commission and as a hearing examiner for the-Omaha Civil Rights Hearing Board. Dr. Liz Karnes is President of Westside Community Schools Board of Education and will serve as the evening's moderator. Her professional activities include National Council of Friends of Boys Town, PRIDE Omaha board, Women's Fund of Greater Omaha board member, advisory board member Norwest Bank, and Reading is Fundamental, national board member. In 1997, Dr. Karnes was awarded the National Council of Christians and Jews Humanitarian award. "We hope this discussion will help those in attendance gain a better understanding of what is really meant by the separation of church and state," said Sara Juster, Chairman ,of the ADL/CRC's Education Committee. If you have any questions, please call me at 3331303.
by Pam Monsky Federation Communications Director
This week's Jewish Press contains a copy of "Israel Record," a 24-page publication distributed by the Anti-Defamation League, which explores Israel's history, culture, politics and society. "Israel Record" is brought to the Omaha Jewish community on behalf of the local ADL and the Jewish Federation of Omaha in a cooperative effort to provide background information and resources so individuals can become more familiar with Israel and its importance to the Jewish people. ADL Executive Director Bob Wolfson said the goal of this publication is to "not only celebrate Israel's 50th Anniversary, but to elevate our awareness and learning about Israel. It is a tremendous resource that members of our community can use to gain background information." "This is an example of the results of the Strategic Planning process that the Federation went through last year," said Jan Perelman, Federation Executive Director. "Jewish organizations are working together to bring the best information to our community, and we are continuing to cooperate throughout the local celebrations planned for Israel's 50th Anniversary," she added. Extra copies and a teacher's guide are available by calling the ADL office at 334-6573.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
March 20,1998
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Organizations Y.E.S. Members will meet Monday at the JCC. English class starts a t 10 a.m.; bingo and exercise both, start at 10:30. Bring articles to share at the "YES Talk" discussion group at 11. Following lunch at noon, come enjoy a musical program by Stan Widman. For transportation, call 330-4272. WALK-IN, DROP-IN There will be no meeting Thursday due to the trip to WinnaVegas Casino. For those members going, please meet at the JCC by 8:15 a.m. RUSSIAN CLUB Members will meet Friday, March 27, at the JCC. Exercise class starts at 10 a.m., and lunch will be served at 11. At 11:30, a day trip is planned to the W. Dale Clark Library. We will be given a tour of the main Omaha Library. Do you have a library card? Bring a photo ID and we will make sure you get one. Cost is $ 1. Make reservations by March 25 with Lydia Linde at 697-9169. VISIONS Discover the works of impressionist artist Edgar Degas at the Joslyn Art Museum on Wednesday, April 29. At noon, dine at the Durham Cafe in the Atrium (lunch buffet is on your own). At 1 p.m., a tour with a docent will begin. Cost is $3.50. There is no charge for members of the Joslyn. For reservations, mail form by April 22 to Jean Elkon, 1005 N. 63rd St., Omaha, NE 68132. Make checks payable to Jewish Senior Services.
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NCJW to present 'Protecting Our Financial Selves'
The National Council of Jewish WomenOmaha Section will present the third in a series of educational programs, "A Woman's1" Art of Self-Protection: Mind, Body and Pocketbook!" The event will take place Tuesday, March 31, at the Highland Country Club. Refreshments will be served a t 7 p.m., followed by the program at 7:30. There is no charge and guests are.welcome. Presenters include Randy Endelman, Attorney and Vice-president and manager of Norwest Personal T r u s t Services; Howard Shandell, Financial Planner; and Holly Murphy-Barstow, Financial Adviser, Norwest Investment Services, Inc. Program Co-chairmen are Penny Endelman and Debbie Goodman. The goal of the series is to empower women with their own strength—to promote the idea that each woman is her greatest natural resource," Goodman said. "While women today are more informed and take a more active role in their personal finances, most major decisions about money are still made, primarily, by the man in their lives," Endelman noted. "They have no idea where their money is or how it's invested. Yet, at some point, they may be forced to take control and manage their estates by themBREADBREAKERS selves. It's much easier to do this if you are Mayor Mike Johanns will speak at Breadbreakers informed from the beginning and involved in some on Wednesday, according to Adam Jacobs. Johanns of the choices," she added. is seeking the Republican nomination for governor. Presenters will answer the questions, What is a Breadbreakers meets every Wednesday at noon at trust?. . .What are the different types of trusts Highland Country Club. Cost is $7.75, and the pro- available?.. .Why do I need one?.. .How can I start gram is open to the community. saving for my children's college education?.. .If my OMAHA CHAPTER OF HADASSAH best friend isn't a stockbroker, how can I make Jeff Taxman and his children will entertain resi- sure my money will be invested wisely? dents of the Rose Blumkin Home on Saturday, In addition, Ms. Murphy-Barstow will talk about March 28, at the Oneg Shabbat hosted by the investment clubs for women and how to get one Omaha Chapter of Hadassah. started. The monthly program will start at 2 p.m. in the "Women of all ages can learn to make intelligent Home's auditorium, followed by a tea and dessert and.profitable decisions about their money," for residents and guests. Goodman added. It's exciting to offer a program Lola Reinglass, chairman for the day, requests like this to help them do it successfully." Hadassah helpers come at 1:30 p.m. to assist in To RSVP or for further information, call Penny bringing residents to the program. Endelman at 333-5236, or Debbie Goodman at 4969392.
in the News Iowa Governor Terry Branstad took time out ^ !'"r f ! from rehearsals for the rOmaha Press Club's annual gridiron show to visit Rose Katelman at the Rose Blumkin Home.. The governor and Mrs. Katelman, 93, a long-time Council Bluffs business woman, are distant cousins. Branstad, who proudly 'acknowledges his partial Jewish ancestry, has maintained a friendship with Mrs. Katelman and her daughter, Sissy Silber. He is also related to Doris Shukert of Omaha.
Former Omahan Mitchell Warren was recently named Executive Director of Population Services International/Europe (PSI/Europe) and has moved to London to take his new position. PSI/Europe is the European affiliate of PSI, the world's largest non-profit social marketing organization that implements projects in over 45 countries aimed at improving the health of lower-income people. Mitchell and his wife, Alice Kriz, have two children, Luke, 3'A, and Sarah, six months. He is the Bon of Marty and Marilyn Warren of Chesterfield, MO, formerly of Omaha, and the grandson of Dave and Jeanne Dvorkin.
Marilyn Tipp recently completed her second 'movie filmed in Omaha. Starring Matthew Broderick, The Election was filmed a t Papillion High and is about a The Fartiily Local attorney Michael Goldberg, with the school teacher who City Attorney's office, was among the four top "fixes" a student governvote-getters at the District 66 Caucas. Other winDealing with everyday life can put Stress on family members. ment election, Paraners were Liz Karnes, Scott Hazelrigg and Nancy Learn to cope and lead a rewarding happy Ms, mount Pictures plans to Metzler. The run-off is May 12. •Confidential release the movie next • Adolescent/Child Specialist A graduate of the University of Connecticut, [fall. Director Alexander • Stress Managomont • Amfcty/Depression Goldberg taught i n the Hartford Public Schools |Payne has approached •SoxualConcerns-EalmgDisorders „ „_ . before attending Creighton Law School. He and . •eriotfLosscounsoims Call Today Tipp about casting her in his next movie, a western. Jiis wife,. Robin Clemmer, an Ob-Gyn, have two • CMd&AdunviciimsrfSfljujaJAbusa ,For A Better •J ' "-" •CBfcer, Educational 4,Psjtfio(ogicaires(ing ,'Tomorrow children, Sara, 8, and Ethan, 5. They are memMary, Lou Reiton, winner of the Ail-Around bers of Temple Israel. . UcetaedtaringPnifesslgiula 339*7991 Gold Medal in women's gymnastics a t the 1084 Tiaswd To Create ReslCtoiigeWrh . Olympic Games; will be the keynote speaker at the IntlMtltali'Couples'GrovpfFamltlsa Susan Drazen, Executive'Director of Jewish Great Plains Girl Scouts' "Take Our Daughters Educational Services; recently had her article, to Work* luncheon, to be held/April 23, 11:30 a.m., entitled "Who Will Be Her Koddish'ir published at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Omaha. The in the Spring 1998 issue ofLilith magazine. theme is "The Sky's The limit.'' A photo of her with her late grandmother accomFor more information, contact Molly Anderson at panied the article. 393-4200, ext. 205, or 397-7443 (home). 6550 South 84th Street, Suite 300
Helping
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March 20,1998
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 7
Alan Friedman Company
Week-end Shabbaton at Tifereth Israel
Alan H. Friedman
Norman and Helene Krivosha lecture scheduled at UNL
Tifereth Israel Synagogue will host a week-end Shabbaton, entitled "The Joy of Jewish Living," with Rabbi Allan Gonsher of Omaha. The schedule Lawrence Schiffman, the Ethel and Irwin A. is as follows: Edehnah Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies Friday, April 3: Services, 6 p.m.; Shabbat din- at New York University, will present Scholars, ner, 6:45 p.m.; Session 1: Pray&r-What is It?, Scrolls & Scandals-Judaism, Christianity and the 8 p.m. Dead Sea Scrolls at the 1998 Norman and Helene Saturday, April 4: Services, 9:30 a.m.; Shabbat Krivosha lecture. lunch, noon; Session 2: Prayer: How Do We Use It?, '• The event, sponsored by the Harris Center for 1:15 pan.; break; Jewish games with Rabbi Gonsher (for 9-12 year olds), 5:45 p.m.; Seudah Shlisheet, Judaic Studies and the Departments of Classics 3rd meal of Shabbat, 6:30 p.m.; Session 3: How to and History, will take place Thursday, April 2, 7:30 p.m., at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, liaise Jewish Parents, 7 p.m.; Havdalah, 7:45 p.m. Sessions 1, 2 and 3 are designed for students Morrill Hall Auditorium, Room 104. Professor Schiffman's slide-illustrated lecture ages 13 and up and their families; there will be special activities for children ages 5-12 during the will address several recent controversies surroundsessions. Activities for little ones during the day, ing the publication and interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, documents that are crucial to underand babysitting, is also available. Cost per Shabbat dinner is $8 for adults, and $5 standing the relationship between Judaism and for children ages 2-12; cost per Shabbat lunch is $4 early Christianity. for adults, and $2.50 for children ages 2-12. Reservations to the synagogue are due by March 23.
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Graduates-we're looking for you! Lincoln Southeast, Lincoln Northeast, Lincoln East and Lincoln High School are working with the Bernard C. Harris Publishing Co., Inc., to create an updated alumni directory. The goalof this project is to publish a timely edition of the directory containing up-to-date residential and professional information on each of the school's graduates. If you have a reunion list, class newsletter or any
other resource containing current names, addresses and phone numbers that has been released since your graduation, we would like to hearfromyou. Contact Harris Publishing at 1-800-733-8859. You may also send information to Lincoln Southeast, Lincoln Northeast, Lincoln East, Lincoln Alumni Directory Project, c/o Bernard C. Harris Publishing Co., 313 E. Anderson Lane, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78752.
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Federation Annual Meeting award nominations
Joel and Shari Herman announce the March 7 birth of their son, Elan David, named after his , late great-grandmother, Ella Berman, and late • Nomination forms have been distributed for great-grandfather, David Raznick. Elan has a sist e r , f alia Rose, 2!£ ' •••:;.•••• the awards to be presented at the Federation's annual meeting on Wednesday, J u n e 24. Grandparents are former Omahans Marshall Award categories are: Humanitarian of the and Toby Forbes of Brown Deer, WI, and Jerold Year, Community Service Award, Jewish Teen and Joan Berman of Milwaukee. Leadership Award, t h e J u s t i n Greenberg Memorial Young Leadership Award and the Lois Dr. Charles and Marcelyn Rogers of Omaha Jeanne Schrager Memorial Young Leadership announce the March 3 birth of their son, Gavin Award. Corbet. Gavin has a sister, Mallory Jill, 2. Nomination forms have been sent to all Jewish Grandparents are Donald and Karolyn Kagan organization presidents, synagogue rabbis, Marti of Lincoln and Arnolds Park, IA, and youth directors and youth commission chairs, Charles and Patricia Rogers of Papillion. BBYO advisors and Federation agency directors Great-grandparents are Howard and Velma and presidents. Carpenter of Mt. Airy, N.C., the late Darwin and Vera Rogers, Lloyd and Elizabeth Marti of Lincoln Nominations must be submitted tome in the and Moses and Gertrude Perlis Kagan of Omaha. Federation office by April 3. by Pam Monsky Federation communications director
CONTACT BETH COHEN, JCC YOUTH SERVICES DIRECTOR, AT 334-6409.
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Page 8
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
March 20,1998
Omahans celebrate Purim!
T^oWrscelebrate at the Young Jewish Omaha-Chabad Seudah. Temple Israel goes Broadway, neo/edifiabbillebWe Stiel and Dorothy Splzman; Seated: Janet, Sam, Justin and Anna; standing: Sarah, Pam, and David. standing-. Ann Kibel-Schwartz, Rabbi Aryeh Azriel and Ilnzzan Erik Contnus.
BLUMKIN HOME KING AND QUEEN: Mollie Weiner and Abe Rosenthal
"Dr." Sarah Edelstein "Attendr&ervices-orelseT holds her "patient," sis- says Beth Israel past ter, Julia, at Beth EL president Donald Gerber.
Preschoolers dress up for Purim at the JCC.
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March 20,1998
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 9
Special Food .Section for Passover—anci more! Beyond cholesterol: new cookbooks for Passover and year-round by Rahel Musleah
From cups to questions, four is surely the magical number on Passover. But when most of us contemplate Passover preparations, we think of four other Cs: Cleaning, Cooking, Company and Cholesterol. A new batch of kosher cookbooks won't be much help in cleaning the house, but they may provide fresh ideas for tackling the other three Cs.r ' '':. The cookbooks range from practical paperbacks meant for the kitchen and nostalgic memoirs appropriate for bedside reading to lavish hardcover titles with photographs so delectable they almost belong beside the art books on the coffee table. None is limited just to Passover; instead, they offer menu ideas that span the calendar. But the culinary challenges of the "feast,of freedom" make it a time when we especially look for any help we can get. Most of these, cookbooks present the traditional along with fast, easy, low-fat recipes flavored with an unexpected zing. Don't linger on the scrumptious-looking challah in Fast & Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays: Complete Menus, Rituals, and Party-Planning Ideas far Every Holiday of the Year, by Marlene Sorosky (Morrow, $25); skip right to the comprehensive and innovative Passover section,-which features an updated gefilte fish mousse, layered with chopped roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts and green onions; classic haroset and a nouvelle version with cranberries and pistachios; "Set it and Forget it Prime Rib Roast," and double chocolate meringue kisses. Matza Brei goes Italian with basil, mushrooms and onions, or south of the border, with guacamole and shredded cheese, topped with salsa. Each section offers an explanation of why we celebrate the featured holiday or life passage (brit milah/baby naming and bar/bat mitzvah) a list of the religious items and foods needed; complete menus, a game plan for advance preparation, even activities for children. Sorosky, author of Dessert Lovers Cookbook and Entertaining on the Run, which won a
James Beard Award, has created another winner. While Ethel G: Hofman's Everyday Cooking far the Jewish Home (HarperCollins, $27.50) treats kosher cooking as a daily art—not one to be reserved for holidays only-her 350 recipes influenced by international cuisines include many that can be used for Passover. Try potato-chicken cutlets from Russia; Indianstyle coleslaw with cilantro and ginger; Australian pavlova, a strawberry-kiwi dessert; farfel with plum tomatoes and pine nuts, which combines .Sephardic and Ashkenazic flavors, or parsley "bread" sticks made of matza meal for a mid-week change "from matza. Hpfman,. who grew up in the only Jewish family on the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland, is the former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and now lives in Philadelphia. Joan Nathan adds to her. prestigious shelf of Jewish cookbooks with her newest title: The Jewish Holiday Baker (Schocken, $23). To accompany 50 original recipes for sweets and breads, she shares the stories and secrets of bakers throughout the world-her signature style. The geographic and ethnic mix offers Passover biscotti from Edda Servi Machlin, author of Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews; double-chocolate Prince Albert Cake from Elizabeth Rosenfeld, a Holocaust survivor from Yugoslavia who fled to Mexico City, and Meringue Baskets with Lime Cream Jean Louis from Ann Amernick, the first Jewish assistant pastry chef in the White House and sponge cake from Amernick's mother, Helen Silverberg. (Joan Nathan lives in Washington, D.C.) 'Light' is the operative word for three cookbooks that focus on fat-free recipes. Kosher Light: Your Traditional Jewish Favorites Cooked Healthy (Penguin Studio, $17.95), by Zillah Bahar, the Israeli-born, Nebraska-raised food columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, "transforms the salty and fatty, but beloved, Jewish favorites into wholesome dishes," in Bahar's words.
Broth thickened with carrots and mushrooms is a comforting first course; matza balls scented with garlic, dill and a nip of cayenne eliminate the need for salt; potato pancakes, matza.brei, Sephardic chicken matzah pie and sweet matzah kugel (adapted from dense English bread pudding) are made with egg whites, sodium-free matzahs and ' canola oil spray. Bahar offers careful information on kashrut, chatty introductions and calorie, cholesterol, fat and sodium counts for each recipe. . In Secrets of Fat-Free Kosher Cooking (Avery, $14.95), author Deborah Bernstein, a physician, pairs the rules of kashrut with information on fatfree cooking-including daily fat intake charts, a guide to spices that replace salt and a food pyramid. Most of her 150 recipes can be made in under 10 minutes. Because of the nature of the recipes, featuring fresh herbs and few additions like bread crumbs or pasta, many can be used as they are or easily adapted for Passover. Chicken with marjoram and thyme, curried or peachy chicken (leave out the rice if you're not Sephardic); spiced squash, dried fruit tzimmes, and sweet cooked grapes are healthy alternatives for seder meals. (Continued on page 10)
NCSY'ers celebrate Purim
Jeff, Avi and Rachel Kntzman, Audrey Gcrber, Tiffany Eisenman, Amanda Mack, Zac Gonsher, Jacob Katzman and their families broke the fast of Tannit Esther at Beth Israel prior to the Megillah reading.
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Special Food Section on Passover...and more! New Cookbooks (Continued from page 9) Harriet Roth, former director of the Pritikin Longevity Center Cooking School, is eminently qualified to add her imprint to the field with Harriet Roth's Deliciously Healthy Jewish Cooking: 350 New Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol, Low-Sodium Recipes for Holidays and Every Day (new in paper from Plume, $16.95). If the title doesn't say it all, dip into dishes from homemade beet horseradish to Vienna torte. The book is divided by holiday, and then again by type of course. The comprehensive nutritional analysis for each recipe includes breakdowns on carbohydrates, fiber, protein, total fat, saturated fat and calories from fat. Miriam's Kitchen (Viking, $24.95), winner of a National Jewish Book Award, typifies a new genre of cookbook, more memoir than recipe-oriented. No fat-free fare here: author Elizabeth Ehrlich (who lives in Westchester, NY) exalts the memory of her grandmother's shmaltz-and-sugar-scented pcitcheh, and learns how to combine the practical iand spiritual from the exacting richness of her ''mother-in-law Miriam's cooking.
Joan Nathan chronicles Jewish culinary history by Abigail Pickus, JUFNews
Joan Nathan, one of America's most esteemed Jewish cookbook authors, is chronicling Jewish cooking the way an ethnographer chronicles a people. Whether discovering an Iraqi bakery tucked inconspicuously in the Old City of Jerusalem or visiting a prominent Jewish bakery in suburban Michigan, Nathan is gathering the dispersed seeds of Jewish culinary traditions. "I'm not interested in just writing a cookbook. I'm interested in writing about people, food, traditions the history of the Jewish people through food," Nathan said during a recent stopover in Chicago to speak about her latest book, The Jewish Holiday Baker. The author of six cookbooks, including the awardwinning Jewish Cooking in America, that have so far sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the United States and are still selling, Nathan has emerged as one of America's foremost authorities on Jewish cooking. And while her drive keeps her pumping out cookbooks and food columns, she never loses sight of her primary quest: to gather the recipes of life upon which she herself feeds. It all started in Jerusalem. Nathan was 26, single, and working for Jerusalem's then-mayor, Teddy Kollek, as a foreign press attache in the 1970s when she decided to write a cookbook "I realized that Jerusalem was this wonderful city with all of these cultures and different foods," she said. That's why she wrote her first cookbook, The Flavor of Jerusalem, with Judy Stacey Goldman (published in 1975, it is now out of print), which includes the recipes and stories she gleaned from speaking to Jews, Christians, and Moslems. Writing Jewish cookbooks also became a way for Nathan to learn about being Jewish. The Jewish Holiday Kitchen, for example, helped her find out the "why" behind food traditions, such as why Ashkenazic Jews eat carrots and tsimmos on Rosh Hashanah. (Carrots symbolize fertility and wealth.) "I didn't know any of that stuff," she said.,. She grew up in a Reform household in Providence, Rhode Island, the daughter of.a German-born father and an American-born mother, of Eastern European descent. ' "I knew German Jewish food from my father's family, and Eastern European from my mother's side, but I was American. By doing research and by writing books, I learned about Jewish traditions," she said. She also learned about the different cultural and culinary traditions within Judaism a task that has required a keen eye and an easy manner. For more than just unearthing the legacies of great Jewish cooks from around the world, Nathan has to convince the cooks that it is worth their while to publish.their recipes. A case in point is the bakery in Brooklyn whose proprietors balked at having the recipe for their ka'ak, pretzel-like rings that are eaten in Syrian Jewish homes, made so public. But the ka'ak recipe was eventually included in The Jewish Holiday Baker, apparently to their satisfaction.
Nathan admits that being fluent in Hebrew and French (she has a master's degree in French literature from the University of Michigan) helps her communicate. But more than speaking different languages, it is Nathan's ability to "schmooze people," as she says, that puts people at ease. "Over food, people will just open up to you, Nathan said. Now, more than 20 years since her entree into the world of Jewish cooking, Nathan's expertise has grown. And so has her fame. Lately she has been touting her newest book in Jewish community centers, grocery stores, and book stores around the country, when she isn't appearing on talk shows or researching her next cookbook. She is also completing work on her upcoming television series, Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan; that will air on PBS in the fall. Indeed, with Nathan's schedule every moment counts. And that is why travel time spent on planes or even in taxi cabs offers her the necessary opporT tunity to finish up a food column for The New York Times, or to proofread a page from her cookbook. "I've learned to be so efficient with my tune," she says upon arriving at O'Hare Airport, her laptop computer slung over her shoulder. And considering the six planes she will take to five cities over the next few days to promote The Jewish Holiday Baker her latest cookbook that contains recipes for breads and desserts from Jewish traditions around the world, such as the German.se/jnecAen and Parisian pletzel, Nathan's efficiency makes sense. Chicago has played a role in much of Nathan's work. And it was also the point of inspiration for her current work in progress, her upcoming cookbook on the foods of modern Israel. She came to Chicago on the day after the assassination of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, which inspired her to change her course from writing a cookbook on the first foods in America to one on Israel. '.•••••... "I was.so appalled by Rabin's assassination that I wanted to write a book about the Israel that I loved," she said. For in the aftermath of Rabin's assassinationtiwhen the,world focused only on jthe hatred and internal rifts that have separated Jew from Jew, Nathan was moved to write a book that shows the way Israelis from all cultural backgrounds connect: through food. It is in Skokie, for her JCC talk, that Nathan perhaps finds material for an upcoming book. For after her talk, Frieda Schmerzer, a Holocaust survivor who now lives in Morton Grove, stood up and shared with the audience how she used to make challah as a young girl in Hungary. "There aren't even recipes for it, you just have to see it," Schmerzer said of the Hungarian challah that is made with potatoes. "I'd love to come to your house!" Nathan says, although she has only enough time to sign some books before heading to the airport. But when someone mentions Gitel's Kosher Pastry Shop on Devon avenue, Nathan can't help herself. "Is Gitel's on way to airport?" she asks. Abigail Pickus lives in Chicago and is the niece of Dick and Bev Fellman, Tom and Darlynn Fellman and Nancy and Shel Rips.
The 26 recipes that follow the cycle of the year feature Miriam's Passover egg noodles (with 12 eggs!), hand-made gefilte fish and meat-and-potato pudding, and Ehrlich's mother's kneydlach. This poetic bundle of family tales that celebrates childhood, motherhood, memory and tradition while simultaneously exploring the meaning of modern Jewish life matches Passover's message of continuity perfectly. Try another grandma's favorite recipes in Grandma Doralee Patinkin's Jewish Family Cookbook (St. Martin's, $23.95), a collection of 150 recipes by actor Mandy Patinkin's mother, Doralee Patinkin Rubin! The recipes do not mix milk and meat but dairy and meat recipes are mixed under the same headings, and ingredients may not be strictly kosher; still, they can be adapted easily. Patinkin's recipes call Tor the buttery, salty or sugary "real thing," along with advice on how to create more healthy versions. The Passover section includes family reminiscences, and mostly desserts like sponge cake with raspberry fluff or apple cake with Btreusel topping. (Patinkin lives in San Diego.) Petty Goldberg's updated Traditional Jewish Cooking (Jonathan David, $22), originally published in 1994, is a good introduction to Ashkenazic cooking, from kugels to kreplach. Goldberg, a resident of Woodbridge, CT, and author of Chinese Kosher Cooking and International Cooking for the Kosher Home, explains each holiday and offers a sample menu featuring comfort food for traditional palates. Finally, if the restrictions of Passover cooking get you down, take heart by watching an entertaining new video, Haute Cuisine Goes Kosher (Ergo Media, (800) 695-3746; $29.95).. Follow the 13 chefs who gathered in Jerusalem . last year to prepare a gourmest kosher meal in,, ^honorof Jerusalem's 3000th birthday.'- -v ;' ^ f* •j The labyrinth of kosher rules presented infinite .challenges for the chefs, who had tojcreate Bub |tutes for everything from fresh crelimito^iifQ^ todrk. Peeling; chopping, broiling, sfinmeMng^ <md'p' | l d M g f 3 S 0 i § : (at $600. a plate) may make ?you&eae$!pjt>k nSsblageable!. I SM,#noi;p£cip|sjare included, yoiT^irob^bl^wfl! t •pot end up' serving vegetable jelly tffth •aVo'oadOf'-• /quairstuffed vntiffoie gras or nougatine with pears |at your sederi -but the chefs' buoyant attitudes and love of food may inspire you to create new dishes of •Waiters' tfeff Smedtund and Howard Needelman served trays of dell sandwiches to nearly 250 people your own this Passover. prior to the MegUlah reading last Wednesday night.'
Temple Israel's Deli Night
March 20,1998 . Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 11
EE Has a Large . Selection of Your Favorite Foods for Passover
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Page 12
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
March 20,1998
Special Food Section for Passover—and more! Shalom on the Range ed Southern regional cookbooks and the more eso- think I've ever seen a lima bean in a Southern teric the recipes are, the more rooted in the tradi- cholent, but, hey, I'm willing to give it a try. Just when I was going to launch a lament to my tion of soul food and cornbread, the better I like The folks in Colorado are also getting some groreaders ("You never call...you never write"), some- them. I also love kosher cookbooks, an increasingly ceries we can't get. For instance, I don't think body who sees this column sent me a present. varied category. A Kosher, regional cookbook is a there's a slice of Kosher-killed buffalo on this side Cynthia Kutner, a volunteer with Shalom Park, a rare treat, and this one is topnotch. of the Mississippi. senior center in Denver, Colorado, mailed me a Let me add a couple of notes from the South, Because I started reading Shalom on the Range copy of Shalom on the Range, a terrific regional on Shabbat, when I couldn't cook, I focused at first however, or at least from the Southern Tropics. cookbook that benefits the center. (For a copy, 303- on the personal anecdotes, the short family kitchen One recipe which features mango salsa includes a 699-2558, $21.95 plus shipping). footnote that asserts, "If fresh mango is not availsagas included amid the recipes. I love local cookbooks, a bulwark against the There is a story about a grandfather who entered able, mango in ajar works well." homogenization of America. For years, I've collect- his family's kitchen just once a year, to make his Sorry, cowgirl. That's the grocery-availability Passover charoset. That anecdote gave me back a issue working in the other direction. Take it from Itaiiano & Bakery | • glimpse of my Grandpa. He never went in the someone with a mango tree in her backyard, the kitchen either (except to get highball glasses to jarred stuff may work, but "well," nah. Substitute a Is Something Different make cocktails for company), but the Seder table papaya. Or a peach. Or wait tillJuly. Full Menu • Lunch & Dinner ! | was his domain. Grandpa asked his grandchildren The other Southernism I hoped to offer responds Calces, Rislries, Cannoli, Gelalo & Granita all the right questions and encouraged our answers to a wistful' passage remembering a beloved grand23M N. 72nd SL_. .397:1347 with slivers of bittersweet chocolate "matzo." mother's rose jelly and noting, "I don't know of anyThe hiding of the Afikomen was a major produc- one who makes jelly out of roses today." tion, and he always hid more pieces than there Well, I checked all my old-fashioned cookbooks were kids, so that everyone could earn a dollar and and all my Southern cookbooks, just because I a piece of chocolate for finding one. When we inher- wanted to respond with a helpful regional recipe. ited my grandparents' piano bench years after he No luck. Ever tenacious, I found Rose Petal Jelly, passed away, we found amid the sheet music a soli- • at last, in the pages of the decidedly un-regional, Greek Special* Daily Graak Boor & Wlna tary brocaded linen napkin wrapped around a pet- emphatically modern, New York Times Cookbook. Homemade Pastries Dins In/Carry Out rified piece of Afikomen, no doubt hidden decades Specializing In Baklava We Cater, Tool earlier. . Full Service Bar-Party Room* Amazing what a cookbook can bring to mind. This cookbook is also going to produce some new Mon.-Thure., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Frl.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sun., 11 a.m.-8p.m. side dishes for my seder and for that, my friend Cynthia, I am particularly grateful. A lot of people come here for Seder and I love finding new things to make, such as the Passover Meatless Tzimmes ROSE PETAL JELLY (seebelow). Makes approximately eight 6-ounce jars I don't think a non-Jewish cookbook would not 3 dozen fresh roses describe a dish that includes two pounds of sweet (2 qts. fresh petals, loosely packed) potatoes, 1/2 cup of margarine, 1/4 cup of honey 1 quart boiling water and a 1/2 cup of brown sugar as "light," but it 4 cups sugar ; Join Us For Lunch & Dinner works for me. 3 tbl. lemon juice * I'm also planning on the Matzo Lasagna (below) Remove the petals from the. roses and.place in a • Excellent Salads and Entrees for my kids, who mourn pasta during Pesach. large- bowl. Add boiling water, cover and steep for 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Mon. thru Fril; 6 p.m.-closing, Mon.-Sat. I ,5 One of the benefits of this cookbook is its excel- 20 minutes or until all color is out of the petals. lent glossary, a run down pn^tiU the YiddFshismsy*••. -r Strain the liquid into^ii shailow*wide pan. Add 12129 West Center Road in Westwood Square / 330-3320 and Jewish holiday terms used with the recipes. I the sugar and lemon juice. 5? confess, I already knew the meaning of these Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until words. The glossary I needed is a Western one, the sugar is dissolved and the mixture comes.to & An Evening of Enchantment something to let flatlanders like me know what full rqiling.boil. Maintain the full roiling boilttinttl those mountain-types are talking about, for mixture gives a jelly test (two drops fo'tmtm the side instance, when they mention "ranch-style beans." of a metal spoon, then flow together}. Skim % Or Texas Toast? And what's an Anaheim, chile?.. Pour into hot sterile jars and cover with melted ''"''''" ''"' ' ' ' • Here in Florida,' we know from jalapenos, but we paraffin. New York Times Cookbook Restaurant • Bistro • Wine Bar don't seem quite as pepper-happy as those westerners. I also saw a few regional differences in the Shabbat dishes, particularly the cholent. I don't (Continued on page 13) ; by Erica Meyer Rauzin
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 13
Special Food Section for Passover...and more! from Shalom on the Range • (Continued from page 12)
PASSOVER MEATLESS TZIMMES (PAREVE) 2 pounds sweet potatoes ' 1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch slices 1/2 cup pareve margarine '.:..', 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/4 cup honey 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 cup orange juice . 1 cup pitted prunes Bake potatoes until tender. Peel and dice into 314 inch cubes. Place carrots in a saucepan, cover with water and boil until tender. Drain. Combine margarine, brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and orange juice in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and add the sweet potatoes, carrots and prunes. Reduce heat and simmer until thick, 15 to 30 minutes. Makes eight servings. Note: Do not freeze. Recipe can be prepared two days in advance and reheated before serving. •
. Lasagna 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 6 cups loosely packed spinach 4 to 5 matzos 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, divided
MATZO LASAGNA(MEAT)
Basic Bolognese Sauce 1/2 cup pareve margarine 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion, finely chopped 1 carrot, finely chopped 1 stalk celery, finely chopped VA lbs. ground beef salt and pepper to taste 1 cup dry wine (Kosher for Passover) 1 (28 ounce) can Italian-style tomatoes, crushed
;
For the sauce: melt margarine with olive oil in a large saucepan. Add onion, carrot and celery and saute" over medium heat until lightly browned. Add meat. Cook and stir until meat is no longer pink. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Increase heat and stir in wine. Cook until wine has evaporated. Add tomatoes, cover and reduce heat, simmer until sauce becomes medium thick, stirring occasionally, about 1to 1'h hours.; For the lasagna: heat 1/4 cup olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Saute" garlic and spinach about 4. minutes. Spread bottom of a 7x11-inch casserole with remaining olive oil. Line dish with one layer of matzo. Top with a third of spinach mixture, a third of sauce and 1 tablespoon basil. Repeat layers twice, ending with a layer of sauce. Bake in preheated 375degree oven until top is bubbly, about 35 minutes. Makes six servings.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
March 20,1998
Special Food Section
Jade
Adjusting daily recipes to create tasty seder meals by Naomi Arbit
BAYSIDE, WI, (JTA) -- Passover marks the exodus of the Jews from Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. Celebrated for eight days, it always begins at sundown followed by a seder dinner.
Chinese Restaurant CARRY OUT AVAILABLE
Adapting a recipe for Passover use:
498-8833 Beer and Wine Available 2068 N. 117th Ave. North Park (117th SBIondo) M - Th:11-9:30 - F i t & Sat. 11-10:30-Sun. 12-9:30
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SUBSTITUTE: INSTEAD OF: Matzah meal •"'.•••" bread crumbs graham cracker pie shell Passover'cookie or cake crumbs; matzah meal, ; coconut flour or cornstarch use half the amount for thickening gravy of potato starch 5/8 cup potato starch, 1 cup flour matzah cake meal or combination of both 1 teaspoon baking powder Passover baking powder 1-oz. square baking chocolate 2 tablespoons cocoa plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; Passover chocolate flavoring extracts, Passover extracts, lemon and orange juice, Passover brandy 1 cup confectioners' sugar 1 cup granulated sugar, pulverized in blender and sifted together with 1/2 t. potato starch 7/8 cup milk plus 2 1 cup light cream tablespoons melted butter, for cooking only 3/4 cup milk plus 1/3 1 cup heavy cream cup melted butter, for cooking only, not whipping alcoholic beverages comparable Passover variety, fruit juices or bullion, depending on type of recipe.
STUFFED BRISKET 1 lb. brisket 2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 garlic cloves, minced 6 scallions, sliced thin 110-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed; pour boiling water over spinach, squeeze dry 1 egg 1 cup matzah farfel 8 oz. mushrooms, sliced 6 carrots; dice 2 into 1/4-inch dice; slice 4 into 1/4-inch slices 2 large onions, sliced 1 cup dry red wine 1 cup beef or chicken stock 1/2 teaspoon thyme 1 bay leaf salt and pepper to taste Cut a pocket horizontally along one side of brisket, (fat side up) leaving 1/2-inch border around three sides (you'll also need some butcher twine). Saute garlic in vegetable oil. Add scallions and saute 2 more minutes; place in a bowl. Add spinach, egg, farfel, salt and pepper and mix well. Add oil to pan; saute mushrooms over moderate heat until all liquid has evaporated. Spread half the spinach inside the pocket of the brisket. Add half the diced carrots, cooled mushrooms and remaining carrots and finish with spinach. Tie up brisket in all directions. Broil brisket on both sides until nicely browned, about 5 minutes; pour off all fat. Spread bottom of pan with sliced round carrots and onions. Pour wine, stock, thyme, bay leaf over vegetables. Place brisket on top. Cover tightly with heavy foil. Roast for 3-3'A hours at 325 degrees or until fork tender. Allow meat to rest 20 minutes before slicing. Strain vegetables out of cooking liquid, reserving liquid. Puree vegetables in a processor or blender until thick. Add 3/4 of the cooking liquid to it and whisk together. Place in a saucepan, adding salt and pepper to taste, and more stock if a thinner sauce is desired. Reheat; serve sauce separately. Slice meat across the grain.
(Continued on page 15)
¥ Creatively prepared dishes that celebrate the season's bounty and the rich diversity of American cuisine.
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SICS PIZZERIA 7024 Dodge Street • 391-1881 1M63 wfCenter. 33O-I444 UUtonid It-tiUKubfr 844-3323
March 20,1998
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 15
.for Passover—arid more! Adapting recipes for Passover (Continued from page 14) ZUCCHINI CREOLE ! 10 medium zucchini, sliced in 1/2-inch chunks 11/3 cup vegetable oil 2 large onions, minced 2 green peppers, chopped 1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced 11 clove garlic, minced . 2 green onions, snipped lineups canned tomatoes, drained salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup sugar ' 3 drops Worcestershire sauce Saute the first 7 ingredients in a frying pan for 15 minutes, stirring. Add remaining ingredients; cook 10 minutes more. Prepare ahead of time and reheat if desired. Serves eight. SA1MONPASTA 12 oz. Passover noodles, cooked 114.5-oz can salmon (or see note below) 1 medium onion, chopped 1 small green, red or yellow pepper, chopped 1 clove minced garlic 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 14-oz. cans whole peeled tomatoes 1 teaspoon oregano salt and pepper to taste; pinch of salt grated cheese of choice In skillet, combine oil, onion, pepper and garlic. I Saute until vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, I oregano, sugar, salt and pepper; bring to a boil for lone minute. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 min1 utes. Add drained and chunked salmon to sauce land heat through. Serve warm over the noodles. I Top with grated cheese. Note: If using fresh salmon (4 oz. fillets), bring 1 1 quart water and 114 cup white wine to boil in a skillet. Add salmon; cover and simmer about 5 minutes until done. Using slotted spatula, remove fillets and place on top of noodles. Garnish with sprigs of fresh parsley.
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VEGETABLE QUICHE 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 onion, chopped 1 red pepper, cored, seeded and chopped 3/4 lb. mushrooms, sliced 2 large eggs and 2 large egg whites 1M cups nonfat cottage cheese 1/2 cup plain yogurt 1/4 cup potato starch 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup freshly ground pepper 1/2 lb. broccoli florets cut small (about 1 cup) 1/2 cup grated sharp cheese of choice 1/4 cup snipped scallions Spray a 10-inch pie plate with non-stick spray. In a large skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of oil over mediumhigh heat. Add onions and pepper; cook until softened, about five minutes. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add remaining oil to the skillet and heat over high heat, adding mushrooms, cooking until most of their liquid has evaporated. Add to onion mixture. In a food processor or blender, blend eggs, egg whites, cottage cheese, yogurt, potato starch, Parmesan, peppers and salt; mix into vegetables. Stir in broccoli, sharp cheese and scallions. Pour into pie plate und bake in a 350-degree oven for 4050 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Makes six servings. PASSOVER SACHER TORTE 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, grated 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter 6eggyolks 3/4 cup matzah meal or finely grated matzah 1/4 cup finely ground almonds 1/4 teaspoon salt 7 egg whites. 1 cup apricot jam or preserves In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar. Beat in 1 egg yolk at a time until mixture is light
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and fluffy. Add the grated chocolate, matzah meal, almonds and salt. In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into the chocolate mixture. Spoon into an ungreased removable rim or spring-farm pan. Bake in a 325-degree oven for 5060 minutes. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice torte horizontally through the middle. Make sure the top has a flat surface. Place jam or preserves between the layers. Cover the cake with; chocolate glaze. CHOCOLATE GLAZE 6-7'Oz. semisweet chocolate 1 tablespoon margarine or butter 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup water Place chocolate and margarine in a double boiler over boiling water and melt. Cook sugar and water to the thread stage (230 degrees). Pour this syrup slowly into chocolate, stirring constantly until mixture coats the back of the spoon. Pour the glaze over the torte. CHOCOLATE DELIGHTS VA cups powdered sugar (pulverized regular sugar in a blender as a substitute) 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 level teaspoons potato starch 1/8 teaspoon salt . 2 egg whites (at room temperature) 1/2 teaspoon flavoring of choice 1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped 1/2 cup chocolate chips Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly coat with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, sift 314 cup sugar, cocoa, potato starch and salt. With an electric mixer, beat egg whites until foamy. Add remaining sugar and flavoring; beat'until soft ' peaks form. Add cocoa mixture; beat 1 minute or until blended. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips. Let stand 30 minutes. Wtih a tablespoon drop mixture onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing 18 cookies 1-inch apart. Bake in a 325-degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove to rack and let cool 10 minutes. Remove cookies from sheet to rack to cool.
• AND SELL FOR LESS!
137th & P
For this special celebration, NO FRILLS offers a wide selection of great-tasting foods From Manischewitz for all your Passover meals
MANISCHEWITZ Macaroons 10-oz. pkg.
MANISCHEWITZ Matzos
all varieties
Save an additional $2 on 2 packages with Manischewitz coupon on page 9
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MANISCHEWITZ Gefilte Fish 24-oz.jar
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BWliggard ••••••«« u.
Page 16
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
March 20,1998
Manischewitz Passover Matzos 1 Pound
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Manischewitz Matzo Meal 16 Ounce Regular Price...$3.79 ,
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We Will Have Beets, Green Onions, Parsley, Horseradish Root. And Apples. Prices Effective Now Through Passover.
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Published by the Anti-Defamation League © 1997
EyTionism is the Jewish national movement of rebirth and renewal in the land of Z^3Israel - the historical birthplace of the Jewish people. The biblical word "Zion" refers to both the land of Israel and Jerusalem. The longing for the return to Zion began with the exile of the Jewish people to Babylon after the destruction of the First Templp in 586 B.C E In Psalms it is written- "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat dowrcand wept when we remembered Zion." In Zionist thought, Jewish life outside the Land of Israel is a life of exile. In his book Rome and Jerusalem, early Zionist thinker Moses Hess wrote: "Two periods of time shaped the development of Jewish civilization the first, after the liberation fromlgypt, and the second, the return from Babylon. The third shall come with the redemption from the third exile." All aspects of Jewish spiritual life - culture, prayer, ritual and literature - have been suffused over the centuries with the yearning to return to Zion. Since the exile, Jerusalem has embodied Jewish yearning for the return to Zion. When praying, Jews across the globe turn towards Jerusalem. The tw6-thousand-year-61d daily prayers continually refer to the return to Zion, such as this one from the thrice-daily silent devotion: "And let our eyes behold Thy return in mercy to Zion. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who restorest Thy divine presence unto Zion." Among other numerous examples, the return to Zion is included in the grace after meals and Passover Seder tables resonate every year with the refrain "Next Year in Jerusalem."
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The destruction of the two Temples inflicted upon the Jewish people a profound sense of immeasurable loss. The trauma of the Temple and the exile from Jerusalem (Continued on page 5)
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h't Celebrations m Tel Aviv Following UN Partition Plan Declaration, November 29,1947 Courtesy Isratl Governmtnt Press Office
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Ihe Land of Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish people.-Around the 17th century B.C.E., the Jewish patriarch Abraham settled in Canaan, later known as the Land of Israel. According to the Bible, Abraham moved to Canaan at God's command and there Abraham spread the belief in one God. God promised Abraham that the land would later be inherited by Abraham's descendants. When famine overcame Canaan, Jacob and his sons left for Egypt. There, the Jewish people were later enslaved. Moses was chosen by God to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. In the course of their journey through the Sinai desert the Israelites received the Torah, including the Ten Commandments. Following a long sojourn through the desert, the Jewish 'people returned to Canaan around the 12th century B.C.E. under the leadership of Joshua. They conquered and settled the land. For years, the twelve Israelite tribes were only loosely united; Jerusalem was dominated by Jebusites who were allied with other local kings and formed an enclave that separated the northern and southern Israelite tribes. King David, the second king of the Israelites, united the Israelite tribes and established his capital city in Hebron, which remained the capital of the Jewish people for seven years. Around 1000 B.C.E. King David conquered Jerusalem and made it the political and administrative seat of his kingdom. Centrally located and unconquered by any of the Israelite tribes, Jerusalem provided King David with an ideal territorial focus around which the different tribes could rally. He brought the Ark of the Covenant with him to Jerusalem. Ever since, the history of the Jewish people has revolved around the history of Jerusalem. David's son, King Solomon, inherited the throne around 965 B.C.E. He constructed the holy Temple in Jerusalem rendering the city the spiritual as well as the political center of the Israelite nation. Solomon also expanded foreign trade and promoted economic development throughout the country. After Solomon's death in 930 B.C.E., the monarchy split into two kingdoms, the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Israel encompassed the territory of ten of the Israelite tribes; its capital was Samaria. The Kingdom of Judah included the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; its capital was Jerusalem. • In the eighth century B.C.E., the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom and exiled its inhabitants. The Kingdom of Judah remained intact until 586 B.C.E., when the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and exiled Jerusalem's residents to Babylon. While the Babylonian conquest brought an end to the First Jewish Commonwealth, it did not sever the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. In Babylon, the Jews lamented their great loss: "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion." Babylon fell to the Persians in 538 B.C.E. and Persian King Cyrus the Great allowed the Jewish exiles to return to the Land. The Temple was rebuilt on its historic site, and under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, Jewish life was restored in the Land. Jews enjoyed varying degrees of self-rule under Persian (538-333 B.C.E.) and Hellenistic (332-142 B.C.E.) rule. During the Hellenistic period, the Syrian-based Seleudds prohibited the practice of Judaism and desecrated the Temple. In response to the religious oppression, the Jews, led by Judah Maccabee, revolted in 166 B.C.E. and were victorious. The victory of the Jewish people and the rededication of the Temple are celebrated during the Festival of Chanukah. Following their victory, the Jewish people enjoyed independence and a flourishing Jewish life under the Hasmonean dynasty from 142 to 63 B.C.E. when the country came under Roman rule. At first, the Jews enjoyed limited self-rule under the Romans but frequent attempts to restore the Hasmonean dynasty led to defeat and the Land became a vassal state of the Roman Empire. , In 37 B.C.E., Herod was appointed King of Judea by the Romans and he was. granted almost unlimited autonomy in the internal affairs of Judea. After his death
in 4 B.C.E., the authority of his heirs diminished and Judea was brought under direct Roman administration in 6 C.E. . , ' '. Roman rule was harsh and hostility toward Jewish religious traditions provoked a great Jewish uprising in 66 C.E. The revolt took four years to suppress arid culminated in the siege of Jerusalem. In 70, Titus led the Romans into Jerusalem, burnt down the Temple and destroyed the city. An estimated one million Jews perished in the siege of Jerusalem alone. Many others were killed throughout the country and tens of thousands were sold into slavery. Another Jewish revolt, launched in 132 C.E., restored Jewish sovereignty for three years and was suppressed in 135 C.E. The Romans renamed the country Palaestina in an effort to eradicate the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. A few thousand Jews remained in the Land of Israel after the second exile. The . priests of the Temple were replaced by rabbis and in the absence of a central place of worship, the synagogue became the focal point of the community. The Land of Israel became part of the Byzantine Empire and the country underwent Christianization. The Jews who had remained in the country carried on with Jewish life. They were forbidden from holding public positions and were banned from entering Jerusalem except on one day of the year to mourn the destruction of the Temple. • The Jews welcomed and aided the Persian invasion of the country in 614 and the Persians granted them the administration of Jerusalem. The Byzantine army short: ly reentered Jerusalem and again expelled its Jewish population. In 636, the Arabs conquered the land and ruled it for over 400 years. In 717, Muslim rulers introduced Continued on next page
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JULY 1882
1883
FBBRUABY 1 8 9 6
Beginning of Fast Aliyah, BOW pioneers arrive in Palestine
Baron Edmond do Rothschild begins support of Jewish settlement in Palestine; Founding of Hovevei Tzion movement in Odessa
Thcodor Herd's Xkr ludmstaal. The Jewish Slate, is published
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AUGUST V 8 9 7
1904
First Zionist Congress convenes in Basle, Switzerland; Creation of World Zionist Organization
Beginning of Second Aliyah; Death of Theodor Hercl
restrictions against non-Muslims. Increasing religious, social and economic discrimination led many Jews to leave the country. Nevertheless, the Jewish population of Palestine reached 300,000 by the year 1000. In 1099, the Crusaders conquered the country and dominated it until 1291. When the Knights' of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem in July 1099, they massacred most of the city's non-Christian inhabitants and barred Jews from living in Jerusalem. In the years afterward, massacres of Jews were widespread leading to a dramatic decline in the Jewish population. Jews were permitted to resettle in Jerusalem when Saladin overthrew the Crusaders in 1187. The Crusaders restored their control in 1193 but were conquered by the Mamluks in 1291. The Crusaders opened up transportation routes from Europe and increasing numbers of Jews sought to return to their homeland. During this time, a group of 300 rabbis from Prance and England arrived, with some settling in Akko and others in Jerusalem. An Aliya from North Africa took place from 1191-1198. Under Mamluk rule (1291-1516), the country became a backwater province ruled from Damascus. Fearing new crusades, the Mamluks destroyed port cities and international commerce was interrupted. The Jews lived in poverty. Nevertheless, about 8,000 Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition came in the late 15th .century.
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In 1517, the Ottoman Turks captured the land and ruled it for four centuries. At the time, the Jews primarily lived in Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza, Safad and the villages of the Galilee. The community included descendants of Jews who had never left the land as well as immigrants from North Africa and Europe.
The Ottoman administration initially brought improvements to the land which stimulated Jewish immigration. The majority of Jews settled in the holy dty of Safad, where, by the beginning of the 18th century, the Jewish population had risen to about 16,000. Safad became a thriving textile center as well as the focus of intense intellectual activity. One hundred years later however, the Jewish population of the dty, dwindled to 3,000 people in the wake of heavy Ottoman taxation and tyranny. The entire Jewish population of the country fell to between 5,000 and 6,000, jews fleeing pogroms in the Ukraine came in the mid-17th century as did some of the adherents of Shabbtai Zevi, the leader of a pseudo-messianic movement. Hundreds of Hasidic Jews immigrated in 1700 from Eastern Europe. From the beginning of the 19th century, thousands of pious Jews set out from the ghettos of Eastern Europe to pray and die in the four sacred dties of the Holy Land: Hebron, Jerusalem, Safad and Tiberias. Jews immigrating to Jerusalem in the 18th and early 19th centuries dramatically changed the population balance in Jerusalem, ' making Jews the largest single religious community in the dry by 1844. The Jews were very poor; a few were cobblers, tailors and small shopkeepers, but most lived on donations collected on their behalf in Europe. . . Conditions in Palestine again improved in the mid-19th century as European nations increased their presence in the Holy Land and by 1856> the Jewish population of Palestine exceeded 17,000. _: v • Individual Jewish migration to Palestine continued without interruption and in 1880, as the organized Zionist movement began to emerge, the Jewish population in Palestine numbered approximately 25,000. .'
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191O Founding of Ta Aviv-the first modem all-Jewish city
Founding of Degaitia - the fust Kibbutz
1917 British issue Balfoor Dedmation, recognizing the light to a Jewish homeland in Palestine
1917 British conquest of Palestine
1919 Beginning of Thinl AUyah
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EARLY ZIONIST THOUGHT
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arly Zionist thinkers emerged in both Eastern and Western Europe and were both religious and secular Jews. They all witnessed first-hand the persecution of their brethren and lived in a time of nationalism and radical ideologies. Their ideas and actions laid the groundwork for the coalescing of Zionist thought and action under Theodor Herd. Contrary to the prevailing sentiment among religious Jews of the time which dictated that the return to Zion would be realized only at the hands of Divine forces, two pious rabbis believed that it was in the power of the Jewish people themselves to initiate the return to the land.
... as the first step in the redemption of our souls, we must cause at least twenty-two thousand to return to the Holy hand. This is the necessary preparation for a descent of the Divine Presence among us; afterward. He will grant us and all Israel further signsiqfHis favor... We, as a people, are properly called Israel only in the land of Israel.. . Redemption must come slowly. The land must, by degrees, be built up and prepared. . . It is not impossiblefor us to, carry out the commandment to return to the Holy Land... I ask of our brethren that they organize a company, on the mode of the fire insurance companies and of the railroad companies. Let this company appeal to the Sultan to give us back the land of our ancestors in return for an annual rent. Once the name of Israel is again applied to our land, all Jews will be inspired to help this company with all the means at their disposal. Though this venture will begin modestly, its future will be very great.
European society. Active in socialist circles, he abandoned Jewish traditions and concerns until later in life when his interest in the fate of his own people was rekindled. In 1862, he published Rome and Jerusalem, a manifesto on his general theory of national socialism and Jewish nationalism which later inspired the socialist wing of the Zionist movement (Seepg.5) Loo PJas&or (1821-1891) was an assimilated Russian.Jew who believed that Russia would become a liberal constitutional monarchy in which all people would be equal. He was deeply affected by the brutal Russian pogroms of 1881 and came to believe that the security of
The eternal problem presented by the Jewish question stirs men today as The Redemption of Israel,forwhich we long, is not to be imagined as a sudden miracle. The Almighty, blessed be His Name, will not suddenly it did ages ago... The essence of the problem, as we see it, lies in thefact that, descend from on high and command His people to go forth. . . the in the midst of the nations among whom the Jews reside, they form a disRedemption of Israel will come by slow degrees and the ray of deliverance tinctive element which cannot be assimilated, which cannot be readily digest. will shine forth gradually. My dear reader! Cast aside the conventional view ed by any nation... that the Messiah will suddenly sound a blast on the great trumpet and cause No such equality in rank appears in the intercourse of the nations with all the inhabitants of the earth to tremble. On the contrary, the Redemption the Jews... Unfortunately, although such equality indeed existed in a long will begin by awakening support among the philanthropists and by gaining forgotten past, we can hope to see it restored only in the very remote future, the consent of the nations to the gathering of some of the scattered of Israel far under present conditions any dream of the admission of the Jewish people into the Holy Land... I would suggest that an organization be established to into the ranks of the other nations seems illusory.'.. The Jewish people has no encourage settlement in the Holy Land, far the purpose of purchasing and fatherland of its own, though many motherlands; it has no rallying point, no cultivating farms and vineyards. Such a program would appear as a ray of center of gravity, no government of its own, no accredited representatives. It deliverance to those now living in the Land in poverty and famine... The sit- is everywhere a guest, and nowhere at home. uation would be different if we were inspiredby the fervor of working the We must prove that the misfortunes of the Jews are due, above all, to land with our own hands... Another great advantage of agricultural settle- their hick of desire for national independence; and that this desire must be ment is that we would have the privilege of observing the religious com- aroused and maintained in them if they do not wish to exist forever in a dismandments that attach to working the soil of the Holy Land... Jewish farm- graceful state -in a word, we must prove that they must become a nation..-. ing would be a spur to the ultimate Messianic Redemption. we are nowhere at home... we finally must have a home, if not a country of ourown If we would have a secure home, so that we may give up our endless life Rabbi Yehuda Alkalal (1798- in the wake of the rise of the Reform movement which was calling for the abanof wandering and rehabilitate our nation in our own eyes and in the eyes of 1878) was the rabbi of Semlin, the capital of Serbia. Having spent his boyhood . donment of many of Judaism's beliefs the world, we must above all, not dream of restoring ancient Judea. We must in Jerusalem, he was influenced by and rituals. He preached faith in the tra- not attach ourselves to the place where our political life was once violently Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. He was dition including faith in the Messiah and interrupted and destroyed. The goal of our present endeavors must be not the also deeply affected by the 1840 blood the special relationship of the Jew to the Holy Land, but a land of ourown... libel against the Jews of Damascus and Land of Israel. Rabbi Kalischer actively The civil and political emancipation of the Jews is not sufficient to raise promoted Jewish settlement in the Holy believed that the Jewish people would Land. He was instrumental in getting a them in the estimation of the peoples. The proper and the only remedy would only be secure in their ancestral homeland. Rabbi Alkalai actively promoted group of Jews to buy land for coloniza- be the creation of a Jewish nationality, of a people living upon its own soil, the creation of Jewish colonies in the Holy tion on the outskirts of Jaffa in 1866 and the auto-emancipation of the Jews; their emancipation as a nation among Land as the precursor to the Redemption in the founding of the first agricultural nations by the acquisition of a home of their own... In order that we may not and moved to Palestine himself in 1874. school in Israel, Mikveh Israel. be constrained to wander from one exile to another, we must have an extenMoses Hoas (1812-1875) was a Rabbi Zvl Hlracfa Kailscher sive and productive place of refuge, a gathering place which is our own. German-Jewish intellectual who initial(1795-1874) was born in Poland and was a leading defender of traditional Judaism
1920 British Mandate over Palestine issued
ly advocated Jewish assimilation into
JULY 1922
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Churchill White Paper separates Txansjordan from area designated for creation of Jewish homeland and links Jewish immigration to 'economic capacity of the country"
(Above passages reprinted with permission from Arthur Hertzberg, ed., The Zionist Idea: A.Hislorkal Analysis and Reader, Š 1997, Jewish Publication Society)
1924-1932
AUGUST 1929
OCTOSSQ i $ s o
Fourth Aliyah
Arabs riot in Jerusalem; Massacres of Jews in Hebron and Safad
Passfidd White Paper limits Jewish immigration to Palestine and forbids Jewish land purchases
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the Jewish people was dependent on their establishing a national homeland. Pinsker traveled throughout Europe urging Jewish leaders to support the resettlement of Jews in Palestine. He became the leader
of the Hibbat Zion movement and convened its founding conference in 1884; the movement established several colonies in Palestine.
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After twenty years of estrangement I have returned to my people... The Jews have lived and labored among the nations for almost two thousand years, but nonetheless they cannot become rooted organically within (hem. A sentiment which 1 believed I had suppressed beyond recall is alive once again. It is (he thought of my nationality, which is inseparably connected with my ancestral heritage, with the Holy Land and the Eternal City, the birthplace of the belief in the divine unity of life and of the hope for the ultimate brotherhood of all men... Because of the hatred that surrounds him on all sides, the German Jew is determined to cast off all signs of his Jewishness and to deny his race.. .As long as the Jew denies his nationality, as long as he lacks the character to acknowledge that he belongs to that unfortunate, persecuted, and maligned people, his false position must become ever more intolerable... What we have to do at presentfor the regeneration ofthe Jewish'nation is, first, to keep alive the hope of (he political rebirth of our people, and, next, to reawaken, that hope where it slumbers. When political conditions in the Orient shape themselves so as to permit the organization of a beginning of the restoration of a Jewish stale, this beginning will express itself in the founding of Jewish colonies in the land of their ancestors, to which enterprise France will undoubtedly lend a hand... Tlie holy spirit, tlie creative geiiitis of tlie people, out ofwliicli Jewish life and teaching arose, deserted Israel when its children began tofeel ashamed of their nationality. But mis spirit wi& again animate our people when it awakens to I a new life, it will create new (kings which we cannot at present even imagine... The mahipwvlemtf the Jeu^imtioMmovaneiit is not of a religious nature but centers awundoiw point, namdy, on now to aioakentite patriotic sentimait in the hearts of our progressive Jews, and how toliberate the Jewish masses, by means of this reawakened patriotism, from a spirit-deadening formalism... Every Jew is, whetlter he wishes it or not, bound unbreakably to the entire nation... The Jewish people will participate in the great historical movement of present-day humanity only when it will have its own fatherland... . There has been a central unity among the Jews at all times, even among those who were scattered to the very confines of the earth. Jews have maintained a relation with their spiritual centers, wherever these have been. No nation has everfelt as keenly, to mefurthest extremities of its national organism, any movement occurring in its spiritual nerve center as have the Jews. Even in antiquity, the dispersion to the very ends of the world did not hinder the scattered members of this remarkable people from participating in every national undertaking,fromsharing the fortunes and misfortunes of fate... As long as an independent Jewish state does not exist and is not recognized in international law as a member of thefamily of civilized nations, the Jews who live in exile must necessarily strive to obtain naturalization and emancipation, even though they are by no means abandoning the hope of the ultimate restoration of Qte Jewish state.
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1931
1939.1939
1936-1939
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Fifth Aliyah
Arab revolt
Fed Commission tcport icoommcnds partition of Palestine
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Founding of Jewish undogrtrand 1f
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easr 1939 MadJanald White Paper limits Jewish immigration and prohibits Jews from purchasing Arab land
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odern political Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in response to the violent persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, anti-Semitism in Western Europe; and the rise of both radical socialist and liberal nationalist movements throughout Europe. Rooted in the Jewish people's biblical and historical ties to their ancestral, homeland, and their centuries-long yearning to return to the land of Israel, modem Zionism successfully fused the ancient and the modern into a vision of creating a Jewish state in the land of Israel. As a journalist in Vienna, Theodor Herzl (b. 1860) was deeply shaken by the antiSemitism surrounding the Dreyfus Affair - the trial of a French Jewish army officer unjustly accused of treason. Herzl argued that antiSemitism would persist until VieodorHerzl and unless Jews became a sovereign natioa Trie modern Zionist movement aimed to solve the "Jewish problem" the predicament of a minority people who had been subjected to discrimination, persecution, exile and death over the centuries. As the father of modern Zionism, Herzl consolidated the various strands of Zionism already in existence into a modem, organized, political movement Convening the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, in August 1897, Herzl brought the Zionist project to the forefront of Jewish and world attention. In his diary, Herzl wrote: "In Basle, I created the Jewish State." At the Basle conference, the Zionist movement articulated its goals - a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. The Zionist movement included diverse groups from Socialist Zionists to Religious Zionists. Although the different factions had often radically differing conceptions of the nature of the future Jewish homeland, they cooperated towards reaching the goal of creating a Jewish state in their ancestral home. At the time, not all Jews supported the primary goal of Zionism.. Many religious Jews believed that the return to Zion could not be initiated by man and had to wait until God sent the Messiah. Many liberal, secular Jews believed that the Jewish people should assimilate into die nations in which they lived rather than roster an independent Jewish nationalism. Others maintained that the social and economic ideologies sweeping Europe at die time would
(Left) First Meeting of Labor Zionists, Zichron Yaakov, 1903 Courtesy Centnit Zionist Archives
(Above) Zionist Organization meeting, Teheran, 1911 Courtesy Central Zionist Archives
inevitably solve the Jewish problem. Zionist positions also differed widely on how to achieve.statehood. Some advocated concentrating resources on creating facts on the ground - immigration, agricultural settlement of the land, a Jewish-based economy, etc Others supported focusing more resources on obtaining international recognition for statehood. As the reality of statehood neaied, Zionist leaders were also divided whether they should accept whatever is allotted to them or should they hold out for more territory. Herzl traveled tirelessly around the world seeking international recognition and diplomatic support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Before his death in 1904, he had convened six Zionist Congresses at which many Zionist institutions were founded including the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund. Modern Zionism also embodied a revitalization of Jewish culture and the Jewish spiri t Cultural Zionist Ahad Ha'am (1856-1927) believed (hat the spiritual and cultural revival of the Jewish people had to precede die national revival. Ellezer Ben-Yehuda (18571922) stressed die renaissance of die Hebrew language as a prerequisite to Jewish national and cultural restoration. He is die founder of modem Hebrew, a language which previously had been used only in liturgy and literature. For others, Zionism represented Jewish empowerment Vladimir JaboBnsky (18801940) helped organize a Jewish self-defense corps in Odessa in 1903 and later convinced the British to form diree Jewish battalions to fight in Palestine during the First World War. Jabotinsky later formed a self-defense corps in Jerusalem and promoted rapid mass immigration to Palestine and Jewish military self-sufficiency. He came into conflict with die official Zionist leadership, many of whom were wary of taking actions which
would antagonize die British. Jabotinsky founded the Revisionist Party in 1925, of which the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin was a leading member. Other Zionist leaders focused on developing Jewish sodal service institutions. Henrietta Szold (1860-1945) founded Hadassah, the premier women's Zionist organization which helped establish a chain of medical institutions in Palestine. Socialist Zionist leader Berl Katznelson (1887-1944) was a leading figure jn the establishment of die Histadrut labor federation and its medical unit, Kupat Holim Klalit. Odier Zionists saw a Jewish state in religious terms. Rabbi Samuel Mohilever (18241898) was an early religious Zionist who blended Orthodox Judaism with modern Jewish nationalism. He was active in die Hibbat Zion movement arid founded what later developed into die religious Zionist movement Mizrachi. Chief Rabbi of Palestine Rabbi Abraham Isaac
Hacohen Kook (1864-1935) based his understanding of Jewish nationalism on traditional Jewish sources and taught that only in Israel can die Jew achieve perfection and true piety. He taught respect and tolerance for all Jews and viewed the return of die Jews to Zion as the beginning of die Redemption. Today, Zionism stands for a safe and secure Israel - a nation open to all Jews seeking bodi refuge and a Jewish homeland, the preservation of Judaism and die Jewish people and die centraiity of Israel in Jewish life all over die world.
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ISiwo hundred and four delegates from 15 H countries met in Basle for the First Zionist Congress on August 29, 1897. American Zionist Dr. Mayer Ebner attended die Congress and over fifty years later, he reflected on the experience:
TheFirstZi(mistCongress}uisalwaysreinainedmystron^stexperienoeand pm^deasiixfbrmymtirefttinie.InmyeaThjyouthInaddreamtoftherevival ofZion's ancient gloryandwhenscarcdy twenty,lltadbeenamongthefounders of Zionist societies in my hometown, Czemawitz. But only the publication of Herd's The Jewish State'gave a meaning and purpose to our hopes. Herd's appearance at tlie solemn opening session of the First Congress has forever remained vivid in my memory and in thefew other survivors. He was welcomed with an enthusiasm as I have never witnessed again in so many important national and international congresses in which I participated in later years. Theodor Herd stood before us, pale and with lowered head, acclaimed by applause which hardly abated. He had not yet uttered a word, yet all of us were spell-bound by the majesty of his personality and cfhis extraordinary mission. Someone called: 'Yehi hamelech' (Long live the king) '1 .<- .J.-''j • tVl .;,-.. >,.V and notafewofus-as theyfreely admitted later-believed in those moments of ecstasy to behold the bodUy Messiah, the Saviour ofIsrael. A Zionist is someone who has the strength to dream and the passion for Many wept. My eyes too werefilledwith tears. One of the secrets ofHerzl's influence was his unusual manly beauty which deeply impressed even the fulfillment in Israel. A Zionist is someone who has the readiness to sacrifice mighty of the earth: Even now, when fully awake, I sometimes still see Herd on behalf of collective Jewish continuity and the whole Jewish people. He or she is proud of these traits, nevertires,and already dreams the next dream,in front of me and hearthering of his voice. Never to be obliterated from my that which our grandchildren will fulfill. Because it is for them we truly toil,memory is the content of his address, which introduced a new epoch ofJewish in the certainty that they will do the samefor their children. ,. history and which will always remain a masterpiece of Ins noble style. (Reprinted with the permission of The Jerusalem Report - C The Jerusalem Report)
MOT Creation of Fabnadi - cariy Jewish defense force
At Biltmoce Conference, American Zionists call for a "Jewish Commonwealth" in Palestine
(FromMemories ofthe'First Zionist Congrcv, ZionX, August 1951)
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194S Injun attacks Kmg David Hotel in Jerusalem
Bxit&in xccus F«ucs&j)£fasiw?to United Nations
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nspired by Zionist ideology and the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, groups of Jews began immigrating to Palestine in die late 19th century. The Jewish community already there was primarily supported by charitable donations from abroad. Many of the new immigrants sought an end to Jewish dependence on charity, and they established agricultural settlements in Palestine in order to work the land. The first modem, organized wave of Jewish immigration is known as the First Aliyah. Aliyah is a Hebrew word meaning ascent and refers to those Jews who ascend or go up to the land of Israel. Between 1882 and 1903,25,000 Jews entered Palestine.
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n 1878 a group of Orthodox Jews from Jerusalem purchased a tract of land in the Sharon Valley, six miles from Jaffa. The 26 families built mud huts to live in and called the farming community Petach Tikvah - Gate of Hope. Malaria, hunger and the flooding caused by the nearby Yarkon River led the early pioneers to abandon their settlement and return to Jerusalem. Newcomers from Europe resettled Petach Tikvah several years later and by 1888 they were receiving financial support from Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the legendary French-Jewish
Petadt Vkvah, 1912 Courtesy Central Zionist Archives
philanthropist who became one of the leading benefactors of early Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine. Hannah Trager was a young girl living in Petach Tikvah in the 1880s. She later recorded her experiences on the agricultural settlement.
When it came to weeding tiie vineyards, welxada hard lesson to learn,. • Day after day I came home with my back breaking, and the skin peeled off my hands and face by the hot sun, crying that I would not-could not-do such work any more. "A nice example," said my mother, "you would set the other girls! Shall it be said that the first colonists came here to lead an easy life, and that their daughters were waited on like finehidies? The pain in your backyou wiUfarget it, but how about the pain in your heart, when you are afterwards looked on as a coward." Then, seeing the tears gather in my eyes, she would add: Think how sweet the grapes will taste when you remember the hard work in tiie vineyard. Take courage, my child, the worst will soon be over." So it was - the weeding came to an end, and a little later we had the pleasure of seeing our first young olive-trees planted, and were all impatient to pluck and eat the first olives. (Reprinted with permission from Pioneers in Palestine: Stories of the First Settlers in Pelach TiJhwft, © 1976, Hyperion Press)
Hn contrast to the early pioneers who came Uto Palestine with socialist principles to work the land, a wave of Yemenite Jews came to Palestine for purely religious reasons. In the following account, American Christian woman Bertha Vesper, who lived in Jerusalem in the American Colony in the late 19th century, describes the arrival of Yemenite Jews in Jerusalem and the help the American Colony extended to them:
They told father about their immigration from Yemen and their arrival in Palestine. Suddenly, they said, without teaming, a spirit seemed to fall on them and they began to speak about returning to tlte land of Israel. They were so convinced that this was Ote right and appointed time to return to Palestine that they sold their property and turned other convertible belongings into cash and started for the Promised Land... Father was interested in the Gadites at once. Their story about their unprovoked conviction that this was the time to return to Palestine coincided with what he felt sure was coming to pass - the fulfillment of the prophecy of OK return of the Jews to Palestine... They regarded as true the tradition that they belonged to the tribe of Gad. They believed that they had not gone into captivity in Babylon, and that they had not retumedat the time of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the temple. For thousands of years they had remained in Yemen, hence their purity of race and feature... Father believed that "Blessed be lie tiiatenlargeth Gad," and the Group did everytiung in their power to help these immigrants. We catted them Gadites from Butt time. They were in dreadful need when we found them. .*No time was lost in getting relief started. The Group rented rooms, and the Gadites were installed in coolerand more sanitary quarters. Medical Mp was immediately brought. After the British occupation of Palestine and Ote advent of the Zionist organization; with its resources and vast maclu'nery to meet pressing necessities, afterforty years our list of dependent Gadites was taken over by them. Even then, individuals continued to come to Ote doors of the American Colony to ask our help... (Excerptedfrom OurJerusalem, © 1977,Anio Press)
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Creation of the State of Israel; U S . end Soviet Union extend recognition; Creation of Israel Defense Forces
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(Above) Risfon L'Zion, 1910s (Below) Rehovol, 1912
E|3he First Aliyah was followed by four H other waves of immigration. The Second Aliyah (1904-1914) was sparked by a fresh wave of persecution of Jews in Russia. An estimated 40,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine during this time. Although First Aliyah immigrants initiated agricultural settlement of the land, by the end oi the wave, only 5,000 of the 25,000 immigrants were living in rural settlements. Agricultural settlement really took off during the Second Aliyah. . In 1933, the year Hitler came to power, Jewish immigration to Palestine markedly increased. Coming primarily from Central Europe, these Jews brought with them a great deal of capital, as well as skills and experience in industry, science, banking, medicine, law and international commerce. By 1936, the Jewish population of Palestine. was close to 400,000.
British Soldiers Mooing Illegal Immigrants to Deportation Ship from Haifa to Cyprus Detention Camp, November 26,1947
Deborah Dayan, the mother of legendary Israeli war hero Moshe Dayan, immigrated to Palestine from Russia. She was a member of the collective settlement of Degania, the first kibbutz. In her memoirs she recalled her inner struggles in Russia and what motivated her to immigrate to Palestine during the Second Aliyah.
JAHUABTV 1 9 4 9 United Nations votes to partition Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states
A^^^M. %.. JHH
Assassination of U N Mediator Count Folke Bemadotte by extremist Jews
Israel War of Independence ends; Israel's first national elections
FBBSUABY 1 9 4 9 Egypt and Israel sigh an Armistice ' Agreement *
I was tiie only Jewish ghim the entire Russian village-nor did 1forgetthat fad for a single moment of my life. This world to which Iliad given myself, and which wrapped me around so closely, was not my own. And yet that doubt haunted me. It pursued mefrom the village into the city, followed me down the corridors of the University, faced me in the might-lit theatre and sat opposite me at the writing desk in my beloved study. Was I choosing the right path? AMmmunforgettabkm'gMImademydedshm...Ombyone0m^wimm meweTvteamig.loouMtiotluxa-whatmycommksweresaj/ingJhamlinstadtlw desolate howling of the wolves in the nearby zoo and something in my heart responded. My life, my whole life has been a mistake till now! The people to whom I have dedicated myself till now is not my own: lama stranger in its midst. And that other people, my own people, is a stranger to me. I know nothing of its life and language. Yes, I know the little tailor^ the little shopkeeper-but they are not the people... where are the masses ofmyownpeople? I must begin again, from the very beginning... I packed my things, and in the morning left by the first boat for my parents' home in the village... I sit fingering my father's letters. I know that most of them are from Palestine or about Palestine, but I cannot read a single word... Then suddenly I come across a letter in Russian, from Vladimir Tiomkin, the Zionist leader. I remember now that my father had told me about this letter long ago - but in those days it had all been alien to me. But now every word of that letter is like a seed in ploughed soil. A stronger passion wakes in me with every line and then suddenly, like a thunderbolt, comes the unalterable resolution: there, in Palestine, are the workers of my people! I will go to them, and become one of them. Other thoughts rise, attempt to disturb me, but they are carried away as by a strong wind. ..lam alone in the white wilderness, and unashamed I shout at the top of my voice: "I am going to Palestine!" The ship drives through the storm, and a cold, wet mist clings to the waters and to the ship. My fellow passengers cower together for warmth, but in me there is only a fierce jubilation. I stand alone on the deck, untouched by the cold and darkness. I know nothing of the land I am going to, and there is not a single person there I have met. I only know that there are men and women working for their people, and I belong to them... Hseemstomethatcmhjyaterdaylxoasathmgwmbydmbtsandhesitations. In the noisy city, in the great library, in the museum, in the dosses, the question would suddenly confront metVlhy are you doing these things? Who needs you? Cm'ttheyfowithmtyouandpajpkldxymlAndinsuchmomentsaparalysmg apathy would creep over me;! wanted to see no one, speak with no one. But now?MycomrodesoKoutm0wfieM,mouHngmeharvestwhichwehavesown. Close by I hear the mill grinding out grain. And theflourfrom the mill comes straight to me, and I bake the bread for all of us. Bread is surely needed. (Reprinted with permission from The Plough Woman: Memoirs of the Pioneer Women of Palestine, Š 1975, Herzl Press - World Zionist Organization) '
Illegal Immigrant Ship Carrying 750 Returnees from the Cyprus Detention Camp, October 3,1947
British Soldiers Deporting Illegal Jewish Immigrant Recently Arrived at Haifa Port, 'November 1947
1949 Lebanon and Israel sign an Armistice Agreement
Ihmsjordan and Israel sign en Armistice Agreement
(Illegal Jejvish Immigrants,
1940s
In July 1882, thirteen young men and one young woman sailed to Jaffa. They were part of a Russian Zionist group called BILU, a Hebrew biblical acrostic of "House of Jacob,
let us go." The following are excerpts from the diary of Bilu pioneer Chaim Chissin, recorded between February 1882 and October 1B84 and published in 1926:
These are bad times for the Jews, yet the continuing reports of more pogroms seem to push people toward action rather than into greater distress and confusion. The terror of recent events has made it impossible for anyone among us to remain indifferent; even smug and complacent Jews have been awakened, rudely enough,from what must have seemed a sound, sweet sleep. Until these pogroms began I myself had thrust aside my Jewish origins... A strong movement has started in one segment of the Jewish community for settlement in Palestine. I have thought hard about this idea and have come to the conclusion that this is the only solution for our people. My doubts have vanished. Judaism still has a great future, a glorious, historical goal and so there is still a good and fruitful field of work for honest and devoted sons of Israel. I have found a meaning in the word "Jew." This great ideal of renascence is worthy of hard work... We have organized a group of intelligent young people who intend to emigrate to the Holy Land and to devote themselves to farming there. We have no money, but we are sure that once we are then we will be helped to settle quickly. There are people everywhere who sympathize deeply with the idea of settlement. Many organizations and influential people have already promisedto help us... These are the mam facts about our organization: we are called Bilu, have a membership of 525 people belonging to several groups.. .The goal of the group is to set up a model settlement to serve as an example for all Jewry. Each group must be ready to set out for Odessa as soon as it receives its call from the Central Bureau.,.. At 5 o'clock this morning we approached Jaffa, like all coastal cities it is very pretty from the sea. ..It seems to be customary in Jaffafin-crowds of Arabs to hurry down to the shore whenever a Russian ship comes in. Ifs a great event. The whole inquisitive motley crew press together to enjoy the sight of "Muscovite Jews" being refused permission to land. You can easily imagine how wefeltinthat situation, what was in our hearts, and how unbearable it was to bethe targetofthosethousands of mocking eyes.. As darkness fell, we began to hear the sound of singing which gradually Continued on next page
HAT 1949
JUW1949
U N vrte) to accept Israel as a member state
Syria and Israel sign an Armistice
Itansjonltin annexes West Bank a n d , renames ares Hasheznite Ktagdooi of Jotdan
ILUGA& IMMIOBM1ON,
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n the 1920s and 1930s, the British capitulated to Arab demands to limit' Jewish immigration to Palestine and they issued a series of "White Papers" rendering Jewish immigration illegal. The White Paper of 1939 limited Jewish immigration to Palestine at 10,000 people per voar for five years. The Haganah and other1 agendes established a jiecret, underground network to continue the flow of Jews to Palestine. In the 1930s, this underground network saved many Jews from perishing in Nazi Europe.
became dearer and louder. These were our Biluim returning from work. They had already heard of our arrival and were incredibly happy about it. They washed, combed their hair, changed their clothes, and then gathered out on the balcony. Vie told them all the news from Russia and Constantinople, and they told us all about Jaffa.... the talking went on until well after midnight. This was my first night in the Holy Land... Before we went out to work, we each filled a djar with water and took one of the shovels. The djar is a large Arab earthenware pitcher which holds about as much liquid as a bucket. The Arabs use it far water, wine, honey and butter... The soil that we raised hid to be weeded carefully so that none of'theweedsor grassroots remained. Standing in a row with the others, lhad no idea whatlwas supposed to be doing.'Nevertheless 1 began to flail about energetically with my shovel in every direction. Before long, my palms began to blister; then theblisters burst and my hands begantobleed... -,.:" : twos very despondent those first days, for (he work tormented me, and although my hands did become hardened S1&3SS ©S> SSS&EB. . J l i fter the creation of the state, Israel irti- to it after a while, I suffered greatly from the ache in my back. Although the fatigue is no longer as great as it was on JPiatiated emergency) rescue airlifts of the first day, the constant bending is back-breaking. My comrades work very hard and never despair. Their example endangered Jewish communities. One of the is a great source of strength for me... more legendary rescue operations, dubbed Operation Magic Carpet, Was th^ airlifting I have as yet written very little about our life here, but it has cost me an unbelievable effort to write even that lit-, to Israel of the Jews of Yemen. By September 1950, nearly 50,000 Yemenite Jews were flown tie. Of"19 men,therearenevermore than 12,ana' sometimes as few as 8 able to'go to work. OUT state of indebtedto the fledgling nation. ' ness is practically total. If the Arab storekeepers were not absolutely convinced that we are incredibly rich, we would Yemenite Jews made their way to refugee certainly be dead of starvation. As it is, our diet is scant enough. We have bread, grapes and bean soup at night. We . camps in Aden where they then'boarded have tea only at night, and we don't even talk about meat... planes to Israel. By the time many reached Aden they were sick and frail; conditions in The group is constantly being split apart by disagreements and quarrels. By studying thefaces and the attitudes of the camps were poor, at best, and many the people, I came to realize with regret that the caliber of the group is not at all what we had expected to find. Members contracted diseases such as malaria. Traveling the roads, to reach the camps was danger- of a society with such a resounding name, composed of people who call themselves intelligent pioneers in the great ous. Nevertheless, Yemenite Jews flooded cause of settling in the Holy Land should, itseemstome,beaboverep^vacLlfiheyaKnotsonow,iheycouUbe.The^ Aden, longing for their return to the Holy are people who have spared neither strength nor health in the cause, and have worked with both love and endurance. Land. In 89 flights, a record number of 11,760 people were cleared from the camp They have already made great sacrifices and are willing to make more. Certainly if our leaders stood as high as their and flown to Israel in Octoberl949 alone. mission, then the intellectual activity and the environment would elevate the workers spiritually and impel them to accept the authority of others...
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Tlie settlers prepared a set of by-laws which included a ban on all luxuries or open violations of Jewish religious law and custom. Their greatest concern however, was with communal life in the settlement. The land was to be worked on a communal basis, with each person receiving a share in the harvest commensurate with the amount of land he held; however, the land as such was not divided, and no one's section marked out. To regulate and equalize the work, so that no man should work more than another, a fund was set up into which each owner put a sum of money proportionate to the number ofdunams lie owned. Out of this common fund each farmer was paid one franc and a half for each working day. One of the settlers was appointed as overseer and everyone agreed to obey this "uncle" as he was called. To begin with, they set to work to clear thehill of thorn bushes, to dig canals and lay out roads... Long-forgotten enthusiasms, hopes and beliefs returned; the body was resilient once again, and old muscles regainedtheirformer ease. Those brave, unattainable desires of which a Jew, even in his sleep, never dared to dream were being realized by thesefortunate few. Their shackles had been broken and they were free. All the rights which the rest of the world enjoyed now were theirs as well; they were human beings. With heads high and a sense of dignity they had never known before, they could now look straight into the eyes of the whole world. They were no longer newcomers, nor were they aliens in this land where every hand's breadth is saturated with the blood of our ancestors, where every knoll and every stone tells our history, where every step brings memories which simultaneously touch and tear at the heart of the Jew... They had returned to the arms of their mother, to a parental homefull of welcome... Stirred by such noble feelings, the settlers lived together like brothers, they ate and drank together, and shared their joys and sorrows. No one spared himself in the attempt to promote the welfare of the settlement... That beauty ofthe farming life which our imaginations painted in such bright colors - what is it?... There is no trace of poetry here, only the plainest of everyday prose. Our failures have made everything seem loathsome... But now the time of our independence is far off, the assistance we are receiving has become an end, not a means, and little by little, this assistance seems to take on the farm of outright charity which we seem destined to be in need for many, many years to come. Having arrived at this conclusion, many a young man has begun to think of leaving Palestine, and I, too, have decided to leave Rishon LeZion, although I don't yet know what I shall do... (Reprinted with permission from A Palestinian Diary: Memoirs oja Bilu Planter 18B2-1887, © 1926, Hcrzl Press - World Zionist Organization)
JULY195O
JULY 1951
JULY 1936
OCTOBEB 1 9 B 6
HABCH 1957
b r a d passes Law of Return
Assassination of Jordanian King Abdullah by Palestinian extremists
Egyptian President Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal
Israel Britain and France attack Egypt
Israel withdraws from Sinai and Gaza
Yemenite Immigrants
Yemenite
Courtesy Israel Government Press Office
Courtesy Israel Government Press Office
Immigrants
At 4:30 o'clock the afternoon of the sixth day out all passengers were summoned to a meeting on thefbredeck. They were addressed from the bridge by a Haganah worker. He gave them instructions about how they should act if they were captured and questioned by the British. There were cheers and applause when he said: "Asfar as we are concerned, you are already citizens of Eretz Israel, whatever the English say." He warned that there were still many difficulties ahead, but one of his warnings created a reaction that seemed natural to all of us. "For a while you may find you have not gone to Eretz, buttoa prison in Eretz." There was a burst of relieved laughter. Prison didn't matter so long as it was a prison in Eretz... We were told to line up on deck and proceed one by one to the captain's cabin, where we would be given our illegal immigration certificates. WeeachfiUedoutabluecertifuxtteprintedinHebiuomonesideandmEnglish on the other. It was called, "Permit to Enter Palestine." We wrote in our name, the names of our parents, the place and date of our birth, and our nationality by birth. The certificate stated that we "had been found qualified by the representatives of the Jewish Community of Palestinefor repatriation to Eretz Israel." The certificate cited four authorities for the Jewish community's action. The first was from Ezekxeh "And they shall abide in the lands that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers abode, and they shall abide therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children, forever." The second was from Isaiah: "With great mercies will I gathertiiee."The third was Lord Balfbur's Declaration of 2 November 1917, and the last was The Mandate for Palestine... The next morning the Sabbath sky was blue and cloudless. Services were held on deck again, and as a special honor the captain and the underground Haganah emissary were called up to read the TorakThe captain was called up as the hero and he read the Maftir, the regular weekly portion from the prophets. The Maftir that morning had special significance for all of us. It was 66 Isaiah 13, and those who understood Hebrew wept as they heard the words of the ancient prophecy: "As one whom Ids mother comfbrteth, so will I comfort ye; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." (Excerpted from Underground to Palestine, © 1978 Pantheon Books)
Yemenite
It's difficult to put into words, but it gives me a strange feeling to see theseJews.TheywanderaboutonfbotjbrweekstUltheyreachthecampnear Aden. They arrive hungry and sick and naked. All they have in (his world are afew pots and pans and a brass water pipe, maybe a stove. But youil find every man carrying his Bible, and every other man clinging to a huge holy parchment scroll clasped in front of him. That camp is just a piece of desert with almost nothing on it, just afew tents and straw mats, but they behave as if they had just stepped into Paradise. Then we pile them into those planes and they're terribly confused, but they keep mum. When (hey climb out at Lydda, you feel they're so excited they ought to throw themselves on the ground and kick, yet what do they do? They move about with shining eyes and don't say a word. They look to me like people going awake through a dream. I don't know what makes them tick, but they're wonderful to me. (Reprinted with permission from Shlomo Barer, Tlie Magic Carpet, Harper and Brothers, 1952)
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MAT 1962
Creation of Fatah terrorist group under direction of Yasir Ararat
Following his capture and a trial, top Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann is cxecuted in Israel
10
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Ethiopian
Immigrants
Ethiopian Immigrants
Courtesy Israel Government Press Office
000888 1989
Immigrants
Courtesy Israel Government Press Office
Courtesy Israel Govcmmenl Press Office
190S Creation of Palestine liberation Organization (FLO), with Fatah as its main faction
First PLO terrorist attack against Israel
1967 Nasser orders the withdrawal of U N forces from the Egyptian-Israeli border and initiates a blockade of Israeli shipping through the liran Straits.
TOB JBWS OP B1HIOPIA B1ACH TOI PROMSSBD LAND |9 iving in mountain villages, the Jews of ^ E t h i o p i a were separated from mainstream Judaism for over 2,000 years. According to their tradition, the Jews of Ethiopia have been there since the time of King Solomon. Throughout the centuries, they had been subjected to forced conversion, enslavement, prohibitions against emigration and land ownership, restrictions in their communal and religious activities and other forms of persecution. Nevertheless, Ethiopian Jews clung to their traditions and the hope that they would someday return to the land of Israel. In 1973, Israel's Chief Rabbinate affirmed the Jewishness of Ethiopian Jews, known as Beta Israel - "House of Israel." Israel initiated quiet efforts to rescue Ethiopian Jews in 1979. A famine in 1984 caused a mass
Ethiopian Immigrants
exodus of Ethiopian Jews to the Sudanese border. In November 1984 and March 1985, Israel conducted a secret airlift code-named "Operation Moses" and rescued nearly 8,000 Jews from Sudanese refugee camps. Nearly all remaining Ethiopian Jews came to Israel in 1991, when Israel led "Operation Solomon" airlifting 14,000 Beta Israel Jews to Israel.
CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL •oUowing the defeat of the OUomanEmpire in World War I, the British assumed control of Palestine. In November 1917, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, announcing its intention to facilitate the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1922, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Palestine which included, among other things, provisions calling for the establishment of ajewishhomelandfadlitating Jewish immigration and encouraging Jewish settlement on the land. The Arabs were opposed to Jewish immigration to Palestine and stepped up their attacks against the Jews. Following an increase in Arab attacks, the British appointed a royal commission in 1936 to investigate the Palestine situation. The Peel Commission recommended the partition of the country between Arabs and Jews. The Arabs rejected the idea while the Jews accepted the principle of partition. At the end of World War II, the British persisted in their immigration restrictions and Jewish survivors of the Holocaust were violently turned away from the shores of Palestine. Hie Jewish Agency and the Haganah continued to smuggle Jews into Palestine. Underground cells of Jews, most notably the Irgun and Lehi, engaged in open warfare against the British and their installations. The British concluded that they could no longer manage Palestine and handed the issue over to the United Nations. On November 29,1947, after much debate and discussion, the UN recommended the partition of Palestine into two states - one Jewish
David Ben-Gurion Declaring Independence, Tel Aviv, May
14,1948
and one Arab. The Jews accepted the UN resolution while the Arabs rejected it. Meanwhile, since the time of the British Mandate, the Jewish community in Palestine had been forming political, social and economic institutions that governed daily life in Palestine and served as a prostate infrastructure. Zionist
„». Is rWJamed/Arabs March
Tnim»n,ArtionSlim« Owing $ra»oilo{UR. (Men In
(Above) Newspaper Headlines, May
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(Above Left) US. President Harry Truman recognizes Hie Slate of Israel, May 14,1948
:
EfPrapped behind the Iron Curtain, Soviet H Jews were persecuted, discriminated against and barred from openly practicing their faith. Emigration to Israel was illegal. Many Jews sought permission to leave the country and were denied visas. They became known as "refuseniks" and many of them were incarcerated. Since the 1960s, Diaspora Jewry has worked on behalf of the Jews of the former Soviet Union. Jews from the USSR began arriving in Israel in 1968. About 100,000 Soviet Jews immigrated to Israel in the 1970s. Since the fall of the Soviet empire in 1989, over 700,000 JewB from the former Soviet Union have settled in Israel. Among the new immigrants are highly educated and skilled professionals, scientists, engineers and musicians who are contributing significantly to all aspects of Israeli society. One of the more legendary Soviet Jewish figures is Natan Sharansky, a former imprisoned Soviet dissident who is currently a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Netanyahu's government
mm Six-Day Wai Reunification of Jerusalem under Israel
14,1948
Celebrations in Tel Aviv Following UN Partition Plan Declaration, November
29,1947
CourUsy Utiul Government Ptea Office
At summit meeting, Arab states reject peace and negotiations with Israel
(1886-1973) served as head of the pre-state government. The British mandate over Palestine officially terminated at midnight, May 14,1948. Earlier in the day, at 4:00 p.m., David BenGurion proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel and became its first prime minister. Longtime advocate of Zionism in Britain Chaim Wekmann (1874-1952) became Israel's first president On May 15, the United States recognized the State of Israel and the Soviet Union soon followed suit The fledgling State of Israel was faced with many challenges. While fighting a war of survival with the Arab states who immediately invaded the new nation, Israel had to also absorb the shiploads of immigrants coming in daily to the Jewish homeland. Many were penniless refugees from Europe broken in body and in spirit. They needed immediate health and social services in addition to acculturation to their new home.
MOVBESBSH 1 9 6 7
APBIL 1 9 0 8
U N passes Resolution 242, the basis for Israeli-Arab negotiations
Recstablishment of Jewish settlement in Hebron
:
' J U L Y 1 9 a 8 " . ' - - . " V ' ' r . •':•;-:•: First act of air piracy against Israel; 0 Al airliner hijacked en route from Rome to Tel Aviv by PLO terrorists
11
THI HBST ISBAIL naMMMDINa DAY MAY 1949
MMONAL IXPUUINOSi MAY 1940 • MAT 1949
May 4,1949: It is the first Independence Day in Jerusalem and there are May 14: It is Dawn of Friday. Today the British leave Palestine. One can still barely comprehend it. It was ominously stiU during the night, and I slept fitfully. no limits to our joy. For some reason, it seems as if many years have passed Straining my ears, I heard the grinding creak of tanksfrom the Zone, and, in the since the British left us to our own devices'. Everyone in Jerusalem is sincerely happy, celebrating this Independence distance, a dull, indistinct, receding noise, like the rumour of a river. The British Army stealing through the night, as though in complicity with the darkness... Day in his own way. Some people have decorated their balconies with flowThrough glasses I have just watched the High Commissioner's 'Residence ers, carpets and the portraits of the first to dream of and fight for a Jewish on its grey hilltop. Its massive white austerity was lit ftp by the sunlight. For some days the 'Oripn' movie-house has been showing, free, newsreeb From its tower waved a Union Jack. A jew minutes past 81 saw the sleek, black Rolls Royce drive out of the gates. The little procession of cars is on its made by theCarmel company, depicting the struggle to build theState.The way now to Kallandia airport with three Spitfires zooming before them. In Maariv newspaper agency screened movies about the nation and the State on half an hour Sir Alan and the last of the 6,208 British civilian personnel will a wall in Ben Yehuda Street. Prayers were said in the synagogues for the board planes for Haifa. At that moment the Union Jack will be hauled from soukof those who fell in the War of Independence. the Residence and a Red Cross flag hoisted. At midday the population of Jerusalem gathered to watch the army's fesSo ends the adventure that started bravely 30 years ago. They came humbly tive parade. No one remained at home. All the sidewalks along the city's main then, AUenby on foot, but proudly, too. Thanksgiving and prayersfrom millions streets, the roofs and the balconies were black with people. Some people had of Jewish hearts accompanied them. They shuffle out now in darkness and chaos, been invited as guests of honor to the celebrations in Tel-Aviv but preferred almost unnoticed. The more tragic because it need never have been a tragedy, to remain in their city, where they had suffered and were now being repaid had Britain only remained true to her trust and to her own traditions and for what they had gone through... wisdom. Those who know the real England, who have thrilled to the turbuThe parade lasted about an hour, and was saluted by the officers on the lent story of English liberty from the days of its rough and obstinate growth, dais. . , Bringing up the rear were the settlers from the villages around for them, too, her record here and the manner of her going is a sad thing... Jerusalem, their trucks decorated with greenery, flags and slogans: "We At 4 o'clock in the Museum Hall in Tel-Aviv, Ben-Gurion proclaimed the willed it and it is no legend'. establishment of the independent State of Israel... Hatikvah rolled out, a hymn (Excerpted from Jerusalem Under Siege, © 1982, Ridgefield Publishing Co.) of thanksgiving. Rabbi Fishman, his voice choked with tears, pronounced the SYMBOIS oe> mu srara Sheheheyanu. A deep Amen from the throats of the assembly like a congregation iy|ebre\v and Arabic were named the at worship. A minute's silence; among us, too. You couldfeel the taut self-restraint B H official languages of the state. The offiin each one gathered around 0ie wireless. Then Ben-Gurion read thefirst Ordinance: cial emblem of the State, of Israel is the menorah, the seven-branched candelabra "All the laws enacted under the Palestine White Paper, 1939, of the British which was a major ritual object in the Government, and all laws deriving from it, are here declared null and void." Temple in Jerusalem. The olive branches surrounding the menorah represent the , So the lamp snuffed out nearly 2,000 years ago was relighted today. A Jewish people's yearning for peace. miracle as great as any that ever happened in this land. The whole world The blue and white colors with the Star of David were adopted as the Flag of Israel must sense its drama, though many hate it. tiifiP in October 1948. The design oi? the flag is May 15: No morning news bulletin; the wireless "dead." Lack of current the same as the Zionist flag used at die First 1 at the broadcasting station, or something worse? Zionist Congress in 1897. The Knesset First day of Israel. A radiant day. Short lull this morning after a night of incessant fire. I slept through most of it, the din a kind of nightmare backdrop to a confusion of dreams... What are people thinking, feeling? Are they sayAt the behest of our leader Herd, I came to Basle to make preparations for ing to themselves that now everything is going to be different, like starting the Zionist Congress, to assure its success and to avoid any opening for all over again? The romantic, I suppose, believe that all will be more beautidetractors. Among the many problems that occupied me then was one which ful. And the pessimistic that we're in for a new kind of Arab-made hell What will that new life, independence, freedom, mean for me as a person? contained something of the essence of the Jewish problem: What flag would I don't know - except that it will be my own. For the moment, I feel poised we hang in the Congress Hall? Then an idea struck me. We have a flag - and between the pressure of a past wherein one was seldom allowed to forget the it is blue and white. The tallit (prayer-shawl) which we wrap ourselves when Problem of the Jew, and an unknown future that also may be grim, but large- we pray, that is our symbol. Let us take this tallit from its bag and unroll it ly of my own making. That was always the difference between the Jew here before the eyes of Israel and the eyes of all nations. So I ordered a blue and and in the Diaspora. There he is a compound of theory and dream. Here he white flag with the Shield of David painted upon it. That is how our nationbecame an instrument of action. But henceforth action on another plane... al flag, that flew over Congress Hall, came into being. And ho one expressed any surprise or asked whence it came or how. (Excerpted with permission b o m Jerusalem Embattled: A Diary o/i/is City Under Siege, March 25,1948 to S
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(Reprinted with permission: Israel Information Service)
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MANN 1969
SSPTRMBBB1973
OCTOBEB1973
DECEMBEB 1 9 7 3
JANUAKT1974
Start of War of Attrition
P U ) massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich, Germany
YomKippurWar
Geneva Peace Conference
Israeli-Egyptian Disengagement Agreement
12
THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFRONTATION n Jews began arriving in Palestine en masse in the late 19th century, the land had an Arab presence. The number of Arabs in Palestine at the time and questions surrounding when many of the Arabs came to the land remain the subject of dispute among historians. The early Zionist pioneers saw the Arab population as small, apolitical and without a nationalist element and they therefore believed that there would not be friction between the two communities; They also thought that development of the country would benefit both peoples and they would thus secure Arab support and. cooperation. Indeed, many Arabs migrated to Palestine in the wake of economic growth stimulated by Jewish immigration. They were attracted to the area by its employment opportunities, higher wages and better living conditions. Contrary to their expectations, the Jews were met with intense Arab opposition to Jewish settlement in Palestine. In the early years of Jewish immigration, individual and small bandsjrf Arabs engaged in violence' against Jews and Jewish settlements. As time went on, Arab attacks against Jews became more organized and more widespread. The British authorities often failed to stave off Arab attacks and refused to come to the assistance of Jews during attacks, Particularly brutal Arab assaults swept Palestine in 1929, of which the Hebron massacre, in which 67 Jews were murdered, is the most infamous. The Jewish response to Arab opposition to the Zionist project and Arab violence was hot monolithic. Mainstream Jewry advocated a policy of "self-restraint" while underground Jewish groups advocated harsh retaliatory' policies. From 1936-1947 the struggle over the land became more intense and Arab opposition became more extreme and more violent. In 1936, the British Peel Commission concluded that Arab-Jewish coexistence was impossible
Ambrtots,iS23
and recommended partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab areas. The Jews accepted die principle of partition while the Arabs rejected it. Froni 1936-1939, the Arabs in Palestine revolted against British rule. Following the United Nations' decision to partition Palestine in November 1947, Arab preparation for a war to thwart the establishment of a Jewish state began. Armed attacks by Palestinian bands and militias against Jewish villages and civilian settlements in Palestine escalated. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amln al-Husayni, launched a wave of anti-Jewish violence. Dissident Jewish factions not associated with the Haganah, the offidal Jewish defense
Twenty three children die in PLO terrorist attack against school in Ma'alot; Israeli-Syrian Disengagement Agreement
forces, engaged in violence against Arab. civilians. From December 1947 through March 1948, the Haganah engaged only in self-defense activities and retaliated only against those Arabs responsible for acts of terror and violence. A U.S. arms embargo made it difficult for the Jews to purchase military equipment while British weapons continued to flow into the Arab states. Dy March
1948, the.Jewish community in Palestine suffered enormous casualties and the loss of a number of strategic areas. The Arab campaign along the roads was slowly strangling Jewish towns and outlying rural settlements! The community also anxiously expected a large-scale Arab invasion in May, when the British were set to withdraw. Beginning in April 1948, therefore, the Haganah shifted to offensive actions.
ACCOUNT OF ABABBlOflNO 19*9 David Hacohen, active in the Haganah and in public life in Haifa where he lived, was also a member of the Jewish community's Emergency Committee. In this capacity, he went to Safad, included in the jurisdiction of the Haifa district commissioner, upon hearing the news of a massacre in that city:
In the bloody Arab riots of1921, when YosefHayyim Brenner, the distinguished socialist pioneer and author, was among those murdered, I was not in Palestine... But in the second half of 1929, where there was a fresh wave of murderous Arab attacks throughout Palestine, from Hebron to Safed, I was back at home... Ibdievel was tlwfintJewtoreadtSafedfiwntlwcmtsideaftertiwTnassacTetliere.One Friday then had been a pogrom in Safed. We read the official announcement: "On August 29, at 6:15, disturbances broke out inSafed.ThearrnyaTrivedmmescemat8&andimmed houses were burnt. The Jewish inhabitants wen at once transferred to safety. Since then calm has prevailed in Safed." August 29 was a Thursday, throughout the day rumors continued to come in that the pogrom in Safed was still • going on. But Government House provided us with no further information about events in Safed, which was included in the jurisdiction of the Haifa district commissioner. We had enough experience not to trust the reassuring official announcement. . . ' . ' • ' We set out on Saturday morning.. .1 could not believe my eyes... I met some of the town's Jewish elders, who fell on my neckweepingbitterly. Wewent down alleys and steps to the old town. Inside the houses I saw the mutilated and burned bodies of the victims of the massacre, and the burned body of a woman tied to the grille of a window. Going from house.to house, I counted ten bodies that had not yet been collected. I saw the destruction and the signs of fin. Even in my grimmest thoughts I had not imagined that this was how I would find Safed where "calm prevailed." The local Jews gave me a detailed description of how the tragedy had started. The pogrom began on the afternoon of Thursday, August29, and was carried out by Arabs from Safed and from the nearby villages, armed with weapons and tins of kerosene. Advancing on the street of the Sefardi Jews from KfarMeron and Ein Zeitim, they looted and set fire to houses, urging each other on to continue with the killing. They slaughtered the schoolteacher, Aphriat, together with his wife and mother, and cut the lawyer, Toledano, to pieces with their knives. Bursting into the orphanages, they smashed the children's heads and cut off their hands. I myself saw the victims. Yitshak Mammon, a native of Safed who lived with an Arab family, was murdered with indescribable brutality: he was stabbed again and again, until his body became a bloody sieve, and then he was trampled to death. Throughout the whole pogrom the police did not fire a single shot. The British police commander, Farradav, walked up and down the main street of the town, where everything was quiet, and did not go down to the scene of the massacre... The district commissioner defended his awn conduct. He said he had known that the situation there was serious, and had therefore demanded that troops be sent in, but they had arrived too late... I was unsparing in my criticism of him for not having visited Safed; I said that this showed in the clearest possible way that the government was to blamefor what had happened. Riots had been taking placefor the past seven days, seven whole days since the Hebron massacn. Incitement to violence in the Safed mosques and provocative stone throwing and threats in the streets had been daily occurrences. The warship and troops had already arrived by then. The looting, destruction, burning, and tailing had begun already on Thursday evening and continued all that night and all the next day. Why, then, had the government put put its falsely reassuring announcement? Instead of protecting the Jewish population and its property, the police commander had evacuated four thousand Jews from their homes to the courtyard of Government House, leaving their homes to be looted and burned. While the looting and killing were still going on, the police were searching the Jews for arms... My thoughts about theSafed tragedy gaveme nopeace fora long time. How had such a thing happened? What was the explanation for the terrible loss of Jewish life and property, 18 killed, about 40 wounded, and 200 houses burned and looted? . . (Reprinted with permission ton 7lme to Till, ©1985, Herd Press - World Zionist Organization)
• ©CTO0EB Arab recognition of FLO as representative of Palestinians
197S UN General Assembly passes "Zionism equals Racism" resolution
JULY 1 9 7 6 Israel rescues hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda :
likud comes to power led by Menachcm Begin
13
IMAlUWMKOr INMPINDINCI
Haganah Women Soldiers in framing, 1948 Camay Israel Govemmtril Press Office
O
n May 15, one day after the creation of the State of Israel, the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon invaded the new Jewish state. The Arab forces were significantly larger than Israel's and were better equipped. Yet, coordination and organization were lacking and the Arab armies were often at odds with each other, seeking to incorporate territory from Palestine into their own states. Despite their small numbers, the Jews were well-organized, well-disciplined and well-trained. The war was marked by long periods of fighting and temporary cease-fires. Finally, fighting officially ended in January 1949, at which time Israel held the 5,600 square miles allotted to it by the UN partition plan plus an addition 2,500 square miles. Transjordan held the eastern sector of Jerusalem and the West Bank and Egypt held the Gaza Strip. From January to July 1949, armistice agreements were signed with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria based on the frontlines as they were at the end of the fighting. These lines created the borders of the new state and as a result, Israel gained control of the areas which would have been part of the Arab state envisioned by the UN had the Arab world not gone to war with Israel. At the time, Israel hoped that the armistice agreements would lead to official Arab-Israeli peace treaties. The Arab states, however, refused to recognize Israel's existence and negotiate peace and remained in a state of war with the Jewish state. They continued their economic, political, social and cultural boycott of the Jewish state which was instituted by the Arab League in 1945. The Arab economic boycott of Israel prohibited Arab peoples, companies and states from conducting business both with Israel and with other companies who do business with Israel. They also embarked on a campaign to isolate the Jewish state in the international community. Some Arab leaders attempted secret negotiations with Israel. Tragically, some of them were murdered, including King Abdullah of Jordan who was assassinated in Jerusalem inl951. The Arab states provided little help to Palestinians who became refugees after the war. Only Jordan offered Palestinian Arabs citizenship. Refugee camps were set up and maintained primarily by the United Nations and other international relief organizations.
THI
1956 SIMAI c&fywaieia
B
n the early 1950s, Egypt violated the terms of the Egyptian-Israeli armistice agreement and blocked Israeli ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a major international waterway. It also began to block traffic through the Straits of Tiran, a narrow passage of water linking the Israeli port of Eilat to the Red Sea. This action effectively cut off the port of Eilat— Israel's sole outlet to the Red Sea and Indiari Ocean. Closure of the Suez Canal and the Tiran Straits damaged Israel's trade with Asia, for it meant that foreign ships carrying goods bound for Israel and Israeli ships carrying goods bound for the Far East had to travel a long and costly circuitous route to the Atlantic and Israel's Mediterranean ports.
NOVEMBER 1 9 7 7 Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem and addresses Israeli Parliament
14
and an end to terrorist attacks and the latter two hoping to seize control of the Suez Canal. On October 29,1956, Israel began its assault on Egyptian military positions,, capturing the whole of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula On October 31, France and Britain joined the fray and hostilities ended on November 5. The VS. was caught completely by surprise and voiced strong opposition to the joint attack. The U.S. pressured Israel to withdraw from Egyptiantenitory. United Nations forces were stationed along the Egypnan-IsraeUborder to prevent anEgyptian blockade and deter cross-border infiltrations. Israel declared that if Egyptian forces would again blockade the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, it would consider this a casus belli. In the years following the 1956 Suez crisis, Arabs and Israelis maintained an uneasy truce. Tensions began to escalate in the mid 1960s as a result of domestic, regional and international factors independent of the ArabIsraeli conflict. In particular, Arab states competed against each other for dominance
Israeli Troop atCastel, October 1948
Haganah Recruit, 1948
Israeli Delegation at Rhodes Armistice Tails, 1949
(Left) Grave of SoldierfromSinai Campaign, December 1956 Courtesy Israel Government Press Office
lSllpli2i?ii|i||JiiSI||iiB^ iiiitellfBfc^^^^^H9aiMB^teS (Above) UNSCOP Deliberation in Jerusalem, December 5,1948 (Below) Tank Commander in the Negev, 19S6
At the same time, Palestinian Arab fedayeen launched cross-border infiltrations and attacks on Israeli civilian centers and military outposts from Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Arab infiltration and Israeli retaliation became a regular pattern of Arab-Israeli relations. Israel hoped that its harsh reprisals would compel Arab governments to restrain infiltrators into Israel. In 1955 alone, 260 Israeli citizens were killed or wounded by fedayeen. In July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, threatening British and French interests in oil supplies and western trade. Their interests converging, Israel, Britain and France planned an attack on Egypt, with the former seeking free navigation through international waters
SiPIEMBEB 1 9 7 8 Camp David Accords between Israel ' and Egypt
Courtesy Iswl Government Press Office
in the Arab world. Egypt's Nasser struggled to maintain his position as leader of Arab politics. Facing internal social and economic problems as well, Arab governments increased their anti-Israel posture as a means of quieting internal dissent. In February 1966, for example, a new Syrian regime facing growing economic problems raised the volume of -anti-Israel rhetoric and increased cross-border raids on Israeli territory. In keeping with their attempts to manipulate and control the Palestinian cause, the Arab states created the Palestine Liberation Organization (FLO) in Cairo in 1964. The goal of the FLO, according to its founding charter, was to use violence to liberate Palestine. In 1965, Fatah, the main faction of the PLO,
MABCH 1979
JULY 1980
JUH3 1981
Egyptian-Israeli Peace Tlcaty
Basic Law on Jerusalem passed
Israel disables Iraqi nuclear reactor in Osiraq
began terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and civilian installations. Soviet-American competition in die Middle East contributed to Arab-Israeli tensions too. While the Soviets lent political andmiliiary support to radical Arab regimes, the United States provided the same to conservative Arab states and to Israel.
B
n May 1967, Egypt and Syria took a number of steps which led Israel to believe that an Arab attack was imminent On May 16, Nasser ordered a withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency Forces (UNEF) stationed on the Egyptian-Israeli border, thus removing the international buffer between Egypt and Israel which had existed since
net voted five days later to withhold military action. The U S ; however, gained little support in the international community for its idea of a maritime force that would compel Egypt to open the waterway and it abandoned its diplomatic efforts in this regard. On May 30, President Nasser and King Hussein signed a mutual defense pact, followed on June 4 by a defense pact between Cairo and Baghdad. Also that week, Arab states began mobilizing their troops. Against mis backdrop, Nasser and other Egyptian leaders intensified their anti-Israel rhetoric and repeatedly called for a war of total destruction against Israel. Arab mobilization compelled Israel to mobilize its troops, 80 percent of which were
attacked Israel and lost control of the West Bank and the eastern sector of Jerusalem. Israel went on to capture the Golan Heights from Syria. Hie war ended on June 10.
P
ollowing the war, Israel reunified the city of Jerusalem which had been divided since 1948. The government signaled to the Arab world its readiness to discuss the future of the rest of the areas it acquired during the war. Israel pressed for direct, face-to-face negotiations while the Arabs sought negotiations through third-party intermediaries. Secondly, the Arabs demanded that Israel immediately withdraw unilaterally from all the territories it gained before beginning any type of negotiations. Israel indicated a willingness to withdraw from some land but only in exchange for full peace treaties with the Arab states. A few months later, meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, in September 1967, the Arab states declared that their formal position was "no peace, no recognition and no negotiation" with Israel.
On November 22,1967, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242 as a framework for Arab-Israeli negotiations. The drafters of the resolution envisioned direct Arab-Israeli negotiations leading toward Arab-Israeli peace based on the principle that Israel would withdraw from areas acquired during the war. The resolution called for the.. Withdrawal
Arab-Israeli differences continued to prove insurmountable, l i t e Arab states insisted that Resolution 242 called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all the areas cap-, hired in 1967. The United States and Israel ~~ disagreed, stating that the resolution called for withdrawal from territories but did not define the scope of the withdrawal. In the wake of this deadlock, Israel found itself with a million Palestinian Arabs under its control and began administering the ter: ritories in what has become known as the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel hoped that its authority over the Palestiraarfi:in~uiese--area!rTwould be' short-lived. Since Israel did not annex or incorporate the West Bank and Gaza into Israel proper, it could not apply the civil, democratic laws that govern Israeli civilian life to the residents of the territories. In the years following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Arab states and Israel continued to • disagree about how to begin peace negotiations.' The Arabs insisted that Israel first withdraw from all the territory it had captured during the 1967 war as a precondition . for discussions leading to peace. The Israelis argued that since their security had been threatened by Arab aggression, they would not withdraw from any territory except in return for full peace agreements negotiated directly with the Arab states. In order to weaken Israel militarily into accepting Arab terms, from 1969-1970,
of Israel armed firces front territories occupied in
Soldiers at Western Wall, June 1967
1957. On May 22, Egypt announced a blockade of all goods bound to and from Israel - through the Straits of Tiran. Israel had held • since 1957.that another.Egyptian blockade of the Tiran Straits would justify Israeli military action to maintain free-access to the port of Eilat. Syria increased border clashes with. Israel along the Golan Heights and ; mobilized its troops. The U.S. feared a major Arab-Israeli and superpower confrontation and asked Israel to delay military action pending a diplomatic resolution of the crisis. On May 23, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson publicly reaffirmed that the Gulf of Aqaba was an : international waterway and declared that a blockade of Israeli shippihgwasillegal. In accordance with U S . wishes, the Israeli cabi-
reserve civilians. Israel feared slow economic strangulation because long-term mobilization of such a majority of the society meant that the Israeli economy and polity would be brought to a virtual standstill. Militarily, Israeli leaders feared the consequences of absorbing an Arab first strike against its civilian population, many of whom lived only miles from Arab-controlled territory. Incendiary Arab rhetoric threatening Israel's annihilation terrified Israeli society and contributed to the pressures to go to war. Against this background, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt on June 5,1967 and captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Despite an Israeli appeal to Jordan to stay out of the conflict, Jordan
(Above) Prime Minister GoldaMeir and Defense Minister Moslie Dayan. Speaking to TYqopson the Golan Heights, October 1973 (Left) Israeli Armored Units in Encampment on East Bank of the Suez Canal, October 1973
Egypt launched a war of attrition along the Egyptian-Israeli border aimed at slowly eroding Israeli strength through repeated artillery barrages. Israel retaliated with raids into Egyptian territory. A cease-fire was reached in August 1970. the recent conflict; Termination of all claims of Meanwhile, in 1969, Yasir Arafat head of states of belligerency and respect far and the Palestinian terrorist group Fatah, was acknowledgment of tlte sovereignty, territorial elected chairman of the Palestine liberation, integrity and political independence of every i Organization (PLO), an umbrella for a broad State in the area and their right to live in peace array of Palestinian commando groups. witjiirt secure and recognized boundaries free Factions of the PLO initiated airline hijackfrom threats or acts offeree. ings and other sensational acts of violence
1933 Anwar fiaffat'j
Israel officially extends Israeli law b Golan Heights
Attempted assassination of Israeli A f a d r to Ld d iinvades London ttsz^d Lebanon in Operation Peace for Galilee
Israel completes withdrawal foam Sinai
1983 PLO completes evacuation from Lebanon
15
around the world. In September 1972, for example, Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics Games. Both Jordan and Lebanon allowed FLO groups to use their territory" as a springboard for. guerrilla attacks against Israeli civilians within both Israel and the 1967 territories. Israel retaliated against both countries for attacks launched from Jordanian and Lebanese territory. Subsequently, JordanianPalestinian tensions escalated and fighting erupted leading to the deaths of many Palestinians at the hands of Jordanian troops.
held an additional 165 square miles of territory from Syria, and had encircled the Egyptian Third Army on the west bank of the Suez Canal. Egyptian forces held two areas of Israeli territory along the east bank of the canal. Israel,, Egypt arid Syria all held prisoners of war. On October 22, 1973, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 338, calling on all • parties to begin "implementation of Security Council Resolution 242 in all its'parts" through negotiations. In late December, at the request of the
world ended its oil embargo. In the years following the 1973 war, Israel's enemies realized that they could not defeat Israel on the battlefield. They turned therefore to diplomatic warfare and sought to weaken Israel's international diplomatic position Due to pressure from the Arab world, most African and third world countries broke diplomatic relations with Israel. In 1975, the Soviet-Arab-Third World bloc at the United Nations succeeded in passing the infamous "Zionism equals racism" General Assembly resolution which was an attempt to delegitimjze the right of the Jewish people to return to their ancestral homeland. The resolution was not revoked until December 1991. Within Israel, the October 1973 war inten-
Egypttan PresrA'if An\ar
breakthrough in Arab-Israeli relations four years later when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made an unprecedented, historic visit to Israel in November 1977 and addressed the Israeli people with words of reconciliation and peace. His visit marked the first time an Arab leader made significant overtures to the people of Israel. Egyptian-Israeli negotiations ensued and in March 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a formal peace treaty. In return for peace, Israel relinquished to Egypt the Siriai peninsula, gained during the 1967 war. At the same time, there was no progress on other Arab fronts. The PLO, for example, relentlessly continued its campaign of ter-
Si •'/ thriving in Israel, November 1977
Wliite House Lawn Signing of Israel-Egypt Peace Agreement, March 1979
Israeli Troops on Aft. Hertnon in the Golan Heights, October 1973
THE 1 9 7 3 VOEA KIPPUB WAR. Soviet Union, a Middle East peace confer-
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lSBABU-BeYPHAN MACS
n an effort to force Israel to unilaterally ence opened in Geneva. Insisting that Israel surrender captured lands, Egypt and Syria first evacuate from territory gained during jointly attacked Israel on October 6, 1973, the war, Syria refused to attend. The conon Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish ference quickly adjourned in failure. calendar. Other Arab states contributed troops U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and financial support. Caught by surprise, then directed his energies toward achieving Israel suffered severe losses in human life bilateral, rather than comprehensive agreeand equipment Following an Egyptian refusal ments. After months of what has been to accept a cease-fire and a Soviet airlift to coined "shuttle diplomacy," he successfully the Arab states, the U.S. sent an airlift to coordinated troop disengagement agreeIsrael enabling her to recover from earlier ments between Israel and Egypt in January setbacks. Saudi Arabia then led the Arab 1974 and between Israel and Syria in May world in an oil embargo imposed on the 1974. These agreements were'not peace United States and other western nations. treaties but limited agreements on the withFollowing a cease-fire, the war officially drawal of Israeli and Arab forces from speended on October 22,1973 but fighting con- cific areas. Israel withdrew from all the area tinued on the Egyptian-Israeli front and the it had acquired from Syria during the 1973 U.S. and the Soviet Union were nearly ' war in addition to some area gained in 1967. dragged into a full-scale superpower con- The Egyptian-Israeli agreement called for frontation. Such a confrontation was avoid- Israeli withdrawal from parts of the Sinai. ed and when hostilities finally ended, Israel Prisoners of war were exchanged. The Arab
sified the debate about the future of Israel's control over the 1967 territories. Some. interpreted the war as further evidence of the need to populate and strengthen these areas for security and strategic reasons. As a result, Israeli settlements in the 1967 areas increased. The government permitted and at times, encouraged, Jews to live in the territories. Other Israelis viewed the territories—theWestBankinparticular—inreligious and messianic terms. Members of Gush Emunim, the Bloc of the Faithful, also increased their presence in the area. Even the name of these areas has stimulated debate. Some use the term "West Bank and Gaza" with West Bank referring to the west bank of the Jordan River. Others say' that "West Bank" is inappropriate because it falsely suggests that the area belongs to Jordan. Some prefer to call the areas "Judea and Samaria" - the names used to refer to these areas in biblical times.
rorist warfare against innocent Israelis and civilians worldwide. In one of its more brutal atrocities, the PLO attacked schoolchildren in Ma'alot in northern Israel in May 1974, resulting in the deaths of 21 children.
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n Lebanon, the fragile state of no-war, nopeace, in place since 1973, began to break down as the PLO strengthened its ministate in Lebanon, established PLO military training centers, and escalated artillery and cross-border attacks on civilians in northem Israel. Israelis were forced to spend long periods of time in bomb shelters. The immediate trigger for Israel's operation into Lebanon was the attempted assassination. of the Israeli ambassador in London on June 3,1982. The next day, Israeli jets attacked PLO targets in Lebanon and die FLO responded with rocket and artillery barrages into northem Israel. The Israeli cabinet met to approve
MBUSSTOKSS Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanon; creation of security zone in southern Lebanon
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Israel destroyed Syrian SAM missiles which were installed in the spring of 1981 in the Bekaa Valley. A Syrian-Israeli air con. . . I come to you today on solid ground to shape a new life and to establish peace. ..But to he absolutely frank frontation ensued which resulted in severe wilhyou,! took this decision after Itmg thought, knowing that it cmstitutes a great risk,for God Almighty had military made losses for the Syrians. The Soviet Union rejected Damascus's plea for direct it my fate to assume responsibility on behalfof the Egyptian people, to share m the responsibility of the Arab nation, Soviet intervention but Moscow sent equipthe main duty of whidt, dictated by responsibility, is to exploit all and every means in a bid to save my Egyptian ment and advisers. Israel laid siege to the PLO in West Beirut Arab people and (lie pan-Arab nation from the horrors of new suffering and destructive wars... leading to a PLO surrender and agreement Any life that is lost in war is a human life, be it that of an Arab or an Israeli. Awifo who becomes a widow istoaevacuate Lebanon. On August 23, Bashir humanbeingentitledtoahappy family life, whether she bt an Arab or an Israeli. Gemayel was elected die President of Lebanon. Israel hoped that a Lebanese-Israeli peace Innocent children who andeprived'ofthe care and compassion oftheir parents are ours. They are ours, be they treaty was oh the horizon. A multinational living on Arab or Israeli hmd. peacekeeping force arrived in Lebanon in order to supervise the departure of the PLO. They command our full responsibility to afford them a comfortable life today and tomorrow. By September 1, 1982, over 14,000 armed For the sake of them all, for the sake cfthe ttoes of all our sons and brothers, forthe sake of affording our comPLO forces had left Beirut. PLO headquarwas transferred to Tunis, Tunisia. munities the opportunity to work for the progress and happiness of man, feeling secure and with Out right to aters digThe evacuation of the PLO failed to bring nified life,forthe generations to come,for asmUeon thefaceofeverychildborninourland-fbr all thatlhave taken stability to conflict-ridden Lebanon and my decision to come toyou, despite all the hazards, to delivermyaddress... Christian-Palestinian tensions remained high. On September 14,1982, President Bashir 1have come'toyou so thattogetherwe should build adurableveace based on justice to avoid the skeddingofone Gemayel was assassinated.- On September 16, singkdrop of'blood by boOisides.lt is fin-this reasonthat 1 have prodaimed nw tmiiness to go to the farthest corwithout obtaining prior cabinet approval, Sharon and Eitan moved Israeli troops into ner of the earth... West Beirut and permitted Christian Phalangist In all sincerity 1 tell you we welcome you among us with full security and safety. This in itself is a tremendous forces to enter the Palestinian refugee camps of and Sabra and ShatiJa with the purpose of turning point, one of the landmarks of a decisive historical change. We used to reject you. We had our reasons routing out remaining PLO forces that had ourfears, yes. We refused to meet with you, anywhere, yes. evaded evacuation. The Phalangist militias, We were together in international conferences and organizations and our representatives did not, and stillhowever, do not,massacred Palestinian civilians. Israel's limited objective of removing the exchange greetings with you. Yes. This has happened and is still happening... PLCs threat to northern Israel was accomYet today Itellyou, and I declare itto the world,that we accept tolive with you in permanentpeacebased on jusplished with the evacuation of PLO forces fromOK Beirut. The PLO state-within-a-state had tice. We do not want to encircle you or be encircled ourselves by destructive missiles readyfor launching, nor by been dismantled. The larger objectives of shells ofgrudges and hatreds. . the war were not realized. Syria remained I have announced on more than one occasion that Israel has become a fait accompli, recognized by the world, andin 35 percent of Lebanon and the ensconced Christian-dominated Lebanese government that the two superpowers have undertaken the responsibilityforits security and the defense of its existence. As we was not strong enough either to conclude a really and truly seek peace we really and truly welcome you to Iroe among us in peace and security... peace treaty with Israel or to control rival Lebanese factions from assaulting each other Whatis peace for Israel? Itmeans that Israel livesintheregion with her Arabneighbors in security and safety. and attacking Israel. Is that logical? I say yes. It means that Israd lives zvithin its borders, semreagaimt any aggression, hiliat log Ethnic, communal and religious violence in Lebanon remained unabated and Israel And!say'yes.ltmeam that Isradobtaim all Mnds ofgumantees that wHlemure these twofactors.To tiiis demand, continued to pursue a peace treaty with Amin : I say y e s . . . ' . ; ' . ' , , ' - . ; •• \ '. ._.''.''.' . ''''•'••;.• . '• •'; •' :; V Gemayel, the new president of Lebanon. Ladies and gentlemen, peace is not a mere endorsement of written lines. Rather it is a rewriting of history. Peace With American mediation/on May 17,1983, agreement was signed. is not a game of callingforpeace to defend certain whims or hide certain admissions. Peace in its essence isaaLebaneseJsraeli dire Although the document was not a formal struggle against all and every ambition and whim... peace treaty, it terminated the state of war between Israel and Lebanon. The document Allow me to address my callfromthis rostrum to the people of Israel. I pledge myselfwith true and sincere words was short-lived, however. Syria had no toevery man,woman and cMdinlsradAtdl tnem, from tneEgyph^mpeopkwhobless thissaaed intention of removing its troops from Lebanon as the agreement called and the Iconvey toyouu\emessage ofvmceof theEgyp\ianpeovle,who donothaiborfanatic Phalangists were not strong enough to conChristians and feats, live togeOier in a state of cordiality, love and tolerance. trol the numerous rival factions in Lebanon ... we are entering upon a new beginning, a new life, a life of Unx, prosperity,freedomand peace. from engaging in terrorist actions against Israel. sending ground troops into Lebanon. Defense minister Ariel Sharon briefed the cabinet on "Operation Peace for Galilee" - a plan for a limited incursion of twenty-five miles into Lebanon to wipe out PLO positions in southern Lebanon and thus safeguard Israel's population in northern Israel. The cabinet, including the opposition Labor Party, supported the plan for a limited operation. Mr. Sharon and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan, however, had a wider-reaching grand plan beyond that of destroying the PLCs military power in southern Lebanon and the creation of a security zone there. They envisioned completely eradicating the PLCs military,
political and economic hold over Lebanon, evicting Syrian forces from Lebanon, and facilitating the creation of a Christian-dominated Lebanon which would sign a peace treaty with Israel. The Lebanese presidential election was scheduled for August 23,1982. Sharon discussed the Israeli plan with Christian Phalangist leader Bashir Gemayel, who apparently supported it and agreed to help rout the PLO from Beirut. Countingon Phalangist assistance, Sharon and Eton ordered Israeli troops to advance as far as Beirut. On June 6, Israeli ground troops began their advance into Lebanon and quickly overran PLO positions in the south. On June 9,
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17
VS. forces in Lebanon, there since July 1982, were also subject to terrorism. In October 1983, a suicide bomb attack killed 241 U.S. marines. In February 1984, US. marines were removed from Lebanon. In March 1984, under pressure from Syria, the Lebanese government formally canceled its agreement with Israel. In June 1985, Israel withdrew from Lebanon, except for forces stationed in the security zone in southern Lebanon, established as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel. The security zone is a strip of land three to five miles wide along the length of the Lebanese-Israeli border. Over the years, the zone has shielded Israeli civilian settlements in northern Israel from cross-border attacks. Many terrorists on their way to normem Israel have been caught and stopped in the security zone. At the same time, since 1985, many Israeli soldiers have been killed in the security zone by terrorist groups such as Hezbollah (Party of God). The larger objectives of the Lebanon campaign left a significant imprint upon Israeli society. Israel's campaign in Lebanon was the first war Israel waged which provoked widespread debate within Israel. While many Israelis agreed with the limited objective of destroying the FLO'S power in southern Lebanon in order to protect Israel's northern population, they disagreed with the larger objectives envisaged by Sharon and Eitan. These larger, unrealistic goals, they argued, had caused an unnecessarily high number of Israeli and Palestinian civilian casualties in Lebanon. For the first time, Israelis took to the streets for anti-war demonstrations.
ARAB-ISRAELI PEACEMAKING
I
nternational, regional and domestic factors in the late 1980s and early 1990s facilitated progress in Arab-Israeli peacemaking. The demise of the Soviet Union, dwindling Arab financial support for the PLO in the wake of its embrace of Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War, deteriorating economic conditions in the territories, the strengthening of Islamic extremism and the election victory of the Labor party in Israel's June 1992 elections, all paved the way for a more pragmatic approach on the part of all parties to the conflict. The historic Arab-Israeli peace conference held in Madrid in October-November 1991 marked the first time that Arabs and Israelis sat down together to negotiate directly a future of peaceful coexistence. The conference paved the way for bilateral negotiations between Israel, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinians. Along wife the bilateral negotiating track launched at the October 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, multilateral working groups (water, environment, refugees,
abandoned longstanding policies of violence and rejection. For both, the agreement initiated a long and arduous negotiating process aimed at mutually determining the future status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The DOP was followed by several agreements implementing Israeli withdrawal and redeployment from various areas and transferring varying degrees of civil responsibility to the Palestinian Authority. At this writing, seven major West Bank cities and most of Gaza are under Palestinian control. The eighth major city, Hebron, has areas under Palestinian control and areas under
the agreements from a security perspective and in light of continued terrorism by Islamic extremist groups opposed to Israel's very existence. Other Israelis are ideologically opposed to the agreements because of the historic and religious significance of "Judea and Samaria" to the Jewish people. Withm me Palestinian community, many Palestinians accept the idea of coexistence and peace with Israel but are concerned that me agreements do not go far enough in advancing Palestinian aspirations. Other Palestinians reject Israel completely and are opposed to the negotiating process .itself. Palestinians who support the Islamic group Hamas seek the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine. Extremists on both sides have tried to derail the process using violent means. Since the start of the intifada, Hamas has been engaged in a longstanding campaign of terrorist violence against Israeli civilians and soldiers. In a string of suicide bus bombings in February • '
House Lawn Signing oflsraelilaration of Principles, September
rm WES? BANK AND GAZA She question of the future of the West I Bank and Gaza remained unresolved. As long as Arab and Palestinian leaders refused to recognize Israel's right to live in peace and security and engaged in terrorism and violence against Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel had no choice but to maintain its control over the territories. Despite the improvement in economic and other conditions for Palestinians under Israeli occupation, Palestinian political aspirations were unfulfilled. The violent actions of various Palestinian groups and individuals compelled Israel to impose harsh security measures on the Palestinian population. Palestinian collective frustration erupted in December 1987 in the form of a popular uprising against Israeli rule known as the intifada. At first a spontaneous outburst, the intifada developed into a well-organized revolt of violence and civil disobedience. Masses of civilians attacked Israeli troops with stones, axes, Molotov cocktails, hand grenades and firearms. In self-defense, Israel responded, often harshly. Israeli troops were not prepared to fight this kind of war. Among other problems, they received mixed signals from Israeli military and political leaders regarding hpw to contain the violence and in the wake of confusing directives, Israeli abuses occurred. The intifada also brought Palestinian internecine struggles to the forefront, and many Palestinians were murdered by their own brethren.
'
'onference, October 1991
Courtesy Israel Government Press Office
arms control, economic development) were established to deal with issues of regional concern. Aided by the participation of friendly nations, these working groups met in capitals all over the world. The groundwork for many cooperative regional projects was laid. Despite the significance of the 1991 Madrid Conference, bilateral Arab-Israeli negotiations eventually stalled and little progress, was achieved. After months of secret negotiations in Norway, Israel and the PLO announced in August 1993 that they had reached an agreement on mutual recognition. The PLO formally recognized Israel's right to exist and live in security and renounced terrorism and all forms of violence. In another historic breakthrough, on September 13,1993, the two parties signed the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles (DOP) in Washington, DC, outlining the end of Israeli occupation and an interim arrangement for Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In forging ahead, both parties compromised: Israel abandoned its vision of a "Greater Israel" and the PLO
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Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations
Jewish extremist ]dSs 29 Muslim worshipped in Hebron
Hamas suicide bus bombings in Alula and Hadera
18
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yueiuu/i isracii Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan
Israeli control because of the Jews living in Hebron. In January 1996, Palestinians held elections for the first time and chose representatives to the Palestinian Council, the governing body of the Palestinian Authority. The breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian relations led to major advances in Israel's relations with Arab nations and enhanced Israel's diplomatic position in the international community. Most notably, Israel and Jordan concluded a peace treaty in October 1994. Other Arab states initiated varying degrees of political and economic relations. Many UN members initiated or restored diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. After many long years of rejection, the Vatican established relations with Israel in December 1993. The peace process has had to endure many challenges and obstacles. The Israeli and Palestinian polities are not unanimous in supporting the agreements reached between the two parries. Most Israelis support the Israeli-Palestinian agreements but many are concerned about the viability of
and March 1996,59 innocents were murdered. After a year-long lull in violence, Hamas renewed its violence with a March 1997 suicide bomb attack on a Tel Aviv cafe killing three Israeli women. InFebruary 1994, a Jewishextremist opened fire on praying Muslims at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, killing 29 Palestinians and wounding over 60 others, In November 1995, another Jewish extremist assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Israeli society unequivocally rejects its extremist, violent fringe and those who have engaged In violent attacks against Arabs are shunned as outcasts. Unfortunately, Palestinian society is unable or unwilling to repudiate its extremists. Often, killers of Jews are praised as martyrs to the Palestinian cause.
1994" Israel withdraws its forces from leriehoandGaza
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Israeli soldier Nachshon Waxman; Bombing of bus in Til Aviv; Signing of Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty
Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and YasiiAraitf crowded N o b d Peace Prize
MODERN TIMES e Jewish people are inextricably bound H toJerusalem.Nootherdtyhasplayedsuch a predominant role in the history, politics, culture, religion, national life and consciousness of a people as has Jerusalem in the life of Jewry and Judaism. For Jews, Jerusalem is not only a city encompassing holy places, nor is it only the spiritual city that is holy. Rather, the earthly city of Jerusalem itself is
Jewish philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore established the neighborhood of Mishkenot Sha'ananim in 1860 - the first quarter outside the Old City walls. Jewish enterprise after 1860 included a hospital, a library, schools, hotels and commercial houses. By the end of the 19th century, Jews had become the largest builders of suburbs beyond the walls. When Jerusalem Jew Joseph Navon obtained per-
mission from the Ottoman Sultan in 1888 to build a railway to the dty, the immigrant Jewish population increased considerably. The British Army led by General Allenby conquered Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks in 1917. From 1922 to 1948, Jerusalem was the administrative seat of the British authorities in Palestine, which had been entrusted to Great Britain by the League of Nations following the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire after World I. The city developed rapidly, growing westward into what became known as the "New City." • Upon termination of the British Mandate on May 14, 1948, and in accordance with the UN resolution of November 29,. 1947, Israel proclaimed its independence, with Jerusalem as its capital. Rejecting Israel's claim to statehood, Arab states invaded the Jewish state and launched the first ArabIsraeli war. The armistice lines drawn at the end of the war divided Jerusalem into two sectors, with Jordan occupying and annexing the eastern sector, including the Old City with Jewish holy sites. Israel retained the western and southern parts of the dty. For the first time in its history, Jerusalem was a divided dty with barbed wire arid minefields separating the two sectors. A checkpoint in the middle of the dty, "Mandelbaum
Gate," was the only place where diplomats, clerics and selected others were permitted to cross from one sector to the other. In violation of the Armistice Agreement, the Jordanians denied Jews access to and the right to worship at their holy sites including the Western Wall. The 58 synagogues in the Jewish Quarter were systematically destroyed and vandalized and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated. ,. As a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Jerusalem was reunited under Israeli sovereignty. The Jewish Quarter of the Old City, a site of Jewish settlement for over WOO years, was rebuilt and restored by Israel and Jews were once again free to visit and worship at their holy places. Immediately upon reunification of Jerusalem in June 1967, Israel passed the Protection of Holy Places Law which guarantees the sanctity of all holy sites and makes it a punishable offense to desecrate or deny freedom of access to them. Under Israeli rule, Christians and Muslims have always administered their own holy places and institutions and they have free access to Israel's democratic court system in ordertopresent any claim of violation of these rights. The. principle of free access to holy placesforall religions was reaffirmed in the "Basic Law:
(Above and right) Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem Courtesy isrulGovemmmiPnssOfflu
holy. According to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, chief rabbi of Palestine in the 1930s, even the air of Jerusalem is holy to Jews. Since King David's time, Jews have maintained a continuous presence in Jerusalem exceptforthe few periods in history when they were forcibly barred from living in the city by foreign conquerors. Even when the Jews were barred from the city, they always considered it their capital. With the brief exception of die Crusader period, no other people or state made Jerusalem its capital. In 1517, Jerusalem fell from Mamluk rule to Ottoman rule which lasted until 1917. The new Ottoman empire dominated the entire Near East Under the Ottoman ruler Suleiman I ihe Magnificent (1520-1566), Jerusalem flourished. Among other things, the Sultan rebuilt die walls of Jerusalem and improved the city's water supply. After Suleiman's death, Jerusalem was neglected and became a small, backwater city. Jews and Christians were pennitted to live in Jerusalem, but they were the targets of discrimination. With the gradual weakening of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, increasing Europeanization of Jerusalem, and rising Jewish immigration, Jerusalem began to thrive again and prospered. Foreign consulates, merchants and residents brought technological innovations. The Jaffa-tojerusalem railroad, completed in 1892, markedly improved Jerusalem's economy. In 1840, Jews became die largest single religious community in Jerusalem and Jews have constituted the majority of Jerusalem's residents since 1880. The first Hebrew press was established in Jerusalem in 1841. In response to the increasingly expanding Jewish population of Jerusalem, Anglo-
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Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel," enacted by the Israeli Knesset on July 30,1980. Free access to Jerusalem's holy sites is ensured to foreign visitors as well. Of the over one million annual tourists to Jerusalem, 150,000 are Muslim pilgrims from Arab countries and elsewhere. The Old City is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world with an estimated age of over 4,500 years. In addition to the Jewish Quarter, the Old City has three other quarters: Muslim, Christian and Armenian. Despite their names, the four quarters have never been homogeneous and holy sites of all three faiths are found throughout the entire Old City. The Muslim Quarter is the largest and contains extensive markets and centers of commercial life in the Old City. The Christian Quarter is home to many different Christian sects; many of its inhabitants are monks and , ri
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nuns living in monasteries and convents. Armenians have lived in the Armenian Quarter for centuries and today, over two thousand people live in the Quarter which is surrounded by a wall, with gates that are closed by the Armenians every evening. Archaeological research of Jerusalem intensified followingreunificationof the city. Since then, the city has undergone an extraordinary restoration of its unique historic and religious heritage. Archaeological explorations around the Old City have unearthed precious relics from almost every period of history. Pilgrims to Jerusalem today may, among other things, visit remains of the First and Second Temples, view Byzantine and Crusader edifices and stroll along the Old City Ramparts. Politically, Jerusalem is the seat of the President of Israel, the Knesset (Israel's parliament), the Supreme Court, government ministries and the Chief Rabbinate. It is also the home of the Israel Museum, the National Library, Yad Vashem, the country's memorial to the martyrs of the Holocaust, and the Hebrew University. Culturally, reunified Jerusalem has experienced a dramatic surge of activity and is today a major international center of art, music and drama. Jerusalem today is a beautiful, modern, thriving city. It represents a unique blend of the ancient and the modern, the spiritual and the secular; rich in history, religion and politics and culture. ^
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Cohen, a diarist in Jerusalem, record1 ed the fall of the Old City of Jerusalem during the 1948 War of Independence and its impact on the Jewish community:
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May 30,1948: The tiling we feared has happened. The Jewish Quarter has surrendered and there are no Jews left in the Old City. This phrase has been pounding through my brain, ever since we heard on Saturday night that theold ofdefena^rs,tnmtofthemwoutided,havebemtal<mcaptwe.T}wArabspnkged and plundered their property, desecrating synagogues and serous of me law... June 14,1948: On the are of the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot), thefirstfestival to be celebrated in the State of Israel and the first on winch there was no access to tlte OldCity and tlieWestern Wall, the army issuedpermits tojbrty soldiers and several journalists to conduct the night liturgy of Shavuot in the cave in David's Tomb on Mount Zion. We ascended Mount Zion at night, so as to remain unpercewed by the Legionnaires posted on the walk of the Old City. At first we hesitated to speak out loud, fearing that our voices would reach the Arabs, but gradually our enthusiasm grew and between one reading and another we sang Hassidic tunes and melodies, singing out loud so that our voices would carry to the abandoned and desolate Jewish Quarter. Before dawn we climbed onto me roofof tlte building and, with (hefirst rays of the sun, cast warm and longing glances towards the site of the Temple and meWestemWalLNoomaskedOw(pi£Stimiphidiwasinallourhearts:Forliow long shall we stand and gaze towards the Western Wall from Mount Zion? Wefelt that the war for the deliverance of Jerusalem had not yet ended. August 15, 1948: 1J878 years have passed since our Temple was destroyed, and three months since the Jews were,expelled in our day and before our eyes from the Old City. Ten people, veteran inhabitants of the Old City who now live in Katamon, were permitted to ascend Mount Zion and look from there towards the ravaged Jewish Quarter and the remnant of the Temple, the desolate Western Wall. "The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come Us the solemn feasts." The Jews of Jerusalem mourn doubly,for me distant and recent tragedies, and from all our hearts the question goes forth: "How long shall there be weeping in Zion"? (Excerpted from Yona Cohen, Jerusalem Under Siege, © 1982, Ridgcficld Publishing Co.)
When we broke through to the Old City, I climbed up to the Temple Mount, and later when I went to the Western Watt I saw officers and soldiers weeping as I watched them praying wordlessly. Then I knew that they felt exactly as I did; they shared the same profound attachment to the Temple Mount on which the Temple stood, and the same love far the Wall at whose stones generations of Jews had wept. Then, too, I realized tltat not only my 'religious''friends and I sensed the grandeur and the holiness but so did they, and with equal awareness and depth. It was simpler for me to give vent to my feelings because I had my phylacteries in my belt and I carried the book of Psalms, composed by David, King ofJerusalem. Aslweptat the Wall, my father, grandfather and great-grandfatherjoined me.M(fmemhadbembornmttUelandqf1snid,mitmeyhadneededpermission topraymere.WhenlMggedmestonesofmeWaUlfMthewarmBiofmeJewish hearts that had been inflamed by the Wall, whose ardor will endure forever... (Excerpted from 77ie Seventh Day: Soldiers' Talk about the Six-Day War, ©1971, Penguin)
Ruins of Hurva Synagogue in Old City, June 1967 Courtesy Israel Government Press Offfce
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ISRAEL: GOVERNMENT, 1 IK- Haly J*lan» <&B!1 b« protected from desouaCon ard say mhcr'woteJion Ttd ftiwr. Wiythlfif, fei jly to vtela*? the h<jrdoin &f recess of the meinbt-rs tit it..' &;f>-oi " h ;wi-c\!ol'.>. » "oft v fc;- «+.ilI he i-v«i- lo 5
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fjsrael is a parliamentary democracy led by Ha prime minister. Elections for the prime minister and the Knesset occur every four years. Direct election of the prime minister began in May 1996. Every citizen is eligible to vote from age 18 and to be elected from age21.
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P«>rlifaiiuU (tCncf'st) o n Juxi-.122 1967
In afewweeks it willbefifty yearssince I came to this country. Naturally, a short time after my arrival in 1921,1 went up to Jerusalem, and when one comes to Jerusalem one goes first to the Western Wall. Who raised in a Jewish home could have failed to absorb Jerusalem into his being, with all that the Western Wall symbolizes? I too grew up in a good traditional Jewish house, yet I was not myself pious, and I confess that I went to'the Wall without much emotion. Many of you remember the narrow, winding alleys of those days. I stood in front of the Wall - then much smaller than the present large excavated expanse -1 saw Jews, men and women, praying and weeping, putting their kuitlech, their notes, into the crannies of the old stones. Then I suddenly understood its magic. This ruin was all that was left of a glory that once had Veen; it was tragic that only this remained. But in those Jews and Jewesses, with their koitlech, I saw a refusal to accept the fact tbat only these stones were left;thesekmtlech were an expression of confidence in a future to come. That is what made the ruin strong, and 1 left the Wall changed in feeling. For nineteen years -from 1948 to 1967 - we in Israel could not enter the Old City and East Jerusalem; we could not go to the Wall; we could only watch the desecration of the Mount of Olives from a distance. Then came the Six-Day War, and on Wednesday we were all electrified with the news that the Old City had been liberated. There, in that narrow alley... Uniformed paratroopers wrapped in praying shawls were clinging so tightly to the Wall that it seemed impossible to separate them from it - they and the Wall were one. "These heroes, who only a few hours before had fought furiously for the liberation of Jerusalem, who had seen their comrades fail for Jerusalem's sake, went up to the Wall. They wept and wrapped themselves in praying shawls. J, too, took a sheet of paper, wrotetheword-Shalom"oh it and put it in a cranny of the Wall. I shall never forget the picture of the boys by the Wall. It is one of the greatest moments cfmy life. While I stood there, a soldier who probably did riot recognize me put his arms around me and his head on my shoulder. Ifolt greatly blessed that at that moment, a young lad whom I did not know chose me to be a mother to him when he felt the need to weep on the shoulder of simeone close and dear. ~ '.. (Exceiptedhom/iLtmdofOurOwn: An Oral Autobiography,© 1973, Putnam)
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p e candidate for prime minister may be fa nominated by a party with at least 10 seats in the outgoing Knesset or by 50,000 eligible voters. He must be a citizen of the State, at least 30 years of age and is the head of his party's list of candidates for the Knesset. As the result of a bill that was passed in March 1994 Israelis voted directly for a prime ministerial candidate in May 1996, rather than voting solely for a party. The current prime minister of Israel is Benjamin Netanyahu from the Likud party. TWBEttSSSSST '• ' . Ej!|3he Knesset Israel's legislature, comprisM es 120 members who are elected every four years within the framework of political parties. Elections to the Knesset are based on a vote for a political party rather than for an individual. Each party chooses its own candidates. Parties represented in the outgoing Knesset automatically stand for re-election; other parties must obtain signatures of 2^00 eligible voters. In order to gain a Knesset seat a party must receive oneand-one-half percent of the national vote. Knesset seats are assigned in proportion to each party's percentage of the total national vote and allocated to candidates according to the sequence in which they appear ' on their party's list Many political parties compete for Knesset seats. The two largest parties in Israel today are the Labor Party and the Likud Party. Founded in 1930 through" the unification of
ments have been based on coalitions of several, parties, with' those remaining outside the government comprising the opposition. The major function of the Knesset is to legislate. Other responsibilities include establishing a government, taking policy decisions, reviewing government activities and electing the President of the State. The Knesset operates in plenary sessions and through ten committees. Deliberations in die plenum are presided over by the Speaker or a Deputy Speaker and are open to the media and the general public The agenda of the Knesset meetings is set by the Speaker in accordance with Government proposals. One meeting each week is set aside for consideration of private member's bills. Knesset debates are conducted in Hebrew but members may speak Arabic; simultaneous translation is available in both languages. A bill becomes a law in three stages: In die first reading, members engage in a general debate in the plenum; the bill is then referred to, the appropriate committee for resolution of details (bills mat are not referred are either removed from the Knesset table or returned to the Government); the amended bill is then returned to the plenum for a second reading, where deliberations and voting occur on each section separately; a third reading follows in which die bill is presented in its final form and members vote. Knesset votes are usually taken by a show of hands but secret ballot or roll-call voting are used in certain cases. The Twelfth Knesset was die first to institute electronic voting. The min. ister concerned, die prime minister and die president sign die bill into law. Located in Jerusalem,tineKnesset was built in 1966. Its name and number of members
derive from the Knesset Ha-Gedolah ("The Great Assembly"), die legislative body of die Jewish community during die early Second Temple period.
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Computer Demonstration for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netmyaliu several Zionist Socialist parties, die Labor Party has close ties with the Histadrut, Israel's national trade union movement and die kibbutz.movement. The Likud Party is an alliance of Herat (Revisionist Party) and die Liberal Party. '\ • The government must be approved by at least 61 of die 120 Knesset members. To date, no single political party has received enough Knesset seats to be able to form a government by itself. Therefore, all Israeli govern-
& argely a ceremonial position, die President EkilSof Israel is elected to a five-year term by a majority of die Knesset in a secret ballot. He can be re-elected for only one more consecutive term. The duties of die President include: calling on a Knesset member to initiate the process of forming a new government following elections; appointing various senior' state officials including die State Comptroller, the Governor of die Bank of Israel, die President
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of the Supreme Court and judges; approving Israel's envoys to foreign countries and accepting the credentials of foreign diplomats serving in Israel and signing laws, treaties and agreements enacted and ratified by the Knesset The President also has exclusive power to pardon or commute the sentences of civilians and soldiers. At home, he also works to promote dialogue, understanding and tolerance within Israeli society as well as to resolve social and welfare problems. Abroad, the President is an envoy of the Jewish people, visiting Jewish communities worldwide and enhancing their knowledge of and connection to Zionism and the Jewish State. The current President of Israel is Ezer Weizmah, nephew of Chaim Weizmann, renowned Zionist leader and the first president of the Jewish State. A former head of Israel's Air Force (1956-1966) and Minister of Defense (1977-1980), Mr. Weizman was inaugurated on May 13,1993. The President's house is in Jerusalem. In Hebrew, he is called "Nasi", after the head of the Sanhedrin, the supreme legislative and judicial body of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel in ancient times. 1HBJUDIOABY ompletely independent, judges are appointed by the president upon recommendation of a special nine-person committee. Judges receive appointments for life, with retirement at age 70. The Supreme Court can call attention to the desirability of legislative changes and it has the authority to determine whether a law properly conforms with the Basic Laws of the State:
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1HIICOMOMY srael has a mixed economy that is still burdened by its early socialist legacy. In recent years, privatization of state companies has increased, moving the country in a more capitalist free enterprise direction. Its per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is approximately$16,000. Israel's unit of currency is the shekel - known in biblical times, as early as the second millennium B.C.E., as a unit of weight for means of payment in gold and silver. Challenges to the Israeli economy include maintaining national security (Israel spends about ten percent of its GDP on defense),' absorbing large numbers of. immigrants (since the establishment of the state, Israel has absorbed over 2.5 million immigrants), establishing a modem economic infrastructure and providing a high level of public services (in keeping with its historic mandate).
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ISRAELI SOCIETY BJKodern Israel is an open, democratic, MWBmulti-radal society. The essence of Israeli society is the "Law of Return," legislation enacted in 1950 that grants every Jew the right to return to Israel and, upon entry, to automatically become an Israeli citizen. The country's raison d'etre is the "ingathering of the exiles" and providing safe haven and shelter to all Jews who need it. Members of other faith communities may apply for Israeli citizenship as they would in any other country. Israel is home to a widely diverse population from many ethnic, religious, cultural, political and social backgrounds. Over half of its Jewish population is native-bom with the rest from 102 different countries around the world. Israel's beautiful and rich mosaic contributes to the vibrancy and vitality of Israeli society. It also poses challenges to achieving peaceful coexistence among Jews in Israel. Between 1948 and 1951 alone, 688,000 immigrants came to Israel, doubling the existing population. In the early years of the state, most immigrants came to Israel fleeing persecution; Holocaust survivors came from postwar Europe as well as Jews escaping persecution in Arab and Muslim countries. These Bedouin immigrants brought with them different polit- Courtesy Israel Government Press
ical and cultural traditions ranging from democracy to dictatorships, equality between the sexes to a patriarchal society. .:•For most of its history, Israel was defending its very physical existence and the elements binding all Jews - shared history, religion and commitment to the survival and stability of the Jewish state - superseded the divisions among Jews. Today, as Israel is forging peace with its neighbors, the elements dividing Jews are resurfacing in Israeli sodety. Furthermore,' in Israel there is no clear separation of religion and state. In the early years of the state, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion achieved what has become known as the "status quo" regarding many religious matters. In recent years, the status quo has been challenged and the issue of religious pluralism in particular has caused controversy and strife.'
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Offia
oday, many organizations in Israel and in the United States are working toward improving coexistence among Jews and Arabs inside Israel. Salem Jubran, the codirector of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva,recentlyreflectedon JewishArab coexistence in Israel: V
I was bom in a village m the extreme north of our country which is catted in Arabic Mukhal Ad, in Hebrew Peld'im, In this village three Arab communities - Druse, Moslem and Christian -lived together alongside a Jewish community. Each community respected the frith, the places of worship and the holy book of the other communities. But religion was the only distinction. In the daily life, no one could tell who was Jewish, who was Moslem, who was Christian and who was Druse. Through good and bad times all the people of Peld'im from the four communities were one family... If Jews and Arabs could live a peaceful life for centuries, in cooperation and with respect, such as in Peld'im, there is no reason in the world why today we cannot build a model of coexistence, cooperation, and respect between Jewish and Arab Israelis... Until recently, Arabs in Israel could not be a part of the Israeli consensus because we could not agree with the official Israeli approach toward the Palestinians or toward the Arab world. At the same time, most Arabs could not be a part of the official Arab consensus. Even if the aim of destruction of Israel was possible, it is anti-humanistic But, we knew also it was not realistic. Thus, the Arabs in Israel lived in a very sad situation. They could not be a real part of the Israeli public opinion, of Israeli society, and they could not be a part of the Arab world. We suffered as Israelis when the Palestinians attacked. We suffered as Palestinians when Israel attacked... The question that persists for Israel's Arab citizens is how to find the balance between our Palestinian and pur Israeli identities? Being a citizen in Israel is not only an identity card or a passport, it is a way of life. Influences cultural, economic, ideological, social - have cast the Arabs in Israel as a new phenomenon in the Middle East. We
imJUUPBIMl
David Ben-Gurion Moshe Sharett David Ben-Gurion LeviEshkol GoldaMeir Yitzhak Rabin Menachem Begin Yitzhak Shamir Shimon Peres Yitzhak Shamir Yitzhak Rabin Shimon Peres Benjamin Netanyahu
ISRABU P i ! Chaim Weizmann Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Zahnan Sh'azar Ephraim Katzlr Yitzhak Navon Chaim Heizog Ezer Weizman 22
(1948-1954, Mapai) (1954-1955, Mapai) (1955-1963, Mapai) (1963-1969, Mapai) (1969-1974, Labor) (1974-1977, Labor) (1977-1983, Likud) (1983-1984, Likud) (1984-1986, Labor) (1986-1992, Likud) (1992-1995, Labor) (1995-1996, Labor) (1996-,Likud)
are real Arabs and we are real Israelis. It is important to note that Arabs in Israel increasingly refer to the state of Israel as "our state." . . . My hope for Israel is that the leaders of the Arab minority and the Jewish majority -political, intellectual, and religious - will search together for a formula which gives all Israeli citizens the deep feeling that this society is theirs. Democracy arid equality are not incompatible to the Jewish character of the state. I believe it is possible to coordinate between Judaism and democracy, Judaism and equality, and between Palestinian Arabism and democracy... In Israel the majority of the Arabs are bi-cultural. Hebrew is not a foreign language for us. Hebrew literature is not a foreign literature for most Arab intellectuals. We live Hebrew. We study Hebrew literature sometimes even more than the Arab literature. When I go to Cairo and read Al-Ahram, I feel (hat this newspaper is foreign tome. When I return to Ben-Gurion airport 1 hurriedly buy Yediot Ahranqt, Ma'ariv and Ha'aretz and study what is going on in the country. So, we are Israeli citizens and we want to continue being Israeli citizens. I love my homeland just
(1949-1952) (1952-1963) (1963-1973) (1973-1978) ' (1978-1983) (1983-1993) .(1993)
as Jews love their homeland. IumtthelsradisM^tobeagardmwifofltm^^ ety, a more beautiful society, and a more just society, and the Arabs in Israel will be happy to live in such a society.
(Reprinted with permission from Jewish-Arab Coexistence in Israel, Notional Conference Report of The Abraham Fund and the National Jewish Community ' Relations Advisory Council ©1995) . ' "' •"".
R srael's declaration of independence guaruantees that the government will "uphold the hill social and political equality of all its dozens without distinction of race, creed and sex." Approximately 20 percent of Israel's population, about one million people, arc not Jewish, comprising primarily Arabic-speaking groups. Muslim Arabs number some 780,000, residing mainly in small towns and villages, over half in northern Israel. Bedouin Arabs belong to 30 tribes and comprise ten percent of Israel's Muslim Arab population. Living primarily in the Negev desert, they are a people struggling between an ancient way of life and the modern world. There are about 160,000 Christian Arabs who live mainly in urban areas; the. majority of Christian Arabs are affiliated with the Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. Some 80,000 Druze live in 22. villages in northern Israel. The Druze religion is hot accessible to outsiders and Druze constitute a separate cultural, social and religious Arabic-speaking community. The Druze concept of taqiyya calls for complete loyalty by its adherents to the government of the country in which theyreside.As such, among other things, the Druze serve in the Israel Defense Forces. The Circassians are .non-Arab Sunni Muslims who comprise about 3,000 people concentrated in two northern Israeli villages. In keeping wilh Israel's democratic principles, the Arab dtizens of Israel are affordedall the rights and privileges of Israeli citizenship, When the first elections to the Knesset were held in February 1949, Israeli Arabs were given the right to vote and to be elected. At the time, however, Israel was still in a state of war and threatened by its * Arab-neighbors and it viewed the Arab population within its borders as a security threat This led to the imposition of a military government in all areas where Arabs ttYed.from 1948-1966. Today, Israel's Arab dtizens are accorded full dvil and political rights, entitled to complete participation in Israeli sodety. They are active in Israeli sodat political and tivic life and enjoy representation in Israel's Parliament, foreign service and judicial system. In the 1996 Israeli elections, nine members of Israel's Arab parties were elected to the Knesset At the same time, there do exist sizable economic and sodal gaps in the levels of development between Jewish and Arab sodeties. Israeli Arabs do face discrimination, not as a result of official policy but in practice. Israeli Jewish employers, for example, have discriminated against Arabs. On a more encouraging note, in recent years, Israeli Arabs have better mobilized themselves to lobby and fight within Israel's democratic system for what is rightfully theirs.
Sea] of Israel
°i|p|ooh>dirithe( •Upvalues of the early Jewish immigrants to Palestine, the Kibbutz developed as a unique model of communal living. Originally Kibbutzim were agricultural enterprises but as time went on, many expanded into industrial and service enterprises as well. In their heyday, the Kibbutzim were the pride of Israeli sodety and exerted great economic, political and sodal influence over the country. In recent decades, as Israel increasingly moves away from socialist and communal principles and towards a more open, freemarket economy emphasizing individual "
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ZIONISM mm
ma msmmr or ismm.
• Arthur Hertzberg, ed., The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Sodety, 1997). • Walter Laqueur, A History of Zionism (New York: Schocken, 1989). • Conor Cruise O'Brien, The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986,1987). • Howard M. Sachar, A History of Israel: from the Rise of Zionism To Our Time (New York: Knopf, 1996). • Gideon Shimoni, The Zionist Ideology (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1995). • David Vital, Zionism: The Formative Years (New York Oxford University Press, 1989).
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Kibbutz Ramal Rachel, June 1976 achievement the power of the kibbutzim has waned. Today's Kibbutzim are struggling to achieve a balance between the community, and the individual and are seeking ways to reconcile the early values of a pioneering way of life with the challenges of contemporary sodety.
';- 'smmu mm sacra ;:: Israel is a small, narrow, semi-arid counH try,; It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the southwest and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is 290 miles long and 85 miles at its widest point The country includes mountains and plains, fertile fields and desert, often minutes apart from each other. The width of the country, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east, can be crossed by car in about 90 minutes. The length of the country, from Metulla in the north to Eilat in the south, takes about nine hours by car. 34% of world Jewry lives in Israel 1997 Population ' Jews Muslims Christians - • • Druze, Circassian & others
5.472 million 81.2% 14.3% 2.8% 1.7%
Population Distribution Cities Villages Moshavim Kibbutzim
90.7% 3.9% 3.1% 2.3%
Israel from 1949-1967 Sinai Peninsula West Bank Gaza Strip Golan Heights
8,086 square miles 23,437 sq. mi 2^23 sq. mi. 141 sq. mi. 451 sq. mi.
The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth at about 1,300 feet below sea level. Its waters have the highest level of salinity and density in the world. Israel's climate ranges from temperate to tropical with two distinct seasons: a rainy winter period from November to May and a dry summer season for me next six months. . Variations in the intensity of the winter and summer periods depend on regional conditions. Weather extremes range from occasional winter snowfall at higher elevations to periodic hot dry winds In the summer.
• Meron Benvetusti, Intimate Enemies: Jews and Arabs in a Shared Land (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995). . , • Jane Corbin, Tlie Norway Channel: The Secret Talks That Led to the Middle East Peace Accord (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994). . . •. • Glenn Frankel, Beyond the Promised Land: Jews and Arabs On the Road to a New Israel (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994). • David Makovsky, Making Peace with the FLO: The Rabin Government's Road to the Oslo Accord (Boulder: Westview Press/HarperCollins, 1996). • Benjamin Netanyahu, A Place Among the Nations: Israel and the World (New York: Bantam Books, 1993). • Shimon Peres, The New Middle East (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1993).
• • • • • • • • • • •
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (November 22,1967) United Nations Security (Council Resolution 338 (October 22,1973) Camp David Accords (September 20,1978) Egyptian-Israeli'PeaceTreaty (March26,1979) Israel-PLO Letters of Mutual Recognition (September 9,1993) Israel-Palestinian Declaration of Principles (September 13,1993) Israel-Jordan Common Agenda (September 14,1993) Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area (May 4,1994) Jordanian-Israeli Peace Treaty (October 26,1994) Interim Agreement between Israel and the FLO (September 28,1995) Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron (January 17,1997)
wmm raocisss mswmtm. • Fouad Ajami, The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice Since 1967,
updated ed: (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992). • Chaim Herzog, The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East from the War of Independence Through Lebanon (New York: Vintage Books, 1984). • Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949 (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1989). • William B. Quandt, Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1%7 (Washington: BrooWngs Institution and Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). • Barry Rubin, Revolution Until VtctoryiThe Politics and History of the PLO (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994). • Charles D. Smith; Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992). • Steven Spiegel, The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict: Making America's Middle East Policy From Truman to Reagan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985,1986).
• Chaim Herzog, A Living History: Memoirs (New York: Pantheon, 1996). • Golda Meir, My Life ( N e w York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1975). • Shimon Peres, Battling for Peace: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 1995). • Yitzhak Rabin, Vie Rabin Memoirs: Expanded Edition (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1996). • Robert Slater, Rabin of Israel: Warrior for Peace (New York: HarperCollins, 1996). • Yitzhak Shamir, Summing Up (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1994). (Continued on back cover)
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!'Se lee ie el;." Resources^ n %Israe I i (Continuedfromprevious page) FOR YOUNO RBABEBS
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• Yehuda Amichai, Poems of Jerusalem (New York: Harper & Row; 1988). • Lillian Freehof, Heroes of Jerusalem: Stories of King David (Philadelphia: Jewish • Dan Bahat, The I/Iusfrafeii At/as of Jerusalem (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990). Publication Society, reissued 1995). • Meron Benvenjsti, City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem .(Berkeley: University •"IE. Mozeson and Lois Stavsky, Jerusalem' Mosaic: Young Voices from the Holy City (New York: Four Winds Press, 1994). of California Press, 1996). " '-' - ' _ • Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, O Jerusalem! (New York: SimofV& Schuster, - • • Abraham Rabinovich, Teddy Kollek: Builder of Jerusalem (Philadelphia: Jewish 1980). Publication Society Young Biography Series, 1995). • Puah Shteiner, Forever My Jerusalem: A Personal Account o/ the Siege mid Surrender of • Amos Elon, Jerusalem: City of Mirrors (Boston: Little Brown, 1989). Jerusalem 1948 (New York: Feldheim, 1987). • • Rochelle Furstenberg, Images ofJerusalem: City of David in Modern Hebrew Literature (New York: Hadassah, 1995). • Maida Silverman, Israel: Tlie Founding of a Modern Nation (New York: Dial Books • Martin Gilbert, Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century (New York: John Wiley & Sons for Young Readers, forthcoming 1998). Inc., 1996). • Neil Waldman, Tlie Golden City: Jerusalem's 3,000 Years (New York: Simon & • Reuven Hammer, The Jerusalem Anthology: A Literary Guide (Philadelphia: Jewish Schuster, 1995), Publication Society, 1995). • Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem on Earth: People, Passions and Politics in the Holy City (New York: Free Press, 1988). Israel Studies (Biannual academic journal) Tlie Jerusalem Post (Daily and Weekly International Edition newspaper) The Jerosoiem Report (Biweekly news magazine) • Ze'ev Chafets, Heroes and Hustlers, Hard Hats and Holymen: Inside the New Israel Middle East Quarterly (Quarterly journal of policy & analysis) (New York: Morrow, 1987). • Yaron Ezrachi, Rubber Bullets: Power and Conscience in Modern Israel (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997). : •JointAuuiiorifyfbrJewish2SonistEducation-www.jajz-ed.org.il • Yossi Melmart, The New Israelis: An Intimate View of a Changing People (New York: • Index of Israel-related Resources - www.maven.co.il Birch Lane Press, 1992). ;' . •'.'•. ;..-.• Israel Information Service - Gopher Israel-info.gov.il • EhudSprinzak, Tlie Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right (New York: Oxford University • Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs - www.israel.org Press, 1991). • Jerusalem One Network - www.jerl.co.il • Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Steve Kaplan, Surviving Salvation: The Ethiopian Jewish • Jerusalem Post Internet Edition - www.jpost.co.il Family in Transition (New York: New York University Press, 1992). • Virtual Jerusalem - www.virtual.co.il • Ha'aretz English Internet Edition - www.haaretz.co.il\eng
&SA@UB BBSOUMIS • Martin Gilbert, Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, . . ; . . mm-mmmmm • Towards Final Status: Pending Issues in Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations (1997) 1993). • Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin, eds., The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary • Tlie Agreement on Hebron (1997) History of the Middle East Conflict (New York: Penguin, fifth ed., 1995). • Islamic Extremism (1996) • Yehuda Lukacs, ed., TTie Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Documentary Record 1967-1990 • Tlie Jerusalem Record (1996) . ( N e w York: C a m b r i d g e University Press, 1992). '•••;'.'.;' • Tlie Palestinian Elections: A Primer (1996) • • •"•" Bernard Reich, ed., Arab-Israeli Conflict atifl: Conciliation: A:Documehtary:History > Talking Points on Oslo II (1995) : (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995). • Israeli Settlements: A Guide (1995) ... • Cecil Roth and Geoffrey Wigoder, eds., Encyclopedia Judaica. Keter Publishing, 1971. • The Path To Normalcy: The Evolution of Israeli-Jordanian Relations (1995) • Extremism in the Name of Religion: The Violent Record of the Kalrnne Movement and Its BBfiESSF BSSflEEJ PEOTHCM (in translation) Offshoots (1995) • David Grossman, The Book of Intimate Grammar (New York: Putnam, 1995). • From Pariah to Partner: Israel's Integration Into the Community of Nations (1994) • Beyond the White House Lawn: Current Perspectives on the Arab-Israeli Peace Process • Batya Gur, Literary Murder: A Critical Case (New York: Harper Perennial, 1994). • Shulamith Hareven, A City of Many Days (New York: Mercury House, 1993). • The Israeli-Palestinian Agreement: In the Footsteps of Camp David (1993) ; • Yehudit Katzir, Closingthe Sea (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992). • Bibliography on Israel and tlie Middle East (1992) • Amos Oz, Don't Call It Night (New York: Haicourt Brace & Co., 1996) • A.B. Yehoshua, Open Heart (New York: Doubleday, 1996). (1994)
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