Jewish year 5774 lasts from Sept. 5, 2013, through Sept. 24, 2014.
September 2013
The United States and Russia reach a deal to rid Syria of its arsenal of chemical weapons, promoting Jewish groups to suspend their efforts lobbying for U.S. strikes against Damascus.
Rabbi Philip Berg, founder of the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles and teacher of Jewish mysticism for A-list celebrities, dies at age 86.
William Rapfogel, the ousted leader of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in New York, is arrested on charges of grand larceny and money laundering. Investigators later say the scheme involving Rapfogel netted $9 million in illicit funds, including $3 million for Rapfogel himself. Rapfogel pleads guilty the following April and is sent to prison in July for three-and-a-half to 10 years.
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama says the U.S. focus in the Middle East will be keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace. Meanwhile, in a meeting with U.S. Jewish leaders, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says he is more hopeful now for peace than he was in the mid-2000s.
The Foundation for Jewish Culture, a 53-year-old organization dedicated to promoting Jewish culture and the arts, announces it is closing.
Larry Ellison, CEO of the technology company Oracle, is ranked as the richest Jew in the United States, according to the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, which puts Ellison at No. 3. Other Jews making the top 20 are Michael Bloomberg (10, $31 billion); Sheldon Adelson (11, $28.5 billion); Sergey Brin (14, $24.4 billion); George Soros (19, $20 billion); and Marc Zuckerberg (20, $19 billion).
Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to preside over a same-sex marriage, the wedding ceremony of Michael Kaiser and John Roberts.
October 2013
A landmark study of U.S. Jews by the Pew Research Center finds the Jewish intermarriage rate has risen to 58 percent and that among the 22 percent of American Jews who describe themselves as having no religion, two-thirds are not raising their children as Jews. The survey also estimates the U.S. Jewish population at 6.8 million, roughly the same estimate arrived at by Brandeis University researchers analyzing 350 separate population studies.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a pan-European intergovernmental organization, overwhelmingly passes a resolution calling male ritual circumcision a “violation of the physical integrity of children” and putting it in the same class as female genital mutilation. Israeli President Shimon Peres joins the chorus of voices protesting the decision. In November, the group’s leader assures Jews that the council does not seek to ban Jewish ritual circumcision.
A day after meeting with President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the U.N. General Assembly that Israel is ready to go it alone against Iran should it come close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Israeli sage who founded the Sephardic Orthodox Shas political party and exercised major influence on Jewish law, dies at age 93.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is named the first recipient of the Genesis Prize, a $1 million award for a renowned professional capable of inspiring young Jews. The prize is funded by a consortium of Jewish philanthropists from the former Soviet Union.
Arieh Warshel, a U.S. professor born and educated in Israel, and ex-Weizmann Institute professor Michael Levitt are among the winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize for chemistry.
Two Orthodox rabbis from the New York area and two accomplices are arrested for allegedly kidnapping and beating men to force them to grant their wives a religious Jewish divorce, or get.
Israeli forces discover a “terror tunnel” running from Gaza to an Israeli kibbutz. The tunnel is full of explosives and ends near an Israeli kindergarten.
Janet Yellen is named head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, becoming the third American Jewish central banker in a row and the first woman to hold the post.
Movement leaders at the centennial conference of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in Baltimore agree that significant rejuvenation is needed if Conservative Judaism is to reverse its negative trajectory.
November 2013
Semen Domnitser, the former Claims Conference employee who was found guilty of leading a $57 million fraud scheme at the Holocaust restitution organization, is sentenced to eight years in prison. The scheme entails falsifying applications to two funds established by the German government to make restitution payments to Holocaust survivors.
In a survey of 5,847 European Jews, nearly one-third of respondents say they “seriously considered emigrating” from Europe because of anti-Semitism.
German authorities begin taking steps to identify the provenance of more than 1,400 words of Holocaust-era art found in the Munich home of Cornelius Gurlitt.
Joseph Paul Franklin is executed for killing a man at a St. Louis-area synagogue in 1977. Franklin, 63, shot Gerald Gordon outside the Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel synagogue as Gordon left a bar mitzvah. Franklin also is convicted of seven other murders throughout the United States and claims credit for 20 deaths between 1977 and 1980.
Forty families belonging to the haredi Orthodox extremist group Lev Tahor consider fleeing their Quebec homes out of fears that Canadian welfare authorities are poised to seize their children.
The United States and a coalition of world powers reach a six-month agreement with Iran to curb the country’s nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions relief while negotiations for a final settlement on Iran’s nuclear program are conducted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pans the deal as a “historic mistake.” The deal goes into effect on Jan. 20.
December 2013
Gal Gadot, an Israeli actress who is a former Miss Israel, is cast as Wonder Woman in the upcoming film “Batman vs. Superman.”
Swarthmore’s Hillel chapter becomes the first to join the so-called Open Hillel movement, which challenges Hillel International’s guidelines prohibiting partnerships with groups it deems hostile toward Israel. Hillel boards at Vassar and Wesleyan soon follow suit.
The Union for Reform Judaism announces at its biennial conference in San Diego that it has sold off half its headquarters in New York and is investing $1 million from the proceeds to overhaul the movement’s youth programming.
The membership of the American Studies Association endorses a boycott of Israeli universities. The controversial decision comes after months of debate and prompts several American schools to withdraw from the association in protest and dozens more to condemn the move.
The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association becomes the third U.S. academic body in less than a year to recommend that its members boycott Israeli universities.
After being pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is released from prison and leaves Russia, where he spent 10 years behind bars.
Philanthropist Edgar Bronfman dies in New York at 84. An heir to the Seagram’s beverage fortune, Bronfman was a longtime advocate on behalf of Jewish causes, serving as the head of the World Jewish Congress and financing many efforts to strengthen Jewish identity.
Amid a public debate in France over an allegedly anti-Semitic gesture called the quenelle, the French media publish a photo of a man performing it outside the Toulouse school where four Jews were murdered. Several French cities later announce they have banned performances by the comedian who popularized the salute, Dieudonne M’bala M’bala.
January 2014
Brooklyn Hasidic real estate developer Menachem Stark is kidnapped, and his lifeless body is later found in a dumpster. The New York Post provokes outrage among many Jews with a cover calling him a slumlord and a headline asking, “Who didn’t want him dead?” Months later, a construction worker is arrested for the killing.
Ariel Sharon, the controversial warrior-turned-statesman who served as Israel’s prime minister from 2001 until 2006, when he was rendered comatose by a stroke, dies at age 85.
JTA and MyJewishLearning, which includes the popular parenting website Kveller.com, announce their intention to merge.
The Israeli government announces that it plans to invest more than $1 billion over the next 20 years to strengthen the Jewish identity of Diaspora Jews, particularly young Jews, but the details remain fuzzy.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel reaches an agreement with the Rabbinical Council of America to automatically accept letters from RCA members vouching for the Jewish status of Israeli immigrants. The agreement follows a temporary suspension by the Chief Rabbinate in accepting such letters from at least one well-known RCA member, Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale, N.Y.
Two modern Orthodox high schools in New York stir controversy with decisions to allow girls who wish to lay tefillin.
UJA-Federation of New York, the largest Jewish federation in North America, names attorney Eric Goldstein as its new CEO and successor to longtime CEO John Ruskay.
Actress Scarlett Johansson comes under criticism for serving as a spokeswoman for the Israeli company SodaStream, which has facilities in the West Bank. Johansson, who is Jewish, stands by SodaStream and resigns as a global ambassador for the British-based charity Oxfam, saying she and Oxfam have “a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.”
The Israel Air Force is accused of attacking a warehouse of advanced Russian-made S-300 missiles in the Syrian port city of Latakia. Israel declines to comment on the attack.
A federal judge tosses out a $380 million sexual abuse lawsuit filed against Yeshiva University by 34 former students of its high school for boys. The suit alleged that the university ignored warnings of assault by two faculty members between 1969 and 1989. In dismissing the lawsuit, Judge John Koeltl rules that the statute of limitations has expired.
Longtime California congressman Henry Waxman announces his retirement. Waxman had represented California’s 33rd District since 1975 and was considered the dean of Jewish lawmakers.
Jewish philanthropist and humanitarian Anne Heyman, founder of the Agahozo-ShalomYouthVillage in Rwanda, dies during a horse-riding competition in Palm Beach, Fla.
February 2014
The government of Spain approves a bill to facilitate the naturalization of Sephardic Jews of Spanish descent.
Staff at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem go on strike as the hospital, facing a huge deficit, teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and fails to pay its workers.
Abraham Foxman announces he is stepping down as national director of the Anti-Defamation League after 27 years in the post. Foxman, a child survivor of the Holocaust one of the highest profile American Jewish leaders, says he will step down in July 2015.
Alice Herz-Sommer, the 110-year-old Holocaust survivor and concert pianist whose life is the subject of a documentary that a week later would win an Oscar, dies.
The Giymat Rosa Synagogue in Zaporizhia, in eastern Ukraine, is firebombed, sustaining minor damage. The attack comes amid growing turmoil in Ukraine following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych.
March 2014
AIPAC leaders emphasize bipartisanship and mutual respect at the group’s annual policy conference in Washington. The conference follows a bruising period in which the pro-Israel lobby had championed a new Iran sanctions bill, only to back down when it becomes clear the bill lacked the necessary support from the White House and congressional Democrats to pass.
In one of many low-level skirmishes over the course of months, Israeli aircraft strike several targets in the Gaza Strip after Palestinians fire rockets into Israel, sending Israelis into bomb shelters.
David Hellman, a New York personal trainer, pleads guilty to using violent means to force recalcitrant husbands to give their wives a Jewish writ of divorce, or get. Hellman, who faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, was one of 10 men arrested in October 2013 in an FBI sting operation.
Yeshiva University is at risk of running out of unrestricted cash in the near-term future, warns Moody’s Investors Service, which says deep and growing operating deficits are likely to continue at the university due to “poor financial oversight and high expenses.” In May, Y.U. will announce that the Montefiore Health System is assuming operational control of Y.U.’s Albert Einstein School of Medicine.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is found guilty of accepting bribes in the corruption case involving the Holyland real estate development in Jerusalem. Olmert, who is convicted of receiving about $150,000 in bribes through his brother, Yossi, becomes the first former Israeli prime minister to be convicted of taking a bribe. The crime carries a possible sentence of 10 years in prison.
April 2014
Casino magnate and conservative backer Sheldon Adelson buys another Israeli newspaper, Makor Rishon, making him the owner of several of Israel’s major right-wing media outlets and two of the country’s four major newspapers.
Mobilized by the death of Samuel Sommers — the 8-year-old son of Rabbi Phyllis and Michael Sommers whose struggle with leukemia was documented on a popular blog called Superman Sam — 73 rabbis shave their heads to raise $600,000 for pediatric cancer research.
American-Jewish contractor Alan Gross goes on a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment in a Cuban jail and the lack of American assistance. Later in the year, in poor health and with no prospect of release, Gross bids goodbye to his family during a prison visit.
White supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, kills a man and his grandson outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and then shoots to death a woman at a Jewish assisted-living facility a few blocks away. None of the victims are Jewish, highlighting the diverse constituency served by America’s Jewish institutions.
After weeks of near breakdowns in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israel suspends all negotiations after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party signs a unity accord with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. President Obama responds by saying it may be time for a pause in Middle East peacemaking. Kerry later expresses regret for saying that Israel risks becoming an “apartheid” state or a non-Jewish one if the two-state solution is not implemented. U.S. negotiators blame Israel for the talks’ collapse.
Gennady Kernes, the Jewish mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is shot in a suspected assassination attempt, leaving him in critical condition. The shooting comes amid growing violence between Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists in eastern Ukraine and forces loyal to the new Ukrainian government in Kiev. Kernes is airlifted to Israel for treatment.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations rejects J Street’s bid for membership. J Street, the liberal Washington group that lobbies for increased American pressure to bring about a Mideast peace deal, lost its bid for membership in the main communal group on foreign policy issues by a vote of 22-17, with three abstentions. J Street needed the support of two-thirds of the conference’s 51 members to gain admission.
An arm of the private equity firm Bain Capital purchases the Manischewitz Company, the iconic producer of kosher packaged goods, for an undisclosed sum. According to The New York Times, the new owners are expected to promote kosher as an indication of quality food rather than just a religious designation.
Genealogical research reveals that the late archbishop of New York, Cardinal John O’Connor, technically was Jewish. O’Connor’s mother, Dorothy Gumple O’Connor, was born Jewish but converted to Catholicism before she met and married O’Connor’s father.
May 2014
New York’s 92nd Street Y, a Jewish center for arts and culture, names its first non-Jewish executive director, Henry Timms. Shortly afterward, Sol Adler, the previous longtime executive director, who was fired after revelations that he had a long-term affair with his assistant, hangs himself in his Brooklyn home.
An Anti-Defamation League anti-Semitism survey finds “deeply anti-Semitic views” are held by 26 percent of 53,000 people polled in 102 countries and territories covering approximately 86 percent of the world’s population. Critics say the survey’s 11 questions are not accurate gauges of anti-Semitism.
Maccabi Tel Aviv wins the Euroleague basketball championship by beating favored Real Madrid, 98-86, in overtime.
Novelist Philip Roth receives an honorary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Now considered one of the greatest living American writers, Roth had caused outrage early in his career with his sometimes stinging portrayals of Jewish life. In 2012, Roth announced he was retiring.
The Jewish community of Sharon, Mass., is shocked as the rabbi of Temple Israel, Barry Starr, resigns amid allegations that he used synagogue discretionary funds to pay about $480,000 in hush money to an extortionist to hide a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male. Starr apologizes to the congregation in an email.
Far right parties make gains in European Parliament elections, including Greece’s Golden Dawn.
The European Union says it has banned the import of poultry and eggs produced in West Bank settlements.
A gunman kills four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels. Several days later, Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old French national of Algerian origin, is arrested in connection with the attack.
Pope Francis travels to Israel and the West Bank, visiting the Western Wall, Yad Vashem and the West Bank security fence, among other sites.
June 2014
Former Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin of the Likud party is elected president of Israel, defeating Meir Sheetrit of Hatnua in a 63-53 runoff vote. Rivlin formally succeeds Shimon Peres and becomes Israel’s 10th president in late July.
Rep. Eric Cantor, the majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history, is upset in the Republican primary for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District by a Tea Party challenger. Dave Brat, an economics professor, wins handily after attacking Cantor for drifting from conservative principles. Days later, Cantor resigns his post as majority leader.
Weeks after leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Euroleague title, David Blatt becomes the head coach of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. Blatt had played for an Israeli kibbutz team in 1979 after his sophomore year at Princeton and then competed for the U.S. team that won the gold medal in the 1981 Maccabiah Games. He returned to play nearly a decade professionally in Israel.
Three Israeli teenagers, later identified as Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, are kidnapped in the West Bank from a hitchhiking post. Israel responds with three weeks of intensive searches, including mass arrests in the West Bank of Hamas members and the re-arrest of dozens of Palestinians released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner-exchange deal.
Three weeks on, Israeli authorities find the teens’ bodies and announce that the boys were believed to have been killed the night they were kidnapped. The incident sparks the revenge killing by Jews of an Arab teen, riots and a surge of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces responds by launching Operation Protective Edge — Israel’s deadliest foray into Gaza since its 2005 withdrawal — on July 8.
Israel announces that the suspect in the April 14 killing of Israeli Police Superintendent Baruch Mizrachi is Ziad Awad, a West Bank Palestinian released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) votes 310-303 to divest from three American companies that do business with Israeli security services in the West Bank. Heath Rada, the moderator of the assembly, says it’s not a “reflection for our lack of love for our Jewish sisters and brothers,” but Jewish leaders say it will have a “devastating impact” on their relations with the church.
July 2014
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the father of the Jewish Renewal movement, which sought to introduce more music, dance and meditation into prayer and Jewish life, dies in Boulder, Colo., at age 89.
Israel launches its third major Gaza operation in six years. Dubbed Operation Defensive Edge, the campaign begins with 10 days of intensive airstrikes in Gaza. After several failed cease-fire attempts, a ground invasion of Gaza follows. Hamas fires thousands of rockets into Israel, striking as far away as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and a Haifa suburb. In four weeks of fighting before a 72-hour cease-fire in early August, some 1,800 Palestinians are reported killed.
Israel comes under heavy criticism for attacks that kill children, strike U.N. facilities and damage civil infrastructure. Israel blames Hamas for using civilians as human shields and schools, hospitals and U.N. facilities as weapons depots. The death toll in Israel includes 64 soldiers and three civilians. Several of Israel’s casualties are due to Palestinian infiltrations of Israel through tunnels burrowed under the Israel-Gaza border. Israel’s prime minister says destroying the tunnels is one of the war’s main objectives.
A riot outside a French synagogue is one of several incidents related to the Gaza war that threaten Jews in Europe. The riot by Palestinian sympathizers outside the Synagogue de la Roquette in central Paris traps some 200 people inside the building. A street brawl ensues between the rioters and dozens of Jewish men who arrived to defend the synagogue.
Most foreign airlines suspend flights to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv after a Hamas-fired missile strikes nearby. The suspensions, prompted by a flight ban issued by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, last two to three days.
Iran and the major powers, led by the United States, agree to extend negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program for another four months, citing progress in a number of areas. But the potential deal breaker remains: Iran does not want to reduce its number of its centrifuges, and the world powers say they won’t accept Iran maintaining its existing capacity for uranium enrichment.
August 2014
As the fighting in Gaza wanes and Israeli troops begin to pull back, Israel experiences several terrorist attacks inside the country perpetrated by West Bank Palestinians, including a tractor attack in Jerusalem.
The 72-hour cease-fire that brought Operation Protective Edge to a halt expires, and Gazans resume intensive rocket fire against Israel. The Israeli military responds with airstrikes inside Gaza. The sides then agree to another 72-hour cease-fire.
Leonard Fine, veteran Jewish activist and author, dies Aug. 14. He was a founder of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, co-founder with Elie Wiesel of Moment magazine and a founder and board member of Americans for Peace Now.
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