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Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive: Zalman Shazar.

Alternate Chairman of the Executive of the WZO - Jewish Agency, American Section: Dr. Emanuel Neumann and Rose L. Halperin.

President of the World Zionist Organization: Nahum Goldmann.

Treasurer of the Jewish Agency: Peretz Naphtali and Dov Joseph.

Chairman Youth Aliyah Department: Moshe Kol.

Chairman Settlement Department: Levi Eshkol.

Chairman of the Immigration Department: Shlomo Zalman Shragai.

Chairman Absorption Department: Dov Joseph.

Because of difficulties in agriculture the region around Adullam is designated as a special area. The Agricultural Department of the Jewish Agency establishes five of eleven villages.

70,000 immigrants arrive in 1957 which marks the largest immigration figure between 1951 and 1990. The rise to power of Wladyslav Gomulka in Poland opens the gates for Polish Jews. 35,000, including many from the Soviet Union come to Israel. A second wave of some 10.000 arrive from Hungary with the failure of the anti-Soviet uprising in late 1956. Some 14,000 Jews come from Egypt in the wake of the Sinai Campaign. A large proportion are mature adults, and self-employed. They cannot be placed in agricultural settlements. They are settled in the coastal plain which is against the official policy of population distribution.

The Anne Frank Haven is founded in Kibbutz Sasa for children under the age of 12.

January: David Ben Gurion announces that Israel will leave Sinai by January, 22, with the exception of the Sharm el-Sheikh area. The Gaza Strip will also be held.

January 5: President Eisenhower announces the main points of the Eisenhower Doctrine. The United States will aid any Middle Eastern country endangered by the spread of Soviet influence in the region.

January 20: Israel and Egypt agree on an exchange of prisoners.

January 23: The Knesset approves a declaration by Prime Minister Ben Gurion that Israel will retain control over the Gaza Strip after the evacuation of the Sinai and that the evacuation of the Straits of Tiran must be preceded by assurances of freedom of navigation.

February 2: The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution (France and Israel oppose) calling for Israel withdrawal from Gaza and Sharm el-Sheikh.

February 28: UN General Assembly Resolution 1018.

March 1: The government announces that it will regard "any interference with shipping through the Straits as an aggressive act against which Israel is entitled to self-defense."

March 1 : Georges Picot, French UN ambassador, addresses the Security Council. France recognizes Israel's right to free passage through the Straits of Tiran. Any interference would fully entitle Israel to use its inherent right of self-defense.

March 2 : Foreign Minister Golda Meir makes a statement to the UN General Assembly: Israel would complete withdrawal from the Sinai on certain "assumptions": The UNEF would remain in the Sinai and Gaza until a peace accord is reached, fedayeen raids would cease, and the Straits of Tiran would reopen. Repetition of fedayeen raids or interference with free passage through the straits would be regarded as an attack entitling Israel its inherent right of self defense.

March 4: Rudolf Kasztner is assassinated in Tel Aviv.

March: The last Israeli troops leave Sharm el-Sheikh and Gaza. The next ten years the southern border will be quiet and the country will be able to devote its energies to the challenges of immigrant absorption, economic development, and the enhancement of its international position.

April: Israel establishes its embassy in Accra, Ghana. This is the beginning of Israel's efforts to open up diplomatic relations with African states and to reach agreements on agricultural cooperation.

April 6 : The U. S. tanker "Kern Hills" arrives at Eilat in the Gulf of Aqaba with a cargo of oil from Iran. The tanker's passage fulfills the U. S. pledge to Israel to establish the right of passage in the Gulf of Aqaba.

May 8-11: Over 5.000 soldiers and civilians participate in a four-day march from various regions converging in Jerusalem. The march will become an annual event.

May: The Hapoel soccer team leaves for a tour of matches to the United States. On 12 May the team beats the Americans by 6:4. Hapoel's "mascot" is Marilyn Monroe.

June: The border situation worsens. The Egyptians mine the Gaza Strip border. Syrians harass settlements at the northern border with sniper fire and shelling.

July 22 : It is announced that the late James Rothschild (1878-1957) of London bequeathed 6 million pounds for the construction of a permanent home for the Knesset in Jerusalem and that Joseph Klarwein (1893-1970) has won the architectural competition for the design of the building.

July 28: Young Israelis participate in an international youth festival in Moscow. Soviet Jewry react with emotion.

August 5: UN Secretary-General on the UN Emergency Force. (See also this link.)

September 12: El Al introduces British planes which cut the travel time from London to Tel Aviv to less than six hours. In order to reach New York one needs less than a day.

October 1: The Frederic Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv is opened as the new home of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

October 28: President Yitzhak Ben Zvi begins his second five-year term of office.

October 29: A new immigrant with grievances against the authorities throws a hand grenade onto the floor of the Knesset from the public gallery, wounding Prime Minister Ben Gurion, Foreign Minister Golda Meir and several other ministers.

November 20: Presence and Function of the UNEF.

November: A sulha, an Arabic forgiveness ceremony, is held in Kafr Kassem, a year after the massacre of villagers there by Israeli border police. The organizer of the event is Abraham Shapira, a veteran Shomer.

November: The Huleh drainage is completed.

November: The Jordanians detain a biweekly Israeli convoy on the way to the Israeli enclave on Mount Scopus, refusing to allow the Israelis to bring in fuel.

December 5: During his visit UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold intervenes in the Mount Scopus episode. The convoy is allowed to reach the Israeli enclave.

December, 12: UN General Assembly Resolution 1191.

December 17: A government crisis develops when Prime Minister Ben Gurion accuses Ahdut Haavoda ministers of leaking a government secret (Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan's visit to Germany) to the press. Ben Gurion demands the resignation of the ministers.

December 31: In view of the coalition crisis Prime Minister Ben Gurion submits his resignation to the President.

The Moriah Synagogue on Mount Carmel in Haifa and the Emet ve-Emunah congregation in Jerusalem affiliate with the United Synagogue of America.

Yitzhak Ben Zvi writes "The Exiled and the Redeemed", a history of Jews in Oriental lands, many of whom emigrated to Israel, and of ancient Jewish communities of which there is scant knowledge.

A. B. Yehoshua writes his first story, "Mot ha-Zaken" ("Death of an Old Man"), which will typify his style of writing allegorical tales with a political and cultural awareness.

Yigael Yadin writes "The Message of the Scrolls", a description of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Yad VaShem begins publication of "Yad VaShem Studies" in English.

Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984), German composer who emigrated to Palestine, wins the Israel Prize for his symphonic movement "Sweet Psalmist of Israel".

11 year-old Yitzhak Perlman, later a noted violinist receives a scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Media stars of 1957 are the panelists on the Kol Israel satirical radio show "Three in One Boat."

January: An rabbinical seminary is opened in Moscow after decades of a total absence of rabbinical training in the Soviet Union.

August: The first Dutch Liberal Synagogue is opened in Amsterdam.

Bernard Malamud, U. S. novelist, writes "The Assistant", depicting a struggling Jewish grocer and his gentile assistant, who eventually takes over the store and inherits the suffering of the former owner. With his 1957 collection of stories, "The Magic Barrel", he will receive the National Book Award. In 1963, Malamud will publish "Idiots First" and, in 1973, "Rembrandt's Hat", additional collections of his stories, many of them are on Jewish themes.

West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein, opens on Broadway.