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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: 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.
The
State of Israel prize for education is awarded to Youth Aliyah.
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January
2: Poet Nathan
Alterman is awarded the Bialik Prize.
January
7: The coalition crisis ends and the new government
represents the same coalition.
January
15 :
The Supreme Court overturns a 1955 lower court ruling in the
Rudolf
Kasztner case. Kasztner's name is cleared. The court rules
that he had been criminally libeled by Malkiel Gruenwald.
January
29: Chaim
Laskow succeeds Moshe
Dayan as chief of staff.
January:
The Aleppo
Codex, the oldest vocalized manuscript of the Hebrew Bible,
is brought to Jerusalem, where it can be seen today at the Shrine
of the Book.
February
1: Egypt and Syria form the United
Arab Republic (U.A.R.).
February
12: The Knesset passes the first
basic law, dealing with the composition and power of the
Knesset.
February
14: The Jordanian-Iraqi Federation is formed.
February
27: Carl von Horn assumes the office of chief of the
UN truce observers in the region.
February
28 - March 1: An Israeli plane carrying weapons for
a Latin American country is forced to land in Algeria. The French
authorities confiscate the weapons, as they suspect them to
be bound for rebels. The plane is sent back to Israel.
March
27: The Knesset passes the Prescription
Law.
April
24 : The State of Israel is ten years old.
April
27 : The new Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem opens.
May
8: The Chief
Rabbinate building, Hechal Shlomo, in Jerusalem is inaugurated.
May
26 : Jordanian forces kill four Israeli policemen and
a UN truce supervisor, George A. Flint, in the Scopus area.
July
1: A coalition crisis develops over guidelines laid
down by the minister of the interior for the registration of
citizens as Jewish. ("Who is a Jew?"). National Religious
ministers Yosef
Burg and Moshe Shapira resign.
July
14 - 17: Political upheavals in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon
prompt a state of military preparedness in Israel. King
Faisal of Iraq is executed in an anti-Western coup. British
paratroopers protect King
Hussein's regime in Jordan, and American marines land in
Lebanon.
July
24: Ezer
Weizmann is appointed commander of the air force.
July:
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America dedicates a student
center in Jerusalem.
August
19: Amos Hakham wins the first International Bible
Contest in Jerusalem.
August
21: UN General Assembly Resolution
1237.
August:
Soviet newspapers publish a note from the Soviet Union that
warns Israel of dangerous consequences it it permits U. S. and
British aircraft to fly over its territory to Jordan during
the Iraqi revolution.
October
7: Habimah, upon celebration of its 40th anniversary,
is officially recognized as the Israel National Theater.
October
7 : The first of two submarines purchased from Great
Britain is delivered.
October
14: A cornerstone-laying ceremony for the permanent
Knesset building is held in Jerusalem.
October
16: An Israeli military court convicts eight border
policemen for the murder of 48 Arabs at Kafr
Kassem in October 1956. They receive sentences ranging from
7 to 17 years.
November
17: Statement
to the Special Political Committee of the United Nations General
Assembly by Ambassador Abba
Eban.
December:
Syrian forces shell and machine-gun six Israeli settlements
along the border and kill a shepherd near Gonen. The firing
is repeated on three more days. Israel complains to the UN Security
Council.
December
12: UN General Assembly Resolution
1315.
Walter
Eitan, Israeli diplomat who headed the 1949 delegations to the
Rhodes armistice negotiations and to the Lausanne Conference
with the Arab States, writes: "The First Ten Years: Diplomatic
History of Israel."
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May:
It is announced that the Pinkas
Synagogue in Prague, dating to medieval times, will be restored
as a memorial
to the Jewish victims of Nazism: the names of 77.297 victims
will be inscribed on its walls.
June:
The Austrian Parliament passes the War and Persecution Damages
Law (Kriegs- und Verfolgungssachschädengesetz), which limits
the indemnification of individuals to claimants with incomes
less than 2.769 Dollar per year and only for the loss by individuals
of household goods, tools, machines, and other possessions indispensable
for the exercise of a profession or conduct of a business. The
Jewish community expresses its disappointment with the legislation.
"Hasidism
and Modern Man", an interpretation of Hasidism by Martin
Buber, is edited and translated into English from the German.
Leon
Uris, U. S. novelist, writes "Exodus",
a best-selling novel that becomes a source of popular knowledge
about some of the events surrounding the establishment of the
State of Israel.
Leonard
Bernstein is appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Yitzhak
Perlman gains U. S. fame by appearing on Ed
Sullivan's TV show.
New
York University renames its mathematics institute the Courant
Institute of Mathematical Sciences in honor of Richard
Courant.
The
Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum, designed byFrank Lloyd Wright and
named after the U. S. industrialist and philanthropist (1861-1949),
opens in New York.
Joshua
Lederberg, U. S. geneticist, wins the Nobel Prize in physiology
or medicine for his studies on the organization of genetic material
in bacteria.
Boris
Pasternak is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
British
playwright Arnold
Wesker writes "Chickensoup with Barley", the first
of three plays dealing with working-class Jewish life in England.
The others of the Wesker trilogy are: "Roots" (1959)
and "I am Talking about Jerusalem" (1960).
The
Czech Jewish
State Museum publishes a "Catalogue of Paintings of
Jewish Children
in the Theresienstadt Ghetto."
An
exhibition of archaeological discoveries made by the Hebrew
University expedition in the biblical city of Hazor
opens at the British
Museum.
Igor
Y. Tamm and Il'ja
M. Frank are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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