The Jewish Agency for Israel Timeline


Year
 
Jewish Agency for Israel
 
Israel
 
Jewish History & Culture
1962            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

top

 

Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive: Moshe Sharett.

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: Louis Arie Pincus.

Chairman of the Immigration Department: Shlomo Zalman Shragai.

Chairman Absorption Department: Aharon Zisling.

Chairman Settlement Department: Levi Eshkol.

Chairman Youth Aliyah Department: Moshe Kol.

New immigrants in 1962: 61,328.

 

 

February 6: Marc Chagall's stained glass windows "The Twelve Tribes of Israel" are installed in the synagogue of the Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem. Charles Marc, a master French vitrage artisan assists in the installation of the windows.

February 9: The government adopts a new economic policy involving a major devaluation of the Israeli pound. Demonstrations are held protesting the attendant price rises and the linkage of mortgages to the dollar.

February 20: The Knesset rejects a proposal to abolish military rule in the Arab sector.

March 16 : Israeli troops attack Syrian positions in the demilitarized zone north of the Arab village of Nuqeib after several weeks of rifle and machine-gun firing from Syrian posts at Israeli fishermen in the Sea of Galilee and workers along the border.

April 9: The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 171, sponsored by the U. S. and Great Britain, declaring the March 16 Israeli raid to be a violation of a 1956 Security Council resolution condemning armistice breaches by Israel even in retaliation for attacks. The Knesset rejects the resolution.

May 6: President Leon M'ba of Gabun visits Israel. In the next weeks the presidents of the Central African Republic, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast will follow suit.

May 9: During the Independence Day parade rain drenches thousands of participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators.

May 29 : The Supreme Court dismisses Adolf Eichmann's appeal of his conviction. President Yitzhak Ben Zvi rejects his plea for clemency.

May 31: Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Ramleh prison. His remains are cremated and his ashes are scattered over the Mediterranean Sea.

June: U. S. President John F. Kennedy backs Israel's contention that it could unilaterally implement its part of the Johnston Plan for allocation of the Jordan River waters, in the face of persistent Arab opposition.

July 1 : Israel expels Dr. Robert Soblen, who jumped bail after being sentenced to life imprisonment in the U. S. for espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and entered Israel under an assumed name. In response to the criticism of the expulsion, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion declares: "We are thinking of a refuge for Jews who do not wish or are unable to remain where they are, not of an asylum for criminals."

July 3 : Ten-year-old Yossele Shumacher, missing for 2 1/2 years, is returned to his parents after being found in New York by Israeli agents. He had been left in the care of his Orthodox grandfather while his parents were settling in Israel. The grandfather was concerned that the boy would not be given an Orthodox education and refused to return him to his parents. Yossele was found in the Brooklyn home of a follower of the Satmar rebbe.

July: 21-year-old Mexican tenor Plácido Domingo is given a contract to sing with the Hebrew National Opera in Tel Aviv. He will stay for three years. Domingo arrives with his wife, singer Marta Ornelas. His first role is that of Rodolfo in "La Bohème"; Marta's debut is as Micaela in "Carmen". In his Israeli years, Domingo sings ten different operas. He also learns Hebrew. A high point is his performance in Bizet's "Pearl Fishers" in Jerusalem.

August 20: Israel combat planes down to Syrian Migs in an aerial skirmish northeast of the Sea of Galilee.

September 27 : In the first U. S. agreement to supply arms to Israel, the Kennedy administration sells Israel Hawk ground-to-air defensive missiles. The U. S. is attempting to rectify a Middle East arms imbalance caused by the flow of Soviet arms to Egypt. Israel becomes the first non-NATO nation to receive Hawks.

November: Israel joins 66 other nations in the UN General Assembly and votes for an Afro-Asian resolution that includes a demand for sanctions against South Africa.

November 21 : The new town of Arad, in the Negev, overlooking the Dead Sea, is inaugurated. Its population of 25.000 is to be employed at the Dead Sea potash works and in new industries utilizing the area's natural resources.

December: Joseph Johnson's mission to resolve the Palestinian refugee problem fails. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy had arranged for the appointment of Joseph Johnson as a UN official to make proposals for the repatriation of refugees to Israel. His proposals are rejected by Israel and neighboring Arab states.

December: President John F. Kennedy meets with Foreign Minister Golda Meir at Palm Beach, Florida, and describes the U. S. policy of combing close ties with Israel with initiatives toward the Arab world: "I think it is quite clear that in case of any invasion, the U. S. would come to the support of Israel."

December: Syria continues to attack Israeli settlements and farmers in the north.

December 20: UN General Assembly Resolution 1856.

December 28 : Prime Minister Ben Gurion approaches President Tito of Yugoslavia in the hope of enlisting Tito's support as a mediator between Israel and the Arab neighbors. In a letter he sets out his hopes that it might be possible for Egypt and Israel to be brought together in negotiations.

Leisure develops in Israel. For those attending Saturday evening entertainment events midnight trains are provided between Tel Aviv and Haifa. After a while the arrangement stops.

 

April: Pope John XXIII issues an encyclical, Peace on Earth, declaring that every human being has the right to honor God according to the dictates of his or her own conscience. At the same time, he appoints Augustin Cardinal Bea president of the Secretariat for the Promotion if Christian Unity to propose to the forthcoming Ecumenical Council measures to improve relations between the Catholic church and other religions.

June: The most serious of numerous antisemitic attacks in Argentina, which are intensified after Adolf Eichmann's execution, occurs, when a university student is kidnapped, driven to an isolated place, and swastikas are carved on her body. In protest, the Jewish community organizes a 12-hour communal work stoppage, which is joined by many non-Jews. Closed store windows bear the sign: "Closed as a protest against Nazi aggression in Argentina."

September: A new synagogue is dedicated in Leghorn, Italy, to replace the famous synagogue destroyed in World War II.

October: By the fall, after the establishment of the independent Algerian state, the mass movement of Algerian Jews to France together with the previous influx of Tunisian and some Moroccan Jews, raises the French Jewish population to an estimated 500.000. The French Jewish community becomes the largest in Western Europe and the world's fourth largest.

October: An estimated 10.000 Jews attend Yom Kippur services at Moscow's Central Synagogue. Large attendances are reported at services in Leningrad, Kiev, and other Russian cities.

Bob Dylan (born 1941), U. S. singer and songwriter, releases his first album, "Bob Dylan". Dylan will spark the emerging of American folk, rock and country music. His songs call attention to social issues.

Frank Loesser writes the music and Abe Burrows the libretto for the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical comedy "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

Max Ferdinand Perutz, British biochemist, is awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for research into the structure of globular proteins. He had left Austria for England when the Nazis assumed power.

Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, is awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his pioneering theories of condensed matter, especially liquid helium. He had been imprisoned from 1937 to 1939 during Stalin's purge, although he had already won three Stalin Prizes for his work in theoretical physics.

Giorgio Bassani, Italian Jewish author, writes "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", a novel of the author's youth in Ferrara, where an aristocratic Jewish family is unable to face the social upheaval brought about by Fascism and World War II.

The Department for Jewish Zionist Education
The Pedagogic Center
Director: Dr. Motti Friedman
Website Manager: Esther Carciente
Subsite Editor: Dr. Chani Hinker
Graphic Design: Liza Barnea


Terms and Conditions of Use of the Website
Copyright © 1992 - 2008 The Department for Jewish Zionist Education. All rights reserved.
The e-mail addresses @jajz are being discontinued
To Contact Us, Click and Choose Educational Helpdesk under Category