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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: Raanan Weitz.
Chairman
Youth Aliyah Department: Moshe
Kol.
New
immigrants in 1963: 64,364. Immigrants originate primarily from
Morocco and Romania.
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March:
Foreign Minister Golda Meir informs the Knesset that "a
number of German scientists and hundreds of German technicians
are helping to develop offensive missiles in Egypt, and even
armaments banned by international law." David
Ben Gurion asks Shimon
Peres to raise the matter with the German government. The
Mossad approaches the daughter of one of the scientist's and
tries to persuade her to convince her father to leave Egypt.
March
6: The Knesset approves a government decision to set
up an educational television network.
March
25: Isser
Harel, the head of the Mossad, resigns over differences
of opinion with Ben Gurion regarding the activity of the West
German scientists in Egypt.
March:
The Hebrew Union College opens its Biblical and Archaeological
School in Jerusalem.
April
14: Yugoslavian president Tito
replies to Ben Gurion's letter. The answer is a disappointment
to the Israeli leader.
April,
17: Egypt, Syria and Iraq sign a treaty of alliance
in Cairo. They put their armies under a unified command and
proclaim that the aim of the alliance was the "liberation
of Palestine." Jordan remains outside. Israel recognizes
that King
Hussein needs peace with Israel in order to preserve the
stability of his regime. A series of meetings between the King
and Israeli leaders is organized. Once the King comes to Tel
Aviv in utmost secrecy, where he meets Golda
Meir. Another meeting takes places in London.
April
21: The first International Book Fair opens in Jerusalem.
April
23: Yitzhak
Ben Zvi, Israel's second president, dies.
April:
Work begins on the new development town of Karmiel
in the Lower Galilee.
May
2: Ahdut Haavoda proposes the establishment of an alliance
with Mapai and Mapam.
May
13 :
During a Knesset debate, the Germans are accused of
continuing to threaten the Jews with "extermination".
The government critics are led by Menachem
Begin. He denounces Ben Gurion's decision to sell Israeli-made
"Uzi" sub-machine-guns to Germany and abuses him for
maintaining diplomatic relations with Germany. Ben Gurion does
not want to harm the steadily improving German-Israeli relations.
He insists that the public has no reason for alarm and that
the missiles were unusable.
May
21: Zalman
Shazar, a prominent Labor movement personality, past editor
of "Davar", former government minister, and chairman
of the Jewish Agency, as third president of Israel.
May
27: The arrival of former West German defense minister
Franz
Josef Strauss for a visit prompts agitated demonstrations.
May:
Haifa
University College is established. It will function under
the supervision of the Hebrew University until granted independence
in 1970.
June
2: Norwegian General Odd Bull replaces Swedish General
Carl von Horn as chief of the UN truce observers in the Middle
East.
June
16: Prime Minister David
Ben Gurion resigns from the government "because of
personal needs" and retires to Sde Boker. On his recommendation,
he is succeeded by Minister of Finance Levi
Eshkol as prime minister and minister of defense.
June
26: A new government, led by Levi Eshkol, is approved
by the Knesset. Eshkol presents it as a "government of
continuity." Abba
Eban is appointed deputy prime minister.
August
7: The Knesset passes a law establishing the Nature
Reserves Authority and the National Parks Authority.
August
19 : A number of shooting attacks by Syrian forces
along the Sea of Galilee culminate in the killing of two settlers
from the Israeli border village of Almagor.
August
29: The first edition of "Aurora" is published.
Its purpose was to address the intellectual interests of Spanish
speakers in Israel.
August:
American Orthodox leaders warn that the Conservative synagogue
movement "constituted a serious threat to Israeli Jewry."
September
3 : The U. S. and Great Britain introduce a UN Security
Council resolution condemning the "wanton murder at Almagor
in Israel territory of two Israeli citizens on August 19."
The Soviet Union vetoes the resolution.
September
10:
The Arab League resolves to block the diversion of the Jordan
waters by Israel.
October
21: Prime Minister Levi
Eshkol announces the annulment of some facets of military
rule in the Arab sector.
November
14: During excavations in Masada the skeletons of two
young men and a women, whose long hair is still braided, are
discovered. The skeletons originate from the Roman period.
November
24: President Zalman Shazar represents Israel at the
funeral of President John F. Kennedy.
December
3: UN General Assembly Resolution
1912.
December
12: A decision is made at a conference of Arab chiefs
of staff to jointly divert the Jordan River headwaters to prevent
access by Israel.
December
18: Levi Eshkol announces the shortening of compulsory
army service for men by four months.
Brother
Daniel, born in 1922 as a Polish Jew, Owald Rufeisen, who
converted to Christianity in 1942 and became a Carmelite monk
in 1945, is denied his petition to be recognized as a Jew under
the Law of Return by the Supreme Court. The Court agrees that
Brother Daniel is a Jew according to the Halakha but says that
the Law of Return is based on Jewish national historical consciousness
and on the ordinary secular meaning of "Jew". He is
offered citizenship by naturalization.
Israeli
military advisers begin assisting General Joseph Mobutu of the
Congo in a civil war in which pro-Communist forces are aided
by Egypt. Congolese troops are trained in Israel and, in 1964,
will rout the rebels.
Leonard
Bernstein conducts his "Kaddish", an oratorio
for narrator, chorus and orchestra.
Yaacov
Agam, Israeli painter wins the First International Prize at
the São Paulo Biennale for his artistic research into
the third dimension and movement in painting.
Yigael
Yadin's "The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands"
is translated into English.
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January:
A Dutch court in Arnhem rules that a bronze sculpture by Honoré
Daumier, purchased by a Dutch art collector at a 1941 Nazi art
auction, be returned to the estate of Jakob Goldschmidt, a German
Jewish banker. It is expected that this decision might affect
millions of dollars of confiscated Jewish properties disposed
of by the Nazi regime.
February:
"Der Stellvertreter" ("The Deputy"), a play
by Rolf
Hochhuth, a German protestant, opens in Berlin. It indicts
Pope Pius XII for his failure to protest publicly and officially
against the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis. The pope is portrayed
as a cold and calculating figure, more interested in protecting
the financial and institutional interests of the Church than
in his moral responsibility as the vicar of Christ.
February:
The Soviet press publishes an exchange of letters between Nikita
Khrushchev and Lord Bertrand
Russell. Russell expresses dismay at the death sentences
meted out to Jews for alleged economic crimes. Khrushchev denies
Soviet anti-Jewish feelings and brands such accusations "a
vicious slander on the Soviet people."
April:
The Warsaw Jewish newspaper "Folks-shtimme" publishes
a report on military honors awarded to Jews in the Soviet army
in World War II. It is estimated that 500.000 Jews served in
the Soviet army during World War II, and 160.772 Jews, or 1,74%
of all persons so honored , received various military awards
and metals.
October:
During Simhat Torah services, 15.000 Jews, mostly young people,
sing and dance in front of the Moscow synagogue, and 10.000
crowd into the Leningrad synagogue and surrounding streets.
Membership
in the Zionist Organization of America is 87.000. This is a
decline from 250.000 in 1948.
November:
At the second session of the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal
Augustin Bea submits a draft of Attitude of Catholics toward
Non-Christians, particularly toward the Jews. It is not discussed
by the council but is postponed to the third session, to be
held in August 1964.
Hannah
Arendt writes "Eichmann
in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil", in
which she criticizes the Israeli court judging Adolf Eichmann
for not indicting wartime Jewish leadership, who performed vital
tasks for the Nazis that facilitated the "final solution".
Barbra
Streisand, popular singer, is invited to perform at the
White House by President John F. Kennedy.
A
reproduction of the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the most famous
Hebrew manuscripts of the medieval period, is published by Cecil
Roth.
Paul
Celan (1920-1970), Austrian Jewish poet, publishes a collection
of his poems, "Die Niemandsrose" - "The No-Man's
Rose", which contains numerous Jewish themes and illusions.
Several of his poems commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.
Celan is a survivor of Nazi labor camps, where his parents perished.
The
State Museum of Köln mounts "Monumenta Judaica",
an exhibition of 2,000 years of Jewish history and culture on
the Rhine. It is documented in an 800-page catalogue and attracts
tens of thousands of visitors from Germany and abroad.
Natalia
Ginzburg, Italian novelist and playwright, writes "Family
Sayings", a psychological novel based on recollections
of her youth, including bourgeois assimilated Italian Jewish
life in Turin.
Stan
Getz, U. S. jazz musician, releases "Jazz Samba",
a record album that includes songs that make Brazilian bossa
nova music an international sensation.
Maurice
Sendak, American writer and illustrator, writes "Where
the Wild Things Are", one of the favorite books among
children all over the world.
Eugene
Paul Wigner is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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