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Chairman of the Jewish Agency. Louis A. Pincus.

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

Treasurer of the Jewish Agency: Arie Dulzin.

Chairman Settlement Department: Raanan Weitz.

Chairman Youth Aliyah Department:Yosef Klarman.

Chairman Immigration and Absorption: Louis Arie Pincus, Mordechai Kirshblum.

A special relationship develops between Louis Pincus and the Chairman of the United Israel Appeal, Max M. Fisher, who firmly believes in the need for closer involvement of community leadership in the operations of the Jewish Agency.

These two leaders, in a spirit of mutual respect and close cooperation, supported the principle that "it was important to give world Jewry, which raises the funds for Israel, a direct say in the way the funds are spent." This was but an extension of a principle already adhered to on the American scene and elsewhere. In the United States and in other countries in the western world, the fund-raising leadership of the central community campaign (the Welfare Fund) had for many years been engaged in a process of budget review before allocations were made to specific institutions or projects. It can be said that the trend toward closer participation was inevitable and would have evolved, sooner or later. These sentiments are expressed in June when the Conference of Human Needs is held in Jerusalem.
Louis Fox, President of the CJFWF (Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds) of America says in the course of his remarks:

We have come here to offer a more personal contribution to Israel in terms of thinking, and planning and doing. We call it involvement. Israel's leaders agree that the days have passed for us to be just silent partners. And we agree. Meaningful participation in the progress of Israel will enrich not only Israel - it will enrich our own lives, and it will enrich the depth and scope of our won communities."

The Human Needs Conference is a turning point in Diaspora-Israel relations because it epitomizes a new spirit of closer cooperation between the Agency and the fund-raising bodies throughout the world.

The Jewish Agency Department for Immigration and Absorption of Immigrants develops the "Merkaz Klita" to accomodate the increased immigration of well-off and educated Jews from western countries, especially the United States. The centers combine ulpan (Hebrew studies) with long-term accomodation of families.

New immigrants in 1969: 37,804.

January: French President Charles de Gaulle places an embargo on arms to Israel in the wake of Israel's retaliatory operation in Beirut in December 1968. A mass demonstration in Tel Aviv will protest the embargo on January 16.

January 19: The Labor Party and Mapam establish a political alignment, which will last until 1984. The two parties run in a combined list in all elections.

February 9: The Dead Sea Works are bombarded by Katyusha rockets launched from Jordan.

February 14: Settlements in the Jordan Valley and Mitzpeh Ramon are bombarded by Katyusha rockets.

February 24: Tension mounts along the northern border. The Israeli Air Force attacks two Fatah bases in the Damascus area. Two Syrian Mig 17 planes are shot down.

February 26 : Prime Minister Levi Eshkol dies and will be succeeded on 17 March by Golda Meir, who re-forms the National Unity Government without any change in its membership.

February: Yasser Arafat, leader of al-Fatah, becomes head of the PLO.

February: A terrorist bomb explosion at a Jerusalem supermarket kills two and injures nine.

March 6: A terrorist explosion in the cafeteria of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wounds dozens of people.

March 8 : Gamal Abdel Nasser denounces the cease-fire resolution between Israel and Egypt and proclaims a "War of Attrition". His forces begin a daily shelling of Israeli positions along the Suez Canal. Fighting will go on until August 1970.

March: Egyptian Chief of Staff General Abdul Riad is killed in an artillery exchange along the Suez Canal front.

March: U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers declares before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S. will play a more active role in the Middle East. The 1967 Arab-Israeli borders "should not reflect the weight of conquest" and UN Resolution 242 affirms "the need for a just settlement of the refugee problem."

April: Skirmishes aimed at thwarting the infiltration of terrorists from Jordan into the West Bank proliferate.

April 8: Eilat is bombarded by Katyushas. The Israeli Air Force attacks Aqaba airport.

April 29: Retaliating for Egyptian attacks at the Suez Canal. Israeli forces blow up bridges on the Nile and a power station deep in Egyptian territory.

May 19: Palestinian terrorists from Jordan bombard the Musa Alami school near Jericho.

May 21: Israeli planes bring down three Egyptian Mig 21s in the Suez Canal zone.

May 28: Katyusha rockets from Jordan bombard Jericho twice.

May 30: Palestinian terrorists blow up the oil pipeline which passes through the Golan Heights. Thousands of tons of crude oil pollute the river-beds, but are blocked on their way to the Lake Kinneret.

June 26: Israeli planes bring down two Egyptian Mig 21s in an aerial battle over the Suez Canal.

June 29-30: An IDF unit destroys a high-tension electric line deep in Egyptian territory. Numerous incidents occur on the Egyptian front and along the Jordanian border.

June: Prime Minister Golda Meir offers to go personally to Egypt to seek a compromise agreement with Nasser. This offer, rejected by Nasser, leads to derisory comments in the Arab world.

July 3: The U.S. joins in a unanimous UN Security Council resolution that calls all Israeli actions regarding Jerusalem invalid and urges Israel to rescind all actions taken by it to change Jerusalem's status. Israel restates its view that Jerusalem is Israel's eternal capital and rejects the U.S. view that East Jerusalem is occupied territory.

July 7: Israeli planes bring down two Egyptian Mig 21s in an aerial battle south of Sharm el-Sheikh.

July 8: Israeli planes bring down seven Syrian Mig 21s over the Golan Heights.

July 20: The IDF raids the fortified Green Island south of the Suez Canal.

July 24: Israeli planes bring down seven Egyptian planes and damage two others in the Suez Canal zone.

July 28: The Eighth Maccabiah opens in Ramat Gan.

August 21: A deranged Australian tourist, Michael Rohan, sets fire to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque, causing limited damage to the Muslim shrine. UN Security Council Resolution on the arson.

August 26: Israel jet fighter bombers raid terrorist bases in Lebanon in reprisal for attacks on Israeli settlements. The U.S. joins unanimous UN Security Council condemnation of Israel.

August 26: In an unprecedented move, 18 families from the Soviet Republic of Georgia send a letter to the UN, to the Israeli government, and to other foreign bodies requesting help to enable them to emigrate to Israel.

August 29 : A U.S. TWA airliner is hijacked by two Arab terrorists while on flight from ROme to Athens and diverted to Damascus, Syria. The Syrians release all but two Israeli men, who will he held hostage until December 5, when they are released as part of a prisoner-exchange deal.

August: Israel and Romania announce their upgrading of their diplomatic missions from legations to embassies. Romania's independent foreign policy increases its differences with its Communist allies.

September 2: Kiryat Shmoneh is bombarded by Katyusha rockets. Two residents are killed and five are wounded.

September 5: The first Phantom combat planes are delivered to Israel by the United States.

September 9: The IDF mounts a large armored raid into Egypt from the western bank of the Gulf of Suez.

September 11: Israeli planes bring down 11 Egyptian planes at the Egyptian front. One Israeli plane is hit and its pilot taken prisoner.

September: Prime Minister Golda Meir is warmly received by President Richard Nixon at the White House during an official state visit. There is no official U.S. response for additional military supplies for Israel, but she declares that she is going home "with a lighter heart than when I came."

October 28 : Israel holds national elections for the Seventh Knesset, with 1, 367,743 votes cast. Mapai wins 56 seats; Liberals 26 seats; and the National Religious party 12 seats.

November 7: Israeli TV is to broadcast on the Shabbat eve despite a government decision to the contrary, the Supreme Court decides. The case brought up by a private citizen, Adi Kaplan, is argued by attorney Yehuda Ressler, who gains wide publicity.

November 11: Beersheva University operates as as independent academic institute. Later it will change its name into Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

November 16: Egyptian frogmen from Aqaba sabotage two Israeli ships in the harbor of Eilat.

December 2: A demonstration is staged on Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square for the "Jews of Silence" in the Soviet Union.

December 9 : U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers proposes a Middle East settlement known as the Rogers Plan. Israel would withdraw from occupied territory and the Arabs would agree to some contractual arrangement guaranteeing a permanent peace with Israel. Alterations of the 1967 border should be "insubstantial" and only for "mutual security." A "binding agreement" is not the formal peace treaty sought by Israel, and Israel rejects the plan.

December 15: Prime Minister Golda Meir presents her new government, a national unity government. One of the new Gahal ministers is Ezer Weizmann (transportation).

December 21: Israeli Ambassador in Washington and former Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin is summoned back to Israel to propose an escalation of war by launching a series of bombings against Egyptian military targets on and beyond the Nile River.

December 25: An airlifted IDF unit penetrates deep into Egyptian territory and removes an advanced Soviet radar installation.

December 26 : Five missile boats built by France for Israel but impounded under the French embargo of Israeli weapons after the Six-Day War leave Cherbourg without permission. Manned by Israeli personnel who were in France awaiting the lifting of the embargo, the boats will arrive on January 1, 1970. France demands Israel recall the head of its arms purchasing mission.

December: President Richard Nixon instructs his assistant, Leonard Garment, to convey private assurances to Prime Minister Golda Meir that he would not press the Rogers Plan.

December: U.S. Ambassador Charles Yost presents a proposal for an Israeli-Jordanian settlement at the Big Four (US, Britain, France, Soviet Union) talks. The proposal calls for Israel to return to the pre-1967 borders in exchange for guarantees, improved access to Jerusalem's holy places, and an agreement prohibiting violence across the Jordanian border. Israel would have to accept some Palestinian refugees.

December: By the end of December, 47 Egyptian aircraft have been shot down during the year along the Suez Canal front. Israeli mastery of the air prevented any large-scale Egyptian effort to cross the canal, despite almost continuous hostilities.

The Diamond Club in Antwerp, Belgium, celebrates its 75th anniversary. Several prominent Jewish diamond dealers receive high Belgian awards.

January 27: Nine Jews are publicly hanged in Iraq after being arrested in October 1967 with 17 others and accused of espionage for Israel. Later two more will be hanged.

February 18 : Four Arab terrorists attack an El Al plane at the Zurich airport, killing apprentice pilot Yoram Peres and wounding several others. Israeli security guard Mordechai Rahamim kills one terrorist. The guard is tried in December with the three surviving terrorists and is acquitted of firing at a disarmed man, while the three terrorists are convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

May: Two Arabs bomb the ElAl airline office in Brussels, injuring two employees. Jewish community and Israeli offices are placed under constant police protection.

May: Boris Kotschubiesky, a Soviet Jewish engineer, is tried for "anti-Soviet slander" and sentenced to three years in a labor camp. He objected to Soviet policy toward Israel and to limitations put on Jewish life and openly demanded the right to emigrate to Israel.

September 23: The Swiss police arrest Alfred Frauknecht, a Swiss engineer, on suspicion of passing on plans for the construction of the French Mirage plane to Israel.

December: By the end of the year, all Jewish supporters of the Dubcek regime have been expelled from the Czech Communist party as a result of a campaign that included antisemitism under the guise of anti-Zionism by Soviet and Slovak party leadership to rally popular support for the new regime.

Philip Roth, U.S. author, writes "Portnoy's Complaint".

Salvador Luria, U.S. biologist, is awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. His research extends the principles of genetics to viruses and bacteria and leads to the new science of molecular biology.

Murray Gell-Mann, U.S. physicist, is awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his research in the behavior of subatomic particles.

Martin Gilbert, British historian, edits the "Jewish History Atlas", a collection of maps on the course of Jewish life from the earliest beginnings to the present.