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Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency and the WZO: Sallai Meridor.

Director General of the Jewish Agency: Giora Romm.

Treasurer of the Jewish Agency: Shai Hermesh.

Roughly 1 million new immigrants have immigrated to Israel since 1989 according to a Ministry of Absorption document. Ashdod, Haifa and Jerusalem top the list in immigrant absorption, while Kiryat Ono, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, has absorbed the smallest number of immigrants. Ashdod has taken in 71,831 immigrants, representing 34.6 percent of the city's population. Haifa, Israel’s 3rd largest city, has increased its immigrant population by 69,998, 23.3 percent of the coastal city's population. Jerusalem acquired 60,080 immigrants, 7.9 percent of the capital's population.
The central village of Bnei Ayish, near Gadera has the highest proportion of new immigrants: its 4,255 newcomers comprise over half (57.4 percent) of its population; in contrast to Bnei Brak’s where 8,154 immigrants comprise just 5.6 percent of the city's population.

January 19 : Tsukim, a new community in the Arava, is established.

January 20: More than 1,600 families in Israel who have been affected by acts of terror have received financial assistance from the Jewish Agency's Fund for Victims of Terror.

January 22: 70 terror victims receive scholarships.

February 19/20: 1,000 Jewish Students from Europe, Israel and USA hold a solidarity rally in front of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel. The motto is: "Fence Out Terror - Give Peace a Chance".

March 25: The Jewish Agency grants stipends to new immigrant sportsmen and women who are members of the Israeli Olympic Squad to Athens 2004.

March 31: The Jewish Agency Fund for Victims of Terror distributes 85 scholarships.

April 26: A group of some 70 new immigrants from the former Soviet Union arrive on the eve of Independence Day at the Haifa Port aboard the passenger ship "Iris" after sailing directly from Odessa. The new arrivals were greeted with Israeli flags and flowers by members of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.

April 29: 70th anniversary of the Youth Aliyah. In 70 years, the Youth Aliyah has helped 300,000 children and youth reclaim their lives and futures.

May 2: Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, Natan Sharansky, and the World Zionist Organization, launch the new "Combating Anti-Semitism" Kit.

May 11: Senator Hillary Clinton addresses the Jewish Agency Gala event for Russian speaking Jews in New York.

May 18: Jewish Agency Chairman, Sallai Meridor: "German Government entices Jews to emigrate to Germany under refugee status."

May 30: About 20,000 visitors attend the "Shukran" Fair at the port of Acre.

May 30: Humanitarian intervention brings an infant from Moldova to Tel Hashomer.

June 4: Six out of 21 members of the Nahari family arrive in Israel after being rescued by the Jewish Agency from what is described as virtual siege in an ultra-Orthodox community in New York.

June 14: The Jewish Agency sends several hundred emissaries to France in efforts to persuade French Jews to immigrate to Israel, due to escalating anti-Semitism.

June 20: The Jewish Agency celebrates it's 75th anniversary. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon addresses the Assembly.

June 27: Some 268 Falash Mura from Ethiopia arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport. The new immigrants from Addis Ababa travel on a specially chartered Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767.

June 29: An additional 112 individuals from Gondar, a city in the north of Ethiopia, are slated to land in Israel. Falash Mura are Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity. They later resumed the practice of Judaism and are considered Jewish by all three religious streams.
At the end of June, the Jewish Agency will have assisted in the immigration of 789 Ethiopians, more than twice the monthly goal of the Interior Ministry under the Law of Entry.
The new immigrants, who will join more than 93,000 Ethiopian immigrants currently living in Israel, will be divided between absorption centers near Beer Sheva and Safed.
Shlomo Molla, head of Ethiopian Immigration and Absorption at the Jewish Agency, anticipates that the newcomers' absorption will not be an easy task. "We are very glad to bring them and accept them. It is a humanitarian act," Molla says. "The new immigrants suffer a huge culture shock and that's why we are putting them into absorption centers, rather than in cities on their own," he adds. Molla moved to Israel from Gondar in 1984.

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January 1: Four Israelis and five Palestinians set off on a sea and land expedition to the distant reaches of Antarctica. Their goal is to summit and name a previously unclimbed mountain. Their expedition is called : "Breaking the Ice".
The journey combines the spirit of adventure with a quest for understanding. People separated by deep political and religious differences will to cooperate in pursuit of a shared goal.

January 5: The public sector strike ends after three months. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanjahu and Histadrut chairman Amir Perez sign an agreement that ends the work sanctions of the past three months. All civil servants will return to normal work. A large number of people are expected to visit government offices on that reopening day.

January 6: The defense establishment has drawn up a list of 28 unauthorized West Bank outposts it plans to remove. The 28 outposts on the list include 18 occupied outposts housing some 400 people. The 10 remaining consists of unoccupied structures. The largest of the outposts is Migron, home to 43 families.
The list is based on outposts that have been set up since March 2001, when Sharon took office.

January 9: The U.S. and Israel discuss the possibility of peace talks with Syria. The United States does not intend to push for or sponsor any resumption of Syrian-Israeli talks, but will not object should Israel choose to take up Syrian President Bashar Assad's offer to resume negotiations.

January 10: Israeli pacifists demonstrate in Haifa in favor of five conscientious objectors who have been imprisoned in the Haifa military prison.

January 14: A female suicide bomber kills four Israeli soldiers at the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Israel closes the border for one day. Thousands of Palestinian workers can not got to work in Israel.

January 14: The Central Bureau of Statistics marks a significant resurgence in the number of tourists visiting Israel in 2003. Last year saw a 23 percent increase of tourist arrivals in the country with 1.06 million people. Tourism is still 56 percent lower than in 2000, the record year for tourism.

January 16: Zvi Mazel, Israeli ambassador in Sweden, damages an art installation in a Stockholm museum. The installation "Snowwhite and the Madness of Truth" by Israeli artist Dror Feiler features a small ship carrying a picture of Islamic Jihad bomber Hanadi Jaradat sailing in a rectangular pool filled with blood-colored water. Jaradat killed 21 Israelis in a suicide bombing attack on Haifa's Maxim restaurant in October 2003. Before the attack she had witnessed the killing of her brother by Israeli soldiers.

January 20: A soldier is killed and another soldier is seriously wounded in a Hezbollah anti-tank attack against an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer being used to clear a minefield along the Lebanese border. The next day, Israel Air Force fighter planes will strike at targets in southern Lebanon.

January 21: Researchers at the Technion in Haifa present "a bone glue" - a material made of a combination of biological and synthetic components that supports broken bones and allows them to grow new tissue.

January 21: The Israeli business world is confident that economy will grow in 2004.

January 21: Charges are brought against businessman and Likud activist David Appel for alleged bribery of public officials, among them prime minister Ariel Sharon.

January 22: More than 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention camps start a hunger strike in order to protest against conditions in prison.

January 26 : Menahem Mazuz is appointed Attorney General, succeeding Elyakim Rubinstein.

January: After three years of negotiations with Hezbollah and the mediation of the German government, Israel frees more than 400 Arab prisoners (among them Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani) in the exchange for the release of abducted Israeli businessman Elhanan Tennenbaum and the bodies of three IDF soldiers. Israel does not receive information about missing IAF navigator Ron Arad as part of the deal.

January 28: Palestinians urge a day of mourning over terms of prisoner deal.

January 28: Hezbollah TV runs an interview with Elhanan Tennenbaum.

January 29: The bodies of the three IDF soldiers and released Elhanan Tennenbaum are returned.

January 29: Fatah's military wing takes responsibility for the year's first major suicide attack. Eleven people are killed and over 60 wounded. The blast takes place on Egged bus No. 19 in Jerusalem, on the corners of Arlozorov and Gaza streets, very close to the official residence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

February 3: In an interview with Haaretz commentator Yoel Marcus, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sayshe plans to remove all settlements in the Gaza Strip and three in the northern West Bank.

February 7: 3,000 Israelis and Palestinians demonstrate in front of the eight meter high concrete wall in Abu Dis.

February 11: The strongest earthquake to shake the Dead Sea area for 25 years raises questions about the vulnerability of Israel's infrastructure, but causes no casualties or serious damage.

February 11: 15 Palestinians are killed in an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip.

February 22: The International Court of Justice in The Hague opens hearings on the legality of Israel's West Bank separation fence opened amid demonstrations by supporters and opponents of the fence.

February 22: A suicide bomber strikes on a packed bus in downtown Jerusalem. Eight are killed, 72 wounded. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claims responsibility for the attack.

February: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announces his intention to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip as well as a small number of settlements in the West Bank.

March 1: Israel Air Force Apaches fire two missiles at a car in Gaza City killing Islamic Jihad’s commander in northern Gaza, Mahmoud Juda, and his two brothers.

March 2: Addressing members of the British media in London on Monday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom launches a full-blown defense of the counter-terrorism fence and the policy of unilateral disengagement.

March 3: Three Hamas terrorists are killed in Israel Air Force missile strikes on the car in which they are traveling in the Gaza Strip, near the Jewish town of Netzarim.

March 4: An agreement in principle to import water from Turkey is signed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. According to the agreement, signed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director Yoav Biran and his Turkish counterpart Or Laziel, Israel will import 50 million cubic meters of water per year for a period of 20 years, for a total of one billion cubic meters.
The water will be brought to Israel from a water export facility built by the Turks on the Manbaget river in the south of the country.

March 6: Two Palestinian policemen are killed in a terror attack on the Erez crossing in northern Gaza involving rifle fire and suicide car bombs, including jeeps camouflaged as IDF vehicles.

March 6: The Israel Defense Forces begin a raid on the El-Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip aimed at nabbing the terrorists behind the launch of Qassam rockets and the staging of multiple bombing attacks. Thirteen armed Palestinians are killed during the operations. Two children are also among the victims, and more than 80 Palestinians are wounded.

March 10: The Knesset defeats a bill proposing the enactment of civil marriages, with a vote of 58 to 29 and 9 abstentions. The bill would have affected over 300,000 people who cannot marry in Israel for reasons of religious law.

March 14: A double terror attack at Ashdod's port kills ten and wounds 16, as the defense establishment vows to retaliate.

March 15: After two and a half years of development, the first all-Israeli cellular phone, the M5, is launched. The cell-phone was developed by Emblaze Mobile (formerly Alpha Cell) and will be distributed by the Orange network.

March 19: King Abdullah of Jordan pays a secret visit to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ranch in the Negev where the two leaders meet over an extended lunch.

March 22: Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is killed in a missile strike by Israel Air Force gunships as he leaves a Gaza mosque after morning prayers. Hamas' vows of revenge are not long in coming.

March 24: Although he later turns out to be 16 years old, not the initial estimate of 14, a Palestinian boy with learning disabilities apprehended at a West Bank checkpoint wearing an explosive belt is still one of the youngest suicide bombers ever caught.

March 25: Over 60 prominent Palestinian officials and intellectuals urged the public today to lay down their arms. A half-page advertisement in the Al-Ayyam newspaper calls on Palestinians to turn to peaceful means in order to achieve national aspirations for independence.

March 28: The Knesset votes down a bill on holding a national referendum on the disengagement plan.

March 31: Yahad, the Jewish-Arab Social- Democratic party is formed by the merging of Meretz and Shahar. Party chairman is Yossi Beilin.

April 13: The Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team enters Israeli sporting history when it scores an 83-72 victory over Real Madrid to take the ULEB Cup.

April 14: During a visit by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Washington, US President George W. Bush gives his support to the Israeli leader's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank, while backing Israel's claim on its large settlement blocs. See: Exchange of letters and more links.

April 15: Attorney General Menahem Mazuz orders the Ministry of Housing and Construction to temporarily freeze the transfer of funds to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza because some of the money is being used to build unauthorized outposts.

April 16: A 28-year old Palestinian mother of seven is arrested carrying a 25-kilogram explosive device outside the West Bank town of Ariel.

April 17: Less than a month after the killing of his predecessor Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, dies in an Israeli Air Force missile strike.

April 17: A Border Policeman is killed and three other Israelis are wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up at the Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip.

April 21: With many of his supporters from around the world waiting for him, Mordechai Vanunu is released after serving 18 years in jail for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets to a British newspaper. Israel also imposes a series of restrictions on his parole.

April 21: The Union of European Football Associations executive committee announces that it has conditionally lifted a ban on international teams playing in Israel. While international teams may now play in Israel, matches can only be played in the Tel Aviv area. The organization also reserved the right to ban any match to be played in Israel at any time if security conditions have deteriorated.

April 21: Forty percent of Israeli households – representing 765,000 subscribers - now connect to the Internet using broadband connection. Bezeq has over 500,000 customers for its fast Internet connection, while the cable companies account for about one-third of the total market. Bezeq's figures show that 70 percent of its subscribers are connected via broadband links.

April 26: Israel's population on the eve of Independence Day stands at 6,780,000, according to official government figures released Sunday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

April 28 - 30: President Moshe Katsav visits Germany.

May 1: Maccabi Tel Aviv crushes Italy's Skipper Bologna 118-74 to become European champions for the fourth time in the club’s history.

May 2: A pregnant mother and her four daughters are shot dead by terrorists as they drive on the Kissufim road in the Gaza Strip.

May 2: Vowing to fight for coexistence and mutual respect among mankind around the world, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lays the cornerstone of Jerusalem's Museum of Tolerance on Sunday and pays tribute to the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The Governor concludes his speech with the Hebrew saying, "Am Yisrael hai" – (the nation of Israel lives) – gives the crowd a thumbs-up sign, and adds his signature movie line, "I'll be back."

May 2: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hopes that an internal Likud referendum will cement support for his Gaza Strip pullout plan.

May 5: The first "Yekke" Conference opens in Jerusalem.

May 6: The UN General Assembly reaffirms the Palestinian right of sovereignty in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

May 7: An IDF soldier is killed, two soldiers seriously wounded and three other soldiers moderately wounded during a Hezbollah attack on IDF posts in the Mount Dov area along the Israeli Lebanese border.

May 9: Conductor Daniel Barenboim criticizes Israel during the Wolf Award ceremony in the Knesset.

May 9-15: 35 mayors from over 20 countries visit Jerusalem and tour Israel as participants of the 22nd Jerusalem Conference of Mayors. The visiting leaders include mayors from cities around the world, including Stockholm, Milan, Buenos Aires, and Cleveland, as well as the past prime minister of Estonia and the president of the US Conference of Mayors.

May 11: Intel announces the launching of three new Pentium M processors that were developed at Intel's Israeli development center in Haifa under the code name "Dothan".

May 11: Six IDF soldiers are killed during an IDF operation to target Qassam rocket workshops in Gaza City when an armored personal carrier is struck by an explosive device.

May 12: An IDF officer and four soldiers are killed, and three soldiers are lightly injured, while preparing to detonate a weapon-smuggling tunnel on the Philadelphia route at the Israeli-Egyptian border near Rafah. Their armored personal carrier explodes, apparently after being hit by an anti-tank rocket. The Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for the attack. Comrades of the dead soldiers search for their body parts in the Gaza Strip.

Second explosives-laden APC hit, 11 killed in two days.

May 13: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon thanks Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for Egypt's assistance in returning the parts of IDF soldiers' bodies which were held by Palestinians.

May 14: Two IDF soldiers are killed by Palestinian snipers in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

May 17: Israel Defense Forces enter the refugee camp of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, cutting it off from the rest of Gaza and neighboring Egypt. Thousands of panicked Palestinians flee to the neighboring town of Rafah.

May 18: Carrying out an operation codenamed 'Rainbow', Israel Defense Forces enter Rafah to conduct extensive searches for fugitives and arms tunnels.

May 18 : Bnei Sakhnin becomes the first Arab team to win the soccer State Cup, a victory celebrated by Jews and Arabs alike.

May 19: At least 15 Palestinians are killed and dozens wounded when Israeli forces fire on a crowd demonstrating against the invasion of a Gaza refugee camp. Following the violence, the UN Security Council adopts a resolution condemning the deaths and demolitions.

May 20: The IDF intensifies the Gaza offensive. Eight Palestinians are killed. This brings the Palestinian death toll to 41 in four days.

May 22: A suicide bomber is killed when he detonates an explosive device at the Bekaot checkpoint in the northern Jordan Valley. The commander of the checkpoint and several Palestinians are slightly injured.

May 23: Minister of Justice Yosef Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, criticizes the house demolitions in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. Lapid says, the image of an old Palestinian woman on the debris of her house reminded him of his grandmother. He calls the demolitions inhuman and warns against an international ostracism Israel's.

May 24: The IDF announces the end of the operation in the Rafah refugee camp. At least 40 Palestinians are killed and at least 100 are wounded during operation "Rainbow". Hundreds of houses are demolished.

May: An ultra orthodox rabbinic authority issues a ban against natural hair wigs from India. The fear is that the wigs may have come from women who took part in Hindu haircutting ceremonies, which according to the rabbi, is equivalent to idol worship. Many Orthodox Jewish women respond by switching to synthetic wigs or hats.

June 1: Two Qassam rockets are fired at Sderot. One of them hits a building in an industrial zone near prime minister Ariel Sharon's sheep farm.

June 1: 55% of the Israelis back Sharon's disengagement plan.

June 1: Former chief Sephardi rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron calls for the "annulment of the Orthodox monopoly on marriage in Israel" and "free choice" in choosing a form of marriage.

June 2: 12 border policemen are charged with abuse of Palestinians. They hit the Palestinians, stole their money and humiliated them. One policeman is sentenced because he shot a Palestinian.

June 3: Israel and Ethiopia strengthen bilateral ties.

June 4: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fires National Union ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Benny Elon in an attempt to obtain the necessary support on the vote by the cabinet on the revised disengagement plan.

June 5: Thousands of people demonstrate in front of the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem in favor of the disengagement plan. Three weeks earlier, 150,000 had demonstrated in Tel Aviv.

June 6: Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, a former supporter of peace negotiations with Israel, is convicted in a Tel Aviv court of links to terrorist attacks in which five Israelis are killed. Barghouti is handed five life terms.

June 6: In a cabinet meeting on Sunday, the government passes Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's revised Gaza disengagement plan, by a vote of 14-7.

June 6: Ichud Leumi resigns from the government because of disagreements over PM Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan.

June 8: In the wake of the Cabinet's approval of the disengagement plan, National Religious Party’s Minister of Housing Effi Eitam, and Deputy Minister Yitzhak Levy hand in their resignation letters to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today. Their departure leaves the NRP with only one minister - Zevulun Orlev - in the Cabinet and three MKs. The resignations threaten to split the NRP and weaken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition whose base of support in the Knesset is brought down from 61 to 59 seats.

June 9: At Kibbutz Maagan Michael, a new desalination plant is inaugurated promising to desalinate 8.5 million cubic meters of brackish water annually.

June 9: Yad VaShem marks fifty years.

June 15: Citing a lack of evidence, the attorney general rules against indicting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the bribery charges, and rebukes prosecutors for their approach to the case.

June 16: The Menachem Begin Heritage Center is inaugurated in Jerusalem.

June 18: In an interview with the Israeli daily newspaper "Haaretz" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat says he "definitely" understands that Israel has to "preserve her Jewish character" and that he personally recognizes "Israel's Jewish identity". Furthermore, Arafat tells the paper that the PA has dropped an Arab summit resolution, calling for a just solution of the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN General Assembly Resolution 194.

June 26: Renowned songwriter Naomi Shemer - the composer of the iconic "Jerusalem of Gold" dies at age 74.

June 28: Qassam rockets attack Sderot. One of the rockets hits near a nursery school. Two people are killed, one of them a four-year-old boy on his way to kindergarten.

June 30: The Defense Ministry says it will redirect parts of the West Bank separation fence after Israel's High Court of Justice orders changes to 30 kilometers of the route so as to minimize hardship to Palestinians.

June 30: Three children are killed and 47 injured - six seriously - when a school bus overturns near Kfar Yona in the Sharon region.

June 30: The Knesset passes the "Herzl Law" according to which a national congress will be held every year on the 10th of the month of Iyyar to commemorate Theodor Herzl Day.

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February 25: Mel Gibson's controversial movie "Passion of Christ" opens in the US.

March: Conductor Daniel Barenboim is awarded the Buber-Rosenzweig Medal in Bad Nauheim, Germany. His West-Eastern Divan Workshop and Orchestra and the Barenboim-Said Foundation, promote music and co-operation through projects targeted at young Arabs and Israelis.

March 31: The European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) releases the European Union Antisemitism Report 2002 - 2003.

April 15: The Holocaust Museum in Budapest is inaugurated.

April 28: Speaking at the opening of the conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on anti-Semitism in Berlin, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell states that, "we will stand together and we will declare with one voice that anti-Semitism shall have no place among us and hate shall not find an home". Five hundred high-ranking participants from 55 member states from Europe, Central Asia, and North America are attending the conference. German President Johannes Rau calls upon European states to intensify their battle against anti-Semitism, and says that, "it is sad to see that in 2004, there is still need for a convention to devote itself to battling anti-Semitism."

April 29 - May 2: More than 350 Jewish leaders from South America meet in Sao Paulo.

April 30: Concluding a two-day conference on anti-Semitism in Berlin, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe announces that Israel's actions do not legitimize anti-Semitism. The statement, which constitutes a major victory for Jewish leaders, reads that, "international development or political issues, including those in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, never justify anti-Semitism."

May: Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Mr. Spock in "Star Treck" presents his work from a 1992 photo book called "Shekhina" in a gallery in Northampton. The photographs explore the feminine aspects of Jewish divinity, and the legend that the Shekhina - the feminine aspect of God that comes in to bless the congregation.

May: Nearly 1,000 Jewish leaders from more than 40 countries meet in Budapest to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing their communities in light of recent European Union enlargement.

May: An exhibition in Boston, The Art of the Game: Jewish Athletes in America, celebrates Jews in American sports as part of the 350th anniversary of the arrival of Jews to the United States being celebrated this year.

May: For the 100th anniversary of Rome's synagogue, Pope John Paul II released a statement denouncing anti-Semitism and encouraging peace in the Middle East. He said in the statement that Muslims, Jews and Christians all had to play a part in ending violence in the Holy Land.

May: The Jewish Museum in Berlin unveils the largest German collection of Holocaust survivors' accounts. The collection contains more than 1,000 interviews recorded over the last 10 years.

May: Actor Tony Randall, best known for his comic role in "The Odd Couple", dies at age 83.

June 3: A rabbi's prayer and warnings against the evils of racism inaugurate a new memorial to victims of the Belzec death camp, where 500,000 Jews and other Nazi targets were exterminated during just seven months of World War II.

June 7: In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the June 6 invasion of Normandy, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder vows that Germany bears the responsibility to ensure history does not repeat itself, and thanks the Allies for ending the Nazi dictatorship and assisting his country's more recent reunification.

June: The Danish Jewish Museum, designed like its Berlin counterpart by Daniel Libeskind, is officially opened by Danish Queen Margarethe.

June: A rare 14th century Hebrew manuscript is returned to the Vienna Jewish community by U.S. Customs officials nearly 65 years to the day after it was stolen by the Nazis. The manuscript, one of the oldest versions of the Cabalistic text known as Sepher Yetzirah, was recovered in 2002 after it was smuggled into to the United States from Israel by a US citizen who intended to auction it.

June: The first Jewish kindergarten in Odessa is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. The Ohr Avner Chabad Kindergarten, run under the auspices of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, has become one of the largest educational centers in Ukraine, and now operates five Jewish kindergartens in Odessa.

June 21: The United Nations hold its first-ever seminar on anti-Semitism, entitled "Confronting anti-Semitism: Education for Tolerance and Understanding".

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