Year
 
Jewish Agency for Israel
 
Israel
 
Jewish History & Culture
1972            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

top

 

Chairman of the Jewish Agency. Louis A. Pincus.

Alternate Chairman of the Executive of the WZO - Jewish Agency, American Section: Charlotte Jacobson.

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.

January 18: The 28th Zionist Congress opens in Jerusalem.

During the year, the Soviet Union permits 34, 733 Jews to emigrate. Newcomers include released Prisoners of Zion.

Immigration to Israel rises steadily in the wake of the Six Day War. The newcomers arrive from the East and the West, but mostly from the Soviet Union, at first by the thousands and then, from the early 1970s more massively. Approximately 56,000 immigrants arrive in 1972, the largest annual figure between 1963 and 1990.

The immigration from the Soviet Union was viewed as a miracle, both because of Soviet efforts to block it or to slow it down, and because decades of official suppression of every manifestation of Judaism was thought to have resulted in the extinguishing of Jewish, and certainly Zionist, identity. The Six Day War, however, revived this consciousness. Israel welcomed this development, yet was also somewhat overwhelmed by the arrival of the rising tide of immigrants. Some Israelis resented the preferential treatment accorded to the newcomers, who were granted housing on special terms and tax-free purchase of cars. Problems of absorption and employment also arose, such as the difficulty of integrating over 3,000 physicians and an even larger number of engineers who arrived from the Soviet Union during the 1970s.

The office of the Department for Immigration and Absorption of Immigrants in Vienna expands its activities because this city becomes a point of transit and transfer of scores of thousands of immigrants to Israel from the Soviet Union and other communist countries.

Amigour, a subsidiary company of the Jewish Agency is founded by the Jewish Appeal for the purpose of providing housing solutions. At the time of its establishment, Amigour places about 10,000 apartments at the disposal of distressed families which are living in huts, tents and temporary accommodation.

The Institute for Leadership Training is set up for training a select cadre of personnel ot help organize Jewish communities and to increase the effectiveness of fundraising activities.

 

 

 

January 1: David Elazar succeeds Chaim Bar-Lev as chief of staff. Bar-Lev will be appointed minister of trade and industry on March 6.

January 18: A cable car is installed on Mount Hermon.

January: Israel cancels the sale by the Assumptionist Fathers of the Notre Dame de France convent in Jerusalem to Hadassah after protests from the Vatican.

January: U.S. officials reveal the signing of a U.S.-Israel arms agreement in November 1971, authorizing Israel to manufacture various kinds of American weapons and equipment.

January: The borders heat up again. Confrontations with Palestinian terrorists occur in the Jordan Valley and the Lebanese border. Katyusha missile attacks target Kiryat Shmonah and the northern settlements. The Israeli air force attacks terrorist targets in Syria.

February 2: Israel agrees to close proximity talks with Egypt with U.S. mediation.

February 3: Construction of the town of Ofira is begun at Sharm el-Sheikh.

February 6: The Golden Globe is awarded to Ephraim Kishon's film "Azoulai the Policeman."

February: France agrees to reimburse Israel for 50 Mirage jets purchased but embargoed since the Six Day War.

February: Israeli forces attack terrorist bases in southern Lebanon's Fatahland after three persons were killed and seven injured in terrorist strikes. The UN Security Council adopts a resolution calling on Israel to stop military action on Lebanon. The U.S. abstains after its effort to insert into the resolution a sentence deploring "all actions which have resulted in the loss of innocent lives" is defeated.

March 1: The Israel Air Force attacks terrorist bases in Syria. The Syrians bomb settlements in the Golan Heights.

March 15: King Hussein of Jordan unveils a federal plan for a United Arab Kingdom.

March 16: Israel responses to King Hussein's federal plan.

March 22: Israel approaches the 5th anniversary of the occupation of the West Bank. Inside Israel there is a realization that some kind of compromise is needed. Walter Eytan , Israel's former Ambassador to Paris writes in the Jerusalem Post. Read more.

March 30 : Uganda leader Idi Amin breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel. Israel maintains that Uganda sacrificed good relations with Israel to obtain financial assistance from Arab countries.

April: Reports state that Israel will be supplied with Hercules planes and Patton tanks by the U.S.

May 1: Sadat, at a May 1st ceremony in Alexandria, declares that Egypt is prepared to sacrifice a million soldiers in order to liberate the occupied territories and to put an end to "Israeli arrogance" dating back to 1948.

May 9 : Israeli paratroopers recover a Belgian Sabena airplane that was forced to land at Lod airport by Black September terrorists. The hijackers demand the release of hundreds of imprisoned terrorists in exchange for the passengers.

May 22-26: US President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev meet in Moscow.

May 30 : On behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, three Japanese terrorists massacre 23 passengers at Lod airport, among them Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico and world-renowed scientist Aharon Katzir of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The UN Security Council fails to adopt a resolution condemning the act.

May: Prime Minister Golda Meir pays an official visit to Romania, the first by an Israeli prime minister to a Communist country.

June: Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's ambassador to the U.S. publicly notes that President Nixon has been more supportive of Israel than any previous U.S. president. Rabin is accused of interfering in U.S. domestic politics during the presidential campaign.

July 11: A bomb laid at Tel Aviv's central bus station wounds 11 persons.

July 17: The surviving Japanese terrorist who took part in the massacre at Lod airport, Kozo Okamoto, is sentenced to life imprisonment.

July 18: Sadat expels Soviet military advisers from Egypt.

July 23: The government decides against the return of the dispossessed Israeli Arabs to their villages, Ikrit and Bir'am in the Galilee.

July 26: Israel links up with international satellite communications upon the inauguration of its satellite ground station in the Elah Valley.

July: At a press conference held in Kuwait, U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers recommends direct negotiations between Israel and the Arab States.

August 9: The Israeli Air Force bombs 11 terrorist bases in Lebanon.

August 16: A booby-trapped record player explodes aboard an El Al flight en route from Rome to Israel. The pilot manages to land the plane safely in Rome. The record player had been given to two British passengers by Arab terrorists before takeoff.

September 5: Eight Black September Palestinian kill two and seize and hold hostage nine Israeli Olympic athletes at the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany.

September 6: A shoot-out at Munich airport with German police, who are attempting to free the hostages, results in the death of all the Israelis, five terrorists, and one policeman. The remaining three terrorists are taken prisoner. The games are postponed for 34 hours. The UN Security Council takes no action.

September 9 : Israeli war planes attack Arab terrorist bases in Syria and Lebanon in retaliation for the Munich Olympic massacre. Three Syrian jets are shot down over the Golan Heights. The UN Security Council adopts a resolution calling for an end of military operations by "the parties concerned." A U.S. resolution deploring the München massacre is not considered.

September 16 : Israeli forces cross into Lebanon, search 16 villages, destroy about 150 fortifications and buildings used by Arab terrorists, kill about 60 terrorists and take prisoners. The Lebanese army intervenes and suffers 60 casualties.

September 19: Agricultural Attache to the Israel embassy in London Dr. Ami Shahori is killed by a letter bomb. Similar devices are received in the mail by Israeli legations in other European cities.

September: The Supreme Court rejects the appeal of Meyer Lansky, U. S. underworld figure, to override the refusal of the Interior Ministry to grant him an immigration visa. The court says he was "a person with a criminal past likely to endanger public welfare." Lansky return to the U.S.

October 15: Rabbis Shlomo Goren and Ovadia Yosef are elected Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis respectively.

October: West Germany releases three Arab terrorists held for the massacre of Israelis at the München Olympic Games as ransom for a German airliner hijacked over Cyprus by two Black September terrorists on a flight from Beirut, Lebanon.

November: Syrian and Israeli forces engage in air, artillery and tank battles on the Golan Heights. Six Syrian MiGs are downed, with no Israeli losses.

December 16 : The UN General Assembly, by a vote of 86 to 7, with 31 abstentions and 8 absent, adopts a resolution calling "upon all States not to recognize any such changes and measures carried out by Israel in the occupied Arab territories" and invites them to avoid actions, including aid, that would constitute recognition of the occupation. The U.S. abstains.

December 21: Ezer Weizmann resigns as chairman of the Herut movement executive committee.

December: During the year, the Suez Canal and Jordan River cease-fire lines are almost complete quiet. There is no interim arrangement for the opening of the Suez Canal, but the open bridges policy in the Jordan River continues, with regular traffic of people and goods between the West Bank and the East Bank, which many regard as an interim de facto settlement with Jordan.

"My Michael", a novel by Amos Oz, is the first Israeli fiction to appear in an English translation.

 

March: The Dutch Parliament votes not to release three Nazi war criminals serving life sentences since their conviction in 1948 of deporting thousands of Jews to the death camps. Parliament overrules the recommendation of Dutch minister of justice after a mass protest by Jewish and non-Jewish groups.

April: National Solidarity Day for Soviet Jewry is observed in more than 100 American cities. Over 1 million sign petitions urging President Richard Nixon to make emigration of Soviet Jews a priority agenda item in his forthcoming summit meeting with Soviet leaders.

August: The Soviet government issues a "diploma tax" decree, requiring would-be emigrants who had acquired a higher education to pay a large fee, which in effect would make it prohibitive for educated Jews to emigrate. American Jews launch a campaign of protest.

September: Several days after the München massacre, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta, performs before an audience of 4,000 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The audience stands in silence to the memory of the victims.

September: The PLO representative in Paris, Mahmoud Hamchari, is wounded and later dies from an explosion set off when he lifts his telephone receiver. Police experts attribute his assassination to Israeli agents.

Moises Cohen is appointed minister of finance in the Uruguayan government of President Juan Bordaberry. he is the first Jew in the country's history to become a minister.

Dr. Augusto Segre, head of the culture department of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, conducts a lecture course at the Pontifical Lateran University on postbiblical Judaism as a continuation and evolution of classical Judaism. Segre is the first Jew invited to occupy a chair at the university.

Newspapers report that Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, is living in Peru. He return to Bolivia under pressure from the Peruvian authorities.

Mark Spitz, U.S. champion swimmer from California, competing at the München Olympic Games, becomes the first person to win seven Olympic gold medals.

Kenneth Joseph Arrow, U.S. economist is awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.

William Howard Stein, U.S. biochemist, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research in proteins, peptides, and amino acids.

Leon Cooper is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Christian B. Anfinsen is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active confirmation.

Gerald Maurice Edelman, U.S. immunologist, is awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. He established chemical structure of gamma globulin, which defends the body against foreign bodies and disease.

Art Spiegelman, U.S. cartoonist, creates "Maus", a cartoon strip, which is a moving and horrifying tale of the Holocaust around the metaphor of the Nazis cast as cats and the Jews as mice.

 
 
   
 
 

 

 

 

Share           PRINT   
12 Nov 2007 / 2 Kislev 5768 0