FROM OUR ARCHIVES

50 YEARS AGO

October 16, 1967 New Communist Knesset member Meir Wilner was stabbed in the back in Tel Aviv by a man presumably protesting against the Soviet Union’s policy towards its Jewish community. The assailant, described as a 40-year-old who was once imprisoned in an Eastern European country for Zionist activities, immediately gave himself up to police. After surrendering, he allegedly declared: “I did it because, having been imprisoned for Zionist activities, I feel what Soviet Jewry suffers.” The policy statements of the New Communists, led by Wilner, echoed the official views of the Soviet Union regarding Israel’s role in the Six Day War and the condition of Soviet Jewry.

Jerusalem had 265,000 inhabitants in 1967, including 65,857 residents of east Jerusalem, according to a census. Almost three-quarters of Jerusalem’s inhabitants were Jews. 23,675 people lived in the Old City.

Another 850 Egyptian citizens who were in the Gaza Strip and Sinai during the war were to be repatriated. In exchange, three blind teachers, employees of the Gaza vocational school for the blind, were to be returned from Egypt, where they were studying before the war.

25 YEARS AGO

October 16, 1992 More than 400 immigrants – refugees from the war zones in Abkhazia and Tajikistan – were expected to land in Israel by Simhat Torah. Since fighting between Abkhazian loyalists and Georgian troops broke out in August, 300 Jews had already arrived from the Black Sea port of Sukhumi.

A new survey found that almost half the population of New York City believed Jews had “too much influence” in city life and politics, more than twice the figure for any other racial or ethnic group. The survey followed a similar survey conducted in 1990, which showed 21% of US residents believed Jews had “too much political influence nationwide.” Jews also led the list of ethnic groups respondents believed were “favored” by city government, at 26%. Other data related to Jews was more favorable. Jews headed the list of racial and ethnic groups characterized as “intelligent” and “rich”, while they were at the bottom of the list of those groups viewed as “lazy” and “prone to violence.”

A member of the French parliament wanted the name of a tiny village to be changed – to anything as long as it would no longer be called Mort-auxJuifs (Death to the Jews). The village contained only three houses and there were two theories as to the origin of the name. One version had it that it was originally called “la mare au Juif,” or the Jew’s pond. According to the other theory, a Jewish tradesman was at some point installed in the village, and the original name was “Le marc au Juif,” marc being a weight measure used at the time.

15 YEARS AGO

October 16, 2002 After weeks of debate, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which represented 52 Jewish national groups, announced its support for US military action against Iraq “as a last resort.” The Conference of Presidents announced that all of its member groups “supported president George W. Bush and Congress in their efforts to gain unequivocal Iraqi compliance with the obligation to divest itself of weapons of mass destruction and the means to develop such weapons.”