FROM OUR ARCHIVES
50 YEARS AGO
November 8, 1967
In an address at Georgetown University titled “Epistle to the Jews,” King Hussein of Jordan called on American Jews to give up Zionism and their connection to Israel. Hussein said he believed there was a place for Jews in the new society the Arabs envisaged for the Middle East. “We hope the Jews themselves will renounce their present separatism as an unrealistic political position,” he said. The king emphasized that there was a “great difference” between Zionist and Jew, just as between “Nazi and German.”
An Arab woman from Lod, who infiltrated to Jordan with her seven children after a quarrel with her husband, was let off with a token sentence of one day. The woman had taken her children and crossed the border near Ben-Shemen in order to find refuge with her family in Jordan. They were arrested and returned the following day. In passing sentence, district court judge Binyamin Cohen commented: “It is difficult to expect of a woman burdened with seven children to understand the true significance of a frontier – especially when she has quarreled with her husband and is seeking shelter with her parents who happen to be living across the frontier… The prosecution has properly discharged its duty in bringing the defendant to trial. Now I shall discharge my duty as I see fit and I hereby sentence the accused to one day’s imprisonment – to be terminated by the time I rise from this seat.”
25 YEARS AGO
November 8, 1992
Eddie Antar, once known as US electronics retail king Crazy Eddie, reportedly tried to commit suicide in the hospital wing of Ramle’s Ayalon Prison, where he was being held pending an extradition hearing. Antar, who once owned a chain of popular discount stores, was wanted in America on fraud charges involving millions of dollars. In 1990 a US court ordered him to return $2 million he had transferred to Bank Leumi in Israel, but he failed to do so and fled the country. He was declared a fugitive and all his assets were frozen. He was arrested in Israel by the serious crimes division after apparently hiding out under several false identities for two years.
15 YEARS AGO
November 8, 2002
Mark Poran, former head of the Tel Aviv office of the Disabled War Veterans Organization, succumbed to burns covering 98 percent of his body. Poran was fatally injured when a disgruntled veteran seeking a higher disability rating poured flammable liquid on him and set him on fire as he walked out of the organization’s office.
The Jerusalem City Council got its first openly homosexual member. Jerry Levinson, who served as chairman of the city’s gay and lesbian Open House, was one of three new appointees in the Jerusalem Now faction after the group’s three party members resigned to allow three outsiders – a Reform rabbi, an Arab resident, and Levinson – to take their place. “It’s time that everybody understands that Jerusalem is a diverse city,” Levinson said. Earlier in the week, chemistry professor and gay rights advocate Uzi Even was sworn in as the Knesset’s first openly gay member.