FROM OUR ARCHIVES

YEARS AGO. The Cinematographic 50 Censorship Board held its first meeting in Jerusalem to reconsider its previous ban on the Jean Paul Sartre play The Respectable Prostitute. No decision was reached, but a ruling was expected soon. The ban on the play, which deals with racial prejudice in the US, had raised considerable protest in the capital.

Don Fra, a Catholic priest in Turin, Italy, announced that he would not grant absolution to people who had caused the deportation of Jews by the Nazis or who had stolen Jewish property without making restitution.

The south wing of the Notre Dame de France Monastery and pilgrim hostel in Jerusalem, which had been occupied by the IDF since 1948, was returned to the Order of the Augustinians of the Assumption. This was the third time that an army had returned the monastery overlooking the Damascus Gate to its owners.

25 YEARS AGO. The Haifa Rabbinical Court forced a woman to sign a commitment to remain in Haifa for the rest of her life as a condition for being granted a divorce. A district court judge had previously refused the demand made by the husband, noting that in a democracy citizens are free to live where they choose.

The Tel Aviv Municipality decided not to prohibit the feeding of cats in apartment courtyards and public areas. The ordinance had been proposed following complaints about animal lovers, particularly restaurant owners, who put strong-smelling fish leftovers out for cats. This practice raised the ire of ground-floor apartment dwellers, many of them elderly, who said the cats gathered in large numbers near their windows, crawled into their flats, and disturbed their sleep with nocturnal fights over food. But Humane Society supporters and other cat lovers prevented the ordinance from coming to a vote.

Health minister Haim Ramon said the Histadrut’s health fund, Kupat Holim Clalit, was bankrupt and had debts amounting to some NIS 2.6 billion. He announced that he would present a national health bill in which health fees would be collected by the National Insurance Institute instead of the health funds. The issue of fee collection had been one of the most contentious regarding the question of health service reform, because the Histadrut used some of the KHC fees it collected to cover other organizational expenses.