FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO January 14, 1953
Russia told the world that nine leading doctors – five of them Jewish – had “confessed” to the murder of the secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, Andrei Zhdanov, and the secretary of the Moscow Committee of the Party, General Alexander Shcherbakov. The announcement of the sensational “plot” made by the Moscow Radio and press said five of the “wreckers” belonged to a “terrorist group connected with an international Jewish bourgeois national organization” – the “Joint.” This was the first time that Moscow had used the labels “Jewish” and “Zionist” in denunciation of “crimes.” Two months earlier at the Prague trial of Rudolf Slansky, communism broke new ground with its attack on Jews. The doctors were alleged to have killed the two Soviet leaders by deliberate wrong treatment.
Haifa was eating more standard (whole-wheat) bread since the difference between the prices of brown and white bread widened to 55%. Intermittent shortages were causing housewives to buy white loaves for lack of an alternative. However, there was also the lure of the black market, where cake-minded housewives paid up to 700 prutot for standard flour. Another issue of concern was the “infiltration” of bread into chicken coops. The control authorities were confiscating large numbers of bread-eating chickens in suburban areas and filed suits with their owners.
15 YEARS AGO January 14, 2003
With security nearing an all-time high, NASA began the two-day countdown for the planned launch of space shuttle Columbia which would carry Israel’s first astronaut. Ilan Ramon, a 48-year-old air force colonel, flew to Kennedy Space Center along with his six American crewmates. “Happy to be here – finally,” Ramon said. While in space, Ramon intended to speak by space phone with prime minister Ariel Sharon, in a conversation which would be broadcast on television. Ramon would be in space during the January 28 election, and was sent an absentee ballot, but did not intend to vote. Labor Party chairman Amram Mitzna sent Ramon a letter in which he predicted that the astronaut would return to a different Israel and a different government. The 16-day scientific research mission should have taken place the previous summer after a delay of more than a year, but NASA’s entire shuttle fleet was grounded because of cracked fuel lines in each ship. Ramon said he hoped the mission would provide Israelis with a cheerful distraction from the local unrest. “I think [Israelis] are very happy to be distracted by my flight and NASA flights, maybe to forget a litter bit of their problems and get out there with us,” he said.
The Transportation Ministry and Egged were considering a renewed haredi proposal to start several male-only “mehadrin” bus lines serving haredi neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Haredi proponents of the move, such as city councilman Haim Miller (United Torah Judaism), wondered aloud why bus lines operating in haredi neighborhoods were causing such a fuss. He said the move would have “no impact” on the public at large. Jerusalem entrepreneur and mayoral candidate Nir Barkat said he could live with several haredi-only lines.