Extracting Items from Timeline

extractor.js

var items = $(".tl-slider-item-container")
  .children()
  .slice(1); // ignore the first item, it's a title card

var result = $.map(items, j => {
  const el = $(j);
  return {
    year: el.find(".tl-headline-date")[0].innerText,
    title: el.find(".tl-headline")[0].innerText,
    content: el.find(".tl-text-content")[0].innerText
  };
});

results.json

[
  {
    "year": "1882",
    "title": "The First Aliya",
    "content":
      "1882-1903 The influx of immigrants into the Land of Israel during the years 1882-1903 is known as “The First Aliyah.” This was the first large wave of immigrants that were motivated by nationalism. During these years some 25,000 Jews emigrated from Russia and Rumania, and 2,500 arrived from Yemen.​www.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1891",
    "title": "Leon Pinsker",
    "content":
      "Leon Pinsker (1821-1891) was a medical doctor and leader of the assimilationist movement among Russian Jewry, and a frequent contributor to Rassviet, the assimilationist weekly published in Odessa. Assimilationists were convinced that the future of Russian Jews lay in integration with Russian society at large. However, a violent pogrom in Odessa in 1871 led Pinsker to understand that Jews would never be secure in Russia. \n\nAfter more than a decade of thought, and following more serious, government-inspired violence,  Pinsker traveled to Europe where he tried unsuccessfully to popularize the idea that Jews need to organize a national movement, he returned to Odessa, where he wrote Selbstemanzipation (Auto-Emancipation) . The essay declared that Jews would never be the social equals of gentiles as long as they did not have a state of their own, and called for a meeting of Jewish leaders to consider the problem. Pinsker was willing to settle for a Jewish homeland in a country other than Palestine. The pamphlet was initially ignored. But following a series of  pogroms, it attracted attention at least in Russia, and Pinsker was subsequently chosen to head the Chovevei Tzion (Lovers of Zion) movement that was organized in Russia to unite a network of underground Zionist study circles.\n\nwww.zionism-israel.com/bio/bio…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1895",
    "title": "The Alfred Dreyfus Trial",
    "content":
      "In 1894, the French Army’s counter-intelligence section, led by Lt. Colonel Jean Sandherr, became aware that information regarding new artillery parts was being passed to the Germans by a highly placed spy, most likely to be on the General Staff. Suspicion quickly fell upon Dreyfus, who was arrested for treason on 15 October 1894. On 5 January 1895, Dreyfus was summarily convicted in a secret court martial, publicly stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in French Guiana. Following French military custom of the time, Dreyfus was formally degraded by having the rank insignia, buttons and braid cut from his uniform and his sword broken, all in the courtyard of the École Militaire before silent ranks of soldiers while a large crowd of onlookers shouted abuse from behind railings. Dreyfus cried out: “I swear that I am innocent. I remain worthy of serving in the Army. Long live France! Long live the Army!”\n\nwww.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/a…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1897",
    "title": "First Zionist Congress",
    "content":
      "“The first Zionist Congress convenes in Basle, which constitutes the foundation of the World Zionist Organization, and Herzl is elected president. The Congress, in which 197 delegates participate, accepts the Basle Program: Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law. www.zionistarchives.org.il/en/…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1897",
    "title": "Binyamin Zeev Herzl",
    "content":
      "Binyamin Ze’ev (Theodor) Herzl (1860-1904)\nHerzl was born in Budapest, Hungary on May 2, 1860, to Jeanette and Jacob. He was raised in a well-to-do home, received a basic Jewish education, and was educated in the spirit of the German-­Jewish Enlightenment of the period, which was characteristic of Jews living in Central Europe at that time.\n\nIn 1891, Herzl had become the Paris correspondent for the influential Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse. During his work he came fact-to-face with the growing anti-Semitic atmosphere in France; he became more and more concerned with the Jewish question, and sought various ways to cope with the issue. At a certain point, he considered working towards the idea of mass conversion of young Jews to Christianity, in the hope that this would solve the Jewish problem once and for all. But he quickly disabused himself of this notion.\n\nIn 1894 Herzl attended the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, an assimilated Jewish officer in the French army who was unjustly accused of treason. Herzl was appalled when he witnessed the Parisian mobs shouting “Death to the Jews.” herzl.org/herzl-biography\n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1904",
    "title": "A.D Gordon",
    "content":
      "Aharon David was born in the village of Troino in South Podolya (Russia). He remained the only child of his parents, Uri and Dvorah, after all his brothers and sisters had died in their youth. His father sat at home and studied Torah. His mother managed the estate they lived on as well as the house. Their family was known in the entire area as open and hospitable. By order of the authorities his parents were forced to leave their village. They went to live in the woods near the town where he was born and took up the sale of wood. The parents hired a private teacher in the new place as well and he taught the boy Talmud, Bible and Hebrew grammar. He endeavored to make Hebrew the spoken language among the youth and he succeeded. He was endowed with a superior pedagogical sense and his two children – a boy and a girl – he did not send to school. He taught them himself and treated them with equality in their upbringing and education. In the year 1903 Mohilne was sold to new owners and he was left without work. After much vacillation he decided to make Aliyah and begin a new chapter in his life. In the winter of 1904 he arrived in the Land of Israel, at the age of 48. There he decided to be a farm laborer – a worker of the land. In spite of his advanced age and delicate body build he stubbornly persisted in this decision and worked in the field for eighteen years, until his last day. During this period without employment he found daily work digging in the orchards and vineyards. He worked in Petach Tikvah, Rishon LeTzion and Rechovot.\n\ndegania.org.il/en/founding-fig…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1904",
    "title": "The Second Aliya",
    "content":
      "The Second Aliyah refers to the massive influx of immigrants during the years 1904-1914. Between these years approximately 35 thousand Jews arrived, mainly from Russia and Poland.Unlike the immigrants of the First Aliyah, the majority of immigrants during the Second Aliyah were single young people, many with a socialist ideology coupled with a belief in the national redemption of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel. www.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n2nd Aliya Chalutzim Texts\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1909",
    "title": "Meir Dizengoff",
    "content":
      "Meir Dizengoff (1861-1936), was born in the Bessarabian village of Akimovici. Until the age of fifteen he studied in a heder and with private tutors. He graduated from a gymnasium in Kishinev and enlisted in the Russian army in 1882, serving as the editor of a military newspaper in Zhitomir. After completing his military service he moved to Odessa and became active in the Narodnaya Volya (The People’s Will). Due to his activity in the organization the authorities arrested him in 1885 and he spent eight months in prison. During his time in prison he came to the conclusion that the redemption of the Jewish people could be achieved only in its ancient homeland. eng.ihi.org.il/history/meir-di…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1909",
    "title": "The Establishment of Tel Aviv",
    "content":
      "Tel Aviv was founded on April 11, 1909. On that day, several dozen families gathered on the sand dunes on the beach outside Yafo to allocate plots of land for a new neighborhood they called Ahuzat Bayit, later known as Tel Aviv. As the families could not decide how to allocate the land, they held a lottery to ensure a fair division. Akiva Arieh Weiss, chairman of the lottery committee and one of the prominent figures in the city’s founding, gathered 66 grey seashells and 66 white seashells. Weiss wrote the names of the participants on the white shells and the plot numbers on the grey shells. He paired a white and grey shell, assigning each family a plot, and thus Tel Aviv’s founding families began building the first modern, Hebrew city. www.tel-aviv.gov.il/en/aboutth…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1911",
    "title": "Hannah Maisel",
    "content":
      "Hannah Maisel was born on December 12, 1883 to an affluent family in the city of Grodno (Horodno, Belarus). Her father, Yitzchak Maisel, an exporter of wheat and furs to western Europe, emigrated to Palestine after World War I and died c. 1936–1937. Her mother, Reizel, a homemaker, died in 1927. Hannah was the fifth of their twelve children and the fourth daughter. Eight of the children ultimately emigrated to Palestine. In 1911 Maisel established her first agricultural training framework, Havat ha-Alamot (the Young Women’s Farm) at Kinneret, as part of the Zionist Federation’s Kinneret Farm. \n\nShe became one of the founders of the Hebrew Women’s Organization (Histadrut Nashim Ivriyyot) and later treasurer of Wizo. She was also a candidate for the Knesset.\n\njwa.org/encyclopedia/article/m…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1912",
    "title": "Henrietta Szold",
    "content":
      "Henrietta Szold, (1860 – 1965) was raised by her rabbi father to be deeply committed to the Jewish people and the world of Jewish tradition and scholarship. As an essayist, translator, and editor, she became one of the few women to play a foundational role in creating a meaningful American Jewish culture. Still, Szold was constrained by the limited opportunities that the Jewish world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries could offer a woman of her brilliance, organizational abilities, and vision.\n\nThe creation of Hadassah in 1912 as a Zionist women’s organization dedicated to practical work in Palestine transformed Szold’s future course and the lives of hundreds of thousands of women who joined its work. jwa.org/womenofvalor/szold\n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1915",
    "title": "Sarah Aaronsohn",
    "content":
      "Sarah Aaronsohn (1890-1917) was born on January 5, 1890, in the agricultural colony (moshavah) of Zikhron Ya’akov on Mount Carmel, the fifth of six children and older daughter of Efraim Fischel (1849–1939) and Malka (née Glatzano) of Baku, Romania. Her father, a prosperous grain-merchant, fell under the influence of Hovevei Zion, joining its first group of settlers together with his family, setting out from Galatz in Romania in 1882 to purchase and inhabit lands in Arab Zemerin and found the new colony of Zikhron. The Aaronsohns became one of the colony’s most prominent families, not least because of the career and reputation of Aaron (1876–1919), Sarah’s eldest brother and mentor, a world-famous agronomist and botanist. Sarah and her siblings belonged to and characterized the second generation of the First Aliyah (1881–1904), the native-born and Hebrew speaking youth in agricultural settlements (moshavot) based on privately owned property and organized around a family economy.\n\n In mid-1915, Sara, Aaron  Aaronsohn and Avshalom Feinberg decided on an active anti-Ottoman policy and established an espionage network, Nili (an acronym for Nezah Israel lo yeshaker, “The Glory of Israel does not deceive,” 1 Samuel 15: 29)\n\njwa.org/encyclopedia/article/a…\n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1917",
    "title": "The Balfour Declaration",
    "content":
      "The Balfour Declaration\nDuring the First World War, British policy became gradually committed to the idea of establishing a Jewish home in Palestine (Eretz Yisrael). After discussions in the British Cabinet, and consultation with Zionist leaders, the decision was made known in the form of a letter by Arthur James Lord Balfour to Lord Rothschild. The letter represents the first political recognition of Zionist aims by a Great Power. www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpoli…\n \n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1919",
    "title": "The Third Aliyah",
    "content":
      "The Third Aliyah (1919-1923) was in many ways a continuation of the Second Aliyah, which was halted by the outbreak of the First World War. During the Third Aliyah some 35,000 Jews arrived, the majority from Russia and Poland, with a smaller number from Lithuania and Rumania.\n\nwww.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1919",
    "title": "Rahel (Bluwstein) the Poetess",
    "content":
      "Rahel (1890-1931), was born on September 29, 1890, in Russia to Isser Bluwstein (1841?–1923), a merchant and businessman whose wealth came from diamond and real-estate transactions, and Sofia Mandelshtam. Sent at an early age to serve in the army of Tsar Nicholas, Isser was careful to maintain his religious observance throughout his long years of service. When he was released twenty-five years later, he settled in Vyatka, on the Siberian border. Bluwstein married a woman who gave birth to four children and died young.\n\nIn 1919, with the end of World War I and the renewal of contact between Europe and Palestine, Rahel set sail on the Russland, considered the first ship to carry the immigrants of the Third Aliyah (1919–1923) to Palestine.\n\njwa.org/encyclopedia/article/r…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1920",
    "title": "Joseph Trumpeldor",
    "content":
      "Joseph Trumpeldor (1880-1920), Joseph Trumpeldor (1880-1920) was born in Piatygorsk, Russia. He enlisted in the Russian army in 1902, and fought in the Russian-Japanese war. Trumpeldor lost his left arm during the siege of Port Arthur and was taken prisoner. He was awarded a medal for his gallantry and zeal, and was the most decorated Jewish soldier in Russia. Because of his disability, he studied law. In 1912 he came on Aliya to Palestine and for a while lived at Kibbutz (Kvutzath) Deganyah. With the outbreak of the First World War, Trumpeldor, a Russian citizen, was considered an enemy alien, and as he refused to take Ottoman citizenship, Trumpeldor was expelled from the country and joined the Allied war effort. He was instrumental in founding the Zion Mule Corps in 1915 and saw action in Gallipoli where he was shot through the shoulder. At the end of the war, Trumpeldor returned to Russia where he experienced the Russian revolution. In 1918 he established He-Halutz, the pioneering youth organization that prepared youngsters for settlement in Eretz-Israel.\n\nwww.zionism-israel.com/bio/bio…\n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1921",
    "title": "Ada Maimon",
    "content":
      " Ada Maimon (1893-1973) One of the “spiritual mothers” and historians of Jewish feminism in Israel, Ada Maimon was a teacher by profession and a member of Ha-Po’el ha-Za’ir from 1913 to 1920. She was also one of the founders of Mo’ezet Ha-Po’alot, the General Council of Women Workers in Israel, and its secretary-general from its founding in 1921 to 1926.\n\njwa.org/encyclopedia/article/m…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1922",
    "title": "Eliezer Ben-Yehuda",
    "content":
      "Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922) was a pioneer in the revival of spoken Hebrew who made his ideology approachable to the common man through the popular media of his time, newspapers. At the same time he helped found the Language Committee and composed the largest and most comprehensive Hebrew dictionary of his era, which aimed to record the Hebrew vocabulary from all periods (The Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew, 1908-1959). Ben-Yehuda’s work is continued in spirit at the Academy of the Hebrew Language in the Historical Dictionary Project.\n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1924",
    "title": "The Fourth Aliya",
    "content":
      "The fourth major influx of immigrants began in 1924. More than 67,000 immigrants arrived, mainly from Poland, Russia, Romania, and Lithuania. Other groups arrived from Yemen and Iraq.\nMany Jews from Poland, who made up a large proportion of the Fourth Aliyah, wanted to leave Poland because of an economic crisis in that country, coupled with heavy taxation imposed upon the Jews. Also during these years, anti-semitism increased throughout Europe, motivating Jews from European countries to immigrate. Many chose to come to the Land of Israel because of the United State’s restrictive immigration laws and quotas from 1924. www.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1927",
    "title": "Ahad Ha’am",
    "content":
      "Ahad Ha’am (1856-1927) a journalist, a Hebraic “ethics philosopher”, and a visionary of a “spiritual center” in Palestine. He was born in the Ukraine in 1856 and passed away in Tel Aviv in 1927, five years after making Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael. In his younger years, he had studied at a “Cheder” and was praised for his knowledge in the Talmud. In later years, he taught himself Hebrew grammar, mathematics, literature, science, and the philosophy of Sephardic scholars.\n\nwww.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1929",
    "title": "The Fifth Aliyah",
    "content":
      "The year 1929 began with signs of economical revival, which stimulated a new influx of immigrants known as the Fifth Aliyah. During the period of the Fifth Aliyah, which continued until the outbreak of the Second World War, more than a quarter of a million immigrants arrived from all parts of Europe, including Western and Central Europe.\nThe Fifth Aliyah began in 1929 with small numbers of immigrants who chose to immigrate for nationalistic reasons. However, beginning with the rise of Hitler in 1933, greater numbers began to immigrate. Between 1933 and 1936 more than 160,000 immigrants arrived legally. Thousands more, unable to immigrate legally due to British restrictions, arrived clandestinely. www.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1934",
    "title": "Chaim Weizmann",
    "content":
      "The first President of Israel, Professor Chaim Weizmann – scientist and statesman – was among the leaders who were instrumental in the establishment of the State of Israel.\nBorn in 1874 in a small town in Russia, Chaim Weizmann received a combined Jewish and secular education. He pursued scientific studies in Germany and Switzerland and became involved in Zionist activities. In 1904 he immigrated to Great Britain and began his scientific career as a research chemist at Manchester University. During World War I he was acclaimed for his discovery of a method to produce synthetic acetone and came into contact with the “movers and shakers” of British society, among them Lord Balfour and Winston Churchill. In 1934, Weizmann laid the foundations of the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Rehovot, later to become the Weizmann Institute, a driving force behind Israel’s scientific research. In 1937, he made his home in Rehovot. www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1934",
    "title": "Hayim Nahman Bialik",
    "content":
      "Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934) was born in Radi, Volhynia in Russia to a traditional Jewish family. Bialik studied at a yeshiva in Zhitomir. At the age of 17, he was sent to the great Talmudic academy in Volozhin, Lithuania where he was attracted to the Enlightenment movement and joined the Hovevei Zion group. Bialik gradually drifted away from yeshiva life. His poem, HaMatmid (“The Talmud student”) written in 1898, reflects his great ambivalence toward that way of life.\n\nAt 18, Bialik left for Odessa, where he became active in Jewish literary circles and first met Ahad Ha’am, who had a great influence on his Zionist outlook. It was at this time that his first poem was published, El Ha­Tzipor (“To the Bird”), which reflected his feelings toward Zion and Russia, themes that he was to return to frequently during this period. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/h…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1944",
    "title": "Hannah Szenes",
    "content":
      "Hannah Szenes was born in Budapest on July 17, 1921, to a wealthy, distinguished, and assimilated Hungarian Jewish family. Having been given a modern Hungarian education, Szenes was exposed to antisemitism during her high school years, propelling her to learn more about her Jewish origins. It was at that time that she discovered the Zionist movement, joining a Zionist youth movement and learning Hebrew in preparation for immigration to Palestine.\nIn 1939, after finishing her high school studies, Szenes came to Palestine to study at the girls agricultural school in Nahalal. Having completed a two-year course in agriculture, Szenes joined the Kibutz Sedot Yam at Caesarea.\nIn 1943 Jewish Agency officials convinced Szenes to join a clandestine military project whose ultimate purpose was to offer aid to beleaguered European Jewry. The young immigrant, who became a member of the Palmah, first studied in a course for wireless operators, and in January 1944 participated in a course for paratroopers. In mid-March 1944 she and several other Palestinian-Jewish volunteers were dropped into Yugoslavia and then Szenes crossed the border to her former motherland only in June of that year. Captured within hours of having stepped on to Hungarian soil, she was sent to prison in Budapest.When the Hungarian authorities realized that Szenes would not be broken, they arrested her mother. . In November 1944 Hannah Szenes came up before a tribunal and eloquently pleaded her own cause, warning the judges that as the end of the war was nearing, that their own fate would soon hang in the balance. Convicted as a spy, Szenes was sentenced to death. Refusing to beg clemency from her captors, Szenes penned short notes to her mother and her comrades and went to her death at age twenty-three in a snow-covered Budapest courtyard, refusing a blindfold in order to face her murderers in the moments before her death. Her body was buried by unknown persons in the Jewish graveyard at Budapest. In 1950 Hannah Szenes’s remains were brought to Israel where they were buried in the “Parachutists’ section” in the military cemetery on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem.\njwa.org/encyclopedia/article/s…\n\nQuotes\nHannah Senesh wrote numerous poems that were turned into Hebrew songs, the most popular being “Eli, Shelo Yigamer me’olam” (Lord, May it never end) and “Ashrei Hagafrur” (Fortunate is the match);\nLord, may it never end\nLord, may it never end,\nThe sand and the sea,\nThe water swishing,\nThe lightning in the sky,\nThe prayer of man.\nThe voice called, and I went.\nI went, because the voice called.\n\n\n\n"
  },
  { "year": "1947", "title": "The Partition Plan", "content": "" },
  {
    "year": "1948",
    "title": "David Ben Gurion",
    "content":
      "\nDavid Ben Gurion, 1886-1973\nPlonsk Poland\n\nEarly days\nIn Poland received his Jewish education in a Hebrew school established by his father, Avigdor Green, one of the founders of the Zionist movement, “Hovevei Tzion” in Poland. As a young teenager, David Green established the “Ezra” youth group for Zionist education and for the renewal of the spoken Hebrew language. When he was 18 years old, he moved to Warsaw and earned his living as a teacher in a Jewish school. He was preparing to enter a program in higher education, but at the same time, a strong desire to immigrate to the Land of Israel awoke within him. (www.knesset.gov.il/vip/benguri…)\n\nDavid Ben-Gurion) was Israel’s first Prime Minister (from 1948-1954 and 1955-1963) and is considered the architect behind the modern State of Israel.\nIn the year 1919, Ben-Gurion participated in the founding of the “Achdut Avoda” party, and was elected as its leader. The Labor Union (“Histadrut”) was established in 1920, and Ben-Gurion was appointed its first secretary general.\nIn 1935, Ben-Gurion was elected Chairman of the Zionist Steering Committee and of the Jewish Agency. In this capacity, he invested much effort in developing cooperation between the Labor movement and other parts of the Yishuv and Zionist movements.\nOn April 18th 1948, Ben-Gurion was appointed the head of the People’s Administration and also in charge of security matters of the Yishuv. On May 14th, 1948, when the People’s Council declared the State of Israel, Ben-Gurion became the Prime Minister and Defense Minister.\nn those first years of statehood, he stood at the forefront of the effort to absorb massive immigration and to build the economy amidst difficult conditions. He also called for people to fulfil their potential as pioneer settlers, especially in the Negev.\n\nQuotes\n“In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles”.\n“If an expert says it can’t be done, get another expert”.\n“Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared”.\n“Zionism is defined as the building of a state. As soon as one removes this internal foundation from Zionism, it becomes castrated and emptied of all content.”\n\n \n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1948",
    "title": "Israel Declaration of Independence",
    "content": "\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1948",
    "title": "The Altalena Affair",
    "content":
      "The Altalena is perhaps one of the most incredible and heated affairs in the history of the young state. Barely two months after its establishment, the young State of Israel found itself engaged in a cruel war of survival against the Arab armies, when a battleground erupted inside the fledgling country threatened to drag its people into civil war Summer 1947: The ship LST 138 of the American Navy is purchased by a branch of the Irgun in North America. The ship’s name is changed to Altalena. The name, which means seesaw in Italian, is the penname of Ze’ev Jabotinsky. The ship is packed with close to one thousand immigrants and combatants (some of them Holocaust survivors), crew members, and tons of military equipment. 22 June 1948: Ground forces under the command of Yigal Yadin are sent to overpower the Altalena. Heavy fire is exchanged between Irgun forces on the ship and IDF forces on the shore. Fearing the outbreak of a civil war Begin calls on Irgun fighters not to return fire. The artillery gunner who receives the order to open fire on the ship refuses to do so claiming that he would rather be tried and even executed, than fire upon fellow Jews. The second gunner hesitates to fire but eventually is convinced and fires on the ship. During the exchange ten Irgun fighters and one IDF soldier are killed.\n\nweb.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/Engli…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1948",
    "title": "The Israel War of Independence",
    "content":
      "The War of Independence\nThe war was fought along the entire, long border of the country: against Lebanon and Syria in the north; Iraq and Transjordan – renamed Jordan during the war – in the east; Egypt, assisted by contingents from the Sudan – in the south; and Palestinians and volunteers from Arab countries in the interior of the country.\nIt was the bloodiest of Israel’s wars. It cost 6,373 killed in action (from pre-state days until 20 July 1949) almost 1% of the yishuv (the Jewish community) – although that figure includes quite a number of new immigrants and some foreign volunteers.\nIn the First Phase (29 November 1947 – 1 April 1948), it was the Palestinian Arabs who took the offensive, with the help of volunteers from neighboring countries; the yishuv had little success in limiting the war – it suffered severe casualties and disruption of passage along most of the major highways.\nIn the Second Phase (1 April – 15 May) the Haganah took the initiative, and in six weeks was able to turn the tables – capturing, the Arab sections of Tiberias, Haifa and later also Safed and Acre, temporarily opening the road to Jerusalem and gaining control of much of the territory alotted to the Jewish State under the UN Resolution.\nThe Third Phase (15 May – 19 July), considered the critical one, opened with the simultaneous, coordinated assault on the fledgling state by five regular Arab armies from neighboring countries, with an overwhelming superiority of heavy equipment – armor, artillery and airforce.\nOn 31 May the Haganah was renamed the “Israel Defence Forces”. The IDF suffered initial setbacks, including the loss of the Etzion Bloc in Judea, the area of Mishmar Hayarden in the north and Yad Mordehai in the south, but after three weeks was able to halt the offensive, to stabilize the front and even initiate some local offensive operations.\nThe Fourth Phase (19 July 1948 – 20 July, 1949) was characterized by Israeli initiatives: Operation Yoav, in October, cleared the road to the Negev, culminating in the capture of Be’er Sheva; Operation Hiram, at the end of October, resulted in the capture of the Upper Galilee; Operation Horev in December 1948 and Operation Uvda in March 1949, completed the capture of the Negev, which had been alotted to the Jewish State by the United Nations.\nSimultaneously, the Arab countries signed Armistice Agreements: first came Egypt – 24 February 1949; followed by Lebanon – 23 March; Jordan – 3 April; and Syria – 20 July. Only Iraq did not sign an armistice agreement with Israel. It preferred to withdraw its troops and hand over its sector to the Arab Legion of Jordan.\nFrom “The Arab-Israeli Wars” by Netanel Lorch\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1949",
    "title": "“On Eagles Wings”",
    "content":
      "In 1949, 50,000 Jews made aliyah from Yemen via airlift from the city of Aden, in an operation that has come to be known as “On Eagles’ Wings.” The name of this aliyah was derived from the Book of Exodus, 19:4, where it is written “…and I will transport you on eagles’ wings and bring you to me…” The airlift is also known as “Operation Magic Carpet.” www.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1950",
    "title": "“Operation Ezra and Nehemiah”",
    "content":
      "Between 1950-1951 some 125,000 Iraqi Jews were airlifted to Israeli by an American airline company and with the special permission of the Iraqi government. This wide-ranging operation was named “Operation Ezra and Nehemiah” after the two leaders of the return from Babylon (the forerunner of modern-day Iraq) at the beginning of the Second Temple Period.\nwww.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1950",
    "title": "The Law of Return",
    "content":
      "The Return Law\n\nWith the inception of the State of Israel, two thousand years of wandering were officially over. Since then, Jews have been entitled to simply show up and request to be Israeli citizens, assuming they posed no imminent danger to public health, state security, or the Jewish people as a whole. Essentially, all Jews everywhere are Israeli citizens by right.\n\nIn 1955, the law was amended slightly to specify that dangerous criminals could also be denied that right.\n\nIn 1970, Israel took another historic step by granting automatic citizenship not only to Jews, but also to their non-Jewish children, grandchildren, and spouses, and to the non-Jewish spouses of their children and grandchildren. This addition not only ensured that families would not be broken apart, but also promised a safe haven in Israel for non-Jews subject to persecution because of their Jewish roots\n\nMinistry of Foreign Affairs website.\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1954",
    "title": "The Aliyah from Morocco",
    "content":
      "A large influx of Moroccan Jews arrived in Israel during the years 1954-1955. This wave of immigration, part of the legal immigration of Jews from Morocco which began in 1948 with the establishment of the State, ended with declaration of Moroccan independence in 1956.\n\nWith the establishment of the State of Israel the Jews of Morocco began to fear violence at the hands of the local population, which was shocked at the Jewish victory. These fears intensified during 1954-1955 as Moroccan independence from France seemed to be drawing nearer. The situation of the Jews in Morocco deteriorated as violence and terror became more frequent. www.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1956",
    "title": "The Sinai Campaign",
    "content":
      "The Sinai Campaign, fought to put an end to terrorist incursions into Israel and to remove the Egyptian blockade of Eilat, marked the final transformation of the IDF into a professional army capable of large-scale operations. A battle plan for the operation was adopted in early October 1956, but was revised following Israel’s secret agreement with Britain and France. Under this agreement, Israel would transfer the focus of action as close to the Suez Canal as possible.\nAt 17:00 on October 29, Israeli units parachuted into the eastern approaches of the Mitla Pass near the Canal – a political rather than tactical or strategic objective. The action provided the pretext for a French and British ultimatum to Israel and Egypt, calling on both sides to cease hostilities and withdraw from the Canal area.\nThe following day, October 30, Britain and France issued the planned ultimatum, but to no effect, as heavy fighting between Egyptian and Israeli units persisted. In a swift, sweeping operation of 100 hours, under the leadership of then Chief of the General Staff, Moshe Dayan, the entire Sinai peninsula fell into Israeli hands, at a cost of 231 soldiers killed. If 1948 was undoubtedly the War of the Infantry, the uncontested queen of the battlefield in the war of 1956 was Armor.Although Israel had been compelled to withdraw from Sinai without any security guarantee, UNEF – the United Nations Emergency Force, was established to guard against a recurrence of past events. As a result, the fedayun ceased to exist.\n\nmfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/His…\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1960",
    "title": "Adolf Eichman is captured",
    "content":
      "Adolf Eichman is captured, At the end of the Second World War, Eichmann was captured by the Americans and spent time in several camps for SS officers using forged papers that identified him as “Otto Eckmann”.He obtained new identity papers with the name of “Otto Heninger” and relocated frequently over the next several months. In 1948 Eichmann obtained a landing permit for Argentina and false identification under the name of “Ricardo Klement”,\n\nMore about Eichman Trial\n\nwww.yadvashem.org/holocaust/ei…\nwww.mako.co.il/news-specials/A…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1963",
    "title": "Levi Eshkol",
    "content":
      "Levi Eshkol, 1895- 1969\nWas Born in Ukraine\nHe had a traditional Jewish upbringing and enrolled in a Hebrew high school in Vilna at the age of 16. The 18-year-old Eshkol immigrated to the Land of Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire.\nHe volunteered for the Jewish Legion of the British Army during World War I and then joined the group which founded Kibbutz Degania Bet, combining manual labor with political activism. He was among the founders of the Histadrut – General Federation of Labor, where he became involved in labor issues and later in the promotion of cooperative agricultural development.\nA member of the Haganah high command, he engaged in arms acquisition prior to and during the War of Independence and in 1950-51 served as Director-General of the Ministry of Defense, where he laid the foundations for Israel’s defense industries.\nIn 1951 Eshkol was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Development, and from 1952 to 1963 – a decade characterized by unprecedented economic growth despite the burden of financing immigrant absorption and the 1956 Sinai Campaign – he served as Minister of Finance. Between 1949 and 1963, Eshkol also served as head of the settlement division of the Jewish Agency.\nIn 1964, Eshkol made the first state visit of an Israeli Prime Minister to Washington, laying the foundation for the close rapport that has existed between the two countries ever since, and in 1966 he visited six African nations. But his most significant diplomatic achievement was the establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany, a process which had been initiated by Ben-Gurion. He also secured military assistance from Germany, underscoring Germany’s moral commitment to supporting Israel.\nThe 1967 Six-Day War, with its stunning military victory, was undoubtedly the highlight of Eshkol’s six years as Prime Minister. In the tension-filled days prior to the outbreak of war, Eshkol appointed retired General Moshe Dayan as Minister of Defense. He then formed Israel’s first national unity government, which included opposition leader Menachem Begin. After the war, Eshkol’s diplomatic efforts succeeded in obtaining sophisticated American weaponry, including advanced aircraft, for the IDF, a change from the situation in the 1950s when almost all the IDF’s weaponry was bought in Europe. After the Six-Day War, he initiated talks with Palestinian leaders in the administered areas, in an effort to promote a neighborly relationship, and ultimately, peace.\nLevi Eshkol died in office in February 1969 of a heart attack, at the age of 73.\n\nwww.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1965",
    "title": "Eli Cohen",
    "content":
      "In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel was able to quickly and efficiently conquer the Golan Heights. This feat would not have been possible without the information provided by Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who had been executed in Syria two years earlier. Cohen worked undercover in Syria for years before his capture, and his reputation as Israel’s greatest spy continues to this day.\n\nwww.myjewishlearning.com/artic…\n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1966",
    "title": "Shmuel Yosef Agnon",
    "content":
      "In December 1966, Shmuel Yosef Agnon was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Various people and organizations had for a long time, recommended him to the Nobel Committee for Literature, until finally their efforts paid off. The Committee decided to award Agnon the prize “for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people”. Agnon was the first citizen of the State of Israel to receive a Nobel Prize. Part of his speech at the ceremony is cited on the NIS 50 bill, and appears along with his portrait.\n\nAgnon was born in the town Buczacz. His original name was Shmuel Yosef Czaczkes. He grew up in a religious family, but read classic literature and the writings of the haskalah. When Agnon was 15 he wrote his first poem. In 1908 he came to Palestine and continued publishing poems and stories. The first story he wrote on his arrival in Palestine was named Agunot (Forsaken Wives); in accordance with this, he changed his name to Agnon.\n\nIn 1913 Agnon left Palestine and moved to Germany for twelve years. During that period he collected Chasidic Stories with Martin Buber, among other occupations. In 1924 his house was burned down in a fire. The fire also burned his book collection and manuscripts of new stories that he wrote. That traumatic experience left a mark on his future writings and also affected his decision to come back to Palestine with his wife Esther and their children.\n\nThe Agnon family lived in a few houses in the land of Israel. One of the famous ones is in Talpiot in Jerusalem. That house appears in various stories and today serves as a museum. Next to Agnon lived other famous people. Agnon died in the year 1970. After his death, his daughter published new stories that had not been published yet. Agnon books were translated into many languages and garnered much success around the world.\n\nwww.zionistarchives.org.il/en/…\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "October 18, 1967",
    "title": "The Six Days War",
    "content":
      "The six days war On 5 June 1967 a cluster of planes flying from Egypt to Israel was seen on King Hussein’s radar screen. Convinced by the Egyptians that the planes were theirs, he promptly gave the order to attack – in Jerusalem! In fact the planes were Israel’s, returning from their devastating attack against the Egyptian airforce, which surprisingly had been taken by surprise; after taunting Rabin, Egypt was not ready when he came. www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1972",
    "title": "The Munich Massacre",
    "content":
      "The Munich Massacre The Munich Massacre was a terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympic Games. Eight Palestinian terrorists killed two members of Israeli Olympic team and then took nine others hostage. The situation was ended by a huge gunfight that left five of the terrorists and all of the nine hostages dead. Following the massacre, the Israeli government organized a retaliation against Black September, called Operation Wrath of God.\n\nlib.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?i…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1973",
    "title": "Golda Meir",
    "content":
      "Golda Meir\n\nWas Born in Kiev, 1898\n\nEarly Days\nShe was born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev (Ukraine) in 1898. When she was eight years old, her family immigrated to the United States. Raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she joined a Zionist youth movement, married Morris Myerson, and, in 1921, immigrated to Palestine, joining Kibbutz Merhavia.\nIn 1924 the Meyersons moved to Jerusalem, and Golda began a series of positions as an official of the Histadrut – General Federation of Labor, and became a member of its “inner circle.”\nOver the next three decades, Golda Meir was active in the Histadrut, first in trade union and welfare programs, then in Zionist labor organization and fund-raising abroad, and later still in political roles. She was appointed chief of the Histadrut’s political section – designed to use the Histadrut’s growing power to advance Zionist aims such as unrestricted Jewish immigration.\n\nDuring the following decade (1956-66), Golda Meir served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. She initiated Israel’s policy of cooperation with the newly independent nations of Africa, introducing a cooperation program based on Israel’s development experience, which continues to this day. At the same time, she endeavored to cement relations with the United States and established extensive bilateral ties with Latin American countries. Between 1966 and 1968 she served as Secretary-General first of Mapai and then of the newly formed “Alignment” (made up of three Labor factions).\nUpon the death of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in 1969, Golda Meir – the “consensus candidate” – was chosen to succeed him. In the October 1969 elections, she led her party to victory.\nShortly after she took office, the War of Attrition – sporadic military actions along the Suez Canal which escalated into full-scale war – ended in a cease-fire agreement with Egypt. Though the cease-fire was broken time and again by the advancement of Egyptian missiles on the Suez Canal front, it did bring a three-year period of tranquillity, shattered only in October 1973 by the Yom Kippur War.\nAs Prime Minister, Golda Meir concentrated much of her energies on the diplomatic front – artfully mixing personal diplomacy with skillful use of the mass media. Armed with an iron will, a warm personality and grandmotherly image, simple but highly-effective rhetoric and a “shopping list,” Golda Meir successfully solicited financial and military aid in unprecedented measure.\nGolda Meir showed strong leadership during the surprise attack of the Yom Kippur War, securing an American airlift of arms while standing firm on the terms of disengagement-of-forces negotiations and rapid return of POWs. Although the Agranat Commission of Inquiry had exonerated her from direct responsibility for Israel’s unpreparedness for the war, and she had led her party to victory in the December 1973 elections, Golda Meir bowed to what she felt was the “will of the people” and resigned in mid-1974. She withdrew from public life and began to write her memoirs, but was present in the Knesset to greet Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on his historic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977.\nGolda Meir died in December 1978, at the age of 80.\nwww.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael…\n\nQuotes\n-We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.\n-One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present\n-Once in a Cabinet we had to deal with the fact that there had been an outbreak of assaults on women at night. One minister suggested a curfew; women should stay home after dark. I said, ‘But it’s the men who are attacking the women. If there’s to be a curfew, let the men stay home, not the women.\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "February 24, 1973",
    "title": "The Yom Kippur War",
    "content":
      "The Yom Kippur War\n\nThe war was so called because it started on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement (October 6, 1973). It came almost as a complete surprise and warning notice was given too late for an orderly call-up of the reserves before zero hour.\nThe Egyptians and the Syrians made some significant initial gains: the former crossed the Suez Canal and established themselves along its entire length on the east bank; the latter overran the Golan Heights and came within sight of the Sea of Galilee.\nEgypt, which at first had refused a cease-fire, now accepted it avidly, as did Syria. Considering the adverse initial circumstances, the speed and the thoroughness with which the IDF had been able to reverse its fortunes was remarkable. Yet the Yom Kippur War went down in Israel’s history as a qualified failure.The surprise rankled; and the cost was heavy: 2,688 soldiers fell.\n\nwww.youtube.com/watch?v=8LNKLl…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1976",
    "title": "Operation Entebbe",
    "content":
      "Operation Entebbe was a rescue mission performed by several IDF units in Uganda – 4,000 kilometers from Israel – on July 4th1976, for the liberation of 98 Jewish and Israeli hostages.\n\nOn June 27th, an Air France aircraft was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists. The hijackers landed the plane at Benghazi, Libya and flew it from there to Entebbe in Uganda, where all non-Jewish passengers were freed. Israel had tried to develop a dialogue with Ugandan President Idi Amin, who collaborated with the terrorists. Simultaneously, preparations began for a military operation, based on intelligence regarding the situation in the Entebbe Airport.\n\nFollowing the Government’s decision to go forward with the plan, four transport aircrafts took off from Sharm el-Sheikh en route to Entebbe. The raid on the airport resulted in five Israeli casualties: IDF officer Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu (brother of MK and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu); Dora Bloch, an elderly woman hospitalized during the raid and murdered after the raid (her remains were returned to Israel in June 1979); Ida Borochovitch, Jean Jacques Maimoni, and Pasko Cohen were killed during the Operation. On the return flight, the planes landed in Nairobi, Kenya for refueling to attend to the fatally wounded with medical care. IDF Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur announced it at first as an emergency landing, but it seemed to have been coordinated with Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta.\n\nVarious Arab countries and groups, the Communist Bloc, and many African countries condemned the Entebbe Operation and referred to it as a pirate act, while Western countries praised it. The United Nations’ Security Council did not conclude a resolution in this matter. Israel was in high spirits, and the operation improved the social atmosphere within the IDF. The operation was congruent with Israel’s policy not to negotiate with terrorists, whatever risks are at stake.\n\nOn July 4th1976, a festive plenum sitting was held in which the Government announced the liberation of the hostages in Uganda. Knesset Speaker, Yisrael Yeshayahu, before allowing the Prime Minister to speak, read from Psalms: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good…”\n\nwww.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1977",
    "title": "Menachem Begin",
    "content":
      "Menachem Begin was born in Brisk, Poland in 1913. Died in Israel in 1992.\nEarly Days\nHe was born to a poor Zionist family. His early schooling was at a yeshiva, and he went on to study at the Jewish school ‘Tachkemoni’, the Government Gymnasium and the University in Warsaw. At the age of 16, he embraced the ideology of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and joined the Betar movement. In 1935, he received a degree in law (Magister Yuri), and was at the same time active in the Betar movement. He served as commander of the Brisk region, and was one of nine commissioned officers of the Betar movement in Poland.\nDuring the first few months of World War II, Begin organized Betar groups to immigrate to Israel. In September 1940, he traveled eastwards from Warsaw, and reached Vilnius, which was under Russian control. At that time, he was arrested, and sent to Siberia in June 1941. As a Polish citizen, he was released with other Polish prisoners, and joined the Polish army of General Anders, which arrived in the Land of Israel in 1942. He continued to serve in the Anders Army while simultaneously serving as a Betar Commissioner in the Land of Israel, and maintained strong ties with the Etzel organization (Irgun). In 1943, he was appointed Commander of the ‘Irgun. Under his command, ‘Etzel’ undertook many activities, including the bombing of the King David Hotel, the attack on the Akko (Acre) fort, where the ‘Irgun’ and ‘Lehi’ prisoners were held, and the conquest of Jaffa. Following the establishment of the State, the Irgun was absorbed into the IDF. In June 1948, the Altalena Affair – during which an Irgun ship refused to relinquish its weapons to the IDF – lead Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to order an attack on the ship, and Begin ordered his men not to return fire in an attempt to prevent a civil war. In the elections for the First Knesset, Begin’s party, the IZL Herut Party received 14 mandates. Begin was a member of Knesset for the next 29 years.Quotes\n– The difficulties of peace are better than the agony of war.\n– We were granted the right to exist by the God of our fathers at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization nearly 4,000 years ago. For that right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of the nations.\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1979",
    "title": "Egypt-Israel peace agreement",
    "content":
      "Sixteen months after Sadat’s visit to Israel, the Israel-Egypt peace treaty was signed in Washington. It contains nine articles, a military annex, an annex dealing with the relation between the parties, agreed minutes interpreting the main articles of the treaty, among them Article 6, the withdrawal schedule, exchange of ambassadors, security arrangements and the agreement relating to the autonomy talks. The latter issue was contained in a letter addressed by President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin to President Carter.\n\nIn a separate Israel-US Memorandum of Agreement, concluded on the same day, the US spelled out its commitments to Israel in case the treaty is violated, the role of the UN and the future supply of military and economic aid to Israel.\n\nPeace agreement document\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1980",
    "title": "Yigal Alon",
    "content":
      "Yigal Allon was an Israeli military commander, statesman and among the leaders of the Labor movement.\n\nAllon (born October 10, 1918; died February 29, 1980) was born in Kfar Tavor in pre-State Israel.\nAfter graduating from high school, Allon was one of the founders of Kibbutz Ginosar and married Ruth.  From 1936 to 1939, Allon commanded field units for the Haganah during the Arab revolt in Palestine and during this time he also participated in several operations of the Special Night Squads (SNS) under the commande of Orde Wingate. In 1941 and 1942, Allon served as a scout with the British forces who fought in Syria and Lebanon and upon his return to Palestine he helped found the Palmach, the strike force of the Haganah.  In 1943, Allon became deputy commander of the Palmach and from 1945 to Israel’s creation in 1948, he commanded the palmach. Under his orders (from David Ben-Gurion), forces of the Haganah shelled the Irgun weapons ship Altalena in June 1948.\n\nDuring the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, Allon was appointed a lieutenant-general and commanded forces in several of the war’s major operations, including Yiftach (Galilee), Danny (Center) and Yoav and Horev (Negev). In 1950, Allon retired from the military.\n\nAfter leaving the IDF, Allon became involved in politics and by 1954 was one of the leaders in the Ahdut Ha’avodah. He was first elected to a seat in the Knesset in 1955 and he held this seat util his death 25 years later.\n\nFrom 1961 to 1967, Allon served as Minister of Labor; from 1967 to 1969, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Immigrant Absorption; from 1969 to 1974, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Culture. In 1974, Allon was also a member of the Israeli delegation to the separation-of-forces agreements signed with Egypt and Syria. From 1974 to 1977, Allon served as Minister of Foreign Affairs; from 1977 to 1980, as Chairman of the Knesset Subcommittee on Lebanon. From 1978 to 1980, Allon was also chairman of the World Labor Zionist movement.\n\nYigal Alon died of heart failure in Afula on February 29, 1980. He was buried on the shore of Lake Kinneret in Kibbutz Ginosar.\n\nwww.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/y…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1981",
    "title": "Operation Opera",
    "content":
      "Operation “Opera”\n“A great clock is ticking over our heads. A nuclear Iraq is a grave danger to any man and woman in the State of Israel. Saddam Hussein (the president of Iraq) will not hesitate to deploy a weapon of mass destruction against us”, said the Prime Minister Menacem Begin at the cabinet meeting, where the decision to destroy Iraq’s nuclear reactor was approved.\n\nwww.iaf.org.il/4694-33056-en/I…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1982",
    "title": "Yehuda Amichai",
    "content":
      "Yehuda Amichai was one of the leading contemporary Hebrew poets. His contribution extends beyond his own literary achievements to an influence that helped create a modern Israeli poetry. Hence the citation of the Israel Prize, awarded to Amichai in 1982, which heralded “the revolutionary change in poetry’s language” that the poet had begun through his work. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/y…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1983",
    "title": "Hai, Hai, Hai wins the Eurovision",
    "content": "Hai Hai Hai wins the Eurovision\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1984",
    "title": "Yitzhak Shamir",
    "content":
      "Underground leader, spymaster, parliamentarian and the seventh Prime Minister of the State of Israel – was born Yizhak Yzernitzky in Ruzinoy, Poland in 1915. He attended Bialystok Hebrew secondary school and at age 14 joined the Betar youth movement. In 1935 he left Warsaw, where he was studying law, moved to Palestine and enrolled at the Hebrew University.\n\nIn 1937, opposing the mainstream Zionist policy of restraint vis-à-vis the British Mandatory administration, Shamir joined the Irgun Tzeva’i Le’umi (Etzel) – the Revisionist underground organization – and in 1940 became a member of the small, but more militant, faction led by Avraham Stern, the Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel – Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), that broke away from the larger body. There, as part of the leadership troika, he coordinated organizational and operational activities.\n\nAfter several years during which he managed commercial enterprises, Shamir joined Israel’s security services in the mid-1950s and held senior positions in the Mossad. He returned to private commercial activity in the mid-1960s and became involved in the struggle to free Soviet Jewry. In 1970 he joined Menachem Begin’s opposition Herut party and became a member of its Executive. In 1973 he was elected a Member of Knesset for the Likud party – a position he held for the next 23 years. During his first decade as a parliamentarian, Shamir was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and, in 1977, became Speaker of the Knesset. In this capacity he presided over the historic appearance of Egyptian President Sadat in the Knesset and the debate over ratifying the Camp David Accords two years later. He abstained in the vote on the Accords, primarily because of the requirement to dismantle settlements.\n\nYitzhak Shamir served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1980 and 1983. Among his achievements were closer ties with Washington – reflected in the Memorandum of Understanding on strategic cooperation with the United States and the agreement in principle on free trade between the two nations. Shamir also initiated diplomatic contacts with many African countries which had severed diplomatic ties during the 1973 oil crisis. After the 1982 “Operation Peace for Galilee,” Yitzhak Shamir directed negotiations with Lebanon which led to the 1983 peace agreement (which was, however, never ratified by the Lebanese government).\n\nFollowing the resignation of Menachem Begin in October 1983, Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister until the general elections in the fall of 1984. During this year, Shamir concentrated on economic matters – the economy was suffering from hyper-inflation – while also nurturing closer strategic ties with the United States.\n\nIndecisive results in the 1984 general elections led to the formation of a National Unity Government based on a rotation agreement between Shamir and Labor leader Shimon Peres. Shamir served as Vice-Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs for two years, while Shimon Peres was Prime Minister. Subsequently, Shamir served for six years as Prime Minister – from 1986 to 1992 – first heading a National Unity Government, and then as head of a narrow coalition government.\n\nYitzhak Shamir’s second term as Prime Minister was marked by two major events: the 1991 Gulf War, in which Shamir – despite Iraqi missile attacks on Israel’s civilian population – chose a policy of restraint; and the October 1991 Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid that inaugurated direct talks between Israel and the neighboring Arab states as well as multilateral regional talks. Two momentous events overshadowed other issues on the public agenda. The first, beginning in 1989, was the victory in the long struggle for Jewish emigration from the USSR, which brought 450,000 immigrants to Israel in the next two years; the second was “Operation Solomon,” in May 1991, in which 15,000 Ethiopian Jews were rescued and brought to Israel in a massive airlift.\n\nAfter his party lost the 1992 elections, Shamir stepped down from the party leadership and in 1996 also retired from the Knesset.\n\n \n\n​www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1985",
    "title": "Belaynesh Zevadia",
    "content":
      "Belaynesh Zevadia First Israeli woman of Ethiopian origin to serve as ambassador Belaynesh Zevadia was born in Gondar, Ethiopia, in 1967. Her family immigrated to Israel when she was 17 years old. She graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a bachelor degree in International relations and Africa Studies and a Master’s degree in Anthropology.\n\nIn 1993 Zevadia began her diplomatic career at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cadet Course and served in various positions around the world until she was appointed in 2012 to serve as Israel’s Ambassador in Ethiopia – the first Israeli woman of Ethiopian origin to achieve the title of ambassador. “I left Ethiopia as a girl and now I am returning as ambassador.” mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExperienc…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1985",
    "title": "Operation Moses",
    "content":
      "During Operation Moses approximately 8,000 Jews made aliyah from Ethiopia. The mission was named “Operation Moses,” after Moshe Rabbenu, and as a symbol of the idea that the redemption of Ethiopian Jews was similar to the Exodus from Egypt.\n\nwww.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1990",
    "title": "Natan Sharansky",
    "content":
      "Natan Sharansky was born in 1948 in Donetzk, Ukraine. He graduated from the Physical Technical Institute in Moscow with a degree in computer science. After graduating, he applied for an exit visa to Israel, which he was denied for “security reasons”. Very quickly he became involved in the struggle of Soviet Jewry to earn their freedom and emigrate to Israel. At the same time, he joined the human rights movement in the Soviet Union led by Andrei Sahkharov. He became one of the founding members of the Moscow Helsinki Group which united Soviet dissidents of all types. Natan Sharansky soon became an unofficial spokesperson for both movements. www.jewishagency.org/executive…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1990",
    "title": "Massive Aliyah from the former Soviet Union",
    "content":
      "The huge influx of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, which began after the fall of the Soviet regime in 1990, brought one million immigrants to Israel.\nFollowing a long period of isolation of Soviet Jewry from the State of Israel, relations were renewed with the fall of the Soviet regime in 1990, which opened up possibilities of aliyah.\nThe isolation of Soviet Jewry from the rest of the Jewish world, especially Israel, began during the 1920s with the rise of the Soviet government. This isolation was not total, and attempts were made throughout the years to renew contacts and assist Soviet Jews, and strengthen their ties to Israel beyond the Iron Curtain. In 1952 an organization by the name of “Netiv” was founded by the Israeli establishment. Their task was to reinforce Soviet Jewry’s tenuous ties to Israel and Judaism, often at great risk.\nThe Six Day War awakened Soviet Jews’ interest in Israel, and people began to request permission to make aliyah. Persons involved in Zionist activities were often subject to dismissal from their jobs, arrest, and imprisonment. Jewish organizations and individuals throughout the world worked on behalf of the Soviet Jews and pressured the Soviets to permit aliyah. Their activities resulted in a slow trickle of immigration between 1969-1973, and some 150,000 Jews succeeding in making aliyah. The massive influx only arrived, as previously stated, with the fall of the Soviet regime in 1990.\nwww.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1991",
    "title": "Operation Solomon",
    "content":
      "Following a regime change in Ethiopia in 1991, the new government agreed, for a sum of 40 million dollars, to permit the remaining Jews of Ethiopia to make aliyah. During “Operation Solomon” which lasted less than 48 hours, 14,000 persons were brought to Israel.\nThe renewal of relations between Israel and Ethiopia in 1989, together with fears of violence towards the Jews, brought together the State of Israel and American Jews in joint efforts to rescue the Jews of Ethiopia. A great deal of money exchanged hands in order to secure permission for Operation Solomon, which was named after King Solomon and his relationship to the Queen of Sheba (Ethiopia). www.moia.gov.il/English/Feelin…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1992",
    "title": "Yitzhak Rabin",
    "content":
      "Yitzhak Rabin – IDF Chief of Staff, diplomat and the fifth Prime Minister of the State of Israel – was born in Jerusalem in 1922, the son of an ardently labor-Zionist family. Quotes You don’t make peace with friends. You make it with very unsavory enemies.\nWe must think differently, look at things in a different way. Peace requires a world of new concepts, new definitions.\n\nwww.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1994",
    "title": "Alice Miller",
    "content":
      "Alice Miller, a young immigrant from South Africa, took the Israeli Defense Forces to court for the right to be admitted to the Air Force Pilots Course. At this time women were not permitted to serve in combat units in the IDF including the prestigious pilots program.\n\nIn 1994, she challenged the institution and demanded a chance to be in one of the most elite units in the IDF.  Miller always had a passion for aviation. Following high school, she received her civilian pilot license and pursued a degree in Aerospace Engineering. At 23 years old,  she sued the military for her right to enlist into the prestigious pilot’s course. In a historic vote, the Israeli Supreme Court deemed the ban on female recruits to the aviation course as unconstitutional.\n\nwww.idf.il/en/minisites/soldie…\n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1995",
    "title": "Rabin Assassination",
    "content":
      "On Saturday evening, November 4, 1995 – the 12th of Heshvan, 5756 – Yitzhak Rabin came to the Kings of Israel Square to participate in a rally under the slogan “Yes to Peace-No to Violence”.\nAfter a warm and supportive rally, at which the crowd expressed its faith in him and its love for him, as he headed for his car, Yitzhak Rabin was shot and mortally wounded by a Jewish assassin.\nYizhak Rabin passed away at Ichilov Hospital at 23:14 after all attempts by doctors to save him had failed.\nwww.rabincenter.org.il/Web/En/…\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1997",
    "title": "Benjamin Netanyahu",
    "content":
      "Benjamin Netanyahu – soldier, diplomat and the ninth Prime Minister of the State of Israel – was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and grew up in Jerusalem. He spent his adolescent years in the United States, where his father – a noted historian – taught Jewish history.\n\n \n\nIn 1996, in the first direct elections of an Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu defeated the incumbent Labor candidate Shimon Peres, and in 1997 became the ninth Prime Minister of the State of Israel, serving until 1999.\n\nwww.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "1999",
    "title": "Ehud Barak",
    "content":
      "Ehud Barak was born in 1942 in Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon.\n\nHe joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1959, and served as a soldier and commander of an elite unit, and in various other command positions including Tank Brigade Commander and Armored Division Commander, and General Staff positions, including Head of the IDF Intelligence Branch. During the 1967 Six Day War, Barak served as a reconnaissance group commander, and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War as a tank battalion commander on the southern front in Sinai. In January 1982, he was appointed Head of the IDF Planning Branch and promoted to Major General. During the 1982 “Peace for Galilee” operation, Major General Barak served as Deputy Commander of the Israeli force in Lebanon.\n\nIn April 1983, Maj.Gen. Barak was appointed Head of the Intelligence Branch at the IDF General Headquarters. In January 1986, he was appointed Commander of the IDF Central Command, and in May 1987 was appointed Deputy Chief-of-Staff.\n\nIn April 1991, he assumed the post of the 14th Chief of the General Staff and was promoted to the rank of Lt. General, the highest in the Israeli military.\n\nFollowing the May 1994 signing of the Gaza-Jericho agreement with the Palestinians, Lt. General Barak oversaw the IDF’s redeployment in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. He played a central role in finalizing the peace treaty with Jordan, signed in 1994, and met with his Syrian counterpart as part of the Syrian-Israeli negotiations.\n\nGeneral Barak was awarded the “Distinguished Service Medal” and four other citations for courage and operational excellence.\n\nHe served as Minister of the Interior from July-November 1995 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from November 1995 until June 1996.\n\nElected to the Knesset in 1996, he served as a Member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.\n\nIn 1996 Barak was elected Chairman of the Labor Party and in 1999 formed the One Israel Party from the Labor, Gesher and Meimad factions.\n\nEhud Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel in May 1999. He presented his government to the Knesset in July 1999, assuming office as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. He completed his term in March 2001, following his defeat by Ariel Sharon in the February special election for prime minister.\n\nIn June 2007, Ehud Barak was elected to head the Labor Party and was elected to the Knesset in February 2009, serving until March 2013. He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense in the Netanyahu government in March 2009, serving until March 2013. He left the Labor Party to head the Atzmaut party, and was not reelected to the Knesset.\n\nmfa.gov.il/MFA/MFA-Archive/200…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2001",
    "title": "Ariel Sharon",
    "content":
      "Ariel (‘Arik’) Sharon was born in 1928 in Kfar Malal. He served in the IDF for more than 25 years, retiring with the rank of Major-General. He holds an LL.B in Law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1962).\n\nOn February 6, 2001, Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister. He presented his government to the Knesset on March 7, 2001. After calling early elections to the 16th Knesset, which were held on January 28, 2003, Ariel Sharon was charged by the president with the task of forming a government and presented his new government to the Knesset on February 27, 2003.\n\nmfa.gov.il/MFA/MFA-Archive/200…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2003",
    "title": "Ilan Ramon",
    "content":
      "Ilan Ramon (1954 – 2003) was a fighter pilot in the Israel Air Force and became the first Israeli astronaut, when he joined the space mission on board the Columbia Space Shuttle. He perished, together with the entire crew on the shuttle, which was destroyed in a crash upon reentering the atmosphere, on February 1, 2003.\n\nwww.space.gov.il/en/node/981\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2004",
    "title": "Idan Raichel",
    "content":
      "Idan Raichel \n\nProducer, keyboardist, Lyricist, composer and Performer Idan Raichel is a global music icon who has brought his inspiring example and soul-stirring music to some of the planet’s biggest stages. As the leader of The Idan Raichel Project, Idan acts as a musical ambassador representing a hopeful world in which artistic collaboration breaks down barriers between people of different backgrounds and beliefs. In 2004 he released his firts album. \n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2007",
    "title": "Shimon Peres",
    "content":
      "Shimon Peres was one of the founders of the State of Israel, and was instrumental in securing the country’s deterrent capability and defensive strength, establishing the IDF, developing the nuclear reactor in Dimona and the nuclear research facility at Sorek, and heading the Israeli defense industry. Furthermore, he has worked tirelessly for decades to promote peaceful relations within Israel and between Israel and its neighbors, and was at the forefront of transforming Israel into a technology powerhouse and global leader in innovation. At 93, Peres was a statesman, the Ninth President of the State of Israel in 2007, the Prime Minister of Israel, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, a man of action, and a man of vision.\n\nwww.peres-center.org/Shimon_Pe…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2009",
    "title": "Ada Yonath",
    "content":
      "Ada Yonath was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1939. Her parents had emigrated from Poland. Although her father was a rabbi, her family tried to make a living by running a grocery store. After her father’s death, Ada Yonath’s family moved to Tel Aviv. After studying chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she earned her PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science, to which she has maintained her ties as a researcher. Alongside her work there, Ada Yonath has also worked for several European and US universities.\n\nIn 2009, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, becoming the first Israeli woman to win the Nobel Prize the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences, and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. However, she said herself that there was nothing special about a woman winning the Prize.\n\nweizman.ac.il\n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2012",
    "title": "Noam Gershony",
    "content":
      "Noam Gershony 1983- is an Israeli wheelchair tennis player. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics he won a gold medal in Quad Singles and shared a bronze in Quad Doubles with Shraga Weinberg. In wheelchair tennis he is rated second in the world in the highest rank of disability.During the 2006 Lebanon War his helicopter collided with another helicopter, an event which killed his co-pilot and left Gershony injured.\n\n \n\n\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2014",
    "title": "Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin",
    "content":
      "Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin, The 10th President of the State of Israel\n\nWas born in 1939 in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem.  His father, Professor Yosef Yoel Rivlin and his mother, Rachel, were both members of the veteran Rivlin family that immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in the year 5570 or 1809, and was one of the first Jewish families to build their homes outside of the Old City Walls.\n\n \n\nOn 10th June 2014, Rivlin was elected President of the State of Israel.  As President, Rivlin declared his commitment to act to safeguard the State of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State that is at the same time a Democratic and Jewish State, and to aspire to firmly establish partnership between the different ideological groups in Israeli society and ensure full equality among all its citizens.\nwww.president.gov.il/English/T…\n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2017",
    "title": "David Grossman",
    "content":
      "David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and has been translated into thirty languages around the world. He is the recipient of many prizes, including the French Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Buxtehuder Bulle in Germany, Rome’s Premio per la Pace e l’Azione Umitaria, the Premio Ischia- International Award for Journalism, Israel’s Emet Prize, and the Albatross Prize given by the Günter Grass Foundation.\n\nDavid Grossman has become the first Israeli author to win the Man Booker International Prize. For the book, A Horse Walks Into a Bar in 2017. \n\nwww.bookbrowse.com/biographies…\n\n \n\n"
  },
  {
    "year": "2018",
    "title": "Israel at 70",
    "content": "www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Cult…\n\n"
  }
]