THE SIX DAY WAR

Between June 5th and June 10th 1967

On May 17, Gamal Abdel Nasser, leader of Egypt, had made it clear that the United Nations was no longer wanted in the Suez region. He ordered a concentration of Egyptian military forces in the Suez zone.
On May 23, the Egyptians enforced a naval blockade which closed off the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping and all ships bound for Eilat. This blockade cut off Israel’s only supply route with Asia and stopped the flow of oil from its main supplier, Iran.

On May 30, Iraq joined the military alliance with Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
On June 5, early in the morning, Israeli planes destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground. The Israeli population knew nothing of it. The Golan Heights were captured from Syria and Israeli forces moved 30 miles into Syria itself.

At the same time, the Israeli enter the Sinai desert.
On June 6, Israel destroys the Jordan army. The whole of the west bank of the Jordan River is cleared of Jordanian forces.
On June 7, the Israeli enter Jerusalem. All Israeli are watching T.V. They see Moshe Dayan reaching the Kotel. Naomi  Shemer will sing “Yerusahlaim shel zaav”. On that very evening, Israel signs a cease-fire with Jordan.
 


On June 8, the Israeli forces reach the Suez Canal after destroying  many Egyptian tanks. They are in a position to march on Cairo.
On June 10, the Israel army storms the Golan Heights.

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RAOUL WALLENBERG BECOMES AUSTRALIA’S FIRST AND ONLY HONORARY CITIZEN
Report by Judi Schiff, Founding Member, Raoul Wallenberg Unit of B’nai B’rith
Melbourne, Australia                                                                                                        

A number of Raoul Wallenberg Unit members, including the Raoul Wallenberg Unit Co-Presidents, Margaret Heselev and Wendy Waller, travelled from Melbourne to Canberra to attend the Conferring of Honorary Citizenship of Australia upon Raoul Wallenberg. President of the District Jim Altman from Sydney represented B’nai B’rith Australia/New Zealand. The function took place on Monday 6 May 2013 at Government House, Canberra. 

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THE ROMAN MOSAIC FROM LOD
The Roman mosaic from Lod, Israel was discovered in 1996 during highway construction in Lod (formerly Lydda).
A rescue excavation was immediately conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, revealing a series of mosaic floors measuring approximately 50 feet long by 27 feet wide.

Introductory video courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 
To preserve them until funding was secured for their full scientific excavation and conservation the mosaics were then reburied. Removed from the ground in September 2009, the large central square panel and two adjacent rectangular panels were exhibited to the general public for the first time at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 28, 2010 in an exhibition documenting the discovery and the history of the mosaic’s removal, conservation, and eventual journey to the United States.

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THE HERZL MUSEUM IN JERUSALEM                            
                                                      

Theodore Herzl is buried on Mount Herzl, which also houses the Herzl Museum and the graves of other famous Israeli leaders.

Herzl was born in Budapest, but moved to Vienna as a young man. There, he became a respected journalist and playwright. Although a fervent secularist, Herzl was profoundly shocked by the Dreyfus affair.

Herzl became convinced that the only solution to anti-Semitism was the establishment of a Jewish state.

In 1897, Herzl organized the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, and worked tirelessly in support of his cause until his death in 1904.

 
                                                                    Herzl's tomb in Jerusalem


Mt. Herzl is adjacent to Yad Vashem and the military cemetery. In addition to Herzl's tomb, Yitzhak Rabin and his wife, Golda Meir, and many other Israeli dignitaries are buried here.
The Museum is located just inside the entrance to Mt. Herzl. It includes a replica of Herzl's study and features a very well done audio-visual presentation on the history of Zionism. Although the museum is small, it is very informative.

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Works of art stolen by the Nazis: compromising notebooks . . . .

44 notebooks were discovered in an auction house. They contain a list of works confiscated during the war, as well as the names of their buyers!

The Weinmüller auction house flourished during the war thanks to the art works confiscated from German Jewish families.
Photo ©Martin Bureau / AFP

Source: Le Point.fr – published 30 April 2013
Article written by Philippe Sprang

Pandora’s box was opened in a well-known auction house. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung broke the story in Germany on 18th March.  While looking through a cupboard in the offices of the Neumeister auction house, an employee chanced upon 44 small forgotten notebooks. These were catalogues detailing sales that had been organised between 1936 and 1945 by Weinmüller, a Munich institution which had prospered during the war thanks to the works of art stolen from German Jewish families as part of the forced sale and Aryanisation of property. Everybody had assumed that these documents, listing the names of buyers, had been destroyed. In fact they had remained hidden.

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