Yom Kippur Research Articles

The White House Middle East Policy in 1973 as a Catalyst for the Outbreak of the Yom Kippur War

We focus on the part that was played by the U.S. Administration, in particular by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, in the failure of efforts to bring about an Israeli-Egyptian settlement in 1973, the year in which the Yom Kippur War broke out. Documents recently declassified in the United States and Israel support that the behavior of the White House, especially of Nixon's influential NSA, Kissinger, in the Middle East arena that year not only failed to prevent war but also indeed catalyzed its outbreak. We shall claim that in the examined period Kissinger led a stalemate policy, which in practice meant undermining any peace initiative that surfaced if it was not in accordance with Israel's position on a possible settlement. With this in mind, the Egyptian government understood that the United States would have no real interest in promoting a peace process, pressuring Israel to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula and perhaps also from other territories occupied in the Six-Day War. This assessment prompted the Egyptians to abandon diplomacy and (together with Syria) attack Israel in October 1973. They assumed that such a move would get the White House directly involved in the peace process in the Middle East and lead to the return of Egyptian territories occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War.

Der Feldgottesdienst zu Jom Kippur vor Metz 1870

AbstractCommemoration of a field service held by 1200 Jewish soldiers protected by their gentile comrades on Yom Kippur of 1870 during the siege of Metz in the Franco-Prussian war played an important role among German Jews as a symbol of acceptance and integration into the society as citizens with equal rights. Based on a short note in several newspapers it became very fast a very common commemoration among Jews. But it was a pious fraud of an act that never happened in the described way. Although this was known and already published in late 1870 it did not hamper the spreading. In recent years this tradition of commemoration was revitalized. This time even in combination with a wrong date: the day when the French garrison of Metz surrendered. Moreover, it is described even by officials as an act of traditional religious tolerance in the German armed forces.

Nixon and the Jews

ABSTRACT In public the 37th President of the United States did not express hostility or disparagement, or show any signs of religious prejudice towards Jews. But inside the White House, Richard M. Nixon's remarks were often scurrilous. His antisemitism was not casual; it was close to compulsive. And it could be coupled with other seething grievances, for example, towards liberals, radicals, the media, Blacks and Italian-Americans. Yet Nixon controlled his antisemitism. It had no adverse effect on Jewish life, either at home or abroad. The malice that he nurtured remained unmobilized. Apart from a few limited personnel instances (mostly but not completely ignored by Nixon's underlings), it is impossible to connect private resentment to public policy, probably because the barriers to the expression of antisemitism in the United States have been so high. The ugliness of his utterances in the Oval Office revealed his character, but did not extend outward to shape the processes of governance. A disconnect can therefore be discerned between what he felt and how he acted. Most American Jews voted for Nixon's Democratic opponents in 1968 and 1972. But even Jews who voted against him, even those who loathed him, have often acknowledged that Nixon's policies fortified the security of Israel; and he was proud of his support for the Jewish state during the Yom Kippur War. What betrayed Nixon, and what forced him to resign the presidency, was his decision to instal a secret taping system in the Oval Office. When the tapes were played in 1974, he showed himself to be conspiring to obstruct justice. In subsequent years, further exposure of the tapes revealed the extent and intensity of Nixon's antipathy to Jews. The expletives that had to be deleted did much to besmirch the dignity of the office. But such was the stigma the political culture attached to antisemitism that, had his bigotry become public before 1968, Nixon's career would have been over.

Shared and unique predictors of post‐traumatic growth and distress

This prospective longitudinal study compared pretraumatic, peritraumatic, and post-traumatic predictors of post-traumatic growth (PTG) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A total of 103 Israeli former prisoners of the Yom Kippur War were followed over 30 years. Sociodemographic variables, trauma exposure, reactions in captivity, world assumptions, social support, and personality factors were assessed in 1991, and PTG and PTSD symptoms in 2003. Hierarchical regression modeling showed that although some predictors, namely, loss of control and active coping during captivity, predicted both PTG and PTSD, others predicted one outcome and not the other. Self-controllability predicted PTG while sociodemographic factors predicted PTSD when controlling for PTSD and PTG, respectively. The findings indicate that salutary and pathogenic trauma outcomes share some but not all precursors, underscoring their multifaceted relationship.

Prophylactic Etoricoxib Is Effective in Preventing Yom Kippur Headache: A Placebo‐Controlled Double‐Blind and Randomized Trial of Prophylaxis for Ritual Fasting Headache

Religious fasting is associated with headache. This has been documented as "Yom Kippur Headache" and "First-of-Ramadan Headache." Rofecoxib (Vioxx®), a cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) inhibitor with a 17-hour half-life, has been shown to be effective in preventing fasting headache when taken just prior to the 25-hour Yom Kippur fast. Unfortunately for fasters rofecoxib is no longer available. We hypothesized that etoricoxib, another Cox-2 inhibitor with a longer half-life, would also be effective in preventing fasting headache. We performed a double-blind randomized prospective trial of etoricoxib 120 mg vs placebo, taken just prior to the onset of fasting, Yom Kippur 2008. Healthy adults aged 18-65 years were enrolled from the community. Subjects completed a demographic data form and questions regarding headache history and a post-fast survey on headache during the fast. We compared incidence, time of onset and intensity of headache, general ease of fasting, and side effects in control and treatment groups. We enrolled 211 patients and 195 completed the post-fast questionnaire (92%). Of those subjects receiving etoricoxib (n=99), 36 or 36.4% vs 65 or 67.7% of the placebo group (n=96) developed any headache during the fast (P< .0001). Median severity of headache in the treatment group was significantly lower for the treatment group (3.0 vs 5.0 on a visual analog scale of 10; P= .024). Also, participants in the treatment group reported an easier fast than the placebo group, as compared with previous fasting experience (4.0 vs 3.5 on a scale of 1-5; P< .0001). Etoricoxib 120 mg taken prior to a 25-hour ritual fast decreases incidence of and attenuates fasting headache.

Posttraumatic Symptoms, Marital Intimacy, Dyadic Adjustment, and Sexual Satisfaction among Ex-Prisoners of War

The aversive impact of combat and combat-induced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on marital intimacy and sexual satisfaction has been examined in several studies. Nevertheless, the toll of war captivity on marital intimacy in relation to dyadic adjustment and sexual satisfaction remains unknown. In particular, the mediating role of marital intimacy in the relationship between PTSD symptoms and dyadic adjustment and between PTSD symptoms and sexual satisfaction has not yet been systematically explored thus far. Aims. This study aimed to examine the interrelationships of PTSD symptoms, dyadic adjustment, sexual satisfaction, and marital intimacy among ex-prisoners of war (ex-POWs). A sample of Israeli veterans ex-POWs (ex-POWs: N = 105) from the 1973 Yom Kippur War and a matched comparison group of veterans who participated in the same war but were not held captive (control: N = 94) were compared in the study variables. The PTSD inventory, dyadic adjustment scale, index of sexual satisfaction, and capacity for intimacy questionnaire. Results. Findings revealed that ex-POWs reported higher levels of PTSD symptoms and lower levels of dyadic adjustment and sexual satisfaction than comparable controls. There were also differences between the groups in the pattern of relations between PTSD symptoms, dyadic adjustment, sexual satisfaction, and marital intimacy. Finally, for ex-POWs, marital intimacy partially mediated the relationships between PTSD symptoms and dyadic adjustment and sexual satisfaction outcome measures. PTSD symptoms are implicated in marital problems of ex-POWs. A significant relationship was found between the traumatized ex-POW's capacity for intimacy and both their sexual satisfaction and dyadic adjustment.

Fear and Shame in an Israeli Psychoanalyst and His Patient: Lessons Learned in Times of War

Living in the midst of a war presents unique challenges to ongoing psychotherapeutic treatment. This paper focuses on the ever-present threat of fracture to the analytic frame and the limited ability of the therapist to create a safe, insulated environment— a reliable container—in which to work, while coping with a violent external reality. Using an intrapsychic lens, as well as an interpersonal one, the dynamics of both the analyst's and the patient's fear and shame are brought into focus. This delicate balance is illustrated through two cases: one occurring during the First Gulf War (1991) and the second taking place during the Second Lebanon War (2006). In both cases, fear and shame cause a stalemate in the psychotherapeutic process. The analyst recalls his active duty as a soldier during the Yom Kippur War (1973). These memories and their attendant acknowledgement of fear and shame by the analyst, as well as his analysand's “supervisory” comments, gradually dissolve the knot and repair the rupture in the analytic process. The ability to fully experience fear, shame, and helplessness is at the core of psychic health, a health once destroyed by dissociation and denial of these feelings. This ability to experience fear and shame is the psyche's antidote to mental breakdown. Following discussion of the two case studies, this paper seeks to illustrate how the very structure of a society, in this case Israel, can codify societal defense mechanisms against emotions like fear and shame, exacerbating the very problems it seeks to assuage.

Paradigm Shift: New Religious Movements and Quests for Meaning and Community in Contemporary Israel

Since the 1970s a growing number of Israelis have moved to seek spiritual fulfillment and communal attachments in new religious movements. The crisis of secular modernist Zionist Israel, which started after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, allowed new religious movements to find a fruitful ground for their activities. Many of these new groups developed within the Jewish tradition, often attracting followers based on different ethnic, political and gender sensitivities. Non-Jewish religious movements have also competed in an increasingly open market of spiritual and communal choices in Israeli society. The groups that have done particularly well are those that do not present "foreign deities" as part of their messages. New religious movements have helped Westernize and democratize Israeli society, turning Israel into a nation where individuals have the freedom to join or create new spiritual communities based on their preferences.

The Tyranny of Vested-Interest Sources: Shaping the Record of Soviet Intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli Conflict, 1967–1973

Between the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and especially during the War of Attrition (1969–1970), the Soviet Union undertook an unprecedented direct military intervention outside the Communist bloc by stationing Soviet military formations in Egypt, where they took an active and essential part in hostilities against Israel. Although this was known at the time, the accepted historical record of the Soviet operation was largely shaped by the versions that a few leading actors propagated soon after the events. Since these actors were at or near the top leadership level, they gained the wide attention and were ascribed the authority that ensured their predominance in setting the factual record (what happened) in addition to its interpretation for causality (why it happened)—even though these figures obviously had the strongest vested interest in enshrining their own versions. This article describes how two such figures succeeded in establishing highly misleading and tendentious accounts about the causes and circumstances of key developments, Egyptian journalist and propagandist Mohammed Heikal and American statesman Henry Kissinger.

Eliezer Schweid on the Religious Dimension of a Secular Jewish Renewal

One of the most significant cultural trends in Israeli society is the resurgence of interest in Jewish texts among circles of secular Jews. The return of secular Jews to the Jewish bookshelf began in the mid-1970s as part of the cultural reconfiguration that followed the Yom Kippur War. It has accelerated, however, in the last fifteen years, particularly since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, producing numerous initiatives and institutions involving joint secular–religious study of Jewish texts and independent secular engagement with traditional sources. It has grown to the extent that it has been characterized as a fourth stream within the cultural and social constellation of Israeli society. The educational and cultural efforts of this movement are directed at counteracting the increasing alienation of segments of the secular Zionist population to Jewish sources and the growing divide between religious and secular Zionists, as each camp is increasingly identified with a conflicting political position. The secular educators, ideologues, and thinkers leading this cultural renaissance aver that a robust secular Zionism must be grounded in a renewed interest in Jewish cultural creativity and repairing religious-secular relations necessitates fostering a shared cultural language. On the one hand, this cultural-educational phenomenon has its roots in conventional Zionist assumptions: cultural Zionism since Ahad Haam has advocated secular engagement with the Jewish textual tradition and the forging of ties with religious Zionists. But, on the other hand, it breaks with classical patterns of secular Zionism. Unlike most previous manifestations of cultural Zionism, the current secular cultural renaissance attends to the religious dimensions of the tradition and not just its national and cultural aspects. The innovative aspects of the secular return to the Jewish tradition has generated a host of educational and cultural dilemmas: What are the proper educational methods and hermeneutical strategies that can generate interest and commitment toward the Jewish tradition among

The Raven, Never Flitting

The Raven, Never Flitting Zelda Kahan Newman (bio) Fleeing from the evil king Ahab, the prophet Elijah hid at the edge of a creek. There he was fed by wild ravens who brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening. This story was known to all who came to our little synagogue in Israel to pray that wondrous day of Yom Kippur, the highest of the High Holy Days. It was a small group of parishioners, but not a cohesive one. There were two old ladies, one estranged from her husband, and one a widow, who never prayed in the synagogue any other day of the year. The estranged husband was in the men's section; his grudge-bearing wife was behind the curtained partition, in the women's section. In the men's section there were also two people who never appeared any other time of the year. One was a man the children called "the monster man" because his eyebrows were grown together, his buck teeth protruded out of his protracted jaw, and his nose and lips looked as though they were twisted out of shape. No one knew whether or not he lived alone. There were people, an odd-looking woman or two and an occasional man, seen slipping in and out of his run-down house. But like the master of the house, they moved about furtively and spoke with no one. The second yearly male visitor was a short man who kept his mouth slightly open at all times and had a permanent wondering smile about him. He was seen regularly with his trio of small dogs, each of whom had a sharp high-pitched bark. The small man would put his small dogs on the sliding-pon, one by [End Page 72] one. He would give the dog a nudge at the top of the slide, then run to the bottom of the slide to catch the dog as it reached the slide's bottom. When they tired of that, the dogs, one at a time, would get a ride on the see-saw. The favored dog would cling to the wood grain of the board as its master raised it ever so slowly off the ground. The master would hum a melody with a high note at the see-saw's highest point, then lower the board slowly till the dog jumped off. There were guest families, too, in the synagogue. Three married children, two daughters and their husbands, and one son and his wife were there, they and the eight children they had between them. Each of these families lived elsewhere, but they were with their parents on that particular Yom Kippur day. The local, regular parishioners were not many more than the required quorum of ten men. Then there were some wives and minor children. These regular parishioners had between them a dozen unmarried children ranging between the ages of three and twenty. That's how it happened that twenty children under the age of twenty and not even two dozen men and women were witness that day to the amazing visit of a spirit in the shape of a raven. No one has proven it was a spirit, but it was definitely a raven. As every one present in the synagogue that day knows, a raven trundled up twenty steps to the synagogue entrance, waddled through the open door, and stood absolutely still in the hallway that connects the men's and the women's sections. And his eyes had all the seeming of a demon's that is dreamingAnd the sunlight o'er him streaming threw his shadow on the floor;And their souls from out that shadow that lay floating on the floorSaw him after-Evermore! Now our sages may have said: "Not for nothing does the starling visit the raven, but because it is of the same kind,"1 but the sages must have meant something other than physical resemblance. For the starling, that speckled bird whose flocks fly in fantastic formations every winter evening towards sunset, is a small creature, no bigger than the palm of an...

Antidote

Antidote Penelope Simison (bio) Beyla pulls her tallit snugly around her shoulders, her grandmotherly girth,and picks up her cane to climb two steps to see the Torah scrolls.A few minutes later, she returns to her seat, smiling,so short she has to sit on the edge so her feet can touch the floor. Around her are rows of tallism, birds perched on telephone wires,fluttering wings sending up prayers while there's still a chancebefore Yom Kippur ends. It's the twenty-fifth hour of the fast.Voices rise and fall on empty stomachs, mystery wordsabout transgression and forgiveness delivered in a minor key,spare, with no embellishments to hide behind. Pleasto hold onto life, to sustain our lives, to stave off death. [End Page 48] A tallit: A blessing on the collar. Slender twine on four corners, grasped tightlyduring one prayer, like the remembering string around your finger.Always some color. Mostly wide black stripes, sometimes bright hues.It drapes around your neck, down your arms and often reaches below your knees,sheltering your prayers, so you can know them intimately. Beyla is gone now, as are her two seat mates. She celebrated her 90th birthdayby chanting from the prophets, her Hebrew heavily inflected with Yiddish cadences.Rotund Sarah danced at Fort Snelling with the man who was to become her husband,before he left for war. Wispy Sara, her tallit askew over her crooked spine,once asked the rabbi if it was acceptable for a woman to wear a tallit.He said, yes, of course, and she was never seen without it.The morning Beyla died, at 95, a young family, quite serendipitously,was in their seats, celebrating the naming of their baby girl. [End Page 49] Penelope Simison Penelope Simison has segued through several careers-English teacher, reporter covering urban affairs, City Council aide-and now works as a land use planner in St. Paul, MN. She has been writing poetry for the last ten years, mostly during early morning coffee time. She has a degree in English, with master degrees in American history and urban planning. While living in Los Angeles she was active in Shabbat Shenit, a feminist spirituality group. Currently she is creating an atarah in needlepoint, with the tallit prayer in the feminine but, at 18 stitches to the inch, it is taking forever to finish. Copyright © 2010 Bridges Association

The Israel Air Force in the 1967 and 1973 wars: revisiting the historical record

The Israel Air Force (IAF), according to conventional wisdom, constituted the decisive element in Israel's victory in the 1967 Six Day War, but had much less of an impact on the state's triumph in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The present article takes issue with this line of thinking, contending that, while the IAF's contributions to the Israeli victories in both wars were quite significant, airpower actually was more important in the latter triumph, but not decisive in either one. The article reaches this conclusion through an in-depth comparison of the IAF's accomplishments (or lack thereof) in both wars.

Nixon and Israel: forging a conservative partnership

Nixon and Israel: Forging a Conservative Partnership, by Noam Kochavi. New York: State University of New York Press, 2009. 146 pp. $55.00. Noam Kochavi is a lecturer at the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He specializes in twentieth-century diplomatic history, with a focus on the diplomatic history of the United States. This book by Kochavi is in essence a collection of three of his articles, which he published in different journals in recent years. Unlike his predecessors, Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson, Richard Nixon owed nothing politically to the pro-Israel lobby or to Israel, since in the November 1968 elections he received the support of only 15% of the American Jewish vote. Yet Nixon ended up being the most Israel-friendly president to date. Military and economic aid to Israel, as well the political backing it has enjoyed, all increased significandy during his term in office, and the special relations between Washington and Jerusalem, based on common interests both in the Middle East and globally, were forged. Kochavi's book is based on U.S. and Israeli documents declassified in recent years. The first chapter of his book surveys the Nixon administration's attitude towards Israel in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict as well as the attempts made by the State Department at that time to forge a settlement of the conflict. Nixon and his influential National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, were very skeptical of the State Department's chances of success and therefore failed to back State Department efforts to promote a settlement of the conflict between Israel and Egypt. In fact, Nixon and Kissinger actively worked to undermine these efforts, for example in the case of the December 1969 Rogers Plan. Kochavi rightly claims that the relationships between Washington and Jerusalem suffered from mutual suspicion up until the crisis in Jordan in September 1970. President Nixon, who was more than slightly antisemitic, albeit not overtly so, believed that American Jews put Israel's interests before the interests of the United States; he also resented their traditional support of the Democratic Party. In addition, Nixon feared that broadening U.S. military and economic aid to Israel would strongly hinder American interests in the Middle East, especially in those countries of the region that were friendly to the U.S., such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Israel also treated the Nixon Administration, especially the State Department, suspiciously at the time and feared that Washington intended to coerce it into signing a forced agreement with Egypt, in which Israel would have to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula without first reaching an agreement that would protect its interests. Kochavi is also quite correct in suggesting that the period between September 1970 and November 1971 was an important turning point in Nixon's attitude towards Israel, in which he realized not only that Israel could block Soviet attempts to increase its presence in the Middle East, such as in the case of the Syrian military invasion into Jordan, but also that every settlement in which Israel would give back the territories it had occupied in 1967 would strengthen the USSR's standing in the region. Nixon therefore avoided pressuring Israel to move the peace process forward up to the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War (pp. 17-21). According to Kochavi, the mutual trust and appreciation that developed between Nixon and Kissinger on the one hand and Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Yitzhak Rabin, on the other, had a significant influence on improving Israeli-U.S. relations. The Israeli government, and especially Rabin, contrary to the usual protocol, openly supported Nixon in his 1972 election campaign against Democratic candidate George McGovern. …

Joodse identiteit en ondernemerschap in het Nederlandse bioscoopbedrijf tot 1940

TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis

Straight talk with...Shlomo Yanai

Shlomo Yanai has led the world's largest generic drug manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, as its chief executive officer since March 2007. Last year-barely his third in pharmaceuticals and his sixth in business-he was named the world's most influential pharma CEO by World Pharmaceutical Frontiers and Israel's top business executive by the Tel Aviv financial newspaper Calcalist. A twice-wounded veteran of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Yanai served in the Israel Defense Forces for 32 years. This interview was conducted in Hebrew by Haim Watzman, who also translated the discussion into English.

Il Padre nostro entra nei riti di comunione della messa. Una ipotesi

Cyril of Jerusalem was the first to include the Our Father in the Mass. Was he the author of this addition? To answer the question, it is necessary to examine the use of the Our Father in Christian initiation, as an introduction to the Communion Rite. In Cyril’s rite, the Our Father is placed at the end of the Eucharistic prayer, before the Amen, and is an intrinsic part of the Eucharistic prayer which has always been characterized by its sacrificial nature. The Our Father has a particular connection to the sacrifice of Yom Kippur. Christ is “Propitiatory” for our sins (Romans 3,25) and, in the Intercessions of the Eucharistic Prayer, the Church is “Propitiator”. The allusion is made here to the Jewish Yom Kippur which therefore also regards the Eucharistic Prayer. The link between the Intercessions of the Eucharistic Prayer and the Our Father can be found in their common reference to the Jewish Yom Kippur, confirmed by the use of the term Friktos. The Our Father is the focal point of the right to Communion and will always preserve the penitential character basic to its original inclusion in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Cyril’s is not only the first instance of this inclusion, it is also the best explanation of the reasons for it occurrence. Thus, I believe that the inclusion of the Our Father in the Communion rites must be attributed to Cyril.

Africa in Israeli Foreign Policy—Expectations and Disenchantment: Historical and Diplomatic Aspects

In the 1960s, when most African states south of the Sahara achieved independence, Israel was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with them and to offer them assistance. Israel was a major “donor” in Africa, and Israeli ambassadors operated in 33 countries. Africa had an important place in Israel’s foreign policy. However, in 1973, during and after the Yom Kippur War, in an unexpected and severely disappointing move, almost all African countries severed their diplomatic relations with Israel. Ten years later, Israel returned, gradually, to Africa. The article examines the factors that influenced these changes and to what extent Israel drew the necessary conclusions after returning to Africa. Special emphasis is given to the making of Israel-African policy in the 1960s, which still remains the basis of Israel’s present activities on the continent, although with significant changes.

A Jew for All Seasons: Henry Kissinger, Jewish Expectations, and the Yom Kippur War

A Jew for All Seasons: Henry Kissinger, Jewish Expectations, and the Yom Kippur War

The Canonical Generation:Trapped between Personal and National Memories

This article develops the concept of the ‘canonical generation’ — a generational unit that identifies itself and is identified with the national canon. By highlighting this concept we explore the inter-relations between national and biographical memories. We illustrate how generations are distinguishable in terms of the freedom they have to express their critical and personal voices. Our analysis is based on a comparison of two sets of Jewish-Israeli war stories, those of the 1948 generation (veterans of ‘the War of Independence’) and those of the 1973 generation (veterans of ‘the Yom Kippur War’).