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Jewish Defense League

Jewish Defense League

The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is an activist Jewish movement whose stated goal is protecting Jewish people and property from anti-Semitism. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has described the JDL in [http://www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terror2000_2001.htm publications] and [http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress04/pistole041404.htm Congressional testimony] as a "violent" and "extremist" organization.

Founding of the JDL

JDL was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the forced removal of all Arabs from Israel, and was assassinated in 1990. The goal of the militant group was to protect Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in New York City and to protest local manifestations of anti-Semitism. [http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0799/9907081.html] New York City

The JDL describes itself as:

.. The Jewish Defense League is the most controversial and effective Jewish identity, human rights, and activist organization. Founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY"D, the JDL has been responsible for confronting the all too real dangers presented by the white supremacy, neo-nazi, and fifth column movements in the United States and elsewhere. The JDL works tirelessly to expose and defeat anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred, while building Jewish pride, self-confidence, and power in our People. The JDL continues to stress the absolute necessity for Jews to be learned in self-defense techniques of all kinds as though their lives depended on it, and has stood its ground in support of the Second Amendment. Never Again, the JDL motto, often bumps up against the "mainstream Jewish leadership" attitude that Jews shouldn't make waves or fight back when are under attack. Such an attitude was sold to the Jews of Europe 65 years ago and the result was the murder of the Six Million. The Jewish Defense League actively confronts the forces of Anti-Semitism, racial hatred, and bigotry, whenever, wherever, and by whatever means necessary within the limits of the law, while fighting for Jewish human rights guaranteed all people under international law and the Chosen People under our Torah.". [http://jdl.org.il/]

Mission Statement of the Jewish Defense League

The Jewish Defense League is an activist organization dedicated to the protection and defense of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. To that end, there will be no sanctuary for those who threaten or attack Jewish individuals or institutions. Never Again!

Attitudes towards the JDL

The JDL is widely viewed as extremist and most mainstream Jews and Jewish organizations reject it. Newspaper reports indicate that membership in the JDL appears to have been limited to a few thousand supporters by the year 2000, with a smaller number actually being active in the organization. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a private organization that identifies and monitors hate groups, has added the JDL to its list of watched groups. The new JDL, however, asserts that the organization is a strictly non-violent Jewish activist organization whose purpose is the defense of Jews and Jewish communities in the Diaspora. The Jewish Defense League is chaired by prominent Chicago Jewish activist Ian Sigel, Former Chairman Bill Maniaci as Deputy Chairman, Eastern United States Director Robert Turk, and Western United States Director Jim Nutting. The Jewish Defense League has been showing a rapid increase in chapters and membership worldwide.

Controversy

The JDL explicitly does not sanction, defend, or approve of the actions of Baruch Goldstein. There are those who use this incident to try and connect the JDL (which is not, or has it ever been active in Israel) with the shooting incident Hebron. Once again, please conduct your own independent research and do not accept as true what is spouted by the ADL and similar organizations. See the JDL web site: http://jdl.org.il, and make up your own mind. C)

Defense of Baruch Goldstein

Baruch Goldstein sign says rofe ("[Medical] Doctor")]] The JDL defends the killing of twenty-nine Arabs in Hebron by Dr. Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli physician and JDL activist, in February 1994. The organization's [ FAQ section] states,

Dr. Goldstein was a brilliant surgeon, a mild-mannered Yeshiva-educated man who was promoted to the rank of major in the IDF. He was warned by his superiors in the military to prepare an open field hospital in anticipation of another murderous attack by the hostile Arab population of Hevron during the Jewish festival of Purim. Many of these Arabs were standing outside Goldstein's synagogue in the Cave of the Patriarchs and yelling 'Slaughter the Jew.' Goldstein had lost 30 close friends in the last few years; they were murdered by Arabs in the Hevron-Kiryat Arba area. One of those was the son of his best friend, Mordechai Lapid; as Goldstein rushed to give the young man medical aid, he was held back by the Arabs on the scene and the young man died. Additionally, there is proof that the Arabs were hoarding arms, ammunition, food and supplies in response to a Muslim call for a massacre on the Jewish holiday of Purim. Goldstein took what he believed to be a preventative measure against yet another Arab attack on Jewish women and children. Goldstein had been a member of the JDL in the United States. The JDL has no chapters in Israel and Goldstein was not a member at the time of the incident.

Imprisonment and deaths of Irv Rubin and Earl Krugel

On December 12, 2001, Irv Rubin, JDL International Chairman, and Earl Krugel, a member of the organization, were charged with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism. The two planned attacks on Arab-American Congressman Darrell Issa's office and on the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California. Rubin and Krugel were arrested as part of a sting operation, after an FBI informant, Danny Gillis, delivered explosives to Krugel's home in Los Angeles. The JDL leadership (other than the alleged participants) had no knowledge of the so-called plot. The JDL maintains that the prosecution of Rubin and Krugel was the result of rogue elements within the FBI which conspired to neutralize the JDL by infiltrating the organization, implicating its members and imprisoning them unjustly. Furthermore, members claim the FBI targeted Rubin in a bid to demonstrate even-handed pursuit of terrorists in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks Rubin proclaimed his innocence and was reportedly eager to wage a vigorous court battle in his defense. On November 4, 2002 at Los Angeles' federal Metropolitan Detention Center on the morning of his first scheduled trial hearing, Rubin fell 18 feet to the concrete floor below. He was in a coma for ten days before dying on Nov 13. The incident has been ruled an apparent suicide, though this is understandably disputed by his supporters, who allege murder. On February 4, 2003, Earl Krugel pled guilty to conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from the terrorist plot and was expected to serve up to 20 years in prison. However, Judge Ronald Lew recently ruled Krugel “broke conditions set on his deal and ordered him to face trial on further charges” [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3808015.stm (BBC News)]. Krugel was murdered at a prison in north Phoenix, Arizona on November 4, 2005. His wife, Lola, commented to the Associated_Press that she was told by FBI officials that Krugel was attacked by another inmate who struck Krugel on the head with a cement block. The FBI and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have opened a joint investigation into his death [http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1106killing06.html (Arizona Republic)]. The JDL has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, requesting the results of the investigation. JDL leaders have expressed their concern for the safety of Jewish prisoners within the U.S. prison systems.

External links

[http://www.jdl.org.il Official site] [JDL.ORG.IL]http://www.jdl.org.il The Jewish Defense League official website. JDL members proclaim their determination to sustain the organization despite Chairman Irv Rubin's death and Earl Krugel's convictions. Following Rubin's death, JDL split into rival factions. Rubin's widow Shelley claims to head the legitimate JDL while the rest of JDL claims that she is only the head of a rogue chapter of JDL. Recently, Rubin's JDL.ORG website was suspended, thus removing doubt that JDL.ORG.IL is the legitimate JDL website. The rest of JDL, which was led by new Chairman Bill Maniaci, has even taken her to court over this. Maniaci has since been succeeded by Matthew (Moshe) S. Finberg as JDL Chairman. In 2005, Finberg stepped down to pursue other interests and was succeeded by Ian Sigel. JDL claims that it remains a vibrant, militant force, with strong growth in the United States and abroad.

External links

- [http://www.jdl.org.il Jewish Defense League Website]
- [http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=183 JDL terrorist group profile] from MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base
- [http://www.securitymanagement.com/library/000248.html Security Management's page on terrorist allegations]
- [http://www.adl.org/extremism/jdl_chron.asp JDL Chronology] by the ADL
- [http://www.aaiusa.org/jdl.html Quotes and Select Newspaper articles] by the AAI
- [http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/Legal/LegalDocs/RubinComplaint.html Criminal Complaint] in US v. Rubin and Krugel.
- [http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/12/13/jdl/index.html Salon Magazine report on the December 12, 2001 charges]
- http://www.americanfreepress.net/12_11_02/Was_Irv_Rubin_Killed_/was_irv_rubin_killed_.html
- [http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0799/9907081.html Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, staffed by former State Department Foreign Service Officers] Category:Jewish organizations Category:political organizations Category:Kahanism

Activist

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of a controversial argument. The word 'activism' is often used synonymously with protest or dissent, but activism can stem from any number of political orientations and take a wide range of forms, from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, simply shopping ethically, rallies and street marches, direct action, or even guerilla tactics. In the more confrontational cases, an activist may be called a freedom fighter by some, and a terrorist by others, depending on which side of the political fence is making the observation. Since the 2004 elections and controversy over gay marriage in the United States activist has often been used as a perjorative for those who seek to redress social ills through legal rather than legislative action. Thus many conservative politicians have sought to curb the power of those deemed 'activist judges' whom they claim are acting outside traditional boundaries of judicial review. Many liberals however contend that such activism is in a long standing US legal tradition.

Types of activism

- Animal liberation movement
- Boycott
- Civil and social disobedience
- Civil disobedience
- Culture jamming
- Demonstration
- Direct action
- Economic activism
- Divestment (economic Îboycott)
- Guerrilla communication
- Hacktivism
- Judicial activism
- Lobbying
- Media activism
- Nonviolence
- Protest
- Forms of protest
- Strike action
- Voluntary simplicity

Activist issues

- Animal rights activism
- Anti-consumerism
- Anti-corporate activism
- Anti-cult activism
- Christian right activism
- Civil rights
- Environmentalism
- Fair trade
- Gay rights
- Human rights
- Libertarian socialism
- Nationalist activism
- Pro-life activism
- Racism - see Anti-racism, White supremacism
- Rastafari movement
- Social activism
- Sovereignty - see Category: Sovereignty movements
- Student activism
- Tactical Frivolity
- Women's rights
- Youth activism

Jew

The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי transliterated: Yehudi) is used in many ways, but generally refers to a follower of Judaism, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for a consideration of Jewish religion, please refer to Judaism. Most Jews regard themselves as a people, members of a nation, descended from the ancient Israelites and converts who joined their religion at various times and places. The Hebrew name Yehudi (plural Yehudim) came into being when the Kingdom of Israel was split between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. The term originally referred to the people of the southern kingdom, although the term Bnei Yisrael (Israelites) was still used for both groups. After the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom leaving the southern kingdom as the only Israelite state, the word Yehudim gradually came to refer to people of the Jewish faith as a whole, rather than those specifically from Judah. The English word Jew is ultimately derived from Yehudi (see Etymology). Its first use in the Bible to refer to the Jewish people as a whole is in the Book of Esther. In modern usage, Jews include both those Jews actively practicing Judaism, and those Jews who, while not practicing Judaism as a religion, still identify themselves as Jews by virtue of their family's Jewish heritage and their own cultural identification. Usage note: The word "Jew" is a noun. Its use as an adjective (e.g. "Jew lawyer") is widely considered offensive; "Jewish" is strongly preferred. Its use as a verb (e.g. "to jew someone") is also considered offensive. However, some sources, such as the American Heritage Dictionary, suggest that phrases like "Jewish person" may be offensive if pointedly used to avoid the word "Jew".

Etymology

There are different views as to the origin of the English language word Jew. The most common view is that the Middle English word Jew is from the Old French giu, earlier juieu, from the Latin iudeus from the Greek Ioudaios (Ιουδαίος). The Latin simply means Judaean, from the land of Judaea. The Hebrew for Jew, יהודי , is pronounced ye-hoo-DEE. The Hebrew letter Yodh (or Yud), י, used as a 'y' in the Hebrew language (as in the word ye-hoo-DEE), becomes a 'j' in languages using the Latin-based alphabet when the Yodh is used as a consonant rather than as a vowel. Therefore, a rough transliteration of יהודי in English would be Jew. The etymological equivalent is in use in other languages, e.g., "Jude" in German, "jøde," in Norwegian, etc., but derivations of the word "Hebrew" is also in use to describe a Jewish person, e.g., in Italian (Ebrei) and , (Yevrey). (See Names of the Jewish people for a full overview.)

Who is a Jew?

Names of the Jewish people. (1878 painting by Maurice Gottlieb)]] Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion, and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used. For discussions of the religious views on who is a Jew and how these views differ from each other, please see Who is a Jew?. Generally, in modern secular usage, Jews include three groups: people who practice Judaism and have a Jewish ethnic background (sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent), people without Jewish parents who have converted to Judaism; and those Jews who, while not practicing Judaism as a religion, still identify themselves as Jewish by virtue of their family's Jewish descent and their own cultural and historical identification with the Jewish people. Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based on Halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halachic conversions. Historical definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the oral traditon into the Babylonian Talmud. Biblical interpertations of sections in the Tanach, such as Deuteronomy 7:1-5, by learned Jewish sages, is used as a warning against intermarriage between of Jews and non Jews because "[the non-Jewish male spouse] will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods of others." Leviticus 24:10 speaks of the son in a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an Egyptian man to be "of the community of Israel.", which contrasts with Ezra 10:2-3, where Israelites returning from Egypt, vowed to put aside their gentile wives and their children. Since the Haskalah, these halakhic interpertations of Jewish identity have been challenged.

Jewish culture

Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life," which has made drawing a clear distinction between Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish nationality rather difficult. In many times and places, such as in the ancient Hellenic world, in Europe before and after the Enlightenment (see Haskalah), and in contemporary United States and Israel, cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews with others around them, others from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community, as opposed to religion itself.

Ethnic divisions

The most commonly used terms to describe ethnic divisions among Jews currently are: Ashkenazi (meaning "German" in Hebrew, denoting the Central European base of Jewry); and Sephardi (meaning "Spanish" or "Iberia" in Hebrew, denoting their Spanish, Portuguese and North African location). They refer to both religious and ethnic divisions. Other Jewish ethnic groups include Mizrahi Jews (a term overlapping Sephardi, but emphasizing North African and Middle Eastern rather than Spanish history, and including the Maghrebim); Teimanim (Yemenite and Omani Jews); and such smaller groups as the Gruzim and Juhurim from the Caucasus, the Bene Israel, Bnei Menashe, Cochin and Telugu Jews of India, the Romaniotes of Greece, the Italkim (Bené Roma) of Italy, various African Jews (most notably the Beta Israel or Ethiopian Jews), the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia, and the Persian Jews of Iran.

Population

Prior to World War II the world population of Jews was approximately 18 million. The Holocaust reduced this number to approximately 12 million. Today, there are an estimated 13 million to 14.6 million Jews worldwide in over 134 countries.

Significant geographic populations

Please note that these populations represent low-end estimates of the worldwide Jewish population, accounting for around 0.2% of the world's population. Higher estimates place the worldwide Jewish population at over 14.5 million.

State of Israel

world's population (Shown standing between the two banners)]] Israel, the Jewish nation-state, is the only country in which Jews make up a majority of the citizens, although the United States has a larger number of Jews. It was established as an independent democratic state on May 14, 1948. Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset, 9 members are Israeli Arabs and 2 are Israeli Druses. At the time of its independence, approximately 600,000 Jews lived in Israel. Since then, the country's Jewish population has increased by about one million over each decade as more immigrants arrived and more Israelis were born, resulting in one of the most significant global Jewish population shifts in over 2,000 years. All the Arab Israeli Wars have not slowed Israel's growth. Israel opened its doors to the Holocaust survivors. It has absorbed a majority of the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews from the Islamic countries. It has taken in hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former USSR, and has airlifted tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jewsto Israel. In the past decade nearly a million immigrants came to Israel from the former Soviet Union. Many Jews who emigrated to Israel have moved elsewhere, known as yerida ("descent" [from the Holy Land]), due to its economic problems or due to disillusionment with political conditions and the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Diaspora (outside Israel)

The waves of immigration to the United States at the turn of the 19th century, massacre of European Jewry during the Holocaust, and the foundation of the state of Israel (and subsequent Jewish exodus from Arab lands) all resulted in substantial shifts in the population centers of world Jewry during the 20th century. Jewish exodus from Arab lands of the Russian Empire to the safety of the US from 1881-1924.]] Currently, the largest Jewish community in the world is located in the United States, with around 5.6 million Jews. Elsewhere in the Americas, there are also large Jewish populations in Canada and Argentina, and smaller populations in Brazil, Mexico , Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, and several other countries (see History of the Jews in Latin America). Western Europe's largest Jewish community can be found in France, home to 600,000 Jews, the majority of whom are immigrants or refugees from North African Arab countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (or their descendants). There are over 265,000 Jews in the United Kingdom. In Eastern Europe, there are anywhere from 500,000 to over two million Jews living in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Belarus and the other areas once dominated by the Soviet Union, but exact figures are difficult to establish. The fastest-growing Jewish community in the world, outside Israel, is the one in Germany, especially in Berlin, its capital. Tens of thousands of Jews from the former Eastern Bloc have settled in Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East were home to around 900,000 Jews in 1945. Systematic persecution after the founding of Israel caused almost all of these Jews to flee to Israel, North America, and Europe in the 1950s. Today, around 8,000 Jews remain in Arab nations. Iran is home to around 25,000 Jews, down from a population of 100,000 Jews before the 1979 revolution. After the revolution some of the Iranian Jews emigrated to Israel or Europe but most of them emigrated (with their non-Jewish Iranian compatriots) to the United States (especially Los Angeles). Outside Europe, Asia and the Americas, significant Jewish populations exist in Australia and South Africa.

Population changes: Assimilation

Since at least the time of the ancient Greeks, a proportion of Jews have assimilated into the wider non-Jewish society around them, by either choice or force, ceasing to practice Judaism and losing their Jewish identity. Some Jewish communities, for example the Kaifeng Jews of China, have disappeared entirely, but assimilation has remained relatively low over much of the past millenium, as Jews were often not allowed to integrate with the wider communities in which they lived. The advent of the Jewish Enlightenment (see Haskalah) of the 1700s and the subsequent emancipation of the Jewish populations of Europe and America in the 1800s, changed the situation, allowing Jews to increasingly participate in, and become part of, secular society. The result has been a growing trend of assimilation, as Jews marry non-Jewish spouses and stop participating in the Jewish community. Rates of interreligious marriage vary widely: In the United States they are just under 50%, in the United Kingdom around 50%, and in Australia and Mexico as low as 10%, and in France they may be as high as 75%. In the United States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate themselves with Jewish practice. Additionally, since non-religious Jews generally tend to marry later and have fewer children than the general population, the Jewish community in many countries is aging. The result is that most countries in the Diaspora have steady or slightly declining Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the countries in which they live.

Population changes: Wars against the Jews

Diaspora Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations, or sought to eliminate them entirely. Methods employed have ranged from expulsion to outright genocide; within nations, often the threat of these extreme methods was sufficient to silence dissent. Some examples in the history of anti-Semitism are: the Great Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire; the First Crusade which resulted in the massacre of Jews; the Spanish Inquisition led by Torquamada and the Auto de fe against the Marrano Jews; the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres in Ukraine; the Pogroms backed by the Russian Tsars; as well as expulsions from Spain, England, France, Germany, and other countries in which the Jews had settled. The persecution culminated in Adolf Hitler's Final Solution which led to the Holocaust, and the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jews from 1939 to 1945.

Population changes: Growth

Israel is the only country with a consistently growing Jewish population due to natural population increase, though the Jewish populations of other countries in Europe and North America have recently increased due to immigration. In the Diaspora, in almost every country the Jewish population in general is either declining or steady, but Orthodox and Haredi Jewish communities, whose members often shun birth control for religious reasons, have experienced rapid population growth, with rates near 4% per year for Haredi Jews in Israel, and similar rates in other countries. Orthodox and Conservative Judaism discourage proselytization to non-Jews, but many Jewish groups have tried to reach out to the assimilated Jewish communities of the Diaspora in order to increase the number of Jews. Additionally, while in principle Reform Judaism favors seeking new members for the faith, this position has not translated into active proselytism, instead taking the form of an effort to reach out to non-Jewish spouses of intermarried couples. There is also a trend of Orthodox movements pursuing secular Jews in order to give them a stronger Jewish identity so there is less chance of intermarriage. As a result of the efforts by these and other Jewish groups over the past twenty-five years, there has been a trend of secular Jews becoming more religiously observant, known as the Baal Teshuva movement, though the demographic implications of the trend are unknown. Additionally, there is also a growing movement of Jews by Choice by gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews.

Jewish languages

Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed lashon ha-kodesh, "the holy tongue"), and is the language of the State of Israel. It was revived by Eliezer ben Yehuda, who arrived in Palestine in 1881 at a time when no one spoke the Hebrew language. Diaspora Jews (outside Israel) today speak the local languages of their respective countries. Yiddish is the historic language of many Ashkenazi Jews, and Ladino of many Sephardic Jews.

History of the Jews

:See also: Historical Schisms among the Jews

Jews and migrations

Historical Schisms among the Jews Throughout Jewish history, Jews have repeatedly been directly or indirectly expelled from both their original homeland, and the areas in which they have resided. This experience as both immigrants and emigrants (see: Jewish refugees) have shaped Jewish identity and religious practice in many ways. An incomplete list of such migrations includes:
- The patriarch Abraham was a migrant to the land of Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees.
- The Children of Israel experienced the Exodus (meaning "departure" or "going forth" in Greek) from ancient Egypt, as recorded in the Book of Exodus.
- The Kingdom of Israel was sent into permanent exile and scattered all over the world by Assyria.
- The Kingdom of Judah was exiled first by Babylonia and then by Rome.
- The 2,000 year dispersion of the Jewish diaspora beginning under the Roman Empire, as Jews were spread throughout the Roman world and, driven from land to land, and settled wherever they could live freely enough to practice their religion. Over the course of the diaspora the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia to Spain to Poland to United States and to Israel.
- Many expulsions during the Middle Ages and Enlightenment in Europe, including: 1290, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England; in 1396, 100,000 from France; in 1421 thousands were expelled from Austria. Many of these Jews settled in Eastern Europe, especially Poland.
- Following the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, the Spanish population of around 200,000 Sephardic Jews were expelled by the Spanish crown and Catholic church, followed by expulsions in 1493 in Sicily (37,000 Jews) and Portugal in 1496. The expelled Jews fled mainly to the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and North Africa, others migrating to Southern Europe and the Middle East.
- During the 19th century, France's policies of equal citizenship regardless of religion led to the immigration of Jews (especially from Eastern and Central Europe), which was encouraged by Napoleon Bonaparte.
- The arrival of millions of Jews in the New World, including immigration of over 1,000,000 Eastern European Jews to the United States from 1890-1925, see History of the Jews in the United States.
- The Pogroms in Eastern Europe, the rise of modern Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and the rise of Arab nationalism all served to fuel the movements and migrations of huge segments of Jewry from land to land and continent to continent, until they have now arrived back in large numbers at their original historical homeland in Israel.
- The Islamic Revolution of Iran, forced many Iranian Jews to flee Iran. Most found refuge in the US (particularly Los Angeles, CA) and Israel. Smaller communities of Persian Jews exist in Canada and Western Europe.

Kingdoms of Israel and Judah

Persian Jews)]] Jews descend mostly from the ancient Israelites (also known as Hebrews), who settled in the Land of Israel. The Israelites traced their common lineage to the biblical patriarch Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. A kingdom was established under Saul and continued under King David and Solomon. King David conquered Jerusalem (first a Canaanite, then a Jebusite town) and made it his capital. After Solomon's reign the nation split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah (in the south). The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian ruler Shalmaneser V in the 8th century BC and spread all over the Assyrian empire, where they were assimilated into other cultures and become known as the Ten Lost Tribes. The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by a Babylonian army in the early 6th century BC, destroying the First Temple that was at the centre of Jewish worship. The Judean elite was exiled to Babylonia, but later at least a part of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylonia by the Persians seventy years later, a period known as the Babylonian Captivity. A new Second Temple was constructed, and old religious practices were resumed.

Persian, Greek, and Roman rule

:See related article Jewish-Roman wars. The Seleucid Kingdom, which arose after the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great, sought to introduce Greek culture into the Persian world. When the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, supported by Hellenized Jews (those who had adopted Greek culture), attempted to convert the Jewish Temple to a temple of Zeus, the non-Hellenized Jews revolted under the leadership of the Maccabees and rededicated the Temple to the Jewish God (hence the origins of Hanukkah) and created an independent Jewish kingdom known as the Hasmonaean Kingdom which lasted from 165 BCE to 63 BCE, when the kingdom came under influence of the Roman Empire. During the early part of Roman rule, the Hasmonaeans remained in power, until the family was annihilated by Herod the Great. Herod came from a wealthy Idumean family and became a very successful client-king under the Romans. He significantly expanded the Temple in Jerusalem. Upon his death in 4 BCE the Romans directly ruled Judea and there were frequent changes of policies by conflicting and empire-building Caesars, generals, governors, and consuls who often acted cruelly or to maximize their own wealth and power. Rome's attitudes swung from tolerance to hostility against its Jewish subjects, who had since moved throughout the Empire. The Romans, worshipping a large pantheon, could not readily accommodate the exclusive monotheism of Judaism, and the religious Jews could not accept Roman polytheism. After a famine and riots in 66 CE, the Judeans began to revolt against their Roman rulers. The revolt was smashed by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus Flavius. In Rome the Arch of Titus still stands, showing enslaved Judeans and a menorah being brought to Rome. It is customary for Jews not to walk through this arch. menorah The Romans all but destroyed Jerusalem; only a single "Western Wall" of the Second Temple remained. After the end of this first revolt, the Judeans continued to live in their land in significant numbers, and were allowed to practice their religion. In the second century the Roman Emperor Hadrian began to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city while restricting some Jewish practices. Angry at this affront, the Judeans again revolted led by Simon Bar Kokhba. Hadrian responded with overwhelming force, putting down the revolution and killing as many as half a million Jews. After the Roman Legions prevailed in 135, Jews were not allowed to enter the city of Jerusalem and most Jewish worship was forbidden by Rome. Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, and instead was rebuilt around rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities. No new books were added to the Jewish Bible after the Roman period, instead major efforts went into interpreting and developing the Halakhah, or oral law, and writing down these traditions in the Talmud, the key work on the interepretation of Jewish law, written during the first to fifth centuries CE.

Beginning of the Diaspora

Though Jews had settled outside Israel since the time of the Babylonians, the results of the Roman response to the Jewish revolt shifted the center of Jewish life from its ancient home to the diaspora. While some Jews remained in Judea, renamed Palestine by the Romans, some Jews were sold into slavery, while others became citizens of other parts of the Roman Empire. This is the traditional explanation to the Jewish diaspora, almost universally accepted by past and present rabbinical or Talmudical scholars, who believe that Jews are almost exclusively biological descendants of the Judean exiles, a belief backed up at least partially by DNA evidence. Some secular historians speculate that a majority of the Jews in Antiquity were most likely descendants of converts in the cities of the Graeco-Roman world, especially in Alexandria and Asia Minor. They were only affected by the diaspora in its spiritual sense and by the sense of loss and homelessness which became a cornerstone of the Jewish creed, much supported by persecutions in various parts of the world. Any such policy of conversion, which spread the Jewish religion throughout Hellenistic civilization, seems to have ended with the wars against the Romans and the following reconstruction of Jewish values for the post-Temple era. During the first few hundred years of the Diaspora, the most important Jewish communities were in Babylonia, where the Talmud was written, and where relatively tolerant regimes allowed the Jews freedom. The situation was worse in the Byzantine Empire which treated the Jews much more harshly, refusing to allow them to hold office or build places of worship. The conquest of much of the Byzantine Empire and Babylonia by Islamic armies generally improved the life of the Jews, though they were still considered second-class citizens. In response to these Islamic conquests, the First Crusade of 1096 attempted to reconquer Jerusalem, resulting in the destruction of many of the remaining Jewish communities in the area.

Middle Ages: Europe

First Crusade story in Moorish Spain, from a 14th century Spanish Haggadah.]] Jews settled in Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, but the rise of the Catholic Church resulted in frequent expulsions and persecutions. The Crusades routinely attacked Jewish communities, and increasingly harsh laws restricted them from most economic activity and land ownership, leaving open only moneylending and a few other trades. Jews were subject to explusions from England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire throughout the Middle Ages, with most of the population moving to Eastern Europe and especially Poland, which was uniquely tolerant of the Jews through the 1700s. The final mass expulsion of the Jews, and the largest, occurred after the Christian conquest of Spain in 1492 (see History of the Jews in Spain). Even after the end of the expulsions in the 17th century, individual conditions varied from country to country and time to time, but, as rule, Jews in Western Europe generally were forced, by decree or by informal pressure, to live in highly segregated ghettos and shtetls.

Middle Ages: Islamic Europe and North Africa

During the Middle Ages, Jews in Islamic lands generally had more rights than under Christian rule, with a Golden Age of coexistence in Islamic Spain from about 900 to 1200, when Spain became the center of the richest, most populous, and most influential Jewish community of the time. The rise of more radical Muslim regimes, such as that of the Almohades ended this period by the thirteenth century, and Jews were soon expelled from Spain. Many of these Jews found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, which remained tolerant of its Jewish population for much of its history.

Enlightenment and emancipation

During the Age of Enlightenment, significant changes occurred within the Jewish community. The Haskalah movement paralleled the wider Enlightenment, as Jews began in the 1700s to campaign for emancipation from restrictive laws and integration into the wider European society. Secular and scientific education was added to the traditional religious instruction received by students, and interest in a national Jewish identity, including a revival in the study of Jewish history and Hebrew, started to grow. Haskalah, and 1804 French print.]] The Haskalah movement influenced the birth of all the modern Jewish denominations, and planted the seeds of Zionism. At the same time, it contributed to encouraging cultural assimilation into the countries in which Jews resided. At around the same time another movement was born, one preaching almost the opposite of Haskalah, Hasidic Judaism. Hasidic Judiasm began in the 1700s by Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov, and quickly gained a following with its exuberant, mystical approach to religion. These two movements, and the traditional orthodox approach to Judaism from which they spring, formed the basis for the modern divisions within Jewish observance. At the same time, the outside world was changing. France was the first country to emancipate its Jewish population in 1796, granting them equal rights under the law. Napoleon further spread emancipation, inviting Jews to leave the Jewish ghettos in Europe and seek refuge in the newly created tolerant political regimes (see Napoleon and the Jews). By the mid-19th century, almost all Western European countries had emancipated their Jewish populations, with the notable exception of the Papal States, but persecution continued in Eastern Europe, including massive pogroms at the end of the 19th century throughout the Pale of Settlement. The persistance of anti-semitism, both violently in the east and socially in the west, led to a number of Jewish political movements, culminating in Zionism.

Zionism and immigration

Zionism Many of the newly secular Jews who had embraced Haskalah found themselves deeply troubled by the continuing virulent anti-semitism of the late 1800s, especially the massive pogroms of the 1880s in Russia and the Dreyfus Affair, which occurred in France in 1894, a country many Jews had previously thought of as particularly accepting. Many Jews in Eastern Europe embraced socialism as a potential escape from persecution, but another group, the Zionists, led by Theodor Herzl, viewed the only solution as the creation of a Jewish state. Initially, religious Jews opposed Zionism, as did many secular Jews, who saw integration or other social movements as more promising. The chain of events between 1881 and 1945, however, beginning with waves of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia and the Russian-controlled areas of Poland, and culminating in the Holocaust, converted the great majority of surviving Jews to the belief that a Jewish homeland was an urgent necessity, particularly given the large population of disenfranchised Jewish refugees after World War II. In addition to responding politically, during the late 19th century, Jews began to flee the persecutions of Eastern Europe in large numbers, mostly by heading to the United States, but also to Canada and Western Europe. By 1924, almost two million Jews had emigrated to the US alone, creating a large community in a nation relatively free of the persecutions of rising European anti-Semitism (see History of the Jews in the United States).

The Holocaust

This anti-Semitism reached its most destructive form in the policies of Nazi Germany, which made the destruction of the Jews a priority, culminating in the killing of approximately six million Jews during the Holocaust from 1941 to 1945. Originally, the Nazis used death squads, the Einsatzgruppen, to conduct massive open-air killings of Jews in territory they conquered. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the Final Solution, the genocide of all of the Jews of Europe, and increase the pace of the Holocaust by establishing extermination camps specifically to kill Jews. Millions of Jews who had been confined to diseased and massively overcrowded Ghettos were transported to these "Death-camps" where they were either gassed or shot. Many Jews tried to escape Europe before or during Holocaust, but were unable to find refuge, giving new urgency to the Zionist goal of establishing a Jewish homeland. Holocaust

Israel

In 1948, the Jewish state of Israel was founded, creating the first Jewish nation since the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. After a series of wars with neighboring Arab countries, almost all of the 900,000 Jews previously living in North Africa and the Middle East fled to the Jewish state, joining an increasing number of immigrants from post-War Europe. By the end of the 20th century, Jewish population centers had shifted dramatically, with the United States and Israel being the centers of Jewish secular and religious life.

Persecution

:Related articles: Anti-Semitism, History of anti-Semitism, Modern anti-Semitism

Jewish leadership

There is no single governing body for the Jewish community, nor a single authority with responsibility for religious doctrine. Instead, a variety of secular and religious institutions at the local, national, and international levels lead various parts of the Jewish community on a variety of issues.

Famous Jews

Jews have made contributions in a broad range of human endeavors, including the sciences, arts, politics, business, etc.

External links

General

- [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761567959/Jews.html#s1 Encarta Encyclopedia entry on Jews]
- [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org Jewish Virtual Library] - collection of many articles on many topics, including Jewish history
- [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia]
- [http://www.jta.org Jewish Telegraphic Agency] - news bureau reporting on contemporary Jewish news and issues
- [http://www.book-lover.com/legendsofthejews/ Legends of the Jews] - online text of classic work by Louis Ginzberg

Maps

- [http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415236614/resources/indi.asp Map collection] related to Jewish history and culture from Routledge Publishing

Photos

- [http://www.ZionOzeri.com Zion Ozeri Photography] - photos of many Jewish communities worldwide (requires Macromedia Flash player)

Major Jewish secular organizations

- [http://www.adl.org/adl.asp Anti-Defamation League]
- [http://www.bnaibrith.org B'nai B'rith International]
- [http://www.ajc.org American Jewish Committee]
- [http://www.ujc.org United Jewish Communities: The Federations of North America]
- [http://www.ajcongress.org American Jewish Congress]
- [http://www.science.co.il/JSO.asp Jewish Student Organizations]

Global Jewish communities

- [http://www.haruth.com/JewsoftheWorld.html Jewish Communities of the World] - large list of Jewish communities in many countries
- [http://www.ujc.org/ir_category_listing.html?nt=0&id=200 List of international Jewish organizations]
- [http://uk-org-bod.supplehost.org/bod/index.jsp Board of Deputies of British Jews]
- [http://www.cjc.ca Canadian Jewish Congress] - Jewish advocacy organisation representing Canadian Jewry
- [http://www.einst.ee/factsheets/jews/ Jews in Estonia]
- [http://www.fjc.ru/default.asp Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (Russia)]
- [http://www.col.fr/ Communaute Online: France]
- [http://www.haruth.com/JewsArgentina.html Jewish Argentina]
- [http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/index.htm African Jews] - also contains information about various small Jewish communities elsewhere
- [http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/Jews.html Chinese Jews] - history of Jews in China
- [http://www.bh.org.il/Communities/index.aspx/ The Database of Jewish Communities]
- [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?AID=6268 Global Chabad-Lubavitch Centers and Institutions Directory]

Zionist institutions

- [http://www.wzo.org.il/en/default.asp World Zionist Organization]
- [http://www.zoa.org Zionist Organization of America]
- [http://www.hadassah.org Hadassah] - Women's Zionist Organization, also operates a number of prominent hospitals
- [http://www.habonimdror.org Habonim Dror] - Union of Progressive Zionists

Israeli institutions

- [http://www.jafi.org.il The Jewish Agency]
- [http://www.yad-vashem.org.il Yad VaShem] - The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
- [http://www.imj.org.il Israel Museum]
- [http://www.bh.org.il/index.html/ Beth Hatefutsoth - The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora]

Lists of notable Jews

- [http://www.science.co.il/Nobel.asp Jewish Nobel Prize Laureates]
- [http://www.jinfo.org Prominent Jewish Scientific and Cultural Figures]

Religious Links

- Orthodox: [http://ou.org The Orthodox Union]
- Conservative: [http://www.uscj.org United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism]
- Karaite: [http://www.karaite-korner.org The Karaite Korner]
- Reform: [http://urj.org/ Union for Reform Judaism]
- Humanistic: [http://www.shj.org/ Society for Humanistic Judaism]
- Reconstructionist: [http://www.jrf.org Jewish Reconstructionist Federation]
- Chabad-Lubavitch: [http://www.chabad.org Chabad]
- Haredi Forum: [http://www.harediforum.com/forum/ Haredi Discussion Forum]

Notes

# Data based on a [http://www.jpppi.org.il/JPPPI/SendFile.asp?TID=67&FID=2377 study] by Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI). See [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1088046787193&p=1008596975996 Jewish people near zero growth] by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2004. # See, for example Jews by country page for higher estimates. # Data based on a study by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. See [http://www.cbs.gov.il/sidrnge.cgi?sid=3764&stid=1&tid=2] (Updated to June 2005). # 1993 Russian census. Some estimates are much higher, the US State Department Religious Freedom Report [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35480.htm] estimates the number of Jews in Russia alone at 600,000 to 1 million. # [http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Judaism/jewpop.html Jewish Virtual Library], [http://www.jewfaq.org/populatn.htm JewFAQ] # # # #
- Jew ko:유대인 ja:ユダヤ人 simple:Jew th:ยิว

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force and intelligence agency which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Title 28, United States Code (U.S. Code), Section 533, which authorizes the Attorney General to "appoint officials to detect... crimes against the United States", and other federal statutes give the FBI the authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes. At present, the FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes and thus has the broadest investigative authority of any federal law enforcement agency. The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list has been used since 1949 to notify the public of wanted fugitives.

Mission

The mission of the FBI is to uphold the law through the investigation of violations of federal criminal law; to protect the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities; to provide leadership and law enforcement assistance to federal, state, local, and international agencies; and to perform these responsibilities in a manner that is responsive to the needs of the public and is faithful to the United States Constitution. Information obtained through an FBI investigation is presented to the appropriate U.S. Attorney or DOJ official, who decides if prosecution or other action is warranted. Top priority has been assigned to five areas: counterterrorism, foreign counterintelligence, combating drugs/organized crime and investigating violent crimes and white-collar crimes. The FBI has had a mixed history, both in upholding the law and sometimes in breaking it.

Personnel

- Special Agents - The force of Special Agents has grown over the years, and now exceeds 11,000 out of a total workforce of 17,000. Some of these Special Agents are stationed in foreign countries and work in U.S. Embassies as "Legal Attaches", or as they are known in the FBI: LEGATS. Both new and veteran agents are routinely trained at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
- The FBI Police - The FBI also maintains a force of 1,000 uniformed Security police officers in the FBI Police for protecting the J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI Academy at MCB Quantico and the New York Field Office.

Present mission of the FBI

MCB Quantico As of June 2002, the FBI's official top priority is counterterrorism. The USA PATRIOT Act granted the FBI increased powers, especially in wiretapping and monitoring of internet activity. One of the most controversial provisions of the act is the so-called "sneak and peek" provision, granting the FBI powers to search a house while the residents are away, and not requiring them to notify the residents for several weeks afterwards. Under the PATRIOT Act's provisions the FBI also resumed inquiring into the library records of those it suspected of terrorism, something it had supposedly not done since the 1970s. The bureau is also charged with the responsibility of enforcing compliance of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 and investigating violations of The Act in addition to prosecuting such violations with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI also shares concurrent jurisdiction with the DEA in the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. As of July 2005, the FBI's counterterrorism duties are to be consolidated in the new National Security Service, remotely similar to the UK's MI5.

History of the FBI

The FBI originated from a force of Special Agents created on July 26, 1908, by Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. At first it was named the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and it did not become the FBI until 1935. Under J. Edgar Hoover, who became director of the Bureau on May 10, 1924, the agency spent much of its energy on investigating political activists who were not accused of any crime (e.g., Albert Einstein as a socialist). The FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opened on November 24, 1932. During the 1930s, the agency played a prominent role in apprehending a number of well-known criminals who had conducted kidnappings, robberies and murders throughout the nation. These included John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson, Kate "Ma" Barker, Alvin Karpis and George "Machine Gun" Kelly. It also played a decisive role in reducing the scope and influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Beginning with the 1940s and continuing into the 1970s, the agency investigated cases of espionage against the United States and its allies. Eight Nazi agents who had planned sabotage operations against American targets were arrested. Although Hoover initially doubted the existence of a close-knit organized crime network in the United States, the bureau later conducted operations against known organized crime syndicates and families, including those headed by Sam Giancana and John Gotti. Hoover's investigation of Martin Luther King was also notorious. The FBI found no evidence of any crime, but attempted to use tapes of King involved in sexual activity for blackmail. Further, the FBI sent anonymous letters to King encouraging him to commit suicide. In the 1990s, it turned out that the FBI's crime lab had repeatedly done shoddy work. In some cases, the technicians, given evidence that actually cleared a suspect, reported instead that it proved the suspect guilty. Many cases had to be reopened when this pattern of errors was discovered.

Bureau of Investigation (BOI) Directors (1908–35)

- Stanley Finch (1908–12)
- A. Bruce Bielaski (1912–19)
- Acting director: William E. Allen (1919)
- William J. Flynn (1919–21)
- William J. Burns (1921–24)
- J. Edgar Hoover (1924–72)

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Directors (1936–present)

On July 1, 1932, the Bureau was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation. One year later on July 1, 1933, it was linked with the Bureau of Prohibition and became known as the Division of Investigation. Finally, in 1935, the bureau was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). After J. Edgar Hoover's death, the FBI imposed a policy limiting the tenure of future FBI directors to a maximum of ten years. The FBI Directors from this period on are:
- J. Edgar Hoover (1924–72)
- Acting director: Clyde Tolson (May 2–3, 1972)
- Acting director: L. Patrick Gray (1972–3)
- Acting director: William D. Ruckelshaus (1973)
- Clarence M. Kelley (1973–78)
- Acting director: James B. Adams (1978)
- William H. Webster (1978–87)
- Acting Director: John Otto (1987)
- William S. Sessions (1987–93)
- Acting Director: Floyd I. Clarke (1993)
- Louis J. Freeh (1993–2001)
- Acting Director: Thomas J. Pickard (2001)
- Robert S. Mueller III (2001–present)

Publications of the FBI

- Uniform Crime Reports

Flim is avaible

PBS - National Geographic Special: The FBI, does provide important footage of the FBI's headquaters exspecially of the Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) [http://www.fbi.gov/hq/siocfs.htm]. There is information in this that is hard to get elsewhere. It does not have everything.

External links

- [http://www.fbi.gov Official FBI website]
- [http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/fugitives.htm Official FBI ten most wanted list]
- [http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/tenfaq.htm Frequently asked questions] This has been used as a source.
- [http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/topten.pdf History of the Top Ten List]
- [http://www.fbi.gov/fbihistory.htm The history of FBI]
- [http://foia.fbi.gov/ FBI Disclosures under Freedom of Information Act]
- [http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fbi/index.html Federal Bureau of Investigation] at fas.org

	North:RCMP
West: N/A	FBI	East: Scotland Yard
	South: N/A

Category:U.S. intelligence agencies Category:United States Federal law enforcement agencies Category:United States Department of Justice Category:Anti-communism Category:Political repression zh-min-nan:Liân-pang Tiāu-châ-kio̍k ja:連邦捜査局

1968

1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar).

Events

January

- January 5 - Alexander Dubček elected as the leader of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party - the "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
- January 15 - An earthquake occurs in Sicily - 231 dead, 262 injured.
- January 21 - US B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland and in the process discharges four nuclear bombs.
- January 23 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its territorial waters while spying.
- January 25 - The Israeli Submarine Dakar sinks in the Mediterranean Sea - 69 dead.
- January 27 - French submarine sinks in the Mediterranean with 52 men.
- January 30 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins, as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
- January 31 - Viet Cong soldiers attack the United States embassy in Saigon.
- January 31 - Nauru's president Hammer DeRoburt declares independence from Australia.

February

- February - Classical Gas by Mason Williams is released.
- February 1 - Vietnam War: A Viet Cong officer is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed and helped sway public opinion against the war.
- February 8 - Boeing 747 made its maiden flight.
- February 8 - American civil rights movement: A civil rights protest staged at a white-only bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina is broken-up by highway patrolmen leading to the deaths of three college students.
- February 11 - Israeli-Jordan border clashes.
- February 11 - Madison Square Garden III closes, Madison Square Garden IV opens in New York.
- February 13 - Civil rights disturbances at the University of Wisconsin and University of North Carolina.
- February 16 - In Haleyville, Alabama the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
- February 18 - British Standard Time introduced.
- February 24 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted - South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
- February 28 - Ex-singer Frankie Lymon is found dead from heroin overdose.

March

- March 7 - Vietnam War: The First Battle of Saigon begins.
- March 12 - Mauritius achieves independence from British Rule.
- March 14 - Nerve gas leaks from US Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah.
- March 15 - George Brown, British Foreign Secretary, resigns.
- March 16 - Vietnam War: My Lai massacre American troops kills scores of women and children.
- March 17 - A demonstration in London's Grosvenor Square against US involvement in the Vietnam War leads to violence - 91 police injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.
- March 18 - Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
- March 27 - Russian space pioneer Yuri Gagarin killed in a crash during a training flight.
- March 31 - American President Lyndon Johnson announces he will not seek re-election.

April

- April - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, becomes the first amputee certified to make diving missions, after a long battle which started with the accident which amputated his leg in 1966.
- April 2 - Bombs placed by Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin explode at midnight in two department stores in Frankfurt-am-Main - 3 dead. Culprits are later arrested and sentenced for arson.
- April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr assassinated.
- April 7 - Racing driver Jim Clark killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.
- April 11 - London Bridge sold to Robert McCullough for £1 million. It is later re-erected in Arizona.
- April 11 - Joseph Bachmann tries to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, leader of a left-wing movement.APO in Germany and tries to commit suicide afterwards – failing in both.
- April 11 - German left-wing students blockade the Springer Press HQ in Berlin and many are arrested - one of them Ulrike Meinhof.
- April 20 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes Canada's fifteenth prime minister.
- April 20 - English politician Enoch Powell makes controversial Rivers of Blood Speech.
- April 23-April 30 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
- April 23 - Mobutu releases captured mercenaries in Congo.
- April 23 - Surgeons at the Hopital de la Pitie, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant on Clovis Roblain.
- April 29 - Official opening of the musical Hair on Broadway.

May-June

- May - "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris leads many young to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes sometimes referred to as the French May nearly bring down the French government.
- May 1 - Professor Giorgios Rosas declares independence of his platform nation Isle of the Roses off Rimini, Italy. Italian troops demolish it two months later.
- May 2 - The Israel Broadcasting Authority commence television broadcasts.
- May 22 - The US nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
- June 1 - Helen Keller dies in her sleep in Connecticut.
- June 3 - Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol as he enters his studio, wounding him.
- June 5 - U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy died from his injuries the next day.
- June 8 - James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder of Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.
- June 10 - Italy beat Yugoslavia 2-0 in a replay to win the 1968 European Championship. The original final on June 8 ended 1-1.
- June 20 - Austin Currie, Member of Parliament (MP) at Stormont in Northern Ireland, along with others, squats a house in Caledon to protest discrimination in housing allocations.
- June 23 - Soccer stampede in Buenos Aires - 74 dead, 150 injured.
- June 29 - Pope Paul VI announces an encyclical entitled "Humanae Vitae", condemning birth control.

July-September

- July 1 - The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.
- July 4 - 59-year-old Yachtsman Alec Rose received a hero's welcome as he sailed into Portsmouth after his 354-day round-the-world trip.
- July 15 - The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on the ABC network.
- July 17 - Saddam Hussein becomes the Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.
- July 23-July 28 - African American militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, Ohio
- July 26 - Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
- July 29 - Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time for centuries.
- August 20 - 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.
- August 22-August 30 - Police clash with antiwar protesters in Chicago, Illinois outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
- September 6 - Swaziland becomes independent.
- September 17 - the D'Oliveira Affair - Marylebone Cricket Club tour of South Africa is cancelled when the South Africans refuse to accept the presence of Basil D'Oliveira, a Cape Coloured, in the side.
- September 27 - Marcelo Caetano becomes prime minister of Portugal.
- September 29 - A referendum in Greece gives more power to the military junta.

October

- October 2 - A student demonstration ends in a massacre at La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico ten days before the inauguration of the 1968 Summer Olympics.
- October 5 - A civil rights march in Derry, (of the six counties of northern) Ireland, which included several Stormont and British MPs, is batoned off the streets by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
- October 8 - Vietnam War: Operation Sealords - United States and South Vietnamese forces launched a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
- October 11 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard. Goals for the mission include the first live television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar module docking maneuver.
- October 12 - The Games of the XIX Olympiad in Mexico City, Mexico is inaugurated. The games concludes October 27th.
- October 14 - Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
- October 16 - Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two African-Americans competing in the Olympic 200 meter run, raise their arms in a black power salute after winning the gold and bronze medals for first and third place.
- October 16 - Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country.
- October 19 - Cool dela Peña is born in Paniqui, Tarlac.
- October 20 - Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry on the Greek island of Skorpios.
- October 31 - Vietnam War: Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US President Lyndon B. Johnson.announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.

November-December

- November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1968: In one of the closest elections in US history, Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.
- November 5 - Luis A. Ferre is elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
- December 6 - Donald Crowhurst leaves to sail around the globe in hopes of winning Golden Globe award of Sunday Times.
- November 11 - Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt initiated to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam. By the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs are dropped on Laos, slowing but not seriously disrupting trail operations.
- November 11 - A second republic is declared in the Maldives.
- November 14 - Yale University announced it is going co-educational.
- November 26 - Vietnam War: United States Air Force 1st Lt. and Bell UH-1F helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire, earning a Medal of Honor for his bravery.
- December 9 - Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco.
- December 13 - Nichols Hall on the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas burns to the ground precipitating the use of the Wabash Cannonball as a KSU fight song.
- December 24 - US spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William A. Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the moon and planet earth as a whole.

Undated

- Booker Prize for Fiction is established by Booker plc.
- 1968 is known as the year of the Prague Spring and also the year of the Paris riots.
- The ASCII character code is standardized as ANSI Standard X3.4.
- Nauru adopt its national anthem of the Nauru Bwiema.
- The Hong Kong Flu pandemic begins in Hong Kong.
- The International Baccalaureate Organisation is founded.
- Equatorial Guinea became independent from Spain.
- In Panama Gen. Omar Torrijos with a coupe d`etat became president and leader.

Births

January-March

- January 2 - Cuba Gooding Jr., American actor
- January 6 - John Singleton, American film director and writer
- January 14 - LL Cool J, American rapper and actor
- January 24 - Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
- January 27 - Mike Patton, American singer
- January 28 - Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer
- January 29 - Edward Burns, American actor
- February 1 - Lisa Marie Presley, American actress
- February 3

Jewish Defense League

Founding of the JDL

The JDL describes itself as:

Mission Statement of the Jewish Defense League

Attitudes towards the JDL

Controversy

Defense of Baruch Goldstein

Imprisonment and deaths of Irv Rubin and Earl Krugel

External links

See also

External links

Activist

Types of activism

Activist issues

See also

Jew

Etymology

Who is a Jew?

Jewish culture

Ethnic divisions

Population

Significant geographic populations

State of Israel

Diaspora (outside Israel)

Population changes: Assimilation

Population changes: Wars against the Jews

Population changes: Growth

Jewish languages

History of the Jews

Jews and migrations

Kingdoms of Israel and Judah

Persian, Greek, and Roman rule

Beginning of the Diaspora

Middle Ages: Europe

Middle Ages: Islamic Europe and North Africa

Enlightenment and emancipation

Zionism and immigration

The Holocaust

Israel

Persecution

Jewish leadership

Famous Jews

See also

External links

General

Maps

Photos

Major Jewish secular organizations

Global Jewish communities

Zionist institutions

Israeli institutions

Lists of notable Jews

Religious Links

Notes

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Mission

Personnel

Present mission of the FBI

History of the FBI

Bureau of Investigation (BOI) Directors (1908–35)

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Directors (1936–present)

Publications of the FBI

Further reading

Books

World Wide Web sites

Flim is avaible

See also

External links

1968

Events

January

February

March

April

May-June

July-September

October

November-December

Undated

Births