Adolf Eichmann is captured by the Mossad in Argentina in 1960 and brought to trial in Israel, raising Holocaust consciousness among Israeli and world Jewish youth. In 1962, the new city of Arad is built in the Arava desert. The National Water Carrier, a major national project which brings water from the Jordan river to irrigate the Negev, is completed in 1963. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded in 1964, and carries out its first (failed) act of sabotage against the Water Carrier on January 1, 1965. In 1966, Shmuel Yosef Agnon wins the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is the first Israeli to win a Nobel Prize. After rising tension on the borders, and a great sense of vulnerability and anxiety among the general Israeli population, the Six Day War erupts in June, 1967. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) take Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and East and West Jerusalem are reunited. There is renewed access to the Old City and The Wall for the first time in 19 years. Waves of volunteers from around the world come to the kibbutzim, and there is an increasing aliya from the West.
In 1969, Golda Meir, Israel’s first female prime minister, is selected by the Labor Party to replace Prime Minister Levi Eshkol when he passes away. Home Industry and ShopsThe three shops, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa used every opportunity to channel the craft departments of the WIZO Schools into the general market. Since the Six Day War, the shops served as a source of employment for Arab women in East Jerusalem, Gaza and Bethlehem, where the women embroider table-cloths and dresses. Prior to this work had been supplied to the Druze women in P'kiin.
The Department of Home Industry, supplies work to provide items for practical daily use, such as housecoats, raffia products and plastic lattice work. |
Youth Village, Jerusalem, July 1967 |
|
The work is done by women who cannot leave their homes, for reasons of age or health, or they have many children, and who need money for their basic needs of survival. The women also worked in workshops set up by the Department of Home Industry.
These workshops provided hundreds of women with vocational guidance and a place of work, tools for their work, raw materials, and paid employment to provide a living for their families. The role of the Department was to train these women to work at home, and help with the family budget. Women were encouraged to participate by training them, by obtaining orders for them and by marketing the products to factories or to private purchasers. | WIZO Milestones:1960- WIZO recognized as an NGO member of UNICEF.
First issue Bamat Haisha (Women’s Forum), the Hebrew periodical of WIZO Israel appears,
edited by Shulamit Aloni.
Features report on mock trial organized by WIZO, accusing Israeli women of being apathetic towards
public and political life in the country.
WIZO Federation in Germany reestablished. Hellen Israel becomes the President of WIZO Germany.
1962- Decision to give priority to assisting social absorption of new immigrants.
First WIZO club for Arab women opened in Nazareth.
1963- After Rebecca Sieff becomes too ill to continue, Rosa Ginossar, the first female lawyer in Eretz Israel,
is elected 2nd President of World WIZO.
1964- Cornerstone laid in Tel Aviv for the World WIZO Center, to be named Rebecca Sieff House,
in the presence of Rebecca Sieff.
WIZO delegation led by WIZO Executive Chairperson Raya Jaglom is the first Zionist organization to pay
an official visit to the Soviet Union, as guest of the Soviet Women’s Committee.
WIZO is invited to join the World Jewish Congress as an associate member, during it’s annual meeting
in Jerusalem.
First annual Bible Day is initiated by Fay Grove-Pollack.
1965- At the 26th World Zionist Congress, WIZO granted, for the first time, 12 members with voting rights and
a seat on the Executive with full voting rights, to which it nominates Raya Jaglom.
First annual Aviv Seminar of younger members of European Federations held in Paris.
1966- Rebecca Sieff WIZO Center opened in the presence of Sieff family.
David Ben-Gurion attends WIZO’s 3rd annual Bible Day.
15th World WIZO Conference recommends that all WIZO branches run candidates in local
municipal elections.
1967- Six Day War: WIZO reorganizes to assist the war effort. WIZO centers turned into local civilian
headquarters for assistance to the front.
In response to Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek’s request to strengthen reunited Jerusalem,
WIZO builds new day care centers in the city, initiated by Raya Jaglom. Today there are
22 WIZO day care centers in the eternal capital.
Care of Families of War Casualties Department opened by WIZO Israel.
Theodore Heuss Rest Home for Mothers of Large Families opened in Herzlia Pituach, at the initiative
of Raya Jaglom. Named in honor of West Germany’s first president, sponsored by WIZO Germany.
1968- At 27th World Zionist Congress, WIZO has 18 members with voting rights and 18 alternates.
First annual bar mitzvah celebration for immigrant boys organized by Immigrant Absorption Department.
1969- WIZO begins to work actively on behalf of Soviet Jewry.
Cornerstone laid for WIZO France Municipal High School in Tel Aviv.
|