Archive readers: I’ll be in Denver this coming week wowing JFNA General Assembly attendees with Archive trivia on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for your chance to participate remotely.
Big news: JTA "This Week in Jewish History" email debuts this week. Subscribe now for endless entertainment. Thanks for reading. ~Adam
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There are hundreds of JTA articles covering the General Assembly from its first annual convention in 1934. And if you watch the archive blog, you’ll soon have tons of facts to wow your GA-savvy friends.
For starters, here is an article from every GA since the 1930s. That link opens up a slideshow with an article from each year, starting with 1932 (technically, the first annual GA was in 1934. More on that in a future blog post.) Browse by clicking the left and right arrows
You may have heard that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled his appearance at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly this year.
Sources cited a conflict with memorial activities for the anniversary of Rabin’s assassination (Nov. 4), but people have been skeptical about this stated motive for various reasons. Netanyahu isn’t the first Israeli head of state to cancel a GA appearance.
In 1999, Ehud Barak delivered his speech via video after his plane was bumped on the tarmac while refueling en route to Atlanta.
Moments before he was scheduled to address the assembly in 1982, Menachem Begin — who two years earlier became the first sitting prime minister of Israel to address the GA — left upon discovering that his wife Aliza passed away.
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