People, a weekly magazine published by Time-Life Inc., has named Yasir Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, one of the 25 “most intriguing” people of 1974. There were no Israelis on the list but there were two Jews and one non-Jewish actress who plays a Jew on one of the most popular American television programs.
People’s editors said the selections were made on the basis of persons in the news who “thrilled or shocked us, made us laugh or sometimes weep, provoked us to envy, wonder, pride, anger or respect.” Arafat was selected because he “gained new status as a ‘stateless head of state’ and remains secure as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization thanks largely to his ‘carefully staged UN appearance,'”
People also named Joseph Hirshhorn, the 75-year-old Jewish millionaire, who in 1974 was responsible for the opening in Washington of the museum housing the $100 million art collection he gave the U.S.: Valerie Harper, a non-Jewish actress who plays “Rhoda,” a top-ranked new TV show; and Erica Jong, a 32-year-old New York writer whose novel “Fear of Flying,” a chronicle of a New York “Jewish Princess,” has become what the magazine described as the feminist movement’s author of the year.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
