On Rabin and Memory
On November 4, 1995, I was sixteen years old, home alone, doing Latin homework when the news came that Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated. I had almost no knowledge of Israel then, but I knew that my mother would be horribly upset. That day at my kitchen table is the first memory I have of Israel as important, or at least, of having the sense that it could make other people emotional. It was the beginning of my Israel consciousness, period.
The class of 2011 was born in 1989. They were in first grade when Rabin was assassinated. It’s unlikely that they remember it, the way I don’t remember the first Intifada in December 1987. We receive these stories in the context of someone else’s memory; delicate, twisted, aged. It’s these memories that hold us back and propel us forward, politically and emotionally.
Young American Jews live in the context of safety in that in general, we lack a sense of vulnerability. September 11th changed this, certainly, but overall, we don’t see ourselves as being exposed or defenseless in the same ways that older folks do, with their memories like long hallways. It changes our relationship to Israel, and to fact and truth; it’s what makes that relationship both unique and precarious.
We can’t recreate the visceral reactions of being there in the moment, and we can’t divorce a person from how they’ve been impacted; there are some things that last forever. Jews have a weird relationship with scars; we want to erase them and become different people, and we also want to make sure the world still sees them. It’s reasonable, given our past, present, and uncertain future, but the question remains as to how to honor and listen to memories, of the living and the dead, and move forward into a new reality.
Such a terrible event. If only Rabin had been at home drinking himself silly that night it would never have happened. If I ever find out who hid his booze…
I am in the class of 2011, I was born in 1989 and I was in the first grade when Rabin was assassinated. I distinctly recall telling a classmate that I knew was Jewish about it the next day. He had no clue what I was talking about. The fact that I did know what I was talking about it probably the more surprising side of it.
And I don’t think it’s a bad thing that we’re not paranoid.
How many Rabin Memorial events are taking place this year in New York City? To my knowledge there is just one, put on by Habonim Dror and Hashomer Hatzayir.
How many Meir Kahane memorials are taking place this year in New York City? (this Sunday is his 20th yartzeit) There are at least three. Totally disturbing. And one of them is being hosted by the West Side Institutional Synagogue: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140343
Does this bother anyone else? Like, enough to do something about it? Here’s WSIS’s phone number: 212-877-7652. Let them know you’re upset. And post here to let us know you made the call.
If Rabin were alive, he’d be saying: ‘Avenge me!’
I’ll raise a toast to that.
Could someone please explain to me why Rabin is such a powerful and enduring icon of the Jewish left? I’ve read a number of his Knesset speeches, and he comes off more “right wing” than Netanyahu does today. I can give examples if anyone is interested, but I suspect the ones who know don’t care, and the ones who don’t care don’t want to know.
Could someone please explain to me why Rabin is such a powerful and enduring icon of the Jewish left?
Here’s the answer: because he was tragically murdered.
Or, maybe it’s because he genuinely tried to re-allocate national funds in a way that pleases the Left (and me, Victor.)
Of course nothing substantial would have been different vis-a-vis the Palestinians had he not been murdered–just go back and read his last speech, from the days of Oslo II. Even more, his daughter has recently said in interviews that Rabin had seriously considered stopping the Oslo process during his last weeks–although how he thought he could do that is unclear.
How President Clinton can write an op-ed in the Times, claiming that Rabin would have completed the Oslo process in three years, is beyond me.
Rabin’s last speech before the Knesset. I really think more people pro-Israel, pro-Peace Jews should hear from the man himself.
Ratification of the Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement
October 5, 1995