Diaspora Jewry commemorated former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s life and contributions to the Arab-Israel peace process as the 30th anniversary of his assassination approached on Tuesday.
The World Zionist Organization Zionist Enterprises Department is holding a global memorial ceremony that will be broadcast live on Tuesday, as part of the WZO’s activities for the memorial day. WZO is exhibiting posters for a memorial poster contest and supported the Tuesday launch of an anthology of poems and articles written in the aftermath of the prime minister’s murder.
Selections from the anthology will be read at the Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center on Tuesday, in a memorial event that will feature Jonathan Ben-Artzi, grandson of Rabin. The center and co-organizers Shalom Hartman Institute said on their websites that the evening would reflect on Rabin’s legacy as a warrior-turned-peacemaker, and what his assassination meant for the world.
Another WZO-associated event was held at the Manhattan Malene Meyerson Jewish Community Center on Monday. According to the JCC website, the “Still, We Hope” event hosted speeches and songs to “reflect on the legacy of a visionary leader who dared to believe in peace. “
Elsewhere in the city, former Israeli NY consul general Ido Aharoni and Upper East Side Shaliach Dagan Shimoni are holding a Tuesday panel on Rabin’s life, in cooperation with the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life.
In Los Angeles, former Israeli ambassador to the US and Rabin biographer Itamar Rabinovich is set to speak on Tuesday in a webinar organized by the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Rabinovich will lead a discussion about how Rabin’s legacy and assassination still impact the world today.
In Needham, Massachusetts, Temple Beth Shalom is holding an event remembering Rabin with a three-part Zoom class starting next Monday.
UK Jews commemorate Yitzhak Rabin
NGO We Democracy UK led off commemorations in London on Sunday, with Israelis and British Jews rallying in an event critical of the current government.
“Thirty years after Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, those who incited against him now sit in government,” We Democracy said on X/Twitter last Sunday. “Those who fought peace and inflamed hatred now hold power. Their messianic extremism and moral bankruptcy threaten Israel’s future and endanger Jews worldwide.”
Photographs of the event showed activists carrying signs calling for peace and an end to the “occupation” of the West Bank.
Another London event was held at the Jewish Community Centre London, with a Monday talk by historian Paula Kitching.
Elsewhere in the commonwealth, Habonim Dror Aotearoa is hosting an event in cooperation with WZO and local Jewish organizations. The event will feature speeches and panels.
“In a time where the world’s eye is on Israel and the Jewish people, it is essential that the Jewish and Zionist community of Aotearoa come together to discuss peace and security, for both the Jewish people of New Zealand and Israel,” the New Zealand chapter of Habonim Dror said on its website.