Americans awoke this week to the aftermath of one of the most significant elections in American history. The coming days and weeks may find the country divided against itself, with many on edge, fearing maneuvers to undermine the vote, angry demonstrations and violence in the street.
This week also marks on the secular calendar the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s two-time prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Can Rabin’s legacy – his heroic life and tragic death – guide America at this moment of instability?
Last week, in memorializing the late prime minister, President Reuven Rivlin reflected on Israel’s own political trajectory. But he might as well have been speaking to America.
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Rabin understood. A military man who fought bravely for his nation since before its founding and wielded an “iron fist” as minister of defense, he would come to ground his second term as prime minister in the faith that bitter enemies could learn to make peace. He believed this not just of Israelis and Palestinians, but also of Israelis of opposing points of view. In the latter, his country failed him. Rabin’s death at the hands of a religious nationalist admonishes us against the perils of nativist rhetoric supercharged by divisive politics.
But so do terrifying plots to kidnap American governors. Americans must not permit lawlessness to overrun the political process, or venom and vitriol to define the nation’s social discourse. The long unfinished journey toward the fulfillment of Rabin’s vision demonstrates that hate and distrust are difficult to vanquish once they have taken hold of a society.
The most difficult, most important days of this election begin now. Whatever its outcome, all Americans have a duty to repair the rupture, to restore civility to public life, and heal the chasms that divide them, lest the damage take generations to undo.
The writer is the senior rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York.
