Born in Jerusalem in 1922, Rabin, a secular Jew, joined the legendary elite strike force called the Palmach in 1941. It makes me think, what if Rabin was never assassinated? How would life look different? And, even before that, how did it get to the point that a Jew killed another Jewish leader? That fateful night, November 4th, 1995, altered the story of Israel…or maybe it didn’t?Ī little biographical background to get us started. In today’s episode, we’re going to dive into the life of Rabin, his legacy and of course his assassination and how it has impacted Israeli society ever since. There is no question that the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin on November 4th 1995 was one of the most difficult moments in Israeli history and honestly in modern Jewish history. As I stood there in that basement, looking at my parents, I knew that a major event in the history of Israel and the Jewish people had just taken place. I recalled the image of him awkwardly, limpingly shaking the hand of Yasser Arafat.
I had heard of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. “Rabin was assassinated.”Īlthough I was not particularly interested in politics - certainly not Israeli politics - as a 10-year-old growing up in Baltimore, I was raised to be a committed Religious Zionist. “Rabin was killed,” they muttered in disbelief. The pain and shock on their faces was obvious and unsettling. Immediately upon extinguishing the havdalah candle, my older brother Chanan and I rushed downstairs to switch on our basement television to watch our favorite Saturday night show, Walker, Texas Ranger.īut this Saturday night was to be different.Īs we flipped through the channels, I vividly recall my father and mother slowly descending the staircase and coming into my field of vision. The evening of Novemwas a Saturday night that started off like any other.