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1,000 Mark 20th Anniversary of Kahane’s Assassination

Jpost

Nearly a thousand people crowded into the event hall of the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem on Tuesday night for the memorial service marking twenty years since Rabbi Meir Kahane was assassinated, on November 5, 1990.

“You can see a true awakening to Rav Kahane, because every year it’s growing, every year more and more people are joining us,” right-wing activist Baruch Marzel told The Jerusalem Post as he hurriedly tried to organize more chairs for hundreds of people standing outside. “There are those who thought that with each passing year it would be weaker, but that’s a lie.”

The 20-year memorial also celebrated the Hebrew release of a book by Kahane’s wife, Rabbanit Libby Kahane, His Life and Thought. The English version was released two years ago. The book marks the first time Kahane’s intensely private wife has shared personal stories about the Rabbi’s life behind the events and speeches. “I wanted to give a full and true picture of Meir,” said Libby Kahane. “He understood he wouldn’t see success in everything he did, but he didn’t hold back because of that.”

American-Israel Rabbi Meir Kahane was an ultra-nationalist leader who advocated a “Greater Israel”—annexing the West Bank and Gaza—and paying or forcing the Arabs residents to leave. He also favored a society based on Jewish law rather than a democracy.

Kahane was the founder of the Kach political party, and served in the Knesset from 1984 until his party was declared racist and barred from elections in 1988. Kach was declared a terrorist organization in 1994 when one of Kahane’s supporters, Baruch Goldstein, went on a shooting rampage at the Cave of the Patriarchs and killed 30 Muslim worshipers. Kahane was assassinated in 1990 after a speech in New York by an Egyptian-American terrorist who had ties to Al Qaeda.

“We’ve gone mainstream,” event organizer and prominent right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir told the Post. “You can even see this in the Knesset, Kadima and even the Labor party are adopting the beliefs of Kahane. People used to be against Rav Kahane in the Knesset, treating him the same way they’re treating Hanin Zoabi, saying he was disgusting, he’s dangerous. And today they understand that all those things he said, he was right.”

The crowd chanted “The nation of Kahane lives” and “Kahane was right” and cheered wildly at videos Kahane’s old speeches when he made statements like “Send the Arabs away!”

Ben Gvir and Marzel are set to lead a march on Wednesday in Umm el-Fahm to mark the anniversary of Kahane’s assassination. Police were initially hesitant to grant permission for the march, fearing a repeat of last year’s march on the outskirts of the city when local youth clashed with riot police.

Earlier this year, the High Court ruled in favor of the right-wing activists holding a march in the city. Thousands of police are expected to secure the area. In the past week, a rash of “Kahane was right” graffiti has been found in Nazereth, Jaffa, and Migdal Ha’emek.

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26 Comments

  • Avi

    How did Chabad manage to go from anti-zionist to extreme right zionist in one generation?

  • Until when will we suffer

    He had One seat in the KNESET and the left was shaking and Arabs frightened, what does that tell us?

    he was right he stood his ground and would never negotiate.
    KACh would have had the 2nd to strongest party in the KNESET after the LEKOOD.

  • Kahane and Rebbe

    Kahane was very close with the Rebbe. He had a picture of the Rebbe in his office.

  • BENNY

    HIS DEATH WAS A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY. EVEN THE CHAREIDIM THEN DID NOT SUPPORT HIM BECAUSE MONEY WAS MORE IMPORTANT. HE SPEAKS LIKE A PROPHET BUT WAS NOT LISTENED TO. HE REALLY UNDERSTOOD WHAT THE TRUTH WAS. WE CAN SEE IT CLEARLY NOW. OYE!

  • Milhouse

    #6 and #10, how can you say such a thing, when you know very well that the Rebbe did NOT approve of Kahane’s activism against the USSR.

    #2, Lubavitch was and remains anti-zionist. You will never see an Israeli flag or hear Hatikvah at a Lubav institution, we say tachanun on the 5th of Iyyar, and we continue to regard the medinah as “choshech koful umchupol”. All that changed is the facts on the ground; the question of whether the medinah should be established is now moot. The medinah is now a fact, and the only question is whether it should continue to exist, or ch“v fall to its enemies y”sh. And we all know what will happen if that should occur; we know what side they fought on in WW2, and whose policy towards us they continue to hold. Israel’s safety is therefore paramount, and overrides all other considerations. See Rav Henkin’s letter on the subject, which is exactly in line with the Rebbe’s views.

    As for giving away territory, it’s a clear issur in Shulchon Oruch; that hasn’t changed, and nor has our attitude to it.

  • Daniel Botnick

    Once, when I offered Reb Meir a contribution, he advised me to give it to my local Bais Chabad instead. Another time, at a press conference held in my home in Springfield MA, what was supposed to be a couple of sensational sound bites on public television turned into a half hour interview ending with reference to the imminence of Moshiach.

  • What a Shame

    What a powerhouse of an individual.

    Imagine if he lived. Eretz Yisroel might actually belong to us now.

  • to Daniel

    thank you much for sharing it is always a pleasure to hear new stores about the Rabbi

  • Milhouse

    He was a talmid chochom and a great oheiv yisroel. People imagine that he was this angry person, consumed with politics and hatred, but that wasn’t the case. He was an ish hachessed, but one who knew when chessed was appropriate and when it had to be masked by gevurah.

    But just because he was a wonderful yid, and surely has a lichtige gan eden, let’s not forget that he did defy the Rebbe on the subject of the USSR, and above all that he was a tzioni, which is not a hashkofo with which we can agree. He meant everything lesheim shomayim, but a Lubavitcher he wasn’t!

  • Kahane words live on, even in the KNESET

    At age 15 he organized his first demonstration since then he never stopped going out and yelling at Jews to protect them selves.

  • Milhouse

    #19, read some of the earlier comments, un m’volt gekent meinen that we were talking about a mekushar, not about someone who held to a hashkofo that the Rebbe condemned as “choshech koful umchupol”.

  • Great figures can disagree.

    If you ever opened up a Mishna or a Gemarah you would know that…You must be spending to much time on the internet.

    When it came to Israel the Rebbe and him were on the same page. The fact that they didn’t share the same tactics on dealing with Russia doesn’t diminish his greatness.

  • to kahane was rite!!! THANK YOU

    A Jew has to be Jewish for positive reasons for Judaism the torah is so magnificent and we through it away, don’t though it away, go back to being Jewish really Jewish and that begins with studying you can’t be a good Jew if your ignorant Jew, you don’t know how to be a good Jew, fins a rabbi a real rabbi its hard I understand but there are there are and go to CHABAD that’s a great great place and im not CHABAD believe me im not but they are good people and above all they are honorable

  • Kahane-s son at the Rebbe

    the Rebbe Giving a dollar to Binyamin Kahane, Rabbi Meir Kahane’s son then calles him back and gives him anouther dallar saying this is for ALIAT neshama for your father
    http://www.youtube.com/watc…