Treasure Trove: ‘Never Again’ Also Applies To Us

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995.  The assassin, a person who I will not name, was an Israeli law student and ultra-nationalist who opposed Rabin’s peace initiatives and, in particular, the Oslo Accords.  Rabin was murdered immediately following a peace rally at Tel Aviv’s city hall.

In the period preceding the rally, Rabin was criticized for blasphemy and heresy because the peace being discussed involved Israel withdrawing from certain territories.  Rallies against the Oslo Accords pictured Rabin in a Nazi SS uniform or in the crosshairs of a gun.  Protestors chanted that Rabin was a murderer and a traitor.  In July 1995, Benjamin Netanyahu led a mock funeral procession which featured a coffin and noose and chants of “death to Rabin”.

Rabin was warned about the elevated risks and refused a recommendation from Israel’s chief of internal security to wear a bullet proof vest and travel only in an armoured car.  His death was a national tragedy (see https://thecjn.ca/arts-culture/treasure-trove-on-the-30th-anniversary-of-rabins-assassination-a-look-back-at-a-man-of-peace/).

In his speech at his last rally, Rabin said “Violence erodes the basis of Israel’s democracy.  It must be denounced, condemned and discarded.”  That is the message in this limited edition stamp presentation card produced by the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies on the tenth anniversary of Rabin’s death.

The Center was established under an Israeli law passed in 1997 to commemorate Rabin’s life and work and to teach the lessons to be learned regarding his assassination, its circumstances and its implications.  The Center houses a museum dedicated to Rabin’s life that is located in Northern Tel Aviv and was designed by Canadian architect Moshe Safdie.

This presentation card includes the phrase “Never Again” which we usually associate with the Holocaust.  Perhaps its inclusion is a warning that the Jewish people have to worry not only about what others do to us, but what we do to each other.

This is something we must keep in mind in the aftermath of Israel’s recent Knesset election as well as the tensions within our own communities outside of Israel.

For more treasures from the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, which have appeared weekly in the Treasure Trove column in the Canadian Jewish News (www.thecjn.ca) since February 2021, see https://herzlcollection.com/treasure-trove

Treasure Trove is a program of the Herzl Project.  Another program is the #Herzl100 where 100 Herzl videos were posted in 100 days between June 6 and September 9, 2026.  You can watch all of the videos here:  https://herzlcollection.com/%23herzl100  They are available for viewing individually by searching #Herzl100 on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.  Also check out #Herzlbreak on these platforms.