Philadelphia Jewish Exponent archives
The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Nov. 4, 1995, rocked the Jewish world and spurred an outpouring of shock and grief from Jews in the greater Philadelphia area.
In this edition of “Remember When,” we look back at a Philadelphia Jewish Exponent article from Nov. 10, 1995, the first issue after Rabin’s shooting, titled “At Consulate, Hundreds Line Up to Sign Black Books of Condolence,” written by staff writer A. Engler Anderson.
Anderson reported that residents from “all walks of life” had filed into Philadelphia’s Consulate General of Israel office after the assassination to offer written condolences to the country and Rabin’s family.
“In the three days after the assassination, more than five of the tomes had been filled with messages of comfort and sympathy from area residents,” Anderson wrote.
Anderson said that some of those who paid their respects were figures who typically represented the Jewish community, but others were people who simply admired or supported the slain prime minister, who had signed the Oslo Accords aimed at establishing peace with the Palestinians.
“People like Kate Sorokin, a 22-year-old student of Jewish communal service at Gratz College, waited to sign the book,” Anderson wrote. “Sorokin, who said she was ‘completely in tears’ when she learned of Rabin’s assassination, reflected that ‘the next time I go to Mount Herzl, he is going to be buried there.’”
Anderson added that not all of the signees were even Jewish, and others came to support Rabin’s wife, Leah, as fellow widows.
Anderson reported that consulate officials had manned the phones constantly since Rabin’s assassination, and the officials estimated that over 1,000 calls came from individuals or organizations offering condolences.
Anderson wrote that the consulate set up a form on a then-new invention – the internet – where people from across the Mid-Atlantic region could express condolences, and that all condolences, both physical and digital, would be printed, complied and presented to Mrs. Rabin.