“We wanted to allow people to pass through their shock and grief and move forward. We wanted to allow for spontaneity. Everybody mourns in their own way,” says Dan Grossman, chair of the Middle East Strategy Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council, which co-sponsored the San Francisco memorial.
Gripping a large felt pen, Ben Snyder, 10, signed his name to a community mural along with a Jewish star and a peace sign.
“It was really sad when I found out he died. In current events class, I brought in an article about him making peace with some of the other countries. I thought that was good,” said the French American International School student.
On another mural, a red-ink scrawl read, “Yes, I cried. But I don’t think it really hurt till I saw you in the ground. I could never love Israel like you did.” A signature in Hebrew followed the message.
Standing in the corner as candles collected around the makeshift memorial, 73-year-old retired psychiatrist G. Warren Kleinmaier said softly, “I feel he was a very great man. He was leading us in the best direction possible. He was a wonderful, wonderful man.”
Following the memorial, a brief service with some 200 people included remembrances of the slain prime minister by Israeli Consul General Nimrod Barkan, Richard Goldman, past president of the Jewish Community Federation, and other community leaders.
About 40 people, mostly students, gathered at U.C. Berkeley’s Hillel for a similar memorial service. Speakers discussed the assassination and Rabin’s legacy.
“A year ago at the service we held, I said that you can kill a man but not his dream, for the dream of peace lives on. Today, I am less sure about this,” Rabbi Rona Shapiro, Hillel’s director, told the group.
Both services included the singing of “Shir L’Shalom” (A Song for Peace), which Rabin and others sang at a Tel Aviv peace rally moments before his assassination. A bloodstained copy of the hopeful song was found folded in Rabin’s pocket.
While sentiments about the future ranged from optimistic to bleak, one moment from the past evoked an almost uniform response from the San Francisco mourners. The freckled face of Noa Ben-Artzi eulogizing her grandfather at his funeral drew tears from many in the audience, as the year-old CNN footage played on a large overhead screen.
Grossman, who delivered welcoming and closing remarks, said his own “shock has worn to numbness,” though he is reminded of Rabin whenever he sees his own “Shalom Chaver” bumper sticker. But instead of mourning, he told the crowd, it is time to “remember, reflect and move on.”
Other event sponsors included the Consulate General of Israel, the JCF, the Israel Center, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Bureau of Jewish Education and the Northern California Board of Rabbis.