Yitzhak
Rabin was born in Jerusalem on March
1st, 1922, son to Nehemiah and Rosa
Rubitzov. Yitzhak’s mother
Rosa was raised by a wealthy Russian
family of ten children, on the other
hand, his father was brought up
by a poor family in the Ukraine.
The two were spurred by political
activism and consequently met in
Jerusalem, while aiding victims
of an Arab attack in the Jewish
Quarter. They were later wed in
1921.
A
year after Yitzhak’s birth,
his family moved out of Jerusalem
and into Tel Aviv. Besides work,
his parents were constantly involved
in public activities. His mother
was a member of Tel Aviv’s
Municipal Council, while his father
was involved in the Metal Worker’s
Union, which assembled in Yitzhak’s
home. His parents believed that
“work was value in itself.
Public activity …was a duty
owed to the community.” Since
their deep community involvement
left little time for the children,
Yitzhak’s parents made sure
that every Friday was set aside
for family time. In his 1979 autobiography,
The Rabin Memoirs, Rabin remembered
himself as a “withdrawn, bashful
child … [it was] not a religious
home, but it was imbued with a pride
of being Jewish.”
Yitzhak
attended the School for Workers’
Children, recalling that he was
“deeply involved in school-
though then, as now, I did not show
my feelings or share them with others.”
As can be seen, Rabin’s legendary
stoicism began from a young age.
During his schooling, his mother
had recurring heart ailments, suffering
from heart attacks and, later, cancer.
For these reasons, Yitzhak and his
sister, who was born in 1925, made
sure to never disturb their mother,
in constant fear that she might
die. His father amassed considerable
debt in his efforts to cure his
wife. Yitzhak saw his mother on
her last day in Tel Aviv’s
Hadassah Hospital.
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