The 29h yahrzeit of Rabbi Meir Kahane HY”D is observed on 18 Cheshvan, this coming Shabbos.

Rabbi Meir Kahane HY”D was assassinated in NYC following a speaking engagement.

Kahane, who founded the JDL and the now-illegal Kach party in Israel, also served in Knesset and prior to that, championed the fight to free Soviet Jewry.

In November 1990, following a speech to an audience of mostly Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn, as a crowd of well-wishers gathered around Kahane in the second-floor lecture hall in midtown Manhattan’s Marriott East Side Hotel, Kahane was assassinated. He was shot to death by El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-born American citizen who was initially charged and acquitted of the murder. Nosair was later convicted of the murder in United States district court incident to the trial for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Prosecutors were able to retry Nosair for the murder because the federal indictment includes the killing as part of the alleged terrorist conspiracy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and later made a confession to federal agents.

Following Kahane’s murder, no charismatic leader emerged to replace him in the movement, and Kahane’s ideology declined in popularity among Israelis. Two small Kahanist factions later emerged; one under the name of Kach and the other Kahane Chai (Kahane lives on).

In late 2000, as terrorist attacks on Israel during the Al-Aqsa Intifada began, Kahane supporters spray-painted graffiti on hundreds of bus shelters and bridges all across Israel. The message on each target was identical, simply reading: “Kahane Was Right”.

Since the 1994 banning of Kach and Kahane Chai no party has officially represented the ‘Kahanist’ position in politics. There have been, however, several parties which have had clear ideological, if not personal, links to Rabbi Kahane.

On December 31, 2000, Meir Kahane’s son, Kahane Chai leader Rabbi Binyamin Ze’ev Kahane, and his wife Talya were murdered in their van as they were driving with their children from Jerusalem to their home in the Israeli settlement of Kfar Tapuach. Palestinian gunmen fired more than 60 machine-gun rounds into their van. A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2001 announced the arrest of 3 members of Fatah’s Force 17 allegedly involved in the attack.

According to the statement, PLO activist Mahmoud Damra, also known as Abu Awad, was responsible for arming and training the three assassins, identified as Talal Ghassan, 37, a senior Force 17 member in Ramallah, Marzouk Abu Naim, 43, and Na’man Nofel.

The aliya to the kever of Rabbi Kahane HY”D is set for Thursday at 5:00PM. At 6:30PM, the memorial will begin in Heichal David, at 14 Ohaliav Street in Jerusalem.

On this coming motzei Shabbos, Parshas Vayera, events will take place beginning at 7:45PM in the Yeshivat HaRa’ayon HaYehudi at 11 Shmarya Street in Jerusalem.

All of the following classes will be in English:
7:45 pm Film about Rabbi Kahane
8:00 pm Levi Chazen, Head of English dept. of the Yeshiva – Update

8:15 pm Menachem Gottlieb: Rabbi Kahane’s position on the Druse. Setting the record straight (with source sheets)
9:00 pm Baruch Ben Yosef: Who is the person that all of Am Israel needs the most?
9:45 pm Lenny Goldberg: Questions and answers with Rabbi Kahane – a film presentation.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)