In Search of Nehemiah Rabin

"In 2016 a Limmud FSU delegation has pilgrimaged to the birth place of Nehemiah Rabin, marking 20 years since the murder of his son, Yitzhak Rabin. His daughter, Rachel Ya’akov, aged 91, lives at Kibbutz Manara, and hasn’t been traveling abroad since the death of her husband, Rafi. Therefore, she could not join the delegation.

Members of the delegation who did make the visit included Eitan Haber, director of Rabin’s bureau in the Prime Minister’s office and Mully Dor, Rabin’s personal aide. Rachel Ya’akov has helped us track the lifeline of her father from his childhood in Ukraine, to migrating alone to the United States, through joining the brigade and moving to Israel, marrying Rosa, having two children – Yitzhak and Rachel, being an active part of social life in Israel, losing his wife at an early age, living alone as a widow in Tel-Aviv for years, and all the way to his Last days, in Kibbutz Manara, with his daughter, Rachel. During the 1990’s, when Chaim Chesler was head of the Jewish Agency’s delegation to the Soviet Union, Prime Minister Rabin visited Moscow and Chesler arranged a visit to the Great Synagogue. Some six year ago, Chesler, determined to try and locate the birthplace of Nehemiah, came up with the name of “Syderovitch”. He called Rachel, who confirmed that that was indeed the name on her father’s passport. In 2010 a memorial plaque was unveiled by Yuval Rabin, the son of Yitzhak, together with a Limmud FSU delegation."