KERI GUTEN COHEN
Story Development Editor

I

Rabin memorial ceremony reminds us
of slain leader's dedication to the Mideast
peace process, and ends on an uplifting
note with an energetic performance
by Israeli recording artist David Brosa.

sraeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin was a dedicated warrior for
peace whose life was cut short five
years ago by a Jewish assassin.
A moving ceremony held Saturday,
Nov. 11, commemorated his life, and
reminded the nearly 1,000 participants
at the Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield that the slain leader's
legacy has not been forgotten. The
message was especially poignant as the
Mideast peace process has been
obscured by violence in recent months.
"With a collective voice, we proudly
stand with Israel in this time of diffi-
culty," Shelly Komer Jackier, program
chair, told the crowd of 650 inside
Handleman Hall and Auditorium in
the JCC's Kahn Building. Several hun-
dred more, mostly United Synagogue
Youth members attending a regional
convention, watched the proceedings
in an upstairs overflow room.
Jackier introduced a program filled
with poetry, personal reflections and
song as well as an emotional video
tribute to Rabin that had many peo-
ple in tears.
"Rabin is my hero," said Dan
Peterman of Farmington Hills, who
told the audience he cried with others
on the 2000 Teen Mission when the
group visited Rabin's gravesite.
Planned by Community Youth
Shlicha Bat-Ami Abas, Allison
Rabinowitz of Michigan/Israel
Connection and Jackier, the program
included input and participation from
Jewish youth group representatives.
Winners of the Yitzhak Rabin essay
contest also were announced. Mike
Glazier of West Bloomfield was a
finalist; Ariella Lis of Farmington
Hills and John Sloan of Huntington
Woods shared third place; Benjamin
Siegel of Bloomfield Hills won second
place; and Mira Samet of Oak Park
earned first place. Mira read a pre-
selected portion of her winning essay.
Her mother, Sandy Gross of Oak
Park, was sitting with a group of 50
attending the Labor Zionist Alliance's
annual Midwest seminar in Southfield.
"Rabin was a genuine hero. I'm
hoping he didn't die in vain, that the
peace process hasn't ended," said
Gross, whose older daughter, Raya
Samet, was part of the program's plan-
ning committee.
"I loved Rabin," said Tamar
Mishory of West Bloomfield. "He was
chief of staff when I was in the army.
When he was killed, I thought, 'What
will happen now?' He was our hope. I

