The official annual memorial ceremony for Yitzchak Rabin was held this afternoon in Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, and was followed by a memorial Knesset session. In the presence of Rabin family members, President Moshe Katzav, the Chief Rabbis, Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, and others, Prime Minister Sharon said, \"The campaign in which Yitzchak Rabin took part all his life continues, and has not weakened. The State of Israel will stand up to every challenge and struggle - and will win.\"
Rabbi Dr. Daniel Tropper, Exec.-Dir. of Gesher [Bridge], talked with Arutz-7 today about the one-day \"dialogue tent\" his organization established at Mt. Herzl today. \"We’ve been doing this for a number of years now on this anniversary day,\" he said. \"We believe very strongly that a mistake was made, in that the way Yitzchak Rabin has been memorialized traditionally has been by almost the worship of an individual. We feel that that\'s wrong, and that what should be memorialized is the tragedy that a Jewish leader was assassinated, that there was a breakdown of communications that reached the point where one Jew murdered another Jew, the leader of the country. This is something that hasn\'t happened since Gedaliah was killed maybe 2,500 years ago. This dialogue tent is designed to try to get dialogue going between religious, secular - all segments of the population, to try to convey the message that no matter what our differences are, we have to be able to talk to one another.\"
The \"dialogue tent\" is actually two tents. One tent is for lectures being delivered throughout the day by such figures as Chief Rabbi Lau, former Minister Yuli Tamir, and Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein, mostly relating to the issue of \"responsibility.\" The second tent contains about 20 round tables for people to sit and talk to one another. \"Kids from schools and from all over come in all day and just talk to each other... One year, we had two groups that continued meeting long after the tent closed down... Today, a secular girl sat down and banged her hand on the table, and said, \'This is crazy. I\'m 16 years old and I\'ve never spoken to a religious person before. What\'s going on here?!\' For us, [the fact that she finally got to speak to religious people] is a success.\" The full interview with Dr. Tropper can be heard at
\"http://www.israelnationalnews.com/metafiles/asx/engnews/features/Gesher-tent.asx\".
Rabbi Dr. Daniel Tropper, Exec.-Dir. of Gesher [Bridge], talked with Arutz-7 today about the one-day \"dialogue tent\" his organization established at Mt. Herzl today. \"We’ve been doing this for a number of years now on this anniversary day,\" he said. \"We believe very strongly that a mistake was made, in that the way Yitzchak Rabin has been memorialized traditionally has been by almost the worship of an individual. We feel that that\'s wrong, and that what should be memorialized is the tragedy that a Jewish leader was assassinated, that there was a breakdown of communications that reached the point where one Jew murdered another Jew, the leader of the country. This is something that hasn\'t happened since Gedaliah was killed maybe 2,500 years ago. This dialogue tent is designed to try to get dialogue going between religious, secular - all segments of the population, to try to convey the message that no matter what our differences are, we have to be able to talk to one another.\"
The \"dialogue tent\" is actually two tents. One tent is for lectures being delivered throughout the day by such figures as Chief Rabbi Lau, former Minister Yuli Tamir, and Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein, mostly relating to the issue of \"responsibility.\" The second tent contains about 20 round tables for people to sit and talk to one another. \"Kids from schools and from all over come in all day and just talk to each other... One year, we had two groups that continued meeting long after the tent closed down... Today, a secular girl sat down and banged her hand on the table, and said, \'This is crazy. I\'m 16 years old and I\'ve never spoken to a religious person before. What\'s going on here?!\' For us, [the fact that she finally got to speak to religious people] is a success.\" The full interview with Dr. Tropper can be heard at
\"http://www.israelnationalnews.com/metafiles/asx/engnews/features/Gesher-tent.asx\".