Memorial for Rabbi Kahane
Memorial for Rabbi KahaneArutz Sheva

Hundreds of followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane gathered in Jerusalem Thursday evening to mark the 26th anniversary of his assassination.

The American-born rabbi and Knesset Member for the Kach party was murdered by Sayyid Nosair, an Arab terrorist with ties to Al-Qaeda, after a speech in a Manhattan hotel in November, 1990.

The memorial event, held in the Heichal David event hall, featured attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, former MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), and former Kach activist Bentzi Gopshtain, founder of the anti-assimilation organization “Lehava”.

Comparing the movement created by Rabbi Kahane to the incoming Trump administration, Gophstain pledged the students of the slain rabbi would win four seats in the next Knesset.

“We will get four mandates in the next Knesset: Michael Ben-Ari, Baruch Marzel, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and myself,” said Gophstain. “If Trump can do it, so can we.”

Founder of the Jewish Defense League, Rabbi Kahane immigrated to Israel in 1971, where he established the Kach party, which won one seat in the Knesset in 1984, before being banned in 1988. Kach was declared a terrorist organization by the Israeli government in 1994.

A controversial figure in both Israel and the American Jewish community, Rabbi Kahane advocated the transfer of Israel’s Arab population and the annexation of Judea and Samaria. While his efforts to free Russian Jewry in the 1960s and 1970s won praise, Jewish establishment leaders criticized the JDL’s tactics.