Last week, the State of Israel commemorated the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. Soon, it will be time to commemorate the third yahrzeit of Abba Eban, Israel's greatest diplomat.
Abba Eban died on November 17, 2002. The corresponding Hebrew date is 12 Kislev. Because of the Jewish leap year, it falls this year on December 13. In the interest of brevity, this article will not include a biography of Abba Eban. (For a good brief biography, readers are encouraged to visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Eban.) Instead, this article will focus only on my personal anecdotes related to Abba Eban.
I recently mentioned Abba Eban in a basic psychology course that I was teaching to Jewish college students. I cited Abba Eban as an example of a person who had exceptional verbal abilities. To my surprise, none of these Jewish college students knew who Abba Eban was. This was especially shocking to me because when I was their age, Abba Eban was my hero. I idolized him and aspired to be like him. The time that I spent a few minutes with him was a momentous event in my life that I will never forget.
I first saw Abba Eban when I was a young child in primary school. My father took me to the 10th anniversary celebration of Israel's independence at Yankee Stadium. While other boys my age went to Yankee Stadium to see Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, my father took me there to hear Shoshana Damari sing Hatikvah and to listen to Abba Eban and Golda Meir. The stadium was filled to capacity. Those were the halcyon days before the era of assassinations and suicide bombers. Security was lax. Nobody checked my lunch bag or asked for identification.
When Abba Eban spoke, my father, who did not understand English well, kept interrupting with "Vus zugt er? Vus zugt er?" or "What is he saying?" I was just learning how to speak English myself, so I marveled at Abba Eban's exceptional command of the English language. I wondered to myself, "Will I ever be able to speak English as well as Abba Eban?" Later, I learned that Abba Eban's language proficiency also included fluency in Hebrew, Arabic, French and German. Abba Eban's exceptional language skills were the object of a joke many years later.
The joke went something like this: President Richard Nixon told Prime Minister Golda Meir, "Our countries have much in common. We both have Jewish scholars in charge of foreign affairs. I have Henry Kissinger and you have Abba Eban." So Golda Meir responded, "Yes, that's true, but my foreign minister speaks English much better than yours."
The next time that I recall seeing Abba Eban was many years later, around 1970. I heard that Eban was scheduled to speak at a large synagogue in Manhattan. A bright idea occurred to me. As an editor of the New York University Heights Daily News, I had recently been given a press pass to attend an NYU convocation where David Ben-Gurion was given an honorary degree. So, I got to meet David Ben-Gurion on, what I believe, was his last visit to the United States before he died. So I figured, "If I can get a press pass to see David Ben-Gurion, why can't I get a press pass to see Abba Eban?" I called the organizers of the event and told them that I was an editor of the Heights Daily News and I wanted to cover the event. Much to my surprise, I received a press pass a few days later. At the time, I interpreted this to be a fortuitous misunderstanding. The organizers must have thought that I was representing a local newspaper from Washington Heights or Morningside Heights. Today, being more religious than I was then, I would interpret it as min haShomayim, a sign of Yad HaShem. That is, G-d wanted me to have that press pass, perhaps to inspire me to write this article 35 years later.
When I got to the synagogue for the Abba Eban event, there was a huge crowd. There were so many people that they had to open a satellite site where the speech was broadcast. So, I proudly displayed my press pass and I was ushered in to a reserved section for the press and dignitaries. So there I was, a 20-year-old, Yiddish-speaking college kid from a DP camp in Germany, sitting among dignitaries from around the world. When my hero Abba Eban spoke, I sat in awe and reverence, mesmerized by his eloquence, his erudition and his wisdom. Afterwards, our group had a few private moments with Eban before the security officials whisked him away. To me, those few moments were worth the many hours that I had devoted as an editor for my college newspaper.
I never saw Abba Eban again. After graduation, my career path took me in a different direction. But I never forgot those few moments in the presence of Abba Eban. I continued to follow his activities. I read his books and watched his Jewish history programs on public television. In 1988, I was greatly disappointed when he had to leave his long-time position as a member of Knesset to return to private life. Eban's 75th birthday celebration in 1990 was hardly noticed.
It surprises me that among all the highly trained, educated and experienced diplomats in Israel's foreign service, there is still no one to replace the great Abba Eban.
When the world says, "The oppressed Palestinians are struggling for liberation from the harsh, Israeli military occupation," where is Abba Eban? When the world says that "Israel is violating the human rights of the Palestinians by building an apartheid wall," where is Abba Eban? When the world says that "Israel must remove illegal Jewish settlements from occupied Palestinian lands," where is Abba Eban? When the president of Iran says that "Israel must be wiped off the map," where is Abba Eban?
Abba Eban, I miss you so much. Please come back, we need you.
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives." -- Abba Eban
Abba Eban died on November 17, 2002. The corresponding Hebrew date is 12 Kislev. Because of the Jewish leap year, it falls this year on December 13. In the interest of brevity, this article will not include a biography of Abba Eban. (For a good brief biography, readers are encouraged to visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Eban.) Instead, this article will focus only on my personal anecdotes related to Abba Eban.
I recently mentioned Abba Eban in a basic psychology course that I was teaching to Jewish college students. I cited Abba Eban as an example of a person who had exceptional verbal abilities. To my surprise, none of these Jewish college students knew who Abba Eban was. This was especially shocking to me because when I was their age, Abba Eban was my hero. I idolized him and aspired to be like him. The time that I spent a few minutes with him was a momentous event in my life that I will never forget.
I first saw Abba Eban when I was a young child in primary school. My father took me to the 10th anniversary celebration of Israel's independence at Yankee Stadium. While other boys my age went to Yankee Stadium to see Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, my father took me there to hear Shoshana Damari sing Hatikvah and to listen to Abba Eban and Golda Meir. The stadium was filled to capacity. Those were the halcyon days before the era of assassinations and suicide bombers. Security was lax. Nobody checked my lunch bag or asked for identification.
When Abba Eban spoke, my father, who did not understand English well, kept interrupting with "Vus zugt er? Vus zugt er?" or "What is he saying?" I was just learning how to speak English myself, so I marveled at Abba Eban's exceptional command of the English language. I wondered to myself, "Will I ever be able to speak English as well as Abba Eban?" Later, I learned that Abba Eban's language proficiency also included fluency in Hebrew, Arabic, French and German. Abba Eban's exceptional language skills were the object of a joke many years later.
The joke went something like this: President Richard Nixon told Prime Minister Golda Meir, "Our countries have much in common. We both have Jewish scholars in charge of foreign affairs. I have Henry Kissinger and you have Abba Eban." So Golda Meir responded, "Yes, that's true, but my foreign minister speaks English much better than yours."
The next time that I recall seeing Abba Eban was many years later, around 1970. I heard that Eban was scheduled to speak at a large synagogue in Manhattan. A bright idea occurred to me. As an editor of the New York University Heights Daily News, I had recently been given a press pass to attend an NYU convocation where David Ben-Gurion was given an honorary degree. So, I got to meet David Ben-Gurion on, what I believe, was his last visit to the United States before he died. So I figured, "If I can get a press pass to see David Ben-Gurion, why can't I get a press pass to see Abba Eban?" I called the organizers of the event and told them that I was an editor of the Heights Daily News and I wanted to cover the event. Much to my surprise, I received a press pass a few days later. At the time, I interpreted this to be a fortuitous misunderstanding. The organizers must have thought that I was representing a local newspaper from Washington Heights or Morningside Heights. Today, being more religious than I was then, I would interpret it as min haShomayim, a sign of Yad HaShem. That is, G-d wanted me to have that press pass, perhaps to inspire me to write this article 35 years later.
When I got to the synagogue for the Abba Eban event, there was a huge crowd. There were so many people that they had to open a satellite site where the speech was broadcast. So, I proudly displayed my press pass and I was ushered in to a reserved section for the press and dignitaries. So there I was, a 20-year-old, Yiddish-speaking college kid from a DP camp in Germany, sitting among dignitaries from around the world. When my hero Abba Eban spoke, I sat in awe and reverence, mesmerized by his eloquence, his erudition and his wisdom. Afterwards, our group had a few private moments with Eban before the security officials whisked him away. To me, those few moments were worth the many hours that I had devoted as an editor for my college newspaper.
I never saw Abba Eban again. After graduation, my career path took me in a different direction. But I never forgot those few moments in the presence of Abba Eban. I continued to follow his activities. I read his books and watched his Jewish history programs on public television. In 1988, I was greatly disappointed when he had to leave his long-time position as a member of Knesset to return to private life. Eban's 75th birthday celebration in 1990 was hardly noticed.
It surprises me that among all the highly trained, educated and experienced diplomats in Israel's foreign service, there is still no one to replace the great Abba Eban.
When the world says, "The oppressed Palestinians are struggling for liberation from the harsh, Israeli military occupation," where is Abba Eban? When the world says that "Israel is violating the human rights of the Palestinians by building an apartheid wall," where is Abba Eban? When the world says that "Israel must remove illegal Jewish settlements from occupied Palestinian lands," where is Abba Eban? When the president of Iran says that "Israel must be wiped off the map," where is Abba Eban?
Abba Eban, I miss you so much. Please come back, we need you.
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives." -- Abba Eban