Yitzhak Rabin: Israel's Soldier, Statesman, Martyr

Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem on March 1, 1922.Yitzhak's parents, Nehemiah and Rosa, were Third Aliyah (immigration wave) pioneers. Nehemiah Rubitzov, who had been born in a small Ukrainian town in 1886, lost his father when he was only a child and the youngster had to help support the family. When he was 18 years old he went to the United States, where he joined the Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion) Party and also changed his surname to Rabin. In 1917 he went to Palestine with Hagdud Haâ??ivri (Jewish Legion) volunteers, determined to settle in Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel). Yitzhak's mother, Rosa Cohen, was born in 1890 in Mohilev in White Russia. Her father, a rabbi, was opposed to the Zionist movement. However, he sent Rosa to study at a Christian high school for girls in Homel, exposing her to a wider general education. From an early age she was drawn to revolutionary circles, and was socially and politically active. She arrived in Palestine in 1919 on the ship Rosslan, which is considered the bellwether of the Third Aliyah. She went first to a collective settlement (Kibbuz) on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and later to Jerusalem. There she met Nehemiah and the two married in 1921. When Yitzhak Rabin was a year old, the family moved first to Haifa and then to Tel Aviv. His sister Rachel was born in 1925. Rabin's parents were volunteer activists for most of their lives, and the home had a permanent atmosphere of commitment to public service. Rosa was active in the Haganah defense organization, in Mapai - the Eretz Israel Workers' Party - and was a Tel Aviv Municipal Council member. She died of an illness when Yitzhak was fifteen years old.