Remembering Richard Lakin z"l

We remember and honor the life and work of Richard Lakin z”l, a cousin of Woodbury Jewish Center member Rebecca Greene.  Muslim terrorists boarded and attacked passengers on a city bus in the Armon Ha’Natziv neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Doctors worked to stabilize him and save him but, in the end, he was not able to survive.

Richard’s story is as tragic as the story of every victim of terrorism anywhere in the world.

We should keep in mind that he and his wife Karen, who made aliyah to Israel in the mid 1980s were involved in work toward creating co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Students from the Hand in Hand Jewish-Arab Education center composed a poster for Richard’s healing recently in both Hebrew and Arabic.  He had been atutor to many students from that program.  This program’s mission statement is:

Our Mission at Hand in Hand is to create a strong, inclusive, shared society in Israel through a network of Jewish-Arab integrated bilingual schools and organized communities.

We currently operate integrated schools and communities in five locations with 1,100 Jewish and Arab students and more than 3,000 community members.

Over the next ten years, we aim to create a network of 10-15 schools, supported and enhanced by community activities, altogether involving more than 20,000 Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens.  

Jews and Arabs - learning together, living together - and inspiring broad support for social inclusion and civic equality in Israel.

Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, Richard’s Rabbi from congregation Kol Haneshama in Jerusalem reflected on Richard’s life:

“He was just a deeply optimistic and hopeful person, and refused to be deterred by the grim political reality here,” said the Jerusalem synagogue where Mr. Lakin was a longtime member. “He wasn’t oblivious to the reality, but it didn’t affect his basic existential nature. He could not imagine a solution wasn’t possible and that people couldn’t learn to live together.”

Tonight we focus on the blessing of Richard’s life and example, and how the way he lived his life reflects the spirit of our ancestor Abraham’s example.  God tells Abraham the other peoples of the world will be blessed by his example, ve’hitbarachu ve’zaracha kol goyay ha’aretz, so that in the future, the generations will say, as Rashi teaches, “May God give you the blessing of Abraham.”  Abraham – whose offspring are the descendants who become the people of Israel, Muslims, and Christians as well. 

A person like Richard who actively seeks to bring peace between people, who is a descendant of Aaron the High Priest, who not only prays for peace but loves and pursues peace, is an especially bright light.  Let’s not forget also that in cities like Haifa, just as one example, Arab and Israeli populations have lived in relative harmony unlike in other cities – so much so that in Haifa there is an annual festival that recognizes and celebrates the holidays of many religious groups – with Arabs wearing red Santa hats, and Jews playing Chanukah songs to mixed crowds.

When I was last in Jerusalem, a city that last summer was a target of Hamas rockets, a city that in recent days has seen terrorist stabbings and shootings, I met the embodiment of an Israeli institution that demonstrates a strong commitment to diversity; one that honors Arabs and Muslim religion and tradition, Qadi Iyad Zahalka, the chief judge of the Muslim Shariya court in Jerusalem.  These courts have existed since the time of the Ottoman Empire, and Jewish, Christian and Druze communities also have courts as well. 

The murder of Richard Lakin z”l calls us to renew our efforts to both support security and defense services in Israel and those who seek to teach co-existence as well.  But co-existence cannot be a substitute for lasting peace and the acceptance on the part of Arabs in Israel that Israel as a state is here to stay.  Tragically, even seemingly educated and enlightened Palestinians believe that the Jewish state is only a temporary construct – as my colleague Rabbi Daniel Gordis discovered from one of the Palestinian teachers who works with him in Jerusalem.

Richard Lakin made aliyah and became a teacher and facilitator, building relationships, and we must not let the spark that drove him to Israel die out, just as we continue to celebrate and study the spark of faith and belief that pushes Abraham in this week’s parsha to put his son Isaac’s life on the line in his readiness to respond to God’s command.