In this 1985 photo, Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his wife, Leah, are seen posing for the camera during a game of tennis. The couple stand casually at the net, dressed in tennis clothes and holding racquets. In the background, there are a number of tennis courts and high-rise buildings.
Yitzhak Rabin was an Israeli general, diplomat, politician, and statesman who served the state of Israel for many decades. During this time, Yitzhak and his wife, Leah, did not abandon their great love of tennis and took advantage of numerous opportunities to play; they were even known to take time off during official state visits to the United States in order to play together. They developed a close friendship with the heads of the Israel Tennis Association and helped to upgrade the sport’s standing in Israel.
Yitzhak Rabin held senior positions from the time of the establishment of the State of Israel. He was chief of staff, Israeli ambassador to the United States, defence minister, and prime minister. He was involved in attempts to achieve peace with the Palestinians and received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994, endeavours which led ultimately to his assassination by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir in 1995 at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
Tennis has increased in popularity in Israel over the decades. The biggest stadium is Canada Stadium which is located in Ramat Hasharon. Yitzhak and Leah Rabin often visited this centre, and a special plaque was dedicated in their memory.
The practice of non-competitive sports is one of the goals of the Hapoel sports association. The association was founded by the General Labor Federation of Eretz Israel in 1926 and represented the various workers’ parties (including the Labour Party headed by Rabin). The Hapoel sports association saw the encouragement of sports among the public as one of the ways to implement the idea of the “New Jew,” a Jew with both mental and physical strength. The association’s slogan was “sports for the people and champions”
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Yitzhak Rabin – Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem in 1922. After high school, Rabin volunteered to join the Haganah’s elite fighting unit, the Palmach, where he rose to become chief operations officer. Upon the establishment of the State of Israel, Rabin joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and served for 27 years. During the War of Independence, Rabin was the commander of the Harel Brigade which fought on the road to Jerusalem as well as in battles in the city. He continued to serve in different military roles over the years, and in 1967 he was appointed chief of staff. Under Rabin’s command, the IDF achieved victory in the Six-Day War of 1967. After retiring from the IDF, Rabin became Israeli ambassador to the United States. Upon his return from the United States, he joined the Labour Party and was elected to the Knesset in 1973. He was appointed minister of labour and subsequently, after Golda Meir’s resignation in 1974 due to the Yom Kippur War investigation, he became prime minister. He held this position until 1977, when he resigned due to the discovery of an illegal international bank account he held jointly with his wife. Rabin served a second term as prime minister from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. Yitzhak Rabin was the first Sabra (native-born Israeli) to be prime minister. Some of the major events in his career included ordering Operation Entebbe, signing the Oslo Accords, being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres, and signing a peace treaty with Jordan. The Israeli public was very divided in its opinion of the Oslo peace treaties and the concept of trading land for peace. This controversy culminated in Yigal Amir’s assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995, while he was attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv. After his death, a blood-soaked piece of paper with the lyrics to “Shir L’Shalom” (The Song for Peace), which he had sung during the rally, was found in his pocket. Rabin’s funeral at Mt. Herzl was attended by heads of state from all around the world.
