JERUSALEM (JTA) – “Day by day, the generation that did not know Yitzhak grows,” Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin said at a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

He expressed concern that the new generation does not understand the seriousness of the polarization and incitement that led to Rabin’s murder.

Rivlin on Sunday, Oct. 21, lit the “Ner Yitzhak” memorial candle and spoke at the official ceremony opening the events marking the anniversary of Rabin’s death. It also marks the death of his wife, Leah Rabin, five years later on the same week. The event, held at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, was attended by members of the Rabin family, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Revital Sweid, Supreme Court Justice Neal Hendel and students from the Bilingual School in Beer Sheva.

“In the 23 years that have passed since the murder, we have been through difficult times. Wars and contentious political initiatives,” said the president. “Each time, and despite the polarization of views, we have avoided terrible moments like this. Have we healed? I am not sure. I do not know,” he said.

“Day by day, the generation that did not know Yitzhak grows. The generation that did not itself see the dark slippery slope from incitement and hatred to bloodshed. Children and young people who have grown up and were born and immigrated over the last 20 or 30 years, the leaders of our tomorrow, did not know Yitzhak. And did not know the murder. And the truth is that something is not working. Because each year we make speeches and hold ceremonies and yet we see the erosion of the centrality of the murder and what it means in Israeli public discourse,” he also said.

Right-wing extremist Yigal Amir shot Rabin to death on Nov. 4, 1995, at the end of an event demonstrating support for his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians.

Yonatan Ben-Artzi, Yitzhak Rabin’s grandson, criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his address.

“A leadership that encourages division and violent attacks on other opinions. He who drives and incites against anyone who thinks differently from him as a sourpuss or a leftist will lead to the destruction of the next temple,” Ben-Artzi said.

CAP: Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin remembers the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of his assassination. (Mark Neiman/Israeli Government Press Office)