As a student at the College of Liberal Arts — now the College of Arts & Sciences — in the early 1970s, Jonathan Krivine (CAS’72) took a course on the Middle East where he didn’t agree with the professor. The professor was critical of the Israeli government, while Krivine, who was born in the United Kingdom, grew up in the New York suburbs, and came from a family of fierce Zionists, was staunchly pro-Israel.
The course reinforced Krivine’s own pro-Israel instincts, but also helped him understand the value of debate and discussion. The interactions in class were always “edifying and respectful,” Krivine said, encouraging students to explore their own biases, wrestle with conflicting opinions and think critically in new and different ways. Krivine went on to business school in New York and into a career in commercial real estate, but he remained connected with his friends from Myles Standish Hall, engaged with Boston University, and inspired by all that he learned in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Several years later, Krivine learned that Elie Wiesel, the world-renowned writer, Holocaust survivor, and advocate for human rights, was coming to Boston University to teach. Krivine wrote to then-Boston University President John Silber to thank him. As Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, Wiesel encouraged students to explore human interaction and understanding, and gave annual public lectures that were significant events in Boston’s cultural life. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1982, during his time at Boston University.
When Boston University launched the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in 2005, Krivine was inspired to help the center. He funded a biennial lecture series named for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a visionary leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 — alongside foreign minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat — for his dedicated efforts to make peace between Israel and its neighbors. Rabin was assassinated a year later, in 1995. To Krivine, “Wiesel wrote the history of the Jews and Rabin almost wrote the future.”
“My vision behind the lecture series in honor of Rabin was that I was haunted by the impact his death would have on the peacemaking process. He was a quintessential Israeli who was able to set aside emotion in an effort to get a deal,” Krivine said. “I wanted to celebrate the pragmatist who almost changed the course of history and create a platform for thinkers who have the same vision. The chaos we see in the Middle East today is a direct result of the loss of his leadership at that pivotal point in Israel’s history.”
The Yitzak Rabin Memorial Lecture Series launched in 2005 with a talk by Dennis Ross, former US Ambassador to Israel, that explored themes from Ross’ book The Missing Peace: Prospects and Possibilities in the Middle East After Arafat. Since then, speakers have included Ethan Bronner, a senior editor at Bloomberg News who served as deputy national editor and Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times; George Mitchell, who served as a United States Special Envoy for Middle East Peace; Efraim Inbar, President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security; Ami Ayalon, an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset for the Labor Party; and others.
The 2015 Rabin Lecture, honoring 20 years since Rabin’s assassination, featured a personal message from former president Bill Clinton, who described Rabin as “a man of uncommon courage and unbounded wisdom” who worked to “build lasting relationships based on mutual understanding” to create “the conditions for peace.” The most recent Rabin Memorial Lecture, in 2023, featured Pnina Lahav, Professor of Law emerita from Boston University, who explored her new research on the status of women throughout history and her biography of Golda Meir, Israel’s fourth prime minister.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Rabin’s death and the 20th anniversary of the Yitzhak Rabin lecture series. This year’s lecture will feature Stuart Eizenstat, a diplomat and author who has served in six U.S. administrations, including as chief White House domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter and deputy secretary of the treasury under President Bill Clinton. Eizenstat will discuss lessons from his book, The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements That Changed the World, including whether, when and how to use American military force to support diplomacy, and apply these to current challenges in Ukraine and Gaza.
Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies Director Nancy Harrowitz, a professor of Italian and Jewish Studies, said the Rabin lecture series “has been an important addition to our public facing events that seek to educate and inspire a wider public beyond Boston University.”
“Yitzhak Rabin was a visionary leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his dedicated efforts to make peace between Israel and its neighbors. His legacy continues, and we honor that legacy by bringing major speakers to the University who address issues of peace and human rights,” she said.
Krivine said he has been inspired by all of the past speakers and is thrilled that Stuart Eizenstat will be speaking this year. He urges students to attend the lecture to better understand the efforts, obstacles, and recurring patterns to peacebuilding in the Middle East.
“The Rabin Lecture was envisioned as an event where people, across the ideological spectrum, could speak candidly and passionately about how a final, two-state agreement between Israelis and Palestinians might be achieved,” he said. “To understand society is to perceive and comprehend recurring historic patterns. Anyone graduating in the 2020s has to get that.”
The 2025 Yitzhak Rabin Lecture will feature Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, an accomplished diplomat and author The respondent will be Timothy Longman, professor of political science and international relations and associate dean for academic affairs at the Pardee School of Global Studies.
The lecture will take place at 5pm March 20 at Boston University Hillel (213 Bay State Road, 4th floor), followed by a reception. Copies of Eizenstat’s book, “The Art of Diplomacy,” will be available for purchase. Tickets to the livestream are available on the registration page. Registration is required.