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. 

While the course reinforced his own pro-Israel instincts, it also helped Krivine 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, when Krivine learned that Boston University had hired Elie Wiesel, a playwright, writer, Holocaust survivor, and advocate for human rights and peace, who later received the Nobel Peace Prize, Krivine wrote to then-Boston University President John Silber to thank him. As Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, Professor Wiesel encouraged students to explore human interaction and understanding, and gave annual public lectures that were significant events in the cultural life of Boston University and the Greater Boston Area. Krivine was grateful that Wiesel was carrying on the values that he had learned at Boston University. 

When Boston University launched the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in 2005, Krivine was inspired to  continue that tradition. He funded a lecture series named for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a visionary leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his dedicated efforts to make peace between Israel and its neighbors, and was assassinated a year later. To Krivine, “Wiesel wrote the history of the Jews and Rabin almost wrote the future.”  

“My determination to imagine and finance the lecture was indeed inspired by a course in CAS, but it was a real coming together of things that led to this lecture series — the recognition that it was an important part of the university, my devotion to Wiesel, and a friendship with President Silber,”  he said. “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 Palestinian might be achieved. I encourage students to attend the Rabin Lecture because to understand society is to perceive and comprehend recurring historic patterns. Anyone graduating in 2023 has to get that.”

Since the founding of the Yitzak Rabin Memorial Lecture Series, speakers have included Ambassador Dennis Ross, who served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W. Bush, the special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton, and a special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Ethan Bronner, a senior editor at Bloomberg News who served as deputy national editor and Jeruslamen bureau chief for The New York Times; George Mitchell, who served as a United States Special Envoy for Middle East Peace; Professor 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. 

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. 

This year, the speaker will be Pnina Lahav, professor emerita in the Boston University Law School and author of the recently released biography on Israel’s fourth prime minister, The Only Woman in the Room: Golda Meir and Her Path to Power. The lecturer’s respondent, Bat-Sheva Margalit Stern, PhD, is an expert in 20th-century Jewish women, specifically women in Zionism, mostly in Eretz Israel and Israel. 

Before the lecture, there will be a video from Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, a former Israeli politician and daughter of former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin, to the members of the Elie Wiesel Center community and the public writ large.

“Pnina Lahav, Professor of Law Emerita, has just published a book on Golda Meir, discussing Meir’s often difficult time as the ‘only woman in the room,’ as Lahav describes her situation,” Harrowitz said. “The lecture will offer a unique perspective on Israel’s fourth prime minister through a gender lens and in the context of the twentieth century. The lecture will be both stimulating and engaging, and a fitting tribute to the Rabin Lecture Series. 

Krivine said he has been inspired by all of the past speakers and is thrilled that Pnina Lahav, Bat-Sheva Margalit Stern, and Dalia Rabin-Pelossof will be speaking this year, along with introductions by Harrowitz. 

“It is deeply moving that our lecture is the product of the legacy of one woman and engagement of three more women: Dalia Rabin, Pnina Lahav and Nancy Harrowitz,” Krivine said. “At this moment in time, I can’t think of a more forceful voice for a reason. It is an achievement not just for the Center, but on a grander scale, for BU itself.”

The 2023 Yitzhak Rabin Lecture, “The Only Woman in the Room. Writing the Life of Golda Meir,” will take place at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25, at BU Hillel. There will be a reception beginning at 4 p.m.. Learn more and register.