My Memories of Israel's JFK Monument

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

JFK was killed nearly 9 years before I was born. But the significance of his assassination was well remembered by my family and passed on down to my siblings and myself. Dad told me how my grandmother lit a candle in honor of JFK on the night of his death. While this is a tradition generally bestowed upon other Jews, my grandmother bestowed the honor upon our first Catholic President without hesitation or reservation.

As time goes on and fewer people who were alive when it happened are still among us, much of the discussion on JFK centers around his assassination, more specifically the conspiracies surrounding it. During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump made a point of connecting Ted Cruz's father to Lee Harvey Oswald. After a brief revolt, Cruz has since rewarded Trump with his undying loyalty.

The more talk there is about conspiracy theories, the less talk there is about the man himself, legacy and what he meant to people the world over.

In the summer of 1988, I made my only visit to Israel. I was there for six weeks as part of tour sponsored by the Canadian Jewish Congress aimed at teenagers who lived in communities with small Jewish populations. 

One of my memories of that trip was a visit to the John F. Kennedy Peace Forest which is situated less than 10 miles from Jerusalem. The centerpiece of this forest is a monument called Yad Kennedy. 

The monument is formed by 51 columns representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia surrounding a bronze relief of JFK and an eternal flame. The encirclement is shaped like a tree stump.

When we sat near the monument, one of our leaders asked us, "Why is this monument shaped like a tree stump?"

To which I replied, "It represents a man cut down in the prime of his life."

This drew a positive response from both the other leaders and my peers participating in the trip.

After all, Kennedy remains the youngest man ever elected President and second youngest to assume the office. Of course, Theodore Roosevelt was a year younger than JFK when he assumed the presidency in 1901 following the assassination of William McKinley. 

JFK was only 46 when he was felled by an assassin's bullet. Had he lived he would have very likely won a second term. It is impossible to know what this would have meant for the Vietnam War and the Cold War. We'll never know if this would have precluded a Nixon presidency or if it would have accelerated it. Perhaps Republicans would have turned to Ronald Reagan years sooner. 

Whatever the case, there was work to be done and the promise of the New Frontier to be fulfilled. Alas this promise would never come to pass.