The Human Side of the Story

For the week ending 30 July 2005 / 23 Tammuz 5765

Whats (Not) in a Name

by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach zt'l
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When a Jordanian couple named their son Yitzchak Rabin, they probably did not anticipate the consequences. The social pressures from their anti-Israel neighbors became so intense that they were forced to leave Jordan and become refugees in Israel.

When they applied for citizenship in the country whose former prime ministers name was the cause of their statelessness, there was an initial reluctance to accommodate them. "After all," it was argued, "who asked them to name their baby that way?"

In the end, however, humanitarian considerations and media pressure moved the Minister of the Interior to grant the family at least temporary citizenship.

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