Yair Lapid—A Son of Israel
Shortly before Israel was plunged into two years of war by the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, Yael had the privilege to sit down with former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Much like Yael taking up the mantle of her abba, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Lapid followed in his own father’s footsteps, as a writer and a politician. Also a prolific writer, he wrote the posthumous memoir of his father, Tommy Lapid, an Israeli journalist, politician, and Holocaust survivor.
And here, he shares one of the key lessons from the Holocaust—that every Israeli has a duty to make sure the Jewish state always exists. Lapid relates that his father’s story of surviving the bloodbath of the Jewish ghetto in Budapest is a stark reminder that he “cannot live in a world in which I don’t have a place to go.” In sharing his father’s story, the former prime minister says he is telling the story of the Jewish people.
But The Fellowship and Rabbi Eckstein also have a special connection to the Lapid family, which Yair shares in this warm, insightful, and enlightening conversation between two people who have devoted their lives to serving Israel and the Jewish people.
Find out how much you know about other Israeli figures by taking our quiz!
Episode Notes:
Yair Lapid was born and raised in Tel Aviv, the son of journalist and politician Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, who served as Israel’s Justice Minister, and novelist and playwright Shulamit Lapid. Yair followed in his father’s footsteps, pursuing an early career in journalism and broadcasting. Like his father, Yair Lapid also left journalism to enter politics. He served as Israel’s Minister of Finance from 2013-2014 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2021-2022. Yair Lapid became Israel’s 14th Prime Minister in July 2022, serving until December of that same year.
Yair is also a prolific author, having written twelve books, including his father’s memoir, Memories After My Death, about his father’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor. Unlike other memoirs or biographies about the Holocaust, Yair chose to author the book in his father’s voice. “When I started writing the book, I thought I was writing my father’s story. It took me a while to realize that I was actually writing the story of the Jewish people in the 20th century,” he explained. “I used his voice because it was running in my head that way, and it was my way of saying my farewells to him and to share with others what Israel meant to him.”
Yair said that his father lost many family members in the Holocaust and that the opportunity of being able to live in a country that protected him as a Jew was an incredible gift and blessing. “My father felt very strongly about the fact that we don’t just live here,” Yair said. “We have a part in something that is much greater than us. And this makes our lives meaningful, and you can’t ask from more than to have a meaningful life.”
Yair’s father also warned him about the fragility of the Jewish state. “For many of us, we think the fact that we live in Israel is something that goes without saying. But my father told me Israel is a constant creation, something that always has to be built. We can never be too diligent in working on this country and being a servant of the people.”
