sensational... i highly recommend this book... i can't put it down... almost 200 pages in now... anyone who really wants to know or get an insight into the real meir kahane... who he really was and what he actually was like... will get this book and read it cover to cover... including the footnotes which add so much to their respective chapters... nik. out...
rabbi kahane developed.. I think the "real rabbi kahane" / the one we are most familiar with, will come out in volume 2 !
What is incredible was how he started..
As some may have heard in the interview libby kahane gave tamar, regarding the book.
while rabbi kahane, from a religious zionist family, was studying at mir(a really advanced charedi yeshiva, he was probably the only zionist there), he payed his way by delivering papers in the morning. At one point he was a taxi driver to get by. When he came out of high school, he knew tenach really well, and was fluent in hebrew, but had not learnt talmud, and he found it difficult at Mir, but soon he became one of the top students, and eventually of course obtained smicha from Mir. And he got his secular degrees too , history, law, which helped him do what he did. He struggled with his stutter, even going to classes to get it sorted out.
I heard him say in one of his audios online, that he was really into basketball, but he gave that up.
So He really developed religiously. He was a real red blooded american! There is a picture of him proudly sitting on the bonnet of his car! It seems to me that he transformed alot of that around the time his children were growing up.. He went to israel when he was needed to run the JDL.. Because he wanted his son Binyamin to speak hebrew naturally and fluently.. That is what I recall from the book anyway. On youtube, we largely saw him from 1985-1990.
Rabbi Kahane was a very multi faceted man.. you can see from the different types of talks he gave. And He probably spent alot of time away from home.. But, in my opinion, when at home, he would have been first and foremost a father and husband.. Not even talking to his wife about his debates and things.. and about any violent activities done by the JDL.. Libby Kahane is a librarian. To Meir Kahane, she would have been a nice jewish wife. And she is quite a quiet religious woman. Infact, Libby Kahane got alot of material for the book, from FBI records. The FBI tracked every step rabbi kahane made! You do see the letters he wrote to his children.. as he spent alot of time in prison. You do really see the husband/father side of rabbi kahane, in the book, that`s a side you would not really see from his talks. Those early years covered by the book seem to be more about preparation for what was to come. I liked the book, as a fan of anything about rabbi kahane!