JERUSALEM — An American educator who marched for civil rights in the 1960s and advocated coexistence between Muslims and Jews when he moved to Israel died Tuesday after succumbing to wounds sustained in a Palestinian attack on a bus in Jerusalem two weeks ago.
It was one of many attacks in a month of violence triggered in part over Palestinian allegations of Israel changing agreements at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, charges Israel has denied and said amount to incitement to violence.
To lower tensions at the site, Israeli and Jordanian officials said Tuesday that surveillance cameras should be installed within days at the shrine to stream footage live online for maximum transparency. Jordan is the custodian of the Muslim-administered site.
Newton, Mass.-native Richard Lakin, 76, died of wounds sustained on Oct. 13, when two Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem, and began shooting and stabbing passengers, killing 11 Israelis. Recent regional violence also included the death of 55 Palestinians, including 35 identified by Israel as attackers and the rest in clashes with security forces.
Lakin was a longtime principal in Glastonbury, Conn. His Facebook page displayed an image of Israeli and Arab kids hugging under the word “coexist.” His son, Micah Avni, said Lakin was a beloved educator and author of a book on teaching. Lakin also taught English to Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem after moving to Israel in 1984.
In the 1960s, Lakin was active in the civil rights movement in the U.S., marching with Martin Luther King Jr. and bringing students from Boston to the South for sit-ins, Avni said.
“He was a big believer in people and in peace and in being kind, and he never hurt a soul in his life,” Avni said, adding that thousands of people from around the world have contacted him to express their shock and condolences after his father’s death.
Suzanne Hertel of West Hartford, Conn., taught under Lakin at Hopewell School in Glastonbury, where he was principal. He championed an effort to bring students from inner-city Hartford to Glastonbury under a program called Project Concern, she said.
Rabbi Richard Plavin of Beth Shalom B’nai Israel in Manchester, Conn., which Lakin attended before moving to Israel, said Lakin was a passionate man who pursued peace and justice.
“He was really a peacenik. He believed deeply in a two-state solution, and wanted to see Arabs and Jews living together in peace,” he said.
Avni said his father’s legacy “would be for people to take their energy and use it to do kind things, my mother describes it as random acts of kindness.”
Also on Tuesday, an Israeli court sentenced radical Islamic cleric Raed Salah to 11 months in prison. The sentence stems from a 2007 sermon that the court ruled was “incitement to violence” and “incitement for racism,”said Zahi Injaidat, a spokesman for the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Salah is the head of the branch.
