Desert residents remember Israeli leader Shimon Peres

The Jewish community in the Coachella Valley is remembering and reflecting on the life of former Israeli president and prime minister Shimon Peres. Peres passed away Wednesday after suffering a massive stroke and being hospitalized. He was 93.

Rabbi Andrew Bentley of Temple Sinai in Palm Desert met Peres in the early 1990s when he saw him at a funeral for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. There he said the experience to meeting Peres was exceptional as he described him as being “larger than life”.

“It’s like meeting one of the founders of the United States, so you’re in awe,” Bentley said.

Talia Lizemer, education coordinator for the Tolerance Education Center in Rancho Mirage, said Peres was an example of a person someone could look up to.

“The way he spoke, he would never say bad things and he was just an example of how to behave,” she said. “Even when people spoke badly of him.”

One word both Lizemer and Bentley tied Peres to was peace. Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 along with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Rabin for the Oslo Peace Accords.

“Ultimately, people should remember Peres as a man who sought peace despite it being a difficult path or a difficult road,” Bentley said. “He was a pursuer of peace which is the ultimate goal of all of us.”