Not content with giving half of his teaching salary away to save people with malaria by purchasing mosquito nets with global charities, when the semester was over and after his grades were in and the student evaluations were complete, he made individual donations in each of his students’ names to Oxfam, GiveDirectly and other groups targeting global hunger. As his parents so eloquently wrote in their heart-rending statement after Tommy’s death: Even as a busy student at Harvard Law School and a teaching assistant, he was involved in anti-war activities, fought against cruelty to animals, and dedicated himself to a host of progressive causes. Yet Tommy Raskin was engaged in politics. We have to make it clear that part of the solution to despondency is to engage in politics and to fight back. There are comparable numbers in the opioid crisis, the epidemic of alcohol and drug abuse, a staggering mental-health crisis. We’ve lost more than eight hundred thousand people to covid-19 – which means eight hundred thousand grief-stricken families. There are millions of hurting people in the country. Yet I was surprised by the ending of the interview, in which he offered political action as the antidote for the depression that engulfed Tommy and threatens so many other Americans: The interview heralded the January release of Raskin’s new book, “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy.” Congressman Raskin lives in the milieu of politics and social action. Tommy’s final note also was a nod to his family: “Please look after each other, the animals, and the global poor for me.” Unfortunately, the scourge of young adults committing suicide is a problem much vaster than Raskin’s family and mine. In his suicide note, he wrote that he did not want to become a burden on his family. As his degenerative disease made him increasingly dependent, Ofer despaired of having a meaningful life. Since both his parents were kibbutzniks, he was raised with the ethic of productivity and independence.

Unlike Tommy, who suffered from clinical depression, Ofer suffered a physical malady – Multiple Sclerosis.

Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 15-19 year-olds. Ofer, like Tommy, had a famous and feted father – Ofer’s father is one of Israel’s leading economists – who is devoted to liberal political causes. Ofer, like Tommy, was close to his parents and two siblings. Ofer, like Tommy, was brilliant and personable. Perhaps I was more vulnerable to be caught in the orbit of Raskin’s grief because just a few days before I had visited the grave of my cousin’s son Ofer, who had also taken his own life, at the age of just 30.

His description of 25-year-old Tommy as possessing “a perfect heart, a perfect soul, a riotously outrageous and relentless sense of humor, and a dazzling radiant mind” made the snuffing out of Tommy’s light even more heartbreaking. I was moved by a recent interview with Raskin in The New Yorker. Yet his political career has been overshadowed by the tragic suicide of his beloved son Tommy on the morning of New Year’s Eve last year. A representative from Maryland, he was the lead impeachment manager for the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, and is a member of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Jamie Raskin is one of the most prominent members of Congress.

Tommy raskin son suicide