Israel
The Story of HEBHEBRRON:ON: SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS FROM TARPAT (5689) In commemoration of the Hebron Massacre of 1929 BY TOBY KLEIN GREENWALD
An Israeli flag reflected off Me'arat Hamachpelah. All photographes are from the Hebron Community Archives; the Israeli National
Summer 5764/2004 JEWISH ACTION out to the Arabs of Hebron that the preaching venomously against the Jews were murdering thousands of Jews. In 1924, the Muslim Wakf insti- 1266: A Brief Arabs in Jerusalem. Other Arabs in gated a dispute about the Jews’ con- The Muslims decree that Jews are not cars followed him, shouting that Jews nection to the Kotel; in 1928, the to enter Me’arat Hamachpelah, and can History of were attacking Arabs (rather than vice mufti incited the Arabs further by only go up the first seven steps outside. versa, as it was in reality). claiming that the Jews were trying to This decree is strictly enforced until the According to The Martyrs of Hebron, take control of the mosques on the liberation of Hebron in 1967. Hebron written by Leo Gottesman, who was a Temple Mount. The Muslims argued Haifa * student at the Slabodka yeshivah in that the Kotel was holy to them 1517-1917: Hebron but was not present at the because Mohammed had tied his horse (Ottoman Rule) At the beginning of time of the massacre,2 the author’s there before he went up to the Temple the sixteenth century, the Jewish popula- Jerusalem * Mount. (To this day, in fact, Muslims tion of Hebron grows as some of the Hebron* call the pogroms of 1929, “the Jews expelled from Spain arrive. Some The riots pogroms of the horse.”)3 On erev of the most important kabbalists of Be’er *Sheva Tishah B’Av 1929, a week before the Tzefat move to Hebron. Kabbalah and were hardly Hebron Massacre, the Jews held a asceticism become prevalent in Hebron large demonstration in the Kotel plaza, for three hundred years. spontaneous. in an attempt to affirm the Jewish Arabs destroyed the shul during the massacre. connection to the holy site. 1800s: brother was on his way back to In the aftermath of the demonstra- Chabad Chassidim develop the com- Circa 1800 BCE: Hebron for Shabbat in a cab filled tion, the mufti inspired riots around munity. By the late nineteenth century, (Hebrew year: 1948) Avraham is born. hen the tears [of God] fall into ences. Moreover, the Arab governor of with Arabs, when he saw them eyeing the country. Since the British were bla- the Jewish population reaches 1,500. He purchases Me’arat Hamachpelah the great sea, the sound of the Hebron, Abdullah Kardos, had him and snickering. He realized that tantly pro-Arab, he was able to stir up when his wife, Sarah, dies. It becomes tears falling among the waves promised the Jews that they would not something was afoot; when his hat the riots unhindered. In Motza (a sub- 1917-1948: the eventual resting place of Avraham Wreaches Me’arat Hamachpelah and be harmed. (World Wars and British Rule) The blew out an open window, he used it urb of Jerusalem), for example, there and Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivka and flourishing period of the Jewish settle- awakens the Forefathers. They rise, sur- According to first-hand accounts as an excuse to leave the cab and was the cruel murder of the Makleff Yaakov and Leah. Adom and Chavah ment in Hebron, with 1,700 Jews, mising that the Almighty wants to recorded in Sefer Hevron,1 the most escape back to Jerusalem. family. They were murdered the day are also buried in the Cave. comes to an end with the outbreak of destroy the world. Soon a voice is heard: comprehensive book on the history of before the Hebron Massacre. One of The riots were hardly spontaneous. World War I. Young men are conscript- “Do not fear, holy and beloved ones! It is Hebron, some Jewish notables in the The mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al- the three children who survived— Circa 1010-970 BCE: ed into the Turkish army, the channels for you that God remembers your chil- city—among them Eliezer Dan Husseini, (who would, in the ensuing Mordechai Makleff—became the King David reigns in Hebron for of financial assistance are blocked, and dren and wants to redeem them” (Zohar Slonim, the highly respected manager fourth chief of staff of the Israeli seven-and-a-half years before moving to years, offer to help Hitler) had been hunger and plagues afflict the commu- Bereishit, III:172:2). of the Hebron branch of the Anglo- Jerusalem. nity. On August 23, 1929, the day before Palestine Bank, and the son of Rav the Hebron Massacre, rumors were Yaakov Yosef Slonim, the chief Circa 40 BCE: 1925: circulating about anticipated riots, but Ashkenazi rabbi of Hebron—met to (Second Temple Period) Herod builds a The Slabodka yeshivah from majestic structure over Me’arat of the 700 Jews who lived in Hebron, discuss the situation. When they Lithuania is established under the lead- Hamachpelah. most did not believe anything bad couldn’t resolve their differences of ership of Rabbi Moshe Mordechai would happen to them. They consid- opinion, they went to consult with Epstein. Thanks to 150 Slabodka stu- ered their relations with their Arab Rav Meir Franco, the chief Sephardi 322-638 CE: dents, the Jewish population rises to 700 The Byzantines rule, and the Jewish neighbors to be strong, based upon rabbi of Hebron. Together they decid- in 1929. (At the time, 18,000 Arabs live settlement in Hebron disappears. years of friendship and shared experi- ed to bring the Jews who were scat- in Hebron). tered in outlying areas to homes in the Toby Klein Greenwald is a writer, editor city center, where they thought it August 24, 1929: Circa 638 CE: th Muslims capture Hebron, and the and community theater and film direc- would be safer. (The 18 day of Av, 5689) Sixty-nine Jewish settlement begins to renew itself. tor. She lives in Efrat with her husband As they walked out of the meeting, Jews are murdered by their Arab neigh- and her children. She was a regular they were met with a barrage of stones bors in a brutal massacre. Among the “Shabbat volunteer” of the Jewish com- thrown by Arab youths. Yet, shortly dead are yeshivah students from New 1100 CE: York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Memphis, Crusaders capture the city and expel munity in the memshal—the Hebron after the Arabs finished their Friday Military Compound [see timeline]— prayers, Arab notables came to Slonim Canada and Lithuania, in addition to the Jews. those born in the Land of Israel. and lived for a while in Kiryat Arba. to reassure him that no harm would 1260-1517: She would like to dedicate this article to come to the Jews of Hebron. those who sanctified the name of God These notables were either misin- 1931: The Mamluks—Muslims who Thirty-five Jewish families resettle with their deaths, and to those who formed or misinforming. At 2:30 that expelled the Crusaders from Palestine— Hebron, despite threats from the Arabs sanctify the name of God, every day, Friday afternoon, a young Arab on a make Hebron their capital, and the The Hadassah building, where Arabs were treated free of charge, was broken into, and all the and British dissatisfaction. Jewish settlement is once again restored. with their lives. bicycle, coming from Jerusalem, called medical equipment and pharmaceutical supplies were destroyed.
JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004 Defense Forces (IDF). earlier—in the heart of historic Hebron. 1936: According to Aryeh Klein, who has For two months no one is allowed in, and Pogroms break out and continue until lived in Hebron since 1985 and is cur- anyone who leaves cannot return, while 1939. Known as “The Arab Revolt,” the rently writing a book about the mas- ll day we hurried from house to house to gather the dead and the wounded the Begin government—concerned about andA bring them to the local hospital. We had completed the search in the house of Rabbi security and political issues—decides pogroms leave more than 600 Jews dead sacre, the mufti was pragmatic. He throughout the land. On April 23, wanted the riots carried out in the Moshe Grodzinski when I was startled to see a path of blood from the steps leading to the whether or not to allow Jews to live in the 1936, in the middle of the night, British roof. I followed the path, and there I found Dov Tebankin; he looked white and was lying heart of Hebron. Soon the women and authorities, fearing another Tarpat (the in a pool of blood. With the help of friends, I carried him to the hospital. There the Arab children are allowed in and out, but no Massacre of 1929/5689), evacuate the doctor declared that Dov was about to die and commanded us to place him in the room one else is allowed to join them. They live Jewish inhabitants of Hebron. Frenzied Arab with the dead. this way for more than a year. When we returned in the morning, we found Dov still alive in the room of the dead. mobs, with axes, The doctor permitted us to bring him to the room of the wounded. There he lay until the 1948: wounded were removed to Jerusalem. He was hospitalized for several months. Eventually, February 1980: Yehoshua Saloma, a yeshivah student Israel becomes a state. Hebron falls knives and iron he recovered and lived for many years, becoming a well-known rabbi in New Jersey. under Jordanian rule for the next nine- [Testimony of Rabbi Yitzchak Tuker, in S. Ezrachi, HaMashgiach (New York, from Kiryat Arba who made aliyah from teen years. bars, screamed, 2001), 191.] Denmark, is murdered in the vicinity of Beit Hadassah. Subsequently, the Begin ÒKill the Jews!Ó government decides, in principle, to 1967: fully, almost empty; of the 150 stu- Rachel Graziani: On that same black The State is attacked, and Hebron is allow Jews to live in historic Hebron, dents, many were either on summer Shabbat, when Ima took out the liberated. The local Arabs and the but the decision is not implemented. vacation7 or were preparing for cholent, we heard screams, and we Jordanian authorities have almost entirely mountainous areas such as Jerusalem, Shabbat.8 The mob murdered the one destroyed the Hebron Jewish Quarter and Tzefat and Hebron, not in the low- looked through the window and saw a May 1980: the cemetery. The country is in a state of lands near the sea. “The mufti’s inten- student they found there—Shmuel mad mob of Arabs, and Father moved us Six yeshivah men and boys are shot Rosenholtz, a conscientious, young away from the window and pushed “positive shock,” as Jewish historic loca- tion was to remove the Jews from the The son of Eliezer Dan Slonim, one-and-a- dead by Arab terrorists who were in a yeshivah bachur who had prepared for tions that were off-limits for so many mountains. He thought that once that half-year-old Shlomo Slonim, the sole sur- something against the door. They didn’t building across from Beit Hadassah. Later years are now under Jewish control. was done, getting them out of the vivor of his immediate family, photographed Shabbat early and had come to the succeed in getting through the door, and that week the Israeli government issues shore area would be easier, as those here with his aunt. yeshivah to review the parashah. As the official authorization for the renewal of a Pesach 1968: who dwelled in the mountains were Arabs made their way back through Jewish community in historic Hebron A group of Jews dedicated to reset- thought to be stronger,” says Klein. the streets, an Arab who had partici- The mob and allows the renewal to actually begin. tling Hebron, led by Rabbi Moshe and Hebron Jews were particularly vul- pated in the murder of Rosenholtz Miriam Levinger and Rabbi Eliezer and nerable since they had made the city boasted, “Too bad we went to the murdered the one 1981: Ruth Waldman, hold a Seder in the yeshivah and found only one boy. David Kapulsky is stabbed near Beit Park Hotel in Hebron. Later, they move more modern and economically pros- Tomorrow the number will be student they Romano. The building is repossessed by the to the memshal, the Hebron Military perous. While the Arabs who wanted higher.”9 found thereÐa Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and in 1982, Compound, on the hill overlooking modernity regarded the Jewish pres- A terrified quiet ensued. But the Yeshivat Shavei Hevron is established there. Hebron. Known as mitnachalei Hevron, ence as a blessing, those who didn’t morning hours brought bloody and conscientious, the settlers are a source of pride to many despised the Jews and led the rioting.4 brutal horror. Frenzied Arab mobs, 1984: Israelis and Jews all over the world. Jews An angry Arab mob gathered at the with axes, knives and iron bars, young yeshivah Jews finally return to the ancient from all over Israel make pilgrimages to home of the deputy police commander screamed, “Kill the Jews!” They broke Hebron of Avraham, on a hill overlook- the Me’arah to pray. of Hebron and took to the streets. At into homes and stabbed and mutilated bachur who had ing Hebron proper, and establish a small Hebron—one of the locations the community in Tel Rumeida. (Erev Rosh the same time, the elderly Rav Slonim the Jews they found. The mob that Jews were forced to abandon in 1948— prepared for Chodesh Elul 1998/5758—Rav Shlomo was on his way to the British police becomes one of the first places to which rampaged through the city included Raanan, the grandson of Rav Avraham Jews return (along with the Old City of commander of Hebron. He was respected Arab merchants and “good” Shabbat early. Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, is murdered in Jerusalem and Kfar Etzion, of the Etzion attacked and beaten by the mob. neighbors who killed their friends, his home in Tel Rumeida. A yeshivah Bloc). Another British police commander, clients and business associates. Torah continues to thrive in his home today.) who stood behind the mob, was scrolls were burned. The Hadassah then—with the belief that they were 1971: approached by a Jewish woman and building,10 where Arabs were treated friends and would do us no harm—he 1987: A new Jewish neighborhood, Kiryat asked to intervene. “It’s usually the free of charge, was broken into, and all [Father] said, “I’ll open the door if you The intifada breaks out; life becomes dif- Arba, is founded on a hill overlooking Jews who are to blame in these the medical equipment and the phar- take anything you want and don’t hurt ficult for the Jewish community in Hebron. Hebron proper. things,” he said, stirring up the Arab maceutical supplies were destroyed. anyone.” And he opened it. They pulled Nevertheless, it continues to grow. crowd even more.5 Rav Slonim turned A video database of survivor testi- him outside, and leading the mob was Rosh Hodesh Iyar 1979: to an Arab police commander for help, monies appears on the web site of the his “friend” from work….[Later] when December 1993: In the middle of the night, a group of but he shoved the rabbi away with his present-day Hebron community the British took us away, I saw my Mordecai Lapid and his son Shalom are women and children from Kiryat Arba, led horse. (www.hebron.com). The testimonies father downstairs, murdered. I will not murdered in Kiryat Arba in a drive-by by Miriam Levinger, move back into the Portrait of Benjamin Hurwitz, an American It was almost Shabbat. Some Arabs (in Hebrew) were compiled by David forget that. shooting, the first victims of terror follow- Beit Hadassah building—a building that yeshivah student who was killed during the broke into the Slabodka yeshivah— Wilder, the site’s creator. The follow- I remember my mother [holding] my ing the signing of the Oslo accords. The had known terrible destruction fifty years massacre. Photo courtesy of Reuben Rudman Yeshivas Hevron6— which was, merci- ing is from that collection:11 brother, only a few months old, and an first doctor to arrive at the scene is Baruch
JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004 Goldstein, a close friend of Mordecai who Arab tried to stab her, and my mother was a horrifying scene. We went up to the holds him in his arms as he dies. said, “Aren’t you afraid of God? He won’t roof and hid there. We heard the screams; forget that you are going to kill a woman we heard everything; we were like terri- Hebron Liberated and a boy”; and [the Arab] left her fied rabbits, hiding…. I arrived in Israel in July 1967, one month after the Six Day War. On my third Purim 1994: day in the country, I went with several friends to the newly liberated Hebron and Goldstein kills twenty-nine Arabs in [alone]. My grandmother, whom someone The mob went from house to house. noticed something odd as we neared the city. There were white sheets or white Me’arat Hamachpelah. Before the had tried to rape—she was beautiful, but The British and Arab policemen stood pieces of clothing fluttering from every single rooftop. A soldier in the car with us episode, Brigadier General Shaul Mofaz, she was also strong—also said, “Aren’t you by, watching the slaughter. Some of then the officer commanding IDF forces afraid of God?” and he left her alone. It the Arab policemen spurred the rioters explained that the sheets were “symbols of surrender.” The Arabs of Hebron were in Judea and Samaria, warns the mayor on12 or participated in the riots.13 sure that when a Jewish army returned, the soldiers would pay them back for and councilors of Kiryat Arba that Thinking they would be safer, many what they had done during Tarpat (the Massacre of 1929). Hebron, explained the Hamas is planning a large-scale terror people had gathered in the home of solider, was liberated without one shot being fired. attack. Goldstein is warned by the IDF Rav Eliezer Dan Slonim. However, in What a glorious day it was! To walk freely through the streets of Hebron, medical officer of the regiment in the that house alone, twenty-two men– filled with smiling Israeli soldiers, surrounded by Arab children—whose Hebron area to prepare the emergency still in prayer shawls–women and chil- fathers or grandfathers may have been among the murderers of Tarpat—chas- A cartoon that appeared sometime after 1929, showing a British officer dining and saying, clinic in Kiryat Arba for many Jewish dren were slaughtered, including ing after the visitors to sell them sweets or drums made from rust-colored pot- casualties. Following the incident, the “All is quiet sir,” while Jews are being Eliezer Dan himself, his wife, Hannah, tery. I remember the soldier who showed us around the city and took us fact of the impending Hamas attack is through Me’arat Hamachpelah. attacked by Arabs. Illustration: Nahum widely reported in the press. one of their children and Hannah’s Gutman, courtesy of Menachem Gutman parents. Hannah’s sister and a yeshivah His name was Avraham. TKG January 17, 1997: Photo: Reuben Rudman Redeployment takes place in Hebron. Israel After the massacre, the dead were buried in looking to murder the rich and the Yosef Lazarovski, whose account rooms [in Slonim’s house]…after we put gives over 80 percent of Hebron to the 15 Palestinian Authority in exchange for five graves, which became known as Kever Thinking they connected. In another house, the appears on the above-mentioned web down our pots with our food—our 17 “peace.” Achim, Tomb of the Brothers. At some point mob gouged out the eyes of Gershon site, recounts the following: cholent, our soup, our gefilte fish—in between 1948 and 1967, when Hebron was would be safer, Ben-Zion, the Hebron pharmacist, I remember the seriousness in my the kitchen…From our family there March 26, 2001: under Jordanian rule, Arabs dug up the many people had and stabbed him over and over again; father’s eyes as he looked at me and my were my grandfather, parents, three chil- Shalhevet Pass, a ten-month-old baby, gravesite and planted a vegetable garden they cut off his wife’s hands and killed two sisters…as if he was thinking, “What dren and my brother, a 16-year-old is murdered by sniper fire while in her where the graves had been. Pictured here is gathered in the her. They also tried to torture his awaits them? How will I protect them?” yeshivah bachur. And then, the shouts carriage. The fire comes from the Abu the Tomb of the Brothers in 1968. daughter, but she resisted with all her The sorrow, the quiet, the hushed tones, of the Arabs on the one hand—“Kill the Sneineh neighborhood on the opposite home of Eliezer might, and they murdered her “in a and then walking through the night with Jews!” “Allah akbar!” [God is great!]— hill and is aimed directly at her. strange and cruel way.”16 pots, to the home of Slonim, not far. I and from the other side, “Shema Dan Slonim. remember the walk. We spoke quietly, I Yisrael!” And then I remember a brown- Chanukah 2002: didn’t understand why; I felt the tension skinned Arab with a large mustache Twelve soldiers and civilians on security The survivors in the air, but I was afraid to ask why. breaking through the door. He had a duty are murdered in an ambush. They student were miraculously saved …And then we went into one of the large knife and an ax that he swung are ambushed while protecting Jewish because he shoved her into a closet remained under worshippers making their way home and held her mouth closed so she from Me’arat Hamachpelah. Among the wouldn’t scream when she saw through the eyes of the dead is Colonel Dror Weinberg, one of the crack, her parents being murdered.14 the highest-ranking religious officers in Photo: www.sassontiram.com British for two the IDF, slated to become the next com- Many sought refuge with Slonim mander of the paratroopers. After the Six Day War, the Israelis rebuilt the since he was known to have good con- days, without cemetery. Pictured here is the Tomb of the nections with both the British and the Since the resettling of Hebron in Brothers in 1990. Arabs; but the mob was specifically food, lying in 1968, approximately fifty Jewish citizens and soldiers have been murdered by blood and filth, in Arabs in the Hebron/Kiryat Arba area. About thirty of those deaths have deep shock, until occurred in the last four years. day before the Hebron Massacre, Moshe Goldshmidt, the Hebron butcher, wentA to Jerusalem to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak Schneersohn), who they were finally Today there are approximately 850 had come to Israel for a visit. After speaking with the venerable sage, Goldshmidt asked the Jews living in historic Hebron and rebbe to bless him that he be zoche (privileged) to see him again. The rebbe blessed him. able to pull them- Goldshmidt left the room but remembered that he had forgotten one of his sefarim (holy 6,500 in Kiryat Arba. books). As he went back in to retrieve the sefer, he again bid the rebbe farewell. Later, on selves his way back to Hebron, Goldshmidt realized that the rebbe’s berachah had already been *Much of the information is from the fulfilled, as he had seen him again. He wanted to go back and get another berachah, but together and go Encyclopaedia Judaica; Aryeh Klein, who is writing he realized he didn’t have the time. He was killed the next day. a book about Hebron, and Noam Arnon, chairman [Story told by David Wilder, Hebron spokesman for the foreign press.] buy food. and spokesman of the Hebron Jewish community. The destruction of the Jewish Quarter in Hebron as seen in 1967.
JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004 two-family house, and Abu Shaker was died.) “We—my husband, my sister Yom Kippur, the holy Day of Atonement, ernment health ministry building. away, as they had done with the Jews their landlord. “When our landlord and I—all stood around him. he restricted access. On Lag B’Omer he According to Sefer Hevron, the survivors of Hebron, the Tzefat Jews insisted on heard that something was happening Suddenly, he asked, ‘Where is beat a Jew. Thirty witnesses to the beat- remained under the eyes of the British staying in their burnt homes. in the city, he came and stood in the Rivkale?’ He was very emotional. ing came to court, and the presiding for two days, without food, lying in After the massacre, which came to entrance to the house,” recalls Burg. “Not very much is left of my judge stated there was insufficient proof blood and filth, in deep shock, until be known as “Meoraot Tarpat” (The Abu Shaker told the marauders that Hebron,” Burg says. “The Arabs to indict him. Can you imagine, thirty they were finally able to pull themselves Events of 5689—the Hebrew year of they would pass through the door to destroyed the home of my married witnesses are not enough!…On Shabbat together and go buy food. the massacre), Rav Franco and Rav murder the Jews over his dead body. brother, Eliezer Dan Slonim. My there were many attacks by Arabs on the The Arab doctors in the government Slonim made a list of those Arabs who “We heard what he said [to the mob] school had also been in that area. The Jews. One young man was stabbed and health ministry building were not inter- had helped save Jews during the tragic while he stood at the entrance. They Arabs built a shopping area there.” died that night. Then on Sunday, ested in helping the wounded. Thirty- event. The list is published, along with [the Arab mob] wounded him, but Burg is the mother of Avrum Burg, Monday and Tuesday, there were more six hours after the massacre, a British other documents, in Sefer Hevron. Out they didn’t go into the house. who is identified with the more attacks on the Jews in various places, surgeon with an assistant and two nurs- of a community of 18,000 Arabs, “After the massacre, the British took extreme end of Israel’s left-wing Labor and the British did nothing…. Jews are es came from Jerusalem to take care of there are nineteen names on that list. everyone to the police station. But my Party. Do her children still have some hit, they complain to the British police the scores of wounded. Eventually the Sefer Hevron also notes that only five father, a rav, would not ride there on connection to Hebron? “I don’t think who ignore them, although at times they survivors were taken to Hadassah Arabs were brought to trial. An Shabbat,” says Burg. “So we went, and so,” says Burg. “I was asked many incarcerate the Jew who was hit and free Hospital, then on Straus Street in Englishman and an Arab served as the we saw bodies, pieces of limbs and times if I would go back; but all my the Arab who attacked him. Jerusalem, where they were met by judges; a relative of the Jerusalem blood along the way.” [good] memories of growing up took …The funeral of the boy who was hundreds of anguished Jews who came mufti was the prosecutor. Sheikh Talab Rav Slonim died in 1937, in place in Jerusalem. I have only trau- stabbed on Shabbat was held this morn- Maraka, the leader of the murderous mourning for his family and his com- matic memories of Hebron.” ing [in Jerusalem]. A large group accom- mobs, was given a two-year sentence In September 1929, the Arabs distributed a munity. Letters reprinted in Sefer Abu Shaker’s compassion was the panied the body, and as they passed the In spite of but sat in jail for only one month. The paper throughout Palestine titled “Scandals Hevron reveal that after the massacre exception rather than the rule. main post office and started to head British used various legal tricks in of Jewish Propaganda,” where they claimed Rav Slonim persisted in trying to While Burg was huddling with her towards the Jaffa Gate, the police started everything, order to bring as few murderers as pos- that “no atrocities [occurred] in Hebron.” family in the British police station, the to direct them towards the Damascus sible to trial, but three Arabs were family of Benjamin Hurwitz, across Gate. Suddenly, the British officers started the sounds of hung in Hebron. These Arabs are con- through the doorjambs until he broke the ocean, was not yet aware that their to hit the Jews brutally, terribly brutally. Torah and sidered national heroes by the through. [He was] full of fury, screaming, Before 1929, beloved nineteen-year-old son was Jews, old and young, were hit and started Palestinians, and during the first “Allah akbar!” and “Itbach al Yahud!” members of the among the murdered.20 to run. The British are more brutal than Jewish life ring intifada, which commenced in 1987, [Slaughter the Jews!] I understood all Born on May 4, 1910, in New York the Cossacks. At least twelve people were Arabs throughout Judea and Samaria this; my grandfather tried to hold my yishuv thought City, Hurwitz attended Yeshiva Rabbi hospitalized in Hadassah Hospital. out again held a strike day in their memory. hand, then [he tried] to push me aside Jacob Joseph. His father, Rabbi Whoever hears this will not believe it…. Additionally, a special memorial was [and hide me], screaming, “Shema that the Yekusiel Raphael Hurwitz, who had The Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael is in Hebron. held for them in Hebron.24 Yisrael”…and then I remember another learned in the Volozhin yeshivah in terribly agitated, and, especially in The British censored all newspapers and Arab… with an ax that he brought British would pro- Europe, was an ardent Zionist who Jerusalem, the condition is bad. And who to mourn, and to comfort them.23 did not allow anything to be printed down on my grandfather’s neck…. spoke Hebrew with his children. knows what today will bring? On Sunday evening the Jews wanted about the events of Tarpat, officially Throughout the hills of Hebron, the tect them. After graduation, Benjamin Hurwitz During the massacre, Hurwitz took to start burying their dead in Hebron. because it “would encourage other screams of the tortured and maimed went to Eretz Yisrael, where he contin- refuge in the home of an Arab who Five graves were dug. The graves pogroms.” However, in an ironic twist, Jews mixed with the shrieks of the restore a Jewish presence in Hebron. ued his studies at Yeshivas Hevron. had been a friend. It is unclear became known as Kever Achim (Tomb pamphlets and books were not censored, satanic mob, who was “howling like Unfortunately, he was not successful. Two days before the massacre, Hurwitz whether he was killed by the friend or of the Brothers). so newspapers circumvented the censor- wild animals over their prey.”18 Burg, who spent the rest of her wrote a letter to his father. Some by another Arab. (In memory of their At some point between 1948 and ship by producing special pamphlets, such There were also stories of Arabs who childhood in Jerusalem, later married excerpts follow: son, the Hurwitzes established the 1967, when Hebron was under as “Davar Hayamim Haelah”(The Word risked their own lives to save Jews. (the late) Minister Yosef Burg of the …How terrible are the happenings Benjamin Hurwitz Memorial Prize, Jordanian rule, Arabs dug up the on These Days),25 published by Davar. Rivka Slonim Burg—the daughter of National Religious Party (Mizrachi). that occur daily in Jerusalem, our holy which is still awarded to outstanding gravesite and planted a vegetable gar- In September 1929, the Secretaries of Rav Slonim and the sister of Eliezer Right after the Six Day War, when city in our Holy Land. students at Yeshiva University’s Isaac den on the site where the graves had the Arab Executive distributed a paper Dan Slonim—recalls19 that before the Hebron was liberated from Jordan, she There are attacks on the Jews, the Breuer College of Hebraic Studies.) been. After the Six Day War, the throughout Palestine and the world massacre there were good relations returned, with her husband, to visit [British] government ignores them, Israelis rebuilt the cemetery and recon- titled “Scandals of Jewish Propaganda,” with the Arabs in the area. “We were the city of her youth. There she looked ...and the world is quiet. Is this why we structed the gravestones. which stated that “no mutilations” and even invited to each other’s semachot for the family that had saved her. “All have returned to rebuild our desolate hen the mob was through, One week after the massacre, twen- “no atrocities in Hebron” occurred. It [joyous occasions].” She was only eight the [original] residents of the city had therWe were sixty-nine dead21 and scores also accused the Jews of publishing lies land? Have we returned to see our sons ty-four Jews were murdered in Tzefat years old when she hid behind Abu run away during the Six Day War killed? We hoped to build our land, and wounded; more than twenty22 of the before the British intervened. The about the Arabs of Hebron to “deceive Shaker, the Arab neighbor who stood because they were afraid that the Jews the land has been transformed into a dead were yeshivah students. The sur- Arabs began to burn the Jewish public opinion, collect more money in the doorway of her family’s home in would take revenge, but we found one country for the English…. viving Jews were taken to the police Quarter in Tzefat, but the Jews of and reflect [negatively] on the dignity Hebron, protecting her and the rest of of the sons of Abu Shaker who had …They appointed a brutal, Jew-hat- headquarters—located in Beit Tzefat were stronger and more orga- and honor of the Arabs.” her immediate family from the mob. stayed to watch over the family’s pos- ing officer to be in charge of permitting Romano—and from there, the wound- nized than those in Hebron; when the Tarpat was a landmark in the history Rav Slonim and his family lived in a sessions,” says Burg. (He has since Jews [to enter] the Western Wall. On ed and dead were removed to the gov- British brought trucks to take them of the yishuv. Before 1929, members
JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004 first-hand accounts that were pub- lished soon after the massacre in news- papers such as Ha’aretz, Doar Hayom, Davar and Kol Yisrael. 2. The book, written in 1930, is avail- able at
JEWISH ACTION Summer 5764/2004