The 1929 Arab Riots in Hebron
The Horrifying
massacre of the Jews of Hebron, known as the “1929 Riots,” resembles the most
brutal of pogroms against Jewish communities in Europe . It dealt the Hebron Judea , which was rendered “Judenrein”.
The traditional
Jewish community in Hebron Berlin Israel Hebron
The bloodshed
in Hebron Jerusalem Friday, August 23,
1929 .
Inflammatory sermons were delivered in mosques and rioters began to attack
Jewish homes and the Slobodka Yeshiva. The devoted yeshiva student Shmuel
Rosenholz was stabbed and stoned to death as he labored over his Talmud. The
British police did nothing to protect the Jews. Their commander, Major Raymond
Cafferata, reprimanded Jewish community leaders who had come to plead for
protection and instructed them to hole up in their homes, which were then
turned into death traps.
The next
morning, August 24, 1929 , on Shabbat, a ghastly massacre ensued.
Thousands of Arabs carrying knives, hatchets and pitchforks attacked the Jews’
homes. The bloodthirsty Arab mobs found the Jews to be easy prey. They broke
into one home after another, with compassion for no one. The aged Rabbi Yosef
Castel was tortured to death and his home was set ablaze. Rabbi Hanoch Hasson,
chief rabbi of the Sephardic community was murdered together with his wife.
Benzion Gershon, a pharmacist at the Hadassah clinic who helped anyone who fell
ill, Jew or Arab, without any discrimination, was tortured to death after
dozens of rioters raped and murdered his daughter before his very eyes. His
wife died in agony, her hands amputated. All members of the Slonim family were butchered
except for one year-old Shlomo, who survived despite his having sustained
serious injuries. Rabbi Abraham Orlansky, rabbi of Zikhron Ya’akov, father of
Hannah Slonim, was murdered by hammer blows to the head; his wife was also
murdered. The principal of Tel Nordau School Hebron
The Jews
pleaded for mercy, wailing and beseeching at the top of their lungs. The Arab
monsters responded by shouting “Allahu akbar” (G-d is great) and “Itbah al
Yahud” (Slaughter the Jews), mercilessly tormenting and butchering old people,
babies, women and children. The streets echoed with cries of terror and filled
with blood and feathers. It must be acknowledged that a small number of Arabs,
from among a murderous population of many thousands, did conceal and rescue
some Jews.
The Hebron
The Arab terror
wave spread to all parts of the country - Jerusalem Haifa Hebron Israel Hebron
Thus, the
brutal terror and atrocities at the hands of a murderous Arab mob, with
collaboration from the Mandate government which finished the job off by
deporting the survivors, succeeded in obliterating the community of Hebron Israel Hebron Israel
4. The Attempt to Recover from the
Devastation
The survivors of the Hebron Jerusalem Hebron Hebron
In 1936, however, when the
Arabs launched their next round of riots, the British again drove the Jews out
of Hebron Hebron
In the decade preceding Israel Hebron Jerusalem Hebron Transjordan . Due to their immensely heroic struggle, it was the
Etzion Bloc victims who saved Jerusalem
After the Kingdom of Transjordan Jordan Hebron
Although the situation seemed
worse than dispiriting, the Jews did not give up their property. They produced
and kept lists of properties and owners. After having been driven out of their
homes, most of the Jewish refugees from Hebron
5. The Liberation of Hebron
The day after Israel Egypt Sinai Peninsula . War broke out on June 5, 1967 and within six days Israel Jerusalem Jerusalem June 8, 1967 and the outcry, “The Temple
Having secured Jerusalem Bethlehem Hebron Hebron Hebron
The stupendous victory in
June 1967 completed the process that began with the establishment of the State
of Israel and returned the Jewish people to the expanses of its historical
homeland, primarily the hills of Judea and Samaria Hebron
The idea of returning to Hebron Israel Hebron Jerusalem
The task itself was
undertaken by a handful of activists under the leadership of R. Moshe Levinger,
rabbi of Moshav Nehalim. Since the Jewish quarter had been totally destroyed,
they chose a different location for the resettlement operation – the Park
Hotel, owned by the Kawasmeh family, which agreed to lease it to them for
appropriate consideration. On the eve of Passover 5728 (April 1968), the hotel
was made kosher and the group settled in. The first festive seder in liberated Hebron Hebron
Several weeks later, Levi
Eshkol’s government, in conjunction with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, decided
to house the settlers in the Military Administration building that loomed over
the western part of Hebron – a “Taggart building” (a British police fortress
that had been built by Jewish-owned Solel Boneh in 1938). The southern wing of
the building was allocated to the families, who lived there amid congestion and
many difficulties. The grim conditions were surmounted by the atmosphere of
making the dream of generations of Jews come true. A yeshiva was established at
the administration building – Yeshiva of the Hebron Settlers – and students
from Yeshivat Mercaz Harav, Yeshivat Or Etzion and other places made their way
to it. Various enterprises – a metal workshop, a carpentry shop, etc. – were
set up as well. As the overcrowding worsened, several additional structures
were built west of the main edifice; they, too, were promptly inhabited. The
number of residents grew steadily, making it necessary to find a permanent
solution.
6. The Establishment of Kiryat Arba
The idea of returning to Hebron Hebron March 25, 1970 . In the course of the debate, the Deputy Prime
Minister, Yigal Allon, said, “We must not acquiesce in making Hebron
The site was chosen – a
boulder-strewn hill on the outskirts of Hebron Israel Samaria Hebron
In 2008, forty years after
the return to Hebron
Yeshivat Nir in Kiryat Arba,
a hesder yeshiva headed by Rabbis Eliezer Waldman (one of the local pioneers)
and Dov Lior, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hebron, is the successor of Hebron
Settlers’ Yeshiva. Its students have served in the finest combat units in Israel Israel Land of Judea
Kiryat Arba is governed by an
elected local council and presents a well kept, handsome appearance. It has
taken in varied Jewish populations, immigrants and veterans alike, all joining
in the task of building the City of the Patriarchs. In 2009 Rabbi Levinger's
son Malachi was elected as mayor of Kiryat Arba.
7. A Stunning Landmark Event: Jewish Hebron Ancient
Cemetery
Although Kiryat Arba
continued to develop, the sense of distress over the injustice and destruction
at the Jewish sites in Hebron
Then came an event that was
too stunning to overlook, an incident that became a milestone: the funeral of
the baby Avraham Yedidya Nachshon. He was born in Kiryat Arba in February 1975
to Baruch and Sarah Nachshon, Chabad hasidim and founding members of the
community. Baruch is a world-famous artist and painter. The Nachshon children
were the first to be circumcised – surreptitiously – at Me’arat ha-Makhpela, in
contravention of the orders at the time. Avraham Yedidya, the Nachshons’ ninth
child, was named for the Patriarch Abraham. When he died in his sleep at the
age of four months, his mother Sarah made a decision: she would bury him in the
most natural location of all, the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron
Thus, in the gloom of night
she took up her dead son and began to walk from Kiryat Arba toward Hebron Hebron Hebron Hebron Hebron Hebron
8. The Redemption of the Avraham Avinu
Synagogue
Professor Benzion Tavger, a
noted professor of physics, immigrated to Israel Soviet Union in
1975. By so doing, he sacrificed a secure future as a celebrated scientist in
favor of his right to make ‘aliya’. After struggles and strife with the Soviet
Communist authorities, he got his way and once in Israel
After the funeral of Avraham
Yedidya Nachshon, Tavger applied for and received a job as a guard at the
cemetery. In this capacity, he discovered fragments of the tombstones of the
1929 martyrs, scattered in Arabs’ homes and strewn along the perimeter fence of
the graveyard. This marked the beginning of a lengthy process and struggle that
culminated with the revitalization of the 1929 Martyrs’ Plot at the cemetery.
Afterwards, Tavger began to dig in the cowshed and the mound of debris that
covered the site of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue, devotedly and indefatigably
laboring amidst the refuse. The authorities took exception to his exertions and
repeatedly arrested him for “trespassing.” In a warped and absurd way, by
resolution of the government of Israel Soviet Union and students at Yeshivat Nir. After months of
intensive toil, the remnants of the building came into sight. They included the
openings that had connected the women’s gallery with the sanctuary, the central
pillars and fragments of walls and arches.
After the site was cleaned
up, prayer services were held on Rosh Hashana 5737 (September 1976) in an
atmosphere of exaltation and exultation. Immediately afterwards, however, the
area was placed off limits: the synagogue was declared a closed military zone
and anyone who entered for prayer was liable to arrest. Indeed, many Jews were
taken into custody while praying amid the synagogue ruins. The struggle
continued for nearly four years; only in 1980, as Beit Hadassah was being
resettled and in the aftermath of the terror attack that occurred nearby, was
authorization to rebuild the synagogue given. The architect Dan Tannai
performed preservation work on the basis of plans produced by the architect
Yaacov Finkerfeld, who had sketched the layout of the building while visiting
the synagogue in the 1940’s
.
After the construction was completed,
veterans of the community, in an emotional ceremony, reinstalled the
community’s treasures there: the ancient Torah scrolls that had rested in the
Holy Ark for centuries and that members of the community, throwing caution to
the winds, had rescued in the 1929 riots. These scrolls were the crown jewels
in the restoration of the glory of the City of the Patriarchs. Today, after the
reconstruction, Avraham Avinu Synagogue is a jewel of a building that occupies
the center of the new Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Again it bustles with
activity, including prayers and liturgical song enunciated in the original
melodies of the Jews of Spain. The plaza in front of the synagogue entrance is
named for the late Benzion Tavger, a paragon of a human being who pledged his
life to the redemption of Hebron
The Avraham Avinu
Neighborhood After the synagogue was rebuilt, additional houses nearby was
reclaimed and others were built from scratch. It was slow going. The Ministry
of Construction and Housing built two houses in 1989. Beit Nahum vi-Yehuda
(const. 1999) commemorates Nahum Hoss and Yehuda Partosh, residents of Kiryat
Arba-Hebron, who were murdered in a terror attack in 1995.
Also in this neighborhood,
Kollel Shalhevet Tehiyat ha-Aretz, a yeshiva for married men, commemorates the
martyred baby girl Shalhevet Pass. Hebron
In 2001, after the murder of
the baby Shalhevet Pass
9. Beit Hadassah: The Dramatic Return of
Jewish Life to Downtown Hebron
After the 1929 massacre,
Arabs occupied the Hadassah clinic building. Until the liberation of Hebron Israel One midnight in May 1979, a group of ten women and some 40
children entered the first floor of the building in order to finally
re-establish a permanent Jewish presence in the center of Hebron
Despite these ghastly
conditions, they insisted on staying. Only after pressure was applied did the
authorities allow them to receive water and basic food for the children. Due to
the grim living conditions, the children contracted various illnesses. An army
physician who was allowed to visit the building recommended that the children
be removed after one of them contracted hepatitis. The boy’s mother, however -
Rebbetzin Miriam Levinger, one of the leaders of the group - retorted, “They
had malaria in the Jezreel Valley Hebron January 31, 1980 , when Arab terrorists claimed their first Jewish
victim in Hebron Denmark
In the aftermath of the
incident, the government made a basic resolution to re-establish a permanent
Jewish community in Hebron
On the ground floor, the site
of the community’s initial rebirth, original inscriptions from the time of
construction (1893) were discovered. On this floor, a Hebron Hebron
The Lubavitcher Rebbe
constantly encouraged the re-settlers of Hebron Hebron Hebron
Chabad in Hebron
The Chabad Hasidic movement
has deep roots in Hebron Hebron Hebron Israel Israel
After the liberation of Hebron Hebron
10. The 10th Anniversary of the Struggle:
The Division of Hebron
Settlement activity in Kiryat
Arba has endured endless trials. A girl raised there, Chava Waksberg, was
murdered in a contrived “accident” in February 1993. The yeshiva student Erez
Shmuel was murdered on his way to worship at Me’arat ha-Makhpela in May 1993.
Since then, the alley leading toward the Tomb of the Patriarchs has carried his
name. Igor Gorgol of Kiryat Arba was murdered in August 1993. The real trial,
however, was yet to come.
In September 1993, after
Israeli leftists instigated illegal contacts with leaders of the PLO terror
organization, the first Interim Agreement (“Oslo
The predictable wave of Arab
terror that swept Israel Hebron Hebron
On the morning of Purim, February 25, 1994 , Dr. Baruch
Goldstein, a physician from Kiryat Arba, entered Me’arat ha-Makhpela. Suddenly,
the building boomed with protracted bursts of gunfire. A government
investigative commission chaired by Supreme Court Chief Justice Meir Shamgar
established that Goldstein had shot to death twenty-nine Arabs before he
himself was killed. The
uncharacteristic event touched off a global wave of shock. Leftist elements
responded by demanding that the Jews of Hebron be expelled, but this nefarious
idea was halted in its tracks by a mighty wave of support and sympathy for the
Jewish community in the City of the Patriarchs, replete with visits and acts of
identification. “Kings of Israel” Square (subsequently renamed Rabin Square Hebron
Despite the wave of terror
and the ongoing incitement, the government transferred all cities in
Judea-Samaria-Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. Predictably, another wave of
serious terror attacks ensued, this time against public buses, leisure
attractions and commercial sites. Kiryat Arba was struck as well: On May 17, 1994 , Rafael Yairi of Kiryat Arba and Margalit Shohat were
murdered not far from Beit Haggai, several kilometers away. Two months later,
Shani-Sarit Prigal (17) was murdered at the very gate of Kiryat Arba. In June
1996, Effie and Yaron Unger of Kiryat Arba were shot to death while driving
through the Elah Valley
When Benjamin Netanyahu
succeeded Shimon Peres as Prime Minister in 1996, many expected and hoped that
he would stop the withdrawal process and retain Hebron Hebron Israel
Jews faced severe limitations
in building and development while the Arabs embarked on a massive wave of
construction – thousands of buildings and millions of square meters. The accord
allowed Jews to access and worship at only four holy places – Elonei Mamre,
Sarah’s Spring, Eshel Avraham and the Tomb of Othniel son of Kenaz; even this
limited arrangement has never been honored. Jews are usually denied entry to
the Casba, which borders their homes, even though it is situated in the Israeli
area and includes Jewish sites and extensive Jewish property.
The immediate Arab response
to the Hebron Accord was an eruption of terror. Dov Driben of Kiryat Arba was
murdered at Maon Ranch in April 1998. Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan was murdered in
August 1998 and Danny Vargas of Kiryat Arba was murdered in Hebron Oslo
The homes of the Jewish
community in Hebron March 26, 2001 , Shalhevet Pass, all of ten months old, was murdered.
Her murderer, a sniper, had stood on Abu Sneineh Hill – a location handed over
to the Palestinian Authority under the Hebron
The wave of terror continued
to gather steam, striking all parts of the country. One of its climaxes was the
murder of thirty-two Jews on Passover eve at Park Hotel in Netanya. In its
aftermath, the government decided to restore IDF security control in the cities
of Judea and Samaria Hebron April 27, 2002 , in which four Jews were murdered, the IDF reclaimed
parts of Hebron Jerusalem Hebron
On Friday night, November 15,
2002 , twelve fighters –
soldiers and civilians – fell in an ambush that terrorists had set for Jews
returning from Sabbath eve prayers at Me’arat ha-Makhpela on “Worshipers’ Way”
between Hebron
Shocking as the incident was,
the string of attacks continued. Netanel Ozeri was murdered on Friday night, January 20, 2003 , in his home on Hill 26 north of Kiryat Arba. Rabbi
Elnatan Horowitz and his wife Dina were murdered in their Kiryat Arba apartment
on Friday night, March 7, 2003 . On May 17 of that year, Gadi and Dina Levy, a couple
from Kiryat Arba, were murdered in a suicide attack in the middle of Hebron Hebron Hebron Hebron Hebron Jerusalem Beersheba Haifa
May G-d avenge the blood of
them all. Only after this painful series of losses did the security policy
finally change.
In the meantime, the areas
from which Israel had withdrawn – both in Lebanon (May 2000) and in the Gaza
Strip (a general retreat including the expulsion of Jews and the destruction of
the Jewish communities in the summer of 2005) – became terror bases for radical
Islam, which had been importing high-quality weapons in enormous quantities and
without inhibition. As events in the summer of 2006 proved, the withdrawals
triggered a wave of terror, abductions of soldiers and attacks on the State of
Israel with Katyusha and Kassam rockets. They also proved that only effective
security control by the IDF throughout the area could protect the country’s
inhabitants. This perception, applied in Judea-Samaria, finally led to the
elimination of nearly all terror cells and the imposition of almost total
security.
Nevertheless, in late 2007
the government of Israel November 20,
2007 and two residents of
Kiryat Arba, the martyrs David Rubin and Ahikam Amihai, army commandos on
furlough, were murdered on December 28, 2007 , while hiking near Telem in the hills west of Hebron Israel Ashkelon and Western
Negev villages, claiming
lives and wounding many. An Arab terrorist also left his mark in the heart of Jerusalem March
6, 2008 . The lesson was
driven home once again: manifestations of weakness and retreat only serve to
encourage terror. Terror can be fought only under a policy of courage, heroism,
resolve, settlement and establishing roots in the Land of Israel
11. A New Generation Building the City of
the Fathers: Continuing Devotion in the face of Great Challenges
The June 1997 Hebron Accord
left the town’s Jewish community in constricted quarters in the area under
Israeli control and with its rights severely compromised. Veterans of the
ancient community and their heirs continued to demand the restitution of their
homes and property and transferred the rights in their properties to the Jewish
community of Hebron PLO-controlled Municipality Hebron
Later that year, the
community was put to a grim test. On August 20, 1998 , Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan met a martyr’s death at Admot
Yishai. The crisis, however, strengthened the community’s internal fortitude
and resulted in further construction. In 1998/99, Beit Nahum v’Yehuda was
dedicated in the Avraham Avinu Quarter and archaeological excavations at Tel
Hebron (Rumeida) began as a preparatory measure toward the construction of a
permanent apartment building. In 2000, Beit ha-Shisha (“House of the Six”) next
to Beit Hadassah, was dedicated commemorating the six young men who fell in
1980 for the cause of resurrecting Jewish Hebron. Additional families were
accommodated and the community steadily grew. Concurrently, after strenuous
efforts, the community inaugurated its own water main, connected to Kiryat
Arba. Its dependency on the Palestinian Authority for water supplies was over.
The terror war that began in
September 2000 subjected the community to grave ordeals – gunfire and sniping
into homes every day, as well as painful losses. The teacher Rina Didovsky of
Beit Haggai, who taught in Kiryat Arba and the driver Eliyahu Ben-Ami were
murdered in December 2000. The infant Shalhevet Pass March 26, 2001 ). The soldier Elazar Leibowitz of Hebron Hebron
Beit Menahem, the first
permanent Jewish building at Tel Hebron/Admot Yishai, was dedicated in April
2005. The massive structure was put up after an archeological excavation
salvaged the antiquities at the site and its foundations are planted in the
soil of four millennia of Jewish history in Hebron
In February 2006, the
families at Mitzpe Shalhevet (the “wholesale market”) were ordered to evacuate.
A confrontation was thwarted at the last moment when the regional army
commander undertook to launch a systematic legal process that would restore the
market area to Jewish control. After the families left, however, the
Attorney-General, Manny Mazuz, reneged and a new struggle for restitution
ensued. Two families returned to the eastern building, situated at the location
of Beit Yaakov Synagogue, which was destroyed in 1929. On August 7, 2007 , they were evacuated from the building again, this
time forcibly. The homes and the Rinat Shalhevet Synagogue were smashed and
ruined in a manner reminiscent of pogroms from times past. Still, the community
persisted in its efforts to reclaim properties and to expand. Another house was
purchased next the Avraham Avinu quarter. Named Beit Shapira, it was inhabited
in April 2006. The police established a special task force to undo the purchase
of the building and the Jews there were forced to evacuate a month later.
Not to be
deterred, the community responded with another great step forward. In April
2007, families and young people entered Beit HaShalom, a spacious four story
building purchased at full price towering over the pedestrian and vehicular
routes between Kiryat Arba and Hebron Hebron Hebron
The Story of the City of the Patriarchs
By Noam Arnon
"The miraculous rebirth of the Jewish Community of
Hebron, the very existence of the community today, is the single greatest
triumph of the West over Islamic Jihad and terror - a triumph which warrants
the active, ongoing support of every human being who treasures freedom!"
Noam Arnon, 2009 "Lion of Zion "
Awardee - Moskowitz Prize for Zionism
Hebron - natural capital of the province of
Judea, the historical nucleus of Eretz Israel
“And they ascended into the Negev and
he came to Hebron …and they came to
the brook of Eshkol and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes
and carried it between two on a pole…” (Num. 13:22–23
1. The Biblical Era & Biblical Sites Hebron First
Hebrew
City
The fertile inheritance of the tribe of Judah, with its
abundant vineyards, is described in picturesque verses at the conclusion of the
Book of Genesis, where Jacob is quoted as blessing Judah: “Binding his foal to
the vine and his colt to the choice vine, he washes his vestments in wine and
his clothing in the blood of grapes; his eyes are red with wine and his teeth
white with milk” (Gen. 49:11–12). Although thousands of years have passed, the
landscapes of the Hebron highlands
still abound with vineyards. The grapes of Hebron
- table grapes and, in recent years, wine grapes as well - are once again
renowned for their quality. A number of local wineries have won international
awards in recent years.
The name “Hebron ”
signifies connection (Heb. hibbur) and unity. In geographic terms, Hebron was a
junction and a market center between the mountaintop area - where the grapes
grow - and nearby regions to the east, the desert frontier and the Negev, where
sheep are raised and grain is grown and to the west as well, the area of the
Judean foothills and their olive groves.
In ancient times, Hebron
was synonymous with the main meeting place for the entire Judean Hills area.
Some endow this name with symbolic meaning, suggesting that it denotes the
Jewish people’s connection with its Patriarchs and its deepest roots. Others
prefer a more mystical, kabbalistic explanation that speaks of the connection
of worlds – heaven and earth, which, according to tradition, takes place at
Ma’arat ha-Makhpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The city’s ancient name is
Kiryat Arba, as the Bible confirms: “The name of Hebron
in bygone times was Kiryat Arba” (Josh. 14:15 ).
The name may be geographic in origin, denoting the connection and merging of
four (Heb. ‘arba’) urban quarters. Some, however, believe that ‘Arba’ is the
name of a person who once controlled the town. Others cite the four ‘anaqim’
(“giants”) who dominated the town in antiquity; yet others emphasize the four
couples who are buried there: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and
Rebecca and Jacob and Leah.
Some 3800 years ago, Abraham - the first Hebrew, the Jewish
national patriarch - began his sojourn in Eretz Israel .
After being commanded by G-d to “stand up and walk in the land, to its length
and its breadth, for I shall give it to you” (Gen. 13:17), Abraham chose Hebron,
the regional capital, as his first place of settlement: “And Abram encamped and
he came and settled in Elonei Mamre that is in Hebron and there he built an
altar to G-d” (Gen. 13:17–18). Abraham used the altar that he built in Hebron
to disseminate monotheism, the belief in the One G-d. It was from here that he
set out in pursuit of the kings who had captured his nephew Lot
and liberated him. Upon his return, he was visited by G-d, Who in the “Covenant
of the Pieces” promised Abraham that He would “give this land to your
offspring” (Gen. 15:18). An ancient tradition identifies the location of this
divine revelation as Elonei Mamre, the aforementioned site at the northern edge
of Hebron .
After decades of sojourning and migrating, it was in Hebron
that Abraham purchased the first Jewish estate in Eretz Israel :
the field which included the Ma’arat ha-Makhpela, for the express purpose of
using the cave as a burial place for his wife Sarah, for himself and for their
descendants. The cave became the “tract of the nation’s giants,” where the
first Jews and the founders of the Jewish people lie in eternal rest - the
Patriarchs and Matriarchs: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and
Leah. Here, in Hebron , they built
their homes, laid the foundations of the Jewish people and endowed it with its
special identity and faith. By their actions, the status of Hebron
as the “City of the Patriarchs” was forever stamped on the Jewish national
psyche.
Some 3000 years ago, the City of the Patriarchs became
David’s first capital. According to the Biblical account, G-d instructed David
to establish his kingdom in Hebron ,
the historical capital of Judea : “And it came to pass
afterwards that David inquired of G-d, saying, Shall I go up into any of the
cities of Judea ? And G-d said to him, go! And David
said, Where shall I go to? And He said: to Hebron !”
(II Sam. 2:1). David ruled Judea from Hebron
during the first seven years of his reign. Here, inspired by the spirit of the
national patriarchs, he consolidated his monarchy until he gained the
recognition of all the tribes of Israel :
“Then all the tribes of Israel
came to David in Hebron and spoke,
saying, behold: we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, too, when Saul
was king over us, it was you who led Israel
out and brought them back. And G-d said to you that you shall be a shepherd for
His people Israel
and shall be a prince over Israel .
And all the elders of Israel
came to the king in Hebron and King
David established a covenant with them in Hebron
before G-d and they anointed David king over Israel ”
(II Sam. 5:1–3).
Once David made his ascent to Jerusalem ,
the latter city won the status of capital and site of the Temple .
However, the profound historical foundation in Hebron
survived, for Hebron remained the
City of the Patriarchs and the site of the nation’s roots and origins. Hebron
also retained its status as a regional capital. Many Jewish communities were
established around it, thus making Judea the heart of
the Jewish nation during the First Temple Judean Kingdom Hebron
and Lakhish were subordinate to the capital, Jerusalem ;
peripheral towns were subordinate to them and around these regional centers
were densely placed settlements and farms that crisscrossed the entire Judean
Hills - remnants of which we find throughout the vicinity today. This marked
the peak of human settlement in these parts of the country.
Evidence of the royal status and central administrative role
of First Temple Hebron is found in signets
bearing the inscription “To the King of Hebron.” These signets, displaying the
word la-melekh (“to the King”) and the name of one of four cities - Hebron,
Shukha, Zif and Mamshit - were embossed on the handles of huge containers of
grain, wine and olive oil that belonged to the royal treasury. They were
evidently stored in royal warehouses in these towns during Hizkiyahu’s rein as
King of Judea. Archeological excavations at various sites in Judea
turned up some 1500 signets, including 1000 bearing the inscription “To the
King of Hebron.” A number of similar signets were discovered in Tel Hebron
itself.
Biblical Era Sites in Hebron
The Ancient Tel of Hebron
The ancient city of Hebron
in the Biblical era - a royal city, fortified with massive stone walls, was
located at Tel Hebron (at the edge of what is known today as Jebel Rumeida).
Its main water source was “Abraham’s Spring” (‘Ein Jedida’), which continues to
flow to this very day.
Fragmentary remains of the ancient city were discovered by
three missions that excavated the Tel: an American mission headed by P. Hammond
(1964–65), a mission from Tel Aviv
University
Philip Hammond’s excavations resulted in the first-ever
discovery of a city wall from the Patriarchal era (the Canaanite era / Middle
Bronze Age, approx. 3800 years ago) on the southern side of the Tel. Due to its
size and strength, Hammond termed it the “Cyclopean Wall” (“wall of the
giants”). His excavations also unearthed an abundance of findings dating from
the era of the Kings to that of the Mishna and the Talmud.
Ofer expanded the areas of excavation in the eastern part of
the Tel and uncovered a wealth of findings. The most important of them was a
small clay tablet carrying an inscription in Acadian hieroglyphics, including a
list of animals for sacrifice and references to several individuals and a king.
The tablet, part of a Canaanite archive that was kept in Hebron ,
shows that the town was a royal city and a religious and administrative center
even before our Patriarch Abraham first visited it.
Eisenberg’s excavations in 1999 showed that the fortified
city had been established some 700 years earlier than had been conventionally
thought. His mission found, for the first time in Hebron ,
a massive rampart, 7 meters wide, from the early Canaanite (Bronze) era
(approx. 4500 years ago), attesting to the city’s importance and centrality.
Next to it, he discovered part of a staircase, in a rare state of preservation,
leading to the town gate. A Middle Bronze Age extension of the “Cyclopean Wall”
was discovered next to the ancient rampart. When the extension was built, some
of the original stairs were destroyed. Additional excavations nearby turned up
a grave with numerous findings and pieces of jewelry from the late Canaanite
(Bronze) Age, shortly before the Israelite conquest. Some of them are on
display at the Judea Antiquities
Museum Hebron
had been a strong and fortified central city since the Early Bronze Age and
attained its maximum size in the late Judean
Kingdom
The Tel was repopulated during the Byzantine Era. At the
time, the town had a well-developed wine industry from which a large system of
wine presses has survived. Over time, the settled area gradually migrated down
from the hill into the valley below and the area of the Tel was eventually abandoned
and planted over with olive trees.
In 1807, the Sephardic Jewish community, by means of its
agent, Rabbi Hayyim Yeshua Bejaio (the first of that name), bought the entire
area of the Tel and enjoyed the oil that its trees produced. Title to some of
this land was transferred to the Ashkenazi community. During the British
Mandate period, there was a plan to establish a spacious residential quarter
there and the sale of plots for this purpose began.
For all practical purposes, this important location remained
unsettled by Jews until 1984, when seven mobile homes were towed to the site.
The seven families that moved into them lived in isolation and under harsh
conditions that became even worse after Hebron
was partitioned in 1997 under the Wye Accords. On August 22, 1998 , a terrorist infiltrated the area from
Palestinian Authority territory and murdered Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan, a saintly
and exemplary person – a grandson of the revered Rabbi A.I. Kook. This
dastardly murder led to the consolidation of the Jewish presence at this
location, when, in response, the Israeli government approved the construction
of a permanent Jewish residential building at the site.
An archeological excavation preceding the onset of
construction yielded immensely important findings (described in detail above).
The archaeological site is open to the public; the new Jewish building - Beit
Menachem, dedicated in 2005 - is situated over it. Its roof overlooks the
expanses and landscapes of Hebron ;
its foundations, planted in the soil of the Tel, establish millennia of Jewish
continuity in the heart of ancient Hebron .
An ancient structure nearby, at the top of the Tel, is identified by an old
tradition as the burial place of Yishai (Jesse), father of David and Ruth, the
“Queen Mother” of the Davidic dynasty. Jews worshipped here for many
generations, customarily gathering there on Shavuot for a festive public
reading of the Scroll of Ruth, which recounts the story of the family of Ruth,
Yishai and David. The observance of this tradition has now been resumed.
Me’arat ha-Makhpela - the Tomb of
the Patriarchs
Me’arat ha-Makhpela is a site that embraces a plethora of
national, spiritual, religious, historical and archaeological principles . It
is the oldest major Jewish shrine and one of the most important Biblical sites
in the entire world. As the burial place of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of
the Jewish people, it is a focal point of Jewish identity and in essence, the
nation’s cradle. The elaborate account in Genesis of how the site was purchased
stresses the vast importance that the Torah attributes to this location and its
acquisition. Indeed, the connection between the Jewish people and its land,
Eretz Israel ,
began its lengthy and eternal journey with this purchase. The acquisition of the
Makhpela plain and cave is the foundation, root and precedent of all subsequent
Jewish purchases and reclamations of land in Eretz Israel .
In addition to its national and historical centrality, the
Sages attributed profound sanctity and spiritual meaning to Me’arat
ha-Makhpela. According to the Zohar, the main work of Jewish mysticism, Me’arat
ha-Makhpela is the gateway to Eden .
Its secrets were revealed to Adam and he and Eve are buried there. Abraham
discovered its sublime sanctity; hence his eagerness to buy it. According to
the rabbinical exegesis, the cave carries the significance of duality: souls
pass through it in order to ascend to and connect with the uppermost realm,
hence the origin of the word makhpela: “doubling” - denoting the connection between
two worlds. The name Hebron is also
derived from the notion of connection (Heb.: hibbur). According to the Sages,
four couples were interred in this cave, hence the origin of the name 'Kiryat
Arba’ - a “city of four.” Many Jewish sources affirm the notion that prayers
ascend to the heavens via the Me’arat haMakhpela. As a result, down through the
generations, Jews came here to pray, to take advantage of “Zchut Avot” - the
merit of the forefathers, attributed to the tombs of the Patriarchs. The positioning
of the cave is consistent with the topography described in the Torah. The
grotto rests at the edge of a plain in ‘Emeq Hevron’, the part of Hebron
that is a valley, east of Mamre. Indeed, the hill to its northwest is termed
Mimra to this very day.
In modern times, the exact location of the cave was
established after having been a mystery for generations. For many years, legend
had it that no one who enters the cave could leave it alive. In 1981, however,
a group of local Jews and instructors from Midreshet Hebron, the local
Institute for Hebron and Eretz
Israel Studies, discovered the cave under the building: a double burial crypt
of the kind that was typical of the Patriarchal era, containing artifacts from
the First Temple
During the reign of Herod (Second
Temple Jerusalem , underscores the
fact that the Me’arat ha-Makhpela and the Temple
Mount
After the destruction of the Second
Temple
In 1267, the Muslims imposed a humiliating decree on the
Jews, totally barring them from the building and allowing them to approach it
only up to the seventh step of the eastern staircase (which no longer exists)
at the outer gate. For the next 700 years, in an astounding display of devotion
and loyalty, Jews continued to make their way to Hebron and despite their
humiliation, worshipped as close to the tombs of the Patriarchs as they could
get – there on the seventh step. Over the years, the Jewish elders of Hebron
documented the beatings and insults that they suffered whenever they attempted
to go even one step closer.
Their astounding loyalty paid off: During the Six-Day War, Hebron
was liberated on June 8, 1967 ,
the day after the liberation of Jerusalem .
The Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces, Maj.-Gen. Shlomo Goren, was the
first Jewish serviceman to enter Me’arat ha-Makhpela freely and hoist the flag
of Israel over
its gates. The first Israeli civilian to cross its threshold was David
Ben-Gurion. Afterwards, it took years of struggle until the Jews’ natural right
to pray and study Torah at this location was recognized. The buildings that had
obscured the ancient walls were destroyed during the era of Jordanian rule
(1948–1967). With the onset of Israeli rule, the eastern stairway, including
the “Seventh Step” - the historical site of Jewish humiliation for so many
years, was destroyed by the IDF.
Today, the building over the cavern is divided between Jews
and Muslims. Civil authority and most of the floor space were handed to the
Arabs. However, the Jews’ presence at the site is growing steadily. Five
synagogues are active in the Western (Jewish) wing and hundreds of thousands of
Jews visit each year for prayer and festivities - circumcisions, bar mitzvas
and weddings. On the Sabbath when the portion Hayyei Sarah is read, tens of
thousands of Jews - families and young people alike, ascend to Hebron ,
packing the plaza in front of the building, to retell the story of the purchase
of Me’arat ha-Makhpela and share the experience of reaffirming the covenant of
the purchase of Hebron and Eretz Israel .
Ten days each year, on some of the Jewish festivals and observances, Jews are
allowed to enter all parts of the building (including Isaac’s Hall, where the
aperture leading into the cavern proper is located). On these occasions, tens
of thousands of Jews throng to the location for worship, bonding with their
national Patriarchs, awaiting the fulfillment of G-d’s promises to them and
looking forward to their own final redemption aided by the Patriarchs’ merit.
2. Jewish Hebron
The Jewish community of Hebron
has existed almost uninterruptedly since the Biblical era. After the First
Temple Second Temple Temple
Mount Hebron
and the Temple was cited at the Temple
every morning, when a watchman noted the arrival of sunrise by crying: “All of
the face of the east has lit up…as far as Hebron !”
(Tamid 3b). The purpose of this ritual was “to recall the merit of the
Patriarchs” (Jerusalem Talmud, Yuma
3:1).
In the Great Uprising against the Romans, Hebron
was destroyed and burned after the destruction of the Second
Temple Hebron hills area played a
central role in the Bar Kokhba uprising and the city was leveled again. After
the uprising failed, the Romans sold hundreds of thousands of Jews into slavery
at Ayelet Avraham, a marketplace at the Elonei Mamre site north of Hebron .
Even so, the Jewish presence in the area endured. During the Mishnaic and
Talmudic periods (4th–7th century CE), dozens of Jewish communities in the
southern Hebron hills flourished
under Byzantine rule and magnificent synagogues were built in some of them
(including Sussiya, Eshtamo’a, Ma’on and ‘Anim). Jews continued to worship at
their shrines in Hebron - Me’arat
haMakhpela and Elonei Mamre - and apparently there was a synagogue at the
northern portion of the Me’arat ha-Makhpela compound. At the time of the Arab
conquest (638 CE), the Jews helped the Arabs to find the gates of Me’arat
ha-Makhpela, which the Byzantines had concealed. In return they were allowed to
continue worshipping at the Me’arat ha-Makhpela synagogue and to settle nearby.
The Jewish neighborhood that began to develop near Me’arat haMakhpela became
the kernel around which the entire lower city evolved.
After the Crusaders conquered Eretz Israel
(1099–1100), the Jews suffered immensely and their numbers dwindled. The
occupiers built a church inside the Me’arat ha-Makhpela structure as well as
erecting a fortress and establishing a small community nearby. The Jews of
Hebron were forced to leave town but continued to visit. Rambam (Maimonides),
visiting Me’arat ha-Makhpela in 1166, was so profoundly impressed that he
established the anniversary as a “personal yom tov” (festival) for his
descendants:
“On Tuesday... we set out... I entered the great and holy
house and prayed there on Thursday, the sixth of Heshvan. And on Sunday, the
ninth of the month, I set out from Jerusalem
for Hebron to kiss the tombs of my
forefathers at the Cave and that day I stood in the Cave and prayed, praised be
G-d for all of it. I vowed that those two days, the sixth and the ninth of
Marheshvan, would be as a yom tov [festival] for me, a day of prayer and
rejoicing in G-d and eating and drinking. May G-d help me with all of this and
enable me to keep my vow, Amen. Just as I was privileged to have worshipped
there in its destroyed state, so may I and all of Israel
witness its consolation quickly, Amen” (from Iggrot haRambam).
In 1171, the famous Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela
visited Hebron and evidently
entered Me’arat ha-Makhpela as well. According to documents discovered in the
Cairo Geniza, in the tenth and eleventh centuries there were Jews in Hebron
who held the title of “Servant of the Eternal Patriarchs” or “Friend of the
Patriarchs’ Tombs”; they helped Jews who had come to worship at Me’arat
ha-Makhpela. A Jewish neighborhood seems to have begun developing near the
shrine; documents from the geniza mention Jews who were stationed “at the tombs
of the Patriarchs.”
The Mameluke Muslims occupied Eretz Israel
in 1260. The great Ramban (Nachmanides, R. Moshe b. Nahman) “made ‘aliya’ (left
exile in order to dwell in Eretz Israel )
at this time. In a letter dated 1267, he told his son that he was about to go
to Hebron in order to dig a grave
for himself:
“I am writing you this letter in Jerusalem ,
the city of sanctity. Indeed, with praise and gratitude to the Rock of my
Redemption, I was privileged to arrive safely on the ninth of Elul and remained
here safely until the day after Yom Kippur, preparing to go to Hebron ,
the city where our Patriarchs are interred, to prostrate myself before them
and, with G-d’s help, to dig a grave for myself.” Various authorities believe
that Ramban’s tomb was situated at the seventh step next to Me’arat
ha-Makhpela, while others place the site in Jerusalem
or Haifa .
At this point in time, an outbreak of Muslim fanaticism took
place. The Muslims, eager to turn Me’arat ha-Makhpela into a mosque, emphasized
their obsession by building minarets over its outer wall. They also enjoined
Jews against entering the building, forcing them to stand, humiliated and
disgraced, on the seventh step at the eastern entrance of the structure.
The Mamelukes forced the Jews to live in a separate
neighborhood, thus bringing on the formation of a separate Jewish quarter in
southern Hebron . In 1489, the famed
commentator on the Mishna, R. Ovadia of Bertinoro, spent some time in Hebron .
“I went to Hebron ,” he wrote, “and
sojourned there for many days until I developed a liking for the place, almost
more than Jerusalem , the Jews there
being few and good.” The Turkish conquest (1517) was immediately followed by a
pogrom against the Jews. Many were killed, injured and expelled. Shortly
afterwards, however, the community was rejuvenated. A group of Jews who had
been expelled from Spain ,
headed by R. Malkiel Ashkenazi, settled in Hebron
in 1540, purchasing a large plot of land from the Karaites and reinstating the
Jewish quarter. This quarter, then known as “Ghetto” or “Cortijo” (Ladino for
“courtyard”), became the center of community life and the Avraham Avinu
Synagogue was built at its heart. For the safety of its inhabitants, the
quarter was built in the form of a closed courtyard accessed by narrow gates.
At first, Jews refrained from living anywhere else in town. As their numbers
increased, they added extra floors and the area became more and more congested.
Even so, the quarter was renowned for both its hygiene and the fullness and
sanctity of its Jewish life.
Its rabbis and kabbalists rubbed shoulders with craftsmen,
merchants and others. The Sephardic community of Hebron
was joined by well-known kabbalists and rabbis, including R. Eliyahu Di Vidas,
author of the “Reshit Hokhma”, a member of the mystical inner circle of
disciples of the holy R. Isaac Luria (the Ari), and R. Avraham Azulai, author
of Hesed le-Avraham. The latter wrote, “And when I arrived at my place of
respite and possession, the holy city of Kiryat Arba ,
it being none other than Hebron ,
may it speedily be built, its provinces satiated my soul like milk and oil, for
they gripped me with immense pleasure and the “gold of that land was good” [cf.
Gen. 2:12]. My eyes were privileged to behold the treasures of the sacred, not
the profane.” Hebron was also home
to R. Shlomo Adani, author of the Melekhet Shlomo commentary on the Mishna.
In 1619, an epidemic in Hebron
drove most of the Jewish townspeople to Gaza ;
the escapees included the poet R. Israel Najara, originally of Safed, author of
the piyut “Y-a Ribon.” He was named rabbi of the Gaza
community and spent the rest of his life there. This era is recounted in the
famous legend published in 1648 in ‘Emek HaMelekh' by R. Naftali Bachrach, a
disciple of R. Isaac Luria. Back in Hebron ,
only nine courageous Jews braved the plague and remained behind. According to
the community’s tradition, on the eve of Yom Kippur, finding that they were one
man short of a minyan (the requisite ten-man quorum for public worship), the
Patriarch Abraham himself descended from the heavens and joined them to satisfy
this requirement, thus providing the pretext for naming the synagogue after
him. Another miracle said to have visited the Jews of Hebron occurred when a
tyrannical pasha (Ottoman official) imposed an enormous ransom on them in order
to drive them out of town. Miraculously, the requisite sum found its way to a
window at the entrance to the neighborhood and the joyous community
commemorated the event by establishing the festival of “Window Purim” on the
14th of Tevet.
In 1700, R. Gedalia of Semyatich reached Eretz Israel
in R. Judah Hasid’s convoy. He reported that he found forty Sephardic families
in Hebron , “all dwelling in one
courtyard, where the synagogue and beit midrash are also situated. Whenever a
guest arrives, be he poor or rich, they open the public treasury with royal
generosity and give him food and drink, meat, poultry and wine. Such
hospitality was the custom of our forefather Abraham and they practice his
custom in his honor even though they themselves are poor.”
In 1748, the first of the Hasidic ‘olim’ (Jewish immigrants
to Eretz Israel )
made his way to Hebron : R. Avraham
Gershon of Kitów, brother-in-law of R. Israel Baal Shem Tov (the Besht). In a
letter to his brother-in-law, R. Avraham noted the quality of life in Hebron
and the relatively calm relations that prevailed between Jews and Arabs there.
According to legend, he was privileged with entering Me’arat ha-Makhpela to
pray and when the Arabs plotted to kill him, he was saved miraculously and
reached the home of R. Hayyim Ben-Attar, author of Or ha-Hayyim. The renowned
R. Hayyim Yosef David Azulai (“Hida”) also lived in Hebron
for a time. One of the most prominent Jewish public leaders in the country, he
traveled to Europe on behalf of the community.
In 1799, when Napoleon’s troops invaded the country, the
Jews of Gaza were evicted and some made their way to Hebron .
They include the Castel family, originally from Castile ,
Spain . Their
convoy of horses and camels delivered the doors of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue
and many Torah scrolls to Hebron .
This marked the peak of the lengthy relationship between these two communities
in southern Eretz Israel .
In 1807, the Hebron
community, by means of its agent, Rabbi Hayyim Yeshua Bejaio, purchased
additional parcels of land in two locations: the area abutting the Jewish
quarter (the “market”) and a large area including Tel Hebron (Rumeida). The
acquisitions are identifiable to this day by the olive trees that were planted
there. The heads of the Muslim Waqf confirmed the purchases by means of signed
kushans (deeds).
In 1819, Chabad hasidim made their first appearance in Hebron ,
encouraged by the “middle Admor,” R. Dovber of Lubavitch, son of the founder of
Chabad, R. Schneor Zalman of Ladi. Sending R. Shimon Shmerling to establish a
Chabad community in the City of the Patriarchs, he wrote the following in a
letter to his followers: “Whoever is committed to G-d shall abandon all concern
for his wealth, shall kindle affection for the place of our holy Patriarchs in
his heart and soul, to strive and strengthen our people’s community in the
place of our holy Patriarchs, may their merit protect us - and they will be
granted abundant blessings and life.” The Chabad community in Hebron
was the first that this movement established in Eretz Israel .
One of its ‘olim’, R. Yisrael Yaffe of Kopyst, established the country’s first
Hebrew printing press. The Rebbe himself purchased a small synagogue next to
the Avraham Avinu Synagogue in order to have a physical stake of his own in Hebron .
In the early nineteenth century, the inhabitants of Hebron ,
especially the Jews, suffered from the tyranny of Arab sheikhs and local gang
leaders. One of the most infamous bandits was Abdul Rahman of Dura, who
demanded and received a regular tribute from the community chest in return for
his “protection”. This payment was recorded by the community bookkeepers as an
allocation to the “black rabbi”. In 1831, Ibrahim Pasha, son of the Egyptian
ruler Muhammad Ali, occupied Eretz Israel .
His officials subjected the Jews of Hebron to severe abuse. When the Turks
reoccupied the country several years later, the Jews again experienced pogroms.
In 1839, the British-Jewish aristocrat Moses Montefiore and his wife Judith
visited Hebron , received red-carpet
treatment by the community and were impressed with the town’s beauty.
Montefiore made a donation to the Hebron
community at this occasion and left it another donation in his will.
A second wave of Chabad hasidim arrived in 1840–1845, led by
R. Simon Menashe Chaikin and including R. Ya’akov (Kuli) Slonim and his wife
Menucha Rachel, daughter of the “middle Admor” and granddaughter of the Alter
Rebbe. Renowned for her wisdom, she was a community leader for many years. The
Chabad hasidim established a Talmud Torah (boys’ religious school) and yeshiva
named Magen Avot, headed by R. Shlomo Yehuda Eliezrov.
In 1856, R. Eliyahu Mani moved from Baghdad
to Hebron and did much to advance
the community spiritually and practically and establish its autonomy. He
established a yeshiva, a hostel and a synagogue named Beit Ya’akov that towered
over the southern part of the quarter (where today’s “market” is located). His
mentor and friend, R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad
(author of Ben Ish Hai) visited Hebron
in 1869 and tried to buy some land next to Me’arat ha-Makhpela. The Mani family
even tried to buy a village west of town.
In the second part of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman
regime undertook reforms that instigated a period of development for the
country and its Jewish population. The momentum was also felt in Hebron ,
where Jews of means began to build homes outside the quarter. One of the first
to do so was Yitzhak Lipkin, a well-to-do merchant. Other Jewish merchants and
entrepreneurs built homes to the west of the quarter, including the Klonskys,
Rivlins, Hassons and Hausmanns, to name only a few. They congregated mainly on
the market street, which, from the west lead to the quarter known today as the
‘Casba’. In 1876, Hayyim Yisrael Romano, an affluent Jew from Turkey ,
built a large and opulent residence west of the old city and established the
Istanbuli Synagogue inside. In 1893, the first floor of the Hesed le-Avraham
Clinic (Hadassah) was built with the help of a donation from the Jews of
Algiers and a medical center that integrated with Yesha
Avot Hospital Israel at
that location. In 1904, R. Hayyim Hizkiyahu Medini, author of the Sede Hemed
series of books, was named the rabbi of the community and inaugurated a yeshiva
in Beit Romano. In 1907, the AngloPalestine Bank opened a branch in Hebron .
In 1912, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, acquired Beit Romano
in order to establish the Central Chabad Yeshiva Torat Emet and sent a group of
hand-picked students to inhabit the building. The rebbe invested enormous
efforts and resources in this enterprise. The Chabad community swelled to 1,500
persons (among some 8,000 in the city at large).
During World War I
(1914–1917), the Jews of Eretz Israel Hebron Slobodka , Lithuania Hebron
לע“נ דודי, הבחור ר’ יוסף בן דוד ליברמן, הי”ד שנפל על קידוש
השם במלחמת השחרור, י”ב ניסן, תש”ח תנצב”ה מוקדש ע“י מר דניאל יוסף וטובה ליברמן
Special thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Daniel & Tova Liberman
And Mr. & Mrs. Elgie & Barbara Gibson For making this book possible.
Arye Klein, Consultant Naftali Greenwood, Translator Yossi
Baumol, English Editor
Design & Production Shilo • Barkats Beit-El 02-9973875 •
shilo_b@netvision.net.il
&40 Hebron
4000 Years The Story of the City of the Patriarchs Second Edition
Published on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the
re-establishment of the Jewish Community of Hebron 1968-2008
The Hebron Fund 1760
Ocean Ave. Brooklyn , NY
11230
The Jewish Community of Hebron
P.O. Box 105, Kiryat Arba - Hebron
90100 Tel. (972)2-9965333 • Fax. (972)2-9965304 www.machpela.com •
www.hebron.com
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