(Photo: Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler on November 28, 1941. Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild / Heinrich Hoffmann / Wiki Commons.)
The real reason for the 1929 Hebron massacre was a bid for power by Haj Amin el Husseini, the virulently anti-Jewish Muslim leader.
The rivally between the Husseini clan and the Nashashibi clan dates back generations.
"Already in the 1920s, Husseini began calling his opponents, primarily the notables of the rival Nashashibi clan, "traitors"--this at a time when there were no clear policy differences between them. (Both the Husseinis and the Nashashibis wanted all of Palestine for the Arabs, opposed all Jewish immigration, regarded the Zionists as aggressive usurpers, and so on.) Cohen argues that the Husseinis' routine use of the terms "traitor" and "collaborator" denuded them of all moral weight or political significance. "
They resorted to murder of fellow Arabs, as noted:
"The Husseinis began to punish "traitors"--sellers of land, informers, those socializing with Jews--as early as the 1920s. The first murder of a public figure occurred in 1929, near the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. Sheikh Musa Hadeib hailed from the village of Duwaimah, in the Hebron foothills, and he may have sold land to the Jews. But his chief sin was political: he spoke out in favor of the British Mandate, and he had once hosted the High Commissioner Herbert Samuel. He had also helped to found the Zionist-supported "Muslim National Associations" in the 1920s, as a counterweight to the Muslim-Christian associations that were hotbeds of anti-Zionist nationalist agitation; and he headed the Mount Hebron farmers' party, one of the rural associations set up with Zionist aid to counter the urban-based nationalists. His killers, according to Zionist intelligence, were three men dressed as women, from the Maraqa clan of Hebron. The killing occurred in October, less than two months after the wave of anti-Jewish pogroms that swept the country--"the 1929 Disturbances," as the British (and the Zionists) called them, though in the collective memory of the Arabs they are known as the first "Arab Revolt"--which were triggered by Arab fears, methodically stirred up by Hajj Amin al-Husseini, that the Jews intended to "take control of" the Temple Mount, or al-Haram al- Sharif, and destroy the two sacred mosques in the compound, Al Aksa and the Dome of the Rock."
Sheikh Musa Hadeib from the village of Dawaymeh near Hebron, was the head of Mount Hebron farmers' party and a founder of the Zionist-supported Muslim National Associations.
In October 1929, he was killed near Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem, his killers never being apprehended.
The JTA reported the incident as having occurred on Oct. 13, 1929 stating "Great excitement prevailed in Jerusalem today over the murder of Musa Isdeb, an Arab from a village near Hebron, who was killed at Herod’s Gate... It is presumed that the Arab is a victim of inner political enmities between Arab factions, the murdered man supposedly being active in propaganda against the Grand Mufti."
A follow-up article from Oct. 22, 1929 called the incident a blood feud "between the family of the late Mousa Adeb, founder of the Arab peasant party and opponent of the Grand Mufti, and the clan of Amin El Husseini."
Mention of the Maraqa clan of Hebron brings up Sheikh Taleb Marka, the main instigator of the riots.
It was he who spread rumors of thousands of Arabs being killed by Jews on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. False allegations of local Arabs being cheated by greedy Jews spread, specifically regarding Eliezer Dan Slonim, a manager of a local bank. Nothing could be farther from the truth as Slonim was known as an honest and forthright man, fluent in Arabic, who was on good terms with Jew and Arabs alike due to his charitable personality.
How could Arab neighbors rise up and visiously slaughter their fellow Hebronites? Did they realy believe that fictictious massacres in Jerusalem nessesitate the slaughter of the innocent in Hebron? Was there a latent violent streak in the various clans just waiting to erupt?
Many excuses have been give in recent years, such as that the Arabs who committed the massacre were actually from outside Hebron. This is false, as is evident from testimony given at the Shaw Commission and subsequent trials.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency on September 27, 1929, reported,
“The simple-worded testimony of thirteen-year-old Judith Reizman, of how she saw her father, mother and uncle pursued by a mob of howling... brandishing knives and daggers, later finding the bodies in the gutters, produced a dramatic atmosphere in the Hebron court."
“When the Reizman girl had told her story in the breathless silence of the courtroom, the judge asked her if she could identify anyone... she calmly walked up to Ibrahim Abd El Assiz, a young Hebron merchant, her father’s next door neighbor, saying, ‘Yes, Ibrahim was nearest my father with a knife uplifted when the mob overtook my father.’ Then addressing the Arab, who hung his head in shame, the girl asked him in the kindest voice imaginable, ‘Ibrahim, how could you?’”
The article later described Hebron as “commercially a dead city. Merchants’ stalls are heaped high with unsold fruit and vegetables...”
Another Husseini excuse was that they needed to fight the influx of "Zionists" coming from Europe. However at that time, the level of immigration to the Land of Israel was at its lowest point in recent history.
A lecture from the 2016 memorial for the Hebron massacre by Dr. Yuval Arnon-Ohana of Ariel University argued that Husseini was losing ground in the Arab community to his rivals. He sought to consolidate his power and eliminate the competition by creating a common enemy in the Jews.
"This 'long' decade witnessed the first wave of massive Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine of 1920-1926 and the relative lull of 1927-1931, with some recovery in 1932, making for a total inflow of 126,349 individuals in 1919-1932. The immigration flow, as is well known, revived in 1933 [When Adolf Hitler came to power.]"
Husseini went on to become the Mufti of Jerusalem and ardant supporter of the Nazis, visiting Hitler during World War II. Later relatives included Faisal Husseini, a leader of the PLO.
It is true that there were a dozen or so righteous gentiles, who risked their lives to save Jewish families,and they should be commended. But these were outnumbered by the enraged mob.
The myth that Jews and Arabs got along until the "Zionist" came still persists. The sleepy city of Hebron was known as a home for religious families, with a strong Sephardic community that dated back to the expulsion for Spain. The rioters murdered indiscriminately, not just European newcomers.
The arrival of the Slabodka yeshiva in 1925 helped revive the city bringing and influx of new life for both communities. Many of these same yeshiva students were murdered in the massacre.
Old newspaper articles and travel journals describe Hebron as the home of Islamic fundamentalists.
The massacre of 1834 also attests to the struggles the Jews faced with their Arab neighbors, both the local Arab peasants and the ruling elite. For generations, the locals Jews celebrated a modern miracle they called the Window Purim, in which they were saved from the wrath of the Muslim masters. Another similar case was called the Purim of Ibrahim Pasha. In both cases, Jews were a barely tolerated minority. The Jews were restricted to what was called the "Jewish ghetto," the only place in Israel to be referred to as such. A massacre took place in 1517 during the invasion of the Mamlukes as well.
Stories such as these are intermingled with others of friendship and civility. Rebbetzin Menucha Rochel Slonim (1798 - 1888) was know for her piety with Arabs as well as Jews sought her blessing. Rabbi Eliyahu Mani was also revered as a "sheikh" by the locals. When he died in 1899, hundreds of Jews and Arabs attended his funeral. The same is told of Rabbi Chaim Hezekiah Medini, the Sde Hemed. Whether Ashkenazic or Sephardic, whether born in Hebron or a new immigrant, stories abound of Jews and Arabs living and working together, as well as tolerance and violence.
One explanation is the concept of parallel play, which is a phenomenon observed in very young children. Two children may be sitting quietly next to each other and playing, but upon closer inspection, each is playing with a different item. One may be coloring with crayons while the other may be playing with a toy. They are at peace, and next to each other, but they are not truly playing together.
Adults are much more complex. For example, today Hebron is divided between H1, the Palestinian Authority controlled zone, and H2, the Israeli controlled zone. They may seems like enemies, and terrorist attacks do occur. But there is also a significant amount of import and export between the two.
In Europe too, Jews and their Polish neighbors had their ups and downs, but interacted for hundreds of years until the Holocaust.
Within rival Arab clans there is both unity and friction as it is between Jews and Arabs. On any given day on King David Street in Hebron, one may come across Arab youth playing soccer with IDF soldiers. Would these same youth one day throw Molotov cocktails at these same soldiers in the name of "freeing Palestine?"
A recent article describes how local Arabs rushed an injured child to IDF soldiers to be treated by medics. Would these same Arabs ransack that clinic, as the rioters of 1929 did to the Beit Hadassah hospital? The answer of course is we don't know.
But meanwhile, the parallel daily lives go on in this ancient city.
NOTES:
Rabbi Franco - Founder of Beit Hadassah
The clinic he founded served Hebron Jews and Arabs alike for decades.
20.8.17, 19:10
Rabbi Haim Rahamim Yosef Franco (sometimes spelled Franko) was a leader of the Sephardic community of Hebron and the founder of Beit Hadassah. He was often known by his acronym, the HARIF.
He was born in Rhodes, Greece in 1835 and immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1868 with his wife Esther Mazel-Tov and his three children, Ben-Zion, Meir, and Clara and settled in Jerusalem.
Once in the Jewish homeland, he was appointed as member of the Beit Din headed by the revered Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar and Rabbi Shalom Moshe Chai Gagin author of Sameach Nefesh.
One of the many controversial issues he dealt with was the loss of a large courtyard in the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Adjacent to the city's churches, the Jewish community was forced to sell the land. As a representative of the Jewish community he traveled to Turkey and Austria. During his visit to Vienna, he was was granted audience with Franz Josef I of Austria and succeeded in his mission to have the courtyard once again returned to the Jewish community
In the year 1875 he traveled to Algeria, Tunis and Libya.
In 1878 he was appointed chief rabbi of the Sephardi community in Hebron and was one of the pioneers of leaving the walls of the Jewish Quarter in Hebron, and encouraged other Jews to follow him.
In 1893 he established the "Chesed L'Avraham" hospital named after Rabbi Abraham Azulai (1570–1643), author of Kabalistic work Chesed L'Avraham and the revered long-time Chief Rabbi of the city. The hospital would later be renamed
Beit Hadassah after the Hadassah organization took charge.
Before being built, the rabbi headed the committee for the establishment of the hospital in which he sought donations from Jewish communities the world over. The
American Jewish Archives has a handwritten letter in English from Rabbi Franco to Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, the prominent American rabbi requesting donations from the American Jewish community.
Beit Hadassah went on to be a respected medical clinic that served both Arabs and Jews. A pharmacist's office was built adjacent to the building.
Rabbi Franco also authored several books on Jewish thought including "Shnot Yamim," "Kavod Yaakov," and "Ben Yamin."
Rabbi Franco passed away in 1901 and was buried in the ancient cemetery of Hebron.
Although most of the tombstone were vandalized during the Jordanian occupation of 1948 - 1967, Rabbi Franco's final resting place has since been refurbished and can be visited today.
The famous
Rabbi Chaim Hezekiah Medini was recruited to replaced Rabbi Franco as Sephardic rabbi of Hebron community. Rabbi Medini finished his magnus opus, the Sde Hemed, an encyclopedia of the Talmud, in the city.
His daughter Clara Hasson was known for her charitable deeds among the poor and for her love and compassion. His son-in-law Rabbi Hanoch Hasson was a member of the Sephardic Judicial Court in Hebron. A very learned man and community fundraiser, he also owned a large collection of antique writings on Hebron and its history.
Both were brutally murdered in the
Hebron Massacre of 1929. The mob burned Rabbi Hasson's library. Beit Hadassah,once a center for healing, became the site of some of the most victious attacks.
His grandson was Avraham Franco, who was instrumental in helping revive the community after the Six Day War of 1967 liberated Judea, Samaria and the Old City of Jerusalem from the Jordanians.
Born in Hebron, Avraham Franco, served as Attorney General and the Secretary of the Jerusalem municipality for many years, being awarded a special prize in 1979 by the city.
Fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, he studied to be a pharmacist at the University of Beirut in Lebanon. He also worked as a butcher in Hebron and Beersheva. During World War I he served in the Turkish army and was briefly arrested by Australian soldiers. He later helped form a group that re[presented Sephardic Jews and other community organizations.
After the gruesome Hebron Massacre of 1929,Franco attempted to save many documents including Ottoman land deeds that attested to the legal purchase of land including his grandfather's Beit Hadassah building.
He was one of the many that returned to the decimated city in 1931. But the British authorities who ruled the Land of Israel again expelled the Jewish community in 1936.
After the Six Day War, Hebron was again open to the public and a now 70-year-old Franco rushed to his former hometown.
During the lengthy legal struggle, Franco signed power-of-attorney the Kushan or Turkish land deeds and all other document to Rabbi Moshe Levinger who led a group of young idealistic families to repopulate Hebron.
In his speech at the 47th anniversary of the Hebron massacre in 1976, as a representative of the families of the Hebron victims, he called on the Israeli government to return the Jewish sites and houses to Jewish hands.
In 1977 he testified before Israeli courts on behalf of the residents of the newly created settlement of Kiryat Arba, a suburb of Hebron, and members of the Gush Emunim movement. Eventually, Beit Hadassah, which had for years become a vacant building, was returned to the rightful heirs. After renovation, families moved in and a museum was built on the ground floor.
Avraham Franco passed away on April 9, 1993 ( 18 Nissan 5713 ) and was buried in Jerusalem.
Today after much struggle Beit Hadassah again thrives with Jewish life, a testament to Rabbi Franco, his children and grandchildren and the spiritual heirs to his tireless work.
NOTES:
Judah Bibas - Proto-Zionist of Hebron
20.8.17, 20:34
Today Bibas is small, narrow street in Jerusalem's historic Nachlaot neighborhood.
This obscure ally actually contains several historic synagogues, and a quaint community garden. Fittingly, the equally obscure, yet equally significant Yehuda Bibas, for whom the street is named, was a historical icon who influence later generations that went on to create the modern State of Israel.
In 1789, Yehuda Aryeh Leon Bibas (also spelled Judah Bibas, or Bivas) was born in Gibraltar to a Sephardic Jewish family. One of his maternal ancestors was Chaim ibn Attar (1696 - 1743) one of the most prominent rabbis of the Moroccan Jewish community and author of the influential book Or Ha-Hayyim.
Bibas's father came from a line of Rabbis in Tétouan that emigrated to Gibraltar in 1859 after a pogrom. Bibas studied as a child in Gibraltar and after the death of his father he moved in with his grandfather in Livorno, Italy, home to a prestigious and educated Jewish community. It was there that Bibas received his Jewish education and became a doctor and gained fluency in English, Italian, Spanish and Hebrew. He then returned to Gibraltar where he established himself as head of a local yeshiva, attended by students from England, Italy and North Africa.
In 1810 he came to London, England where he met with the famous Jewish activist and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. The two later collaborated on many projects, Montefiore also being a staunch advocate of strengthening the Jewish population of the Land of Israel.
In 1831, Bibas was appointed as the Chief Rabbi of Corfu, Greece.
By 1839, Bibas was well on his path of activism on behalf of uniting world Jewry in the Land of Israel. It could be considered the beginning of the Zionist movement, proto-Zionism. The Land of Israel at the time was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey, which was not always hospitable to the indigenous Jewish community. Inspired by the series of Serbian and Greek revolts against the Ottoman Turks, Rabbi Bibas advocated mass repatriation of Jews to Israel. In 1839 he embarked upon a tour of European Jewish communities to advocate aliyah. It was in that year that he met Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai and became his mentor.
Rabbi Alkalai, inspired by Bibas, would go on to write several books detailing the need for mass aliyah from both a halachic and a political perspective, it was Rabbi Alkalai that first used the term "Israelis" and envisioned a new country in what was then Ottoman controlled "Palestine" where "Israeli citizens" would have self-determination.
By 1852, one year after his wife passed away, the 63-year-old Rabbi Bibas made the permanent move to the Land of Israel and was welcomed by his students in Jaffa.
Later he made home in Hebron were he built his extensive library and was appointed supervisor of the Magen Avot fund, a local Hebron organization that helped purchase property and maintain community institutions.
After years of advocacy work on behalf of the Jewish homeland, died only two months after his arrival to the Land of Israel and was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery, Hebron, near the graves of many other great Jewish sages. The Jewish community of Hebron used to hold a ceremony for him every year on the night of Yom Kippur.
His vast collection of rare books was donated to local Jewish institutes of higher learning in Hebron.
According to brief article from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency dated
October 23, 1952, the now world renown Dead Sea Scrolls were originally housed in Rabbi Bibas's library.
The article states:
"The charge that the Hebrew Scrolls discovered sometime ago at the Dead Sea came from looted synagogues and the library of Judah Babis in the city of Hebron, which were sacked by the Arabs in the bloody riots of 1929, is made by Prof. Solomon Zeitlin in the current issue of the Jewish Quarterly Review, published by Dropsie College."
"Prof. Zeitlin, who from the beginning questioned the antiquity and authenticity of the Scrolls, claims that they were not in fact discovered in caves near the Dead Sea by Bedouins, but were stolen by Arabs in the Hebron massacres and then hidden for many years before being produced as new finds. He points out that for the last few years many of the Torah Scrolls which were stolen from Hebron were offered for sale by men connected with the Syrian Convent who also bought the Dead Sea Scrolls from an Arab."
“The Hebrew Scrolls, supposedly found by Bedouins, and brought to the Syrian Convent by merchants, may also have come from Hebron, concealed for a time in local caves,” Dr. Zeitlin says."
Whether or not Rabbi Bibas, knowingly or unknowingly had possession of one of the world's most important ancient documents may never been known. However the ransacking of his precious library and the selling of Jewish holy texts was not nearly as reprehensible as the razing of the cemetery and desecration of his final resting place by the Jordanians who controlled Hebron (also all of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem's Old City) from 1948 -1967.
Today the legacy of Rabbi Bibas is in the philosophy of a Jewish right to self-determination and a return to the ancestral homeland based on religious precepts and national aspirations. these concepts were revolutionary at the time, but went on to influence the creation of a thriving Jewish State that today is in the forefront of high-tech, environmental and medical fields, and a haven for seekers of spirituality.
NOTES:
The Reisheet Hochma and the Kabbalah Movement of Hebron
One of Kabbalah's most well-known works was written in Hebron.
9.5.17, 14:35
(Photo: The grave of Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas in the ancient Jewish cemetery of Hebron. Credit: WikiCommons.)
Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas (sometimes spelled DeVidash) was one of a group of prominent kabbalists living in Hebron during the late 16th and early 17th-century, and author of the classic work Reisheet Hochma.
He was born in Tzfat to Rabbi Moshe de Vidas, who was a son of a prominent Jewish family from Spain .Becoming an orphan as a young man, he suffered much deprivation.
He became a disciple of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (known as the RAMAK) and Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz , who composed the now popular Shabbat song Lecha Dodi. He also studied with a group of well-known Kabbalists from Tzfat including Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Holy ARI), Rabbi Chaim Vital and others.
In 1566 he moved to Hebron where he became chief rabbi of the city. Rabbi de Vidas completed his most famous work Reisheet Chochma (The Beginning of Wisdom) in Hebron in 1575.
Reisheet Chochma discusses ethics, meditation and spirituality and has been translated and re-published numerous times.
Menachem Mendel of Kamenitz, the first hotelier in the Land of Israel references his visit to the grave of Eliyahu de Vidas in his 1839 book Sefer Korot Ha-Itim. He states, "here I write of the graves of the righteous to which I paid my respects." After describing the Tomb of Machpela and the tombs of such Biblical figures as Ruth and Jesse, Othniel Ben Knaz and
Abner Ben Ner, he reports, "I also went to a grave said to be that of the Righteous Rav, author of "Reshit Hokhma."
He was buried in the
ancient cemetery in Hebron where his grave still exists today and has been visted for centuries. The memorial marker covering Rabbi De Vidas's grave was destroyed along with other famous sages after the Hebron massacre of 1929. It was restored by
Prof. Ben Zion Tavger as part of the rehabilitation of the cemetery in the 1970s. Today the refurbished section of the cemetery is still visited by those inspired by Rabbi De Vidas's works of Kabbalistic thought.
SOURCE NOTES:
Rabbi Shlomo Adani - 17th Century Scholar of Hebron
Melechet Shlomo, written in Hebron, is considered one the greatest commentators on the Mishnah.
7.5.17, 19:06
Rabbi Shlomo Adani (1566 -1629) is considered one of the greatest commentators on the Mishnah and a part of Hebron's rich history of Torah scholarship. He is referred to in the
1906 Jewish Encyclopedia and in other English sources as Rabbi "Solomon Edni."
He was born in Sana'a, Yemen to Rabbi Yeshua Adani, a leading rabbi of the city. The family immigrated to the land of Israel in 1571. Shlomo's mother died on the journey. At first they settled in Tzfat where their economic situation was difficult and only after the elder Rabbi Adani's scholarship become known did their condition improve.
However in Tzfat, two other siblings died and the bereaved father took young Shlomo to Jerusalem where the youth studied There Shlomo studied with the renounced Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi, the author of the "Shita Mekubetzet," and with Rabbi Chaim Vital, the noted disciple of the ARI.
Tragedy struck again in 1582 when Rabbi Yeshua Adani passed away leaving behind 15 years old Shlomo. For two and a half years he lived without a home until Rabbi Moshe Alchami, a well-do-do scholar, Rabbi Alchami took him in. Shlomo lived there for fiev years where he got married and excelled in Torah study, beginning his commentary on the Mishnah.
From there Shlomo, now Rabbi Adani, moved his new family to Hebron where he earned a living as a school teacher and work on his study and writings. When he was approximately 33-years-old, his wife passed away as well as one daughter and two sons. Rabbi Adani married a second time and had two sons, who also died.
In the introduction to one of his books, Rabbi Adani wrote, "It is now the year 5379 (1619), and today I am fifty-two years old. And to this day I have not been privileged to have a son to follow my guidance..."
It was in Hebron in the year 1624 where he completed his book entitled Melechet Shlomo. Although today it is considered a classic, at the time Rabbi Adani chose not to publish his book because he did not want to give competition to Rabbi Yom Tov Heller who had just published a similar commentary called Tosfos Yom Tov.
Rabbi Adani wrote in the introduction: "The book has been completed Rosh Chodesh Kislev 1604, here in Hebron, the city where our Forefathers, their merit should protect us, are buried... My Elevated Master, hear my prayer and hurry to assist me, and do not be deaf to my tears. I am certain that I, the lowly Shlomo Adani, will not be sent away empty handed, just like from my youth until today, you have not deserted me, and allow me to offer you my toil in the Torah, my fat and blood, most of my nights and days."
He also included a draft of a letter in Aramaic to
Rabbi Israel Najara, chief rabbi of Gaza, who for a time also lived in Hebron. It reads in part: "Shalom to our brothers and shalom to our head, our Master Yisrael, the Humble one, Chacham ben Chacham, who will answer our questions, and will send us a good response, Shlomo Adani."
Today, Melechet Shlomo is partially printed in most of the editions of the Mishna with commentaries, and Rabbi Shlomo Adani is considered one its greatest commentators. (The CHIDA, Rabbi Chaim David Azulai, also of a family of Hebron scholars, writes of him: "One of the elder rabbis of Hebron, a disciple of Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi... we have heard many things about his righteousness and his diligence in spite of his poverty."
There are two other known book by Rabbi Adani,. One is called "Binyan Shlomo LHochmat Betzalel" which is a compendium and commentary based on the writings of his mentor, Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi. Another book, now lost, was entitled Divrei Emet. Its existence is known because the CHIDA quoted from it in his won writings.
Rabbi Adani is buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron. His grave, along with the rest of the cemetery was descrated and plowed over during the Jordanian occupation of 1948 - 1967. However after the return to Hebron, it was refurbished along with the final resting places of other great sages.
Today streets in Jerusalem, Beesheba and other Israeli cities are named after Rabbi Shlomo Adani.
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