Jewish history begins in Hebron
said David Ben-Gurion
And indeed it does.
By Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum
The Patriarch Abraham, the first "Hebrew",
chose Hebron as the first place of settlement in the Land of Israel. It was here
that he purchased the first legacy, the Cave of Machpelah, where the Patriarchs
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Leah are buried.
Throughout all generations, Jews have referred to Hebron as the City of the Patriarchs.
During the Biblical Era, Hebron was King David's first capital, where he reigned
during the first seven years of his kingdom before proceeding to Jerusalem. Remnants
of the city from Biblical times - the days of the Patriarchs and the Kingdom of
Israel - were uncovered in archaeological excavations at Tel Rumeida, the ancient
Tel Hebron
During the First and Second Temple Periods ( the tenth to the first centuries
BCE) Hebron was one of the major Jewish cities in the Land of Israel.
After the destruction of the Second Temple, the Hebron Hills were a center of
Jewish revolt against the Romans. Here, Bar Kochba's soldiers fought valiantly
against the Roman conqueror but were ultimately defeated and routed.
For centuries, under Byzantine, Arab, Crusader and Marmeluke rule, Jews lived
in Hebron and prayed in the Cave of Machpelah. During the Marmeluke Era [ the
thirteenth century], Jews were prohibited from entering the building and were
restricted to the seventh step leading to the eastern entrance. Although banned
from the Tomb of the Patriarchs for those years, Jews continued in Hebron throughout
history, offering fervent prayers at the seventh step.
Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal came to Hebron, which became a huge learning center.
They purchased large tracts of land in and around the city center and established
a rich community life, with synagogues, yeshivas, schools, shops, factories, public
institutions, charitable institutions and other facilities (Here we know our ancestors
fleeing Iberia, found refuge for a period of 450 + uninterrupted years)
The focus of the Jewish Quarter was the Avraham Avinu Synagogue. (According to
legend, one Yom Kippur evening, worshippers found they were one man short of a
minyan [quorum of 10] Then, the Patriarch Abraham himself visited the synagogue
so that services could be held).
This was one of the most beautiful and renowned synagogues in the Land of Israel.
Jews from all over the world contributed Torah scrolls and crowns, oil lamps and
brilliantly-crafted Torah Ark curtains.(This treasure of our Sephardic past has
been beautifully and lovingly restored --we saw students studying --much as they
may have done in the past)
Many noted rabbis and Torah scholars lived in Hebron, including Rabbi Silva a
true Torah sage at the young age of 20 and author of PRI CHADASH ( Yoreh Death)
, Rav Shlomo Adani, author of Melechet Shlomo, Rav Eliyahu Di Vidash [Reishit
Hochma], Rav Avraham Azoulai [Hesed l'Avraham], his grandson Rav Haim Yosef David
Azoulai [known as the Hida] , and many others.
Veteran Sephardic families, such as the Castels, Begaios, Hassons, Francos, Manys,
Aboulafias, Gozlans, Aboushadids, Arhas and others, produced numerous religious
and community leaders.
Hebron was home to the Jews, an active and thriving Jewish city, which continued
to grow through the seventeenth and eighteen centuries .The city was very crowded,
houses of several stories were built, until the houses reached 4 to 5 stories,
with narrow alleys between them. Sources from that period describe the city as
follows;
''........Inside, there are courtyards and houses of an amazing construction style
in which the few support the many, doubled and tripled. [Rabbi AM Lunz, Hibat
Yerushalayim] "When a family is added, they add a courtyard on a rooftop, one
courtyard on top of the other, one story on top of another, filling them with
children. Happy is he whose home is among the upper ones, for he enjoys the sunlight
......'' [ sounds like a description of the Jewish Quarters throughout Europe]
Although mostly a strong Sephardic community, there were (in the the later years)
many from Eastern Europe who joined them, amongst them the Habad (Lubavitcher)
Hasidim, who came to Hebron at the behest of their Rebbe. Rebbe Dov Ber (the Mittler
Rebbe) in the early eighteenth century. The Rebbe established his own synagogue
near the Sephardic one and later the well-known Yeshiva of Slobodka, (which moved
from Lithuania to Hebron.)
Beyond the Walls of the City......
At this time, the Jews began building outside the city walls. In 1879, Avraham
Romano, a wealthy Jewish philanthropist from Turkey, built a spacious and elegant
house, known as "Beit Romano", that served as a family residence and hospitality
center for the visiting Sephardic community elders. The building included a synagogue,
called the Istanbuli Synagogue.
In 1893, funds raised among the wealthy North African Jews enabled construction
of the basement floor of a community charitable institution, Hesed l'Avraham,
that provided medical assistance and aid to the needy as well as hospitality.
When Rabbi Haim Hizkiyahu Medini came to the Holy Land in 1901, he was invited
by the elders of the Hebron Community to serve as its Chief Rabbi. Rabbi Medini,
called the Goan, lived at Beit Romano where he established a yeshiva for outstanding
local youngsters. Here he completed the writing of Sdei Hemed, a comprehensive
Talmudic Encyclopedia. Rabbi Medini, an exemplary spiritual inspiration for his
students and the community at large, passed away in 1903 and was buried in the
ancient Jewish cemetery of Hebron.
During the First World War, the Jews of Hebron suffered considerably, as did all
Jews living in the rest of the Holy Land . Famine, disease and other afflictions
befell the community. After the British conquest of 1917, the British authorities
seized Beit Romano and established their government and police headquarters there.
The 1929 massacres, in which dozens of Jews were slaughtered all over the
country, constituted one of the cruelest chapters in modern history of Jewish
life in the Holy Land. The Jewish community of Hebron was dealt a mortal blow,
from which it did not fully recover until its restoration in 1981.
Relations between the Jews of Hebron and their Arab neighbors fluctuated throughout
history, but just before the riots broke out, the city had experienced a long
period of peaceful coexistence and well-being. The force behind the impending
evil was Haj Amin al-Husseini, appointed by the British authorities as Mufti of
Jerusalem and later discovered to be actively pro-Nazi. He fabricated accusations
against Jews of the Land of Israel. The British (unfortunately) were silent and
displayed open hostility towards the Jewish community, trying to weaken them in
every possible way.
When riots broke out throughout the country, the Jews of Hebron refused to believe
than any such incidents could take place in the city of the Patriarch Abraham,
where Jews and Arabs lived together relatively peacefully and although a company
of Haganah soldiers offered its protection, the Community Council asked the troops
to leave in case they upset their Arab neighbors and friends.
The next day, the slaughter occurred and the Jews were left unprotected.
The riots started on Friday afternoon, August 23rd after inflammatory sermons
were preached at the local mosque . Marauders began attacking Jews they encountered
with stones and clubs, including the aged Rabbi Slonin, who was on his way to
the British Governor to ask for assistance.
The British Police offered no protection except to rudely instruct the Jewish
community to barricade themselves inside their homes; sealing the fate of many
Jews whose houses became death traps as Arab murderers attacked them and brutally
tortured them to death.
The following day, Saturday August 24, 1929 the slaughter continued. Arabs gathered
armed with knives, axes, pitchforks and anything else they could find, launching
into a systematic assault on the Jewish homes . The Jews, locked inside their
houses, were easy prey for the bloodthirsty mob. No one was spared .They broke
into the home of the aged rabbi Yosef Castel, slaughtered him cruelly and set
his home on fire.
Rabbi Hanoch Hasson, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Hebron, was killed together
with his entire family.
Ben-Zion Gershon, the pharmacist at the Beit Hadassah Clinic, who had extended
so much assistance to both Arabs and Jews was tortured and killed along with his
daughters. His wife's hands were cut off and she died in anguish.
Arab rioters stormed the home of Eliezer Dan Slonim, Council Member, where many
Jews had fled for refuge, but their hope of refuge was in vain, as the marauders
broke into the house, chopping, slashing, torturing and butchering every man woman
or child they could find.
The whole Slonim family were murdered, including the wife, a daughter, his father-in-law
Rabbi Orlansky, Chief Rabbi of Zichron Yaakov. Only Shlomo, their one-year-old
son, miraculously remained alive, wounded and drenched in blood, hidden beneath
the corpses of his martyred family.
The slaughter continued, from house to house. Jews cried out for mercy from their
Arab neighbors and acquaintances. The cry of ''kill the Jews''! echoed throughout
Hebron. However, amongst this murderous mob there were a handful who protected
their Jewish neighbors and managed to save a few Jewish lives while the rest went
on the rampage of torture, rape and murder.
The blood-soaked rioting went on for several hours while the British policemen
just stood by . One British mounted policeman, who watched dispassionately as
two Jewish brothers, Eliyahu Dov and Israel Aryre Chaichel were murdered, feared
he was about to be attacked (as well ) and when he fired into the air to alert
his comrades, the crowds began to retreat and the riots died down.
The wounded and tortured victims could not get medical care as the Beit Hadassah
clinic had been totally destroyed. That day, 59 Jews were killed; another eight
died of their wounds some time later. (67 dead, numerous wounded and maimed).
The British "allowed" the Jews to conduct a quick funeral for the victims with
a bare minyan "permitted" to attend and recite Kaddish. A separate grave was dug
for the cut-off body parts, clothing and other items drenched in blood that were
removed from the Jewish homes.
Three days later, the British decided to evacuate the Jewish community of Hebron.
The Jews, who were always an integral part of this city, were loaded onto trucks
and brought to Jerusalem to join the Jewish community there, leaving behind all
their belongings, properties, including their homes which became booty for the
murderous mob.
A brutal riot, thus annihilated the oldest Jewish community in the Land of
Israel.
In 1931, following the riots and deportations, the Jewish community strove to
restore Jews to the city of their forefathers. One leading figure in these efforts,
despite his own personal tragedy, was the aged Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Slonim, Chief
Rabbi of Hebron, whose family was murdered in the riots. And with the help of
Rabbi Heiem Begaio, Y. Hasson, and Avraham Franco they settled about 200 people
in Hebron.
In April 1936, new riots broke out, and the British deported all the Jews from
Hebron in the middle of the night, once again loaded into trucks and ordered out
of our oldest city in our history Once again, terror triumphed, and the small
peace-loving Jewish community vanquished.
In 1948, The Jordanians conquered Judea and Samaria, including Hebron. (these
are areas the world has come to believe as "occupied" ) The Jordanian authorities
completed the annihilation of the Jewish community by physically destroying all
remnants of Jewish life. The ancient Jewish city and quarters was razed and a
wholesale produce market, public toilets, trash collection center and municipal
slaughterhouse were built on the site.
The old Avraham Avinu Synagogue was torn down and a sheep, goat and donkey pen
was put atop its ruins. Other Jewish homes were used as storerooms and livestock
barns. Larger Jewish buildings, such as Beit Hadassah and Beit Romano, were used
as schools by the Jordanian conquerors. The ancient Jewish cemetery, including
its monuments to the martyrs of 1929, was totally destroyed. A vegetable garden
and private home occupied the soil above the graves. Jewish tombstones were used
as bricks to build fences and houses in the area.
Hebron remained bereft of any Jewish presence for about 20 years [ the only time
in history] In 1967, after Jordan once again launched an attack on the State of
Israel, the historic Jewish homeland that was captured by the Jordanians in 1948,
was liberated
The late General Shlomo Goren, was the first to enter Hebron in a lone vehicle
after it was liberated, where he proceeded to the Cave of Machpelah and received
the articles of surrender of the city of Hebron. Another beginning.
Restoration efforts at the razed Jewish sites in Hebron constitute a fascinating
chapter in the city's history. Jews lived in Hebron for thousands of years, but
are again under threat from their neighbors, their very survival challenged on
a daily basis.
With utmost love and dedication, the Jews of Hebron started the massive task of
clearing the rubble and filth from the sheep pen on the site of the Avraham Avinu
Synagogue to start the slow and hard task of building it up into what it was.
Thankfully they had photographs, and as was done in Jerusalem with the Mount of
Olives and the 58 synagogues that was destroyed by the Jordanians during their
19 years of occupation of the Old City; from 1948 --until liberated in 1967; carefully
and lovingly rebuilt the rubble into its former beauty.
This in itself is a long and heroic story---one I will leave for another time.
As most of you know, the community of Hebron are the heroes of today. They are
shot at, and attacked on a daily basis --but their resolve and dedication in guarding
our heritage for us is without compare.
We make a point of visiting Hebron each time we go to Israel, and last year when
we visited the community we stood on the spot where the 10 month old Paz baby
was shot while in her mothers arms recently ---we visited her grave and the old
cemetery. ---. we prayed in the spiritual atmosphere of the burial place of Abraham
& Sarah, Isaac & Rebecca, Jacob & Leah -- thanks to the brave people of Hebron,
a small community commitment to Jewish life and who keeps it available to all
of us in the Diaspora.
We visited the rabbi who in spite of having bullet holes in every room of his
house (including the shower) is determined to stay and guard our birthright --
the burial place of our ancestor Abraham who bought the burial ground thousands
of years ago . This is the City of our forefathers, from which we derive historical
depth and moral and intellectual strength.
These are the heroes of our front-lines; Israelis, all unified by one driving
force -- the desire to live, in peace and without fear. It is their right .
E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum
Copyright © 1997-2003
Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum