The Hebron Massacre, August 24, 1929.
Re-Posting Photos Discovered in the Library of Congress Archives
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| The destruction of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue in Hebron in 1929 |
Today’s leaders of the Hebron Jewish community told us last year that they had never seen the photos before.
Click on the photos to enlarge. Click on the captions to see the originals.
Background to the Hebron massacre. After the British army captured Palestine from the Turks in late 1917, the relationship between the British and the local Arab population was characterized by tension that sporadically erupted into insurrection over the next 30 years.
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| A destroyed synagogue. Torah scrolls strewn on the ground |
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| Enlargement of scroll showing Deuteronomy 1: 17 |
The Arabs of Palestine were led by the powerful Husseini clan who controlled the offices of the Mufti (religious leader) as well as the Mayor of Jerusalem. For decades the clan had opposed European colonialism, the growing power of foreign consulates in Jerusalem, Christian and Jewish immigration and land purchases. After the 1917 Balfour Declaration expressed support for “a national home for the Jewish people,” Husseini added “Zionists” to his enemies list. The clan leveraged its power and threats of violence to win over Turkish and British overlords, to challenge the Hashemite King Abdullah, and to hold off competing clans such as the Nashashibi, Abu Ghosh, and Khalidi clans.
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Jewish home plundered. Blood-stained floor
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[Haj Amin el Husseini fled Palestine in 1937 to escape British jail and eventually found his way to Berlin where he assisted the Nazi war effort. He died of naturalcauses in Beirut in 1974.]
On Yom Kippur 1928, Jews brought chairs and screens to prayers at the Western Wall. This purported change of the status quo was exploited by the Mufti, Haj Amin el Husseini, to launch a jihad against the Jews. Husseini’s campaign continued and escalated after a Jewish demonstration at the Kotel on Tisha B’Av in August 1929. Rumors spread that Jews had attacked Jerusalem mosques and massacred Muslims. The fuse was lit for a major explosion.
Starting on Friday, August 23, 1929 and lasting for a week, attacks by enraged Arab mobs were launched against Jews in the Old City in Jerusalem, in Jerusalem suburbs Sanhedria, Motza, Bayit Vegan, Ramat Rachel, in outlying Jewish communities, and in the Galilee town of Tzfat. Small Jewish communities in Gaza, Ramla, Jenin, and Nablus had to be abandoned.
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| Synagogue desecrated |
The attack in Hebron became a frenzied pogrom with the Arab mob stabbing, axing, decapitating and disemboweling 67 men, women and children. At least 133 Jews were killed across Palestine. In 1931, there was a short-lived attempt to reestablish the Jewish community in Hebron, but within a few years it was abandoned until the Israel Defense Forces recaptured Hebron in 1967.
The British indulged the Arabs and responded by limiting Jewish immigration and land purchases.
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| Large common grave of Jewish victims. Later the grave was destroyed |
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| Jewish home plundered |
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| Today in Hebron: A recent Jewish service in the rebuilt Avraham Avinu Synagogue (with permission of photographer) |
http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2012/08/the-hebron-massacre-august-24-1929-re.html
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