Photographs of the aftermath of the 1929 Arab pogrom of Jews on Hevron have been discovered in the Library of Congress archives. In an orgy of sadistic violence on August 24, 1929, 67 of Hevron’s Jews were murdered by neighbors they had lived with in peace for many years.

Scene of house destruction after the Arab massacre of Jews in Hebron

Hevron is the city where the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried and where King David ruled for seven years before going to Jerusalem, so that it is one of the four holy cities in Israel for Jews.

Synagogue desecrated

There was no reason for the massacre other than the encouragement of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El-Husseini, who later joined Hitler. The Arabs murdered children in front of their parents, severed limbs, raped and burned people alive.

A student of the Hebron Yeshiva, Elhana Zelig Roch, lost a hand during the attack

A student of the Hebron Yeshiva, Zvi Hirsh Heller, dies from his wounds in hospital

The massacre preceded any Jewish military acts as it took place in 1929. The Jews of Hevron predated the new Jewish pioneers returning to their homeland of Israel.

Massacre of Jewish women, children at Hebron

The British High Commissioner in the Land of Israel, Sir John Chancellor, published a statement following the massacre, saying, “I have learned with horror of the atrocious acts committed by bodies of ruthless and bloodthirsty evil-doers, of savage murders perpetrated upon defenseless members of the Jewish population regardless of age or sex, accompanied as at Hebron, by acts of unspeakable savagery, of the burning of farms and houses in town and country and of the looting and destruction of property. These crimes have brought upon their authors the execration of all civilized peoples throughout the world.”

A Jewish survivor mourning in the aftermath of the massacre in Hebron.

The Hevron Sabbath” has ended, and the 25,000 visitors and guests are making their way home after spending Shabbat in the City of the Patriarchs.

The annual event attracts guests even from abroad. The event is held each year on the Sabbath of Parashat Chaye Sarah (Genesis 24 and 25), when the story of the Patriarch Abraham’s purchase of the Machpelah Field and Cave is recounted.

 The three Patriarchs, as well as three of the Matriarchs – Sarah, Leah, and Rebecca – are buried there; the Matriarch Rachel died near Bethlehem, and was buried along the way in what is now Rachel’s Tomb.
2010 Hevron Sabbath” was marked, for the first time in 12 years, by the official opening of the streets of the Kasba, the old city marketplace and former Jewish quarter to crowds of Jewish visitors. The guests saw 19th-century Jewish homes and institutions, now occupied by Arabs.

“We thank the myriads of visitors,” a statement by the Jewish Community of Hevron said, “as well as the security forces and the residents of Hevron and Kiryat Arba who opened their homes and their hearts. We await the day when 25,000 Jews will live in Hevron, and will not be just visitors.”

A warning for an apocalyptic situation could result from the next earthquake to hit Israel in which millions of apartments and thousands of public buildings could collapse. According to the ACBI, a strong earthquake could lead to tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of homeless. Earthquakes have occurred in Israel on the average of once every 80 years in recent centuries.

In addition to the major Biblical earthquakes, two major earthquakes occurred in Israel during the last two centuries. The first earthquake, in January 1837, killed some 5,000 people, destroyed the city of Tzfat and damaged nearby Arab villages, while the second one, in July 1927, killed over 500 people, and caused heavy damage in Jericho, Shechem (Nablus), Jerusalem and Hevron. An earthquake centered in Lebanon was felt in Israel and Syria.