was the Klinger gasoline storage house. As flames and smoke br

leaped into the air, the mob entered homes of the Jews they had br

known for years, stabbing, beating, raping, looting. The wind br

carried the flames onward; ironically, this saved many Jewish br

lives as the mob rushed to save their own homes. But eighteen br

Jews were dead and more than eighty others injured. Almost all br

the victims were elderly or women, many of whom had pleaded br

with their slaughterers to remember the favors they had done br

them over the years.

The same evening, the small Jewish settlement in Ein br

Zeitim was decimated. Three Jews were murdered, the rest fled br

to Safad, and their homes went up in flames. In the northeast br

part of the Galilee, the settlement of Yesud Ha’Ma’ale was de- br

stroyed by its “good neighbors” from the Arab village of Tlail.

In essence there was not a Jewish community of any conse- br

quence that was not attacked. Scores of Jews were slaughtered, br

and damage was estimated in the millions of English pounds. It br

was a shattering blow to the young Jewish community which br

had caught a glimpse of the reality of the “Palestinian.” But br

nowhere was the full extent of “Palestinian” horror manifested br

more clearly than in the ancient city of Hebron.

Hebron

Long before the name “Palestinian” was invented, the br

Hebrew people, children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, lived in br

Hebron. There Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpela, and br

there the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the nation were buried. br

Hebron was the city given unto Caleb, the son of Jephune, for br

his faith in G-d. There David ruled as king for seven years before br

going to Jerusalem, and there Jews and Judaism were entwined br

for 3,500 years.

There, in 1929, occurred a massacre that took more Jewish br

lives than Kishinev.

It was a hot Friday morning, 17 Av in the year 5689 (Au- br

gust 23, 1929). Again, there was no Jewish state, no Jewish “oc- br

cupation forces,” no “occupied territories,” to give the Arabs br

reasons to cry out against Zionism. In Hebron there lived some br

500 Jews, mostly Sephardic, many with roots going back hun- br

dreds of years. Just a few weeks earlier the city had been visited br

by the Rebbe of Lubavitch. Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, br