The mob moves to the attack. Chesed L’Avraham is a place br

of worship and study as well as a medical clinic for Jews and br

Arabs alike. That matters little to the inflamed Arab mob. br

Among those who attack are many who have received free treat- br

ment in this same building. They climb through windows and br

smash down doors. Inside they savagely destroy everything they br

see. Medical equipment, medicine, drugs—everything is shat- br

tered in a hate-filled frenzy. And now flames leap toward the br

skies as the mob sets fire to the inside. The place is a raging br

inferno and the stones are blackened by the flames that lick at br

them. The synagogue is a scene of utter destruction, and the br

torn Torah Scrolls, desecrated by the Arab mob, now burn and br

become ashes. The building that served as a place of Jewish br

worship and study as well as a place of mercy and charity is br

gone. It does not matter to the howling Arabs that they will br

never again be able to heal their hurts and sicknesses as they did br

every day until now. Hatred perverts logic.

Next door to the Hadassah building lives Ben Zion br

Gershon, a crippled druggist whose kindness to the Arabs is leg- br

endary. We will never know how many Arabs he treated, most br

for free or for absurdly low fees. How many times did the Arabs br

thank him by blessing his name as they left? Today the mob br

shows the way it repays kindness. They burst into the apart- br

ment. Fingernails gouge out the crippled druggist’s eyes, and he br

dies as knives pierce his body. His wife is assaulted, and both her br

arms are cut off (she dies later in the hospital in Jerusalem). The br

Arabs attempt to rape the daughter, but she struggles so suc- br

cessfully that they kill her in a horrible way.

The streets of Hebron are a nightmare of shouting Arabs. br

Screams are heard from dozens of houses—the screams of dying br

men, violated women, weeping children. And the pogrom con- br

tinues.

On the road to Beersheba stands Beit Burland, where many br

yeshiva students from the Hebron yeshiva stay. The mob sur- br

rounds the house and breaks down both the front and back br

doors. The yeshiva student Arvaham Dov Shapira stands and br

fights bravely with a knife in his hand until he is dead. The br

young genius Zvi Heller is hit again and again, as he cries out: br

“I am only a boy!” The mob redoubles its efforts. The young br

student dies on the way to Jerusalem.