Among the tragedies that befell the Jewish people during the month of Av was the 1929 massacre in Hevron. Never before seen photographs of the destruction were found in the Library of Congress archives American Colony collection.
Today’s leaders of the Hevron Jewish community reported that they had never seen the photos before.
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.
Starting on Friday, August 23, 1929 and lasting for a week, enraged Arab mobs attacked 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 were abandoned.
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 IDF recaptured Hebron in 1967.
The British indulged the Arabs and responded by limiting Jewish immigration and land purchases.
Large common grave of Jewish victims. Later the grave
was destroyed
Jewish home plundered
Today in Hebron: A recent service in the rebuilt
Avraham Avinu Synagogue
More historical pictures and essays at www.israeldailypicture.com Descriptions based on photo-essays by Lenny Ben-David.