* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
We probably haven’t paid much attention to this date previously, but this year it has particular resonance. Today there will be an official memorial ceremony for those who were murdered in the pogrom of 5689 (1929). It has been 95 years since Arab mobs staged brutal attacks against the Jews of pre-state Israel, which resulted in the murder of 133 people.
The pogrom of August 1929 (Av 5689) has much in common with the massacre of October 2023 (Tishrei 5784). This attack also came as a complete shock, shattering the illusions of the early, peace-loving Jewish settlers cultivating the land of Israel. And like today, the international response to the massacre was weak and hypocritical. The degree of brutality was, likewise, beyond comprehension.
In the Jewish settlement of Hebron and other cities, children, women, men and entire families were slaughtered by bloodthirsty Arabs, many of whom had been living peacefully with them side by side until that day.
Pay attention to the responses of the leaders of the Yishuv to the slaughter.
Yitzhak Ben Zvi ‘s words still ring true today:
“The murderer did not distinguish between elder and child, between a man and a woman, between a rabbi and a tradesman. After the destruction of their community in Gaza, these settlers moved to Hebron, bringing the door of their synagogue with them. Today— it is symbolic that this pogrom broke out at precisely the place where our father Abraham purchased this land for his descendants.”
Menachem Ussishkin stated: “The responsibility for the massacre in Hebron lies with the Arabs—those who incited and those who were incited. We the Jews are also to blame for our lack of dedication to building the land of Israel.”
When Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook first heard about the massacre, he fainted. Rabbi Aryeh Levin witnessed his response and noted that “he wept bitterly for every victim as if he was his own child or brother, such was the depth of his love for every Jew.”
But after recovering from his initial shock, Rav Kook immediately took action. “He didn’t appeal to the sympathy of the British authorities, but addressed them as would a prosecutor. He was not afraid of rattling these foreign rulers; on the contrary, he turned on them with the fury of a biblical prophet, in the name of the God of truth, and demanded justice.”
All of these lessons are relevant to us even today.
In memory of our beloved brothers who were slain in 1929. We will not forget you.
