How Britain’s Betrayal Enabled the Chevron Massacre
Part 1
Each year, as August 24—the 18th of Av—returns, the echoes of the 1929 Chevron Massacre resound with haunting force, recalling the day when 67 Jews were brutally slaughtered and hundreds maimed, by marauding Arabs in one of pre-state Israel’s most savage pogroms.
The vicious pogrom against the deeply religious population of Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews was carried out by the very neighbors with whom they had lived peacefully for generations. It resulted in the complete destruction of the city’s ancient Jewish community whose roots stretched back to biblical times.
The massacre was part of a wave of anti-Jewish riots that swept across British Mandate Palestine, leaving dozens of Jews murdered in Yerushalayim, Tzefas, and other cities. These barbaric assaults were fueled by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who incited the Arab masses to a murderous frenzy with malicious lies that Jews were plotting to seize the Al-Aqsa mosque and other sacred Muslim sites.”
Histories of the period record that at the outbreak of violence—and repeatedly in the days that followed—Jewish community leaders urgently pleaded with the British authorities to provide arms for self-defense. Their appeals were met, time and again, with cold refusal.
Except for what was then the fledgling Haganah force, the Jews of Palestine were left unarmed and wholly defenseless.
In Aug. 1929, dozens of Jews had been killed in areas around Yerushalayim. The worst killings occurred in Chevron and Tzefas, but Arabs murdered Jews in Motza, Kfar Uria, Chaifa, Yaffo, Yerushalayim and Tel Aviv as well. There were many isolated attacks on Jewish villages, and in six cases, villages were entirely destroyed, accompanied by looting and burning.
The British authorities stood by as the carnage raged, compounding their indifference with a morally perverse judgment that cast the Jews’ aspiration to settle in their ancestral homeland as a reckless provocation—thereby excusing the Arabs’ murderous rampage against them.
The massacre in Chevon and other cities thus exposed the British Mandate’s abysmal failure to protect the Jewish population, and the futility of turning to British authorities for help. It also galvanized the yishuv to organize self-defense, and prompted the expansion of the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization that would later form the nucleus of the Israel Defense Forces.
Point of No Return
The Chevron massacres and the Arab riots of 1929 and 1936 that followed marked a significant point of no return in Jewish-Arab relations. They ushered in almost a century of jihadist assaults, terror and wars against the Jewish state until the present day.
The pogrom erupted on a Shabbos on the 18th of Av under the noses of the British who, forewarned about the violence, did nothing to stop the vicious bloodletting. Lacking weapons of any sort—the British forbade the owning of arms—Jewish leaders and rabbonim turned to British authorities pleading for protection only to be callously rebuffed.
The atrocities delivered a death blow to a tiny but ancient community of fewer than a thousand souls out whose roots in the city reached back centuries. Aside from the brutal assaults on defenseless men, women and children, Jewish homes, hospitals, shuls and the famous Chevron yeshiva—a branch of Slabodka—were systematically plundered and burned.
The destruction was so horrific that British High Commissioner John Chancellor, touring the ravaged town five weeks after the massacre, wrote in his diary:
“I have just come back from Hebron, where I went to inspect the houses where the Jews were murdered. The horror of it is beyond words. In one of the houses I visited,not less than twenty- five Jews men and women were murdered in cold blood… The floors covered with dried blood: blood stained walls, blood stained sheets and bedding thrown about: furniture and household items mashed to atoms, total chaos…. I do not think history records many worse horrors in the last two hundred years.”
Forerunner of a Century of Arab Violence
The Chevron massacre happened almost a century ago but in all too bizarre sense, it might have happened yesterday, so striking are the chilling parallels with the horrific events of October 7.
Although 20 times as many defenseless Jewish men, women, elderly people, children and babies were slaughtered on that nightmarish Simchas Torah on Oct. 7 nearly three years ago, both massacres were defined by a depravity whose magnitude has almost no equal in recent history.
Limbs were hacked off, babies and children decapitated, women assaulted, yeshiva students knifed to death, hung from window bars—these and other scenes of unspeakable barbarity beggar the imagination.
Then as now, world leaders first expressed horror and outrage, condemning the murderers and calling for justice to be meted out, only to pivot to a more “nuanced” position. All too soon, the Jews were blamed for the monstrous inhumanity unleashed on them.
Today’s pro-Palestinian supporters of terror go so far as to celebrate pogroms and terror attacks as acts of “resistance” against the so-called Israeli “occupation.” Yet, before the state of Israel even existed–there had been a continuous Jewish presence in Hebron stretching back to biblical times—Arab jihadists slaughtered their Jewish neighbors without remorse.
In the same vein as today’s apologists for terror, the British Shaw Commission of 1930 also found ways to justify and excuse the perpetrators.
The Commission made no mention of the incitement stemming from top Arab imams such as the powerful Mufti of Jerusalem, who fueled rabid Jew-hatred throughout Palestine including in Chevron.
It was the mufti who propagated the idea that the Jews were planning to conquer the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He drew on religious rhetoric to urge violent resistance. Rather than acknowledging the mufti’s relentless incitement—his fabrications of a Jewish plot to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque that inflamed the Arab masses to the point of hysteria—the Shaw Commission chose to ignore this critical truth.
In an act of surrender and cowardice before Arab aggression, the Commission instead blamed “the increase in Jewish immigration” and “Jewish land-purchases” for riling up the Arabs.
The Commission also rationalized the violence as stemming from “Arab fears that the Jews intended to assert ownership of the Western Wall,” after a peaceful Jewish prayer gathering there on Shabbos in August 1929.
“These were Jews simply pleading for the right to pray in peace without being assaulted by Muslims,” noted historian Jardena Schwartz, author of “Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine.”
A campaign had begun in 1928, led by the Mufti of Jerusalem, to reassert Muslim rights over the kosel, which at the time had been placed by the British under the Muslims’ jurisdiction.
The Mufti ordered new construction in front of and on top of the Wall, with bricks from the construction being dumped on the Jews praying there, and excrement from mules fouling up the holy area.
“The imams in mosques across Palestine, specifically in Al Aqsa and in Hebron, were repeating lurid lies about a supposed Jewish plot to take over the mosques and the murder of Arab children. Those lies were then being published in flyers distributed in city squares,” Schwartz explained in an interview.
“Jewish officials were warning the British about the danger of the Mufti fomenting violence against Jews with lies about Jews aiming for a ‘takeover,’ Schwartz said. “The British themselves were responsible for installing Haj Amini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, into his all-powerful position, and therefore responsible for the incitement he used his position for. And yet they took no responsibility. “
“Admitting it was this malicious rabble-rousing that triggered the riots would have made the British responsible for so much death,” Schwartz elaborated. “So they buried this piece of the story. Their conclusions in the Shaw report was that Jewish immigration to Palestine and expanding Jewish settlements had sparked the riots.”
The gruesome anti-semitic barbarities that the world witnessed in Israel on Oct. 7 are just the latest, if most horrific, crimes in an Arab terror campaign defined by depraved Jew-hatred and bloodlust stretching back a century.
Pleas to Prevent Massacre Fall on Deaf Ears
From the JTA, Aug 1929:
Rav Yaakov Slonim, head of the Ashkenazi rabbonim of Chevron, narrowly escaped death when a mob of Arabs forced its way inside his home but were driven off by a group of “brave, noble minded Arabs.”
Rav Slonim’s detailed eyewitness account, published in JTA a few days after the massacre, lays bare British complicity with the rioters.
“On Friday morning I learned from Arab friends in Chevron that the Moslems had received orders from the Mufti of Jerusalem to come with weapons to Jerusalem, and that the ‘government will not stand in the way,’” Rav Slonim recounted. “I also learned that local agitators intend to attack the yeshiva in Chevron. I immediately went to the District Officer, an Arab named Abdullah Kardus, to ask that he intervene and take preventive measures. But he refused to see me.
“Two hours before the massacre fully erupted, I and Rabbi Franko, the Sephardic rabbi, returned to the District Officer urging him again to take pro-active steps to prevent bloodshed. He told us that ‘there are ‘no grounds for fear. A great number of police is available. Go and reassure the Jewish population.’”
“These were his words as afternoon street violence and looting were already raging at 3 o’clock in the afternoon!
“I then tried to reason with some of the menacing groups but was severely beaten in response. [Eyewitnesses watching in fear from the window recalled Rav Slonim stepping forward to reason with the Arab mob—only to be answered with savage blows and brutal kicks.]
Rav Slonim writes that an American woman, Mrs. Bernstein-Sokolover, “went to the Chevron chief of police, Mr. Cafferata, an Englishman, urging him to take steps immediately to stop the violence and the looting.” He recounts that he accompanied her and witnessed the following exchange.
“Mrs. Bernstein-Sokolover told Mr. Cafferata that the Chief Rabbi and the Jews of Chevron are protesting against the reign of terror. He refused to do anything about it, telling her: ‘The Jews deserve it.’ Turning to me, he said, “You people are the cause of all troubles.’”
“I was then forcibly escorted home under guard by several policemen. While this was happening, I observed that numerous busses filled with armed Arabs left for Jerusalem. Several hours later the same Arabs returned from Jerusalem with weapons. The police saw them but did not disarm them.
“It should be noted,” wrote Rav Slonim, “on Shabbat morning, when a hundred Arabs, armed, began their slaughter of Jews with the weapons they brought from Yerushalayim, the British-led police were not carrying their weapons.
“The massacre lasted an hour and a half. They broke into homes, smashing open the doors and in some cases hacking and entering through the roofs, murdering and pillaging and violating. The shrieks and moans were unbearable. They also broke into the synagogues and tore up the sifrei Torah.
“Only after the bloodbath had run its course did the British police finally arrive—now brandishing weapons, and firing a few hollow shots into the air.
“Forty Jews who had sought shelter and myself were miraculously saved, baruch Hashem, by the grace of the house owner, an Arab sheik, who assured the mob that ‘in the house were only the tenants, old friends of his.’”
They Are All My Family
Rav Slonim’ son, Eliezer Dan, was director of the Anglo-Palestine Bank, respected among the Arabs and the only Jew on the Chevron City Council. About 70 Jews had taken refuge in his home. The mob surrounded his house and called to Slonim: “If you’ll give us all the strangers in the house, we’ll leave you and your family alone.”
“There are no strangers here. They are all my family,” Slonim replied, according to survivors.
The Arabs broke into the house and began to shoot and stab everyone there. Cries of “Shema Israel!” could be heard from all sides. Many of the students were struck by gunfire and died. Others were stabbed and gravely wounded as they tried to bar the doors.
Some of the killers leaped into the house from the roof. Slonim fired his pistol, but was tragically overpowered and killed along with most of his family. The massacre continued for about 30 horrifying minutes. Twenty-four Jews were killed and 13 wounded. After it was over everything was stolen and the house razed.
Some 30 Jews survived the massacre. Eleven hid in a bathroom the mob miraculously overlooked. Ten hid under the dead. Five hid behind a book closet. Four escaped. Of the Slonim family, only 13-month old Shlomo survived, hidden under his mother’s body.
[To be continued in Part 2, “The Aftermath”]
*****
I don’t Shake Hands Defiled with Jewish Blood’
On that tragic Shabbos morning of the 18th of Av, news of deadly rioting in Chevron reached Yerushalayim. Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, then director of the National Committee, raced to Rav Kook’s house.
Together they hastened to meet with Harry Luke, the acting British High Commissioner, to urge him to take immediate action and protect the Jews of Hebron. Rav Kook, then the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, demanded that the British take swift and severe measures against the Arab rioters.
“What can be done?” Luke shrugged.
Rav Kook, the farthest thing from a firebrand, bit out the words: “Shoot the murderers!”
“But I have received no such orders.”
“Then I am giving you the order!” Rav Kook exhorted, his voice shaking. “In the name of humanity’s moral conscience, I demand this of you!”
Rav Kook held the acting commissioner responsible for British inaction during the subsequent massacre. Not long after this heated exchange, an official reception was held in Jerusalem, and Mr. Luke held out his hand to greet the Chief Rabbi. To the shock of many, the normally benevolent, gracious Rav Kook refused to shake it.
“I do not shake hands defiled with Jewish blood,” he said with quiet fury.
*****
Megillas Chevron—The Letter of a Survivor
Aharon Reuven Bernzweig, one of the survivors of the Chevron massacre, described the traumatic events and his miraculous rescue in a letter to his daughter, Blanche Greenberg, written less than two weeks after the pogrom.
Recently translated from the Yiddish by his grandson, Meyer Greenberg, the letter brings to life the horrors of August 24, 1929—a massacre that was the bitter fruit of months of vicious indoctrination by the Mufti of Jerusalem.
Following are excerpts from Bernzweig’s letter:
With the help of God, Monday, Parshas Shoftim V’shotrim, 5689 [September 2, 1929], Tel Aviv,
My dear children, may you live and be well,
It is one week today since Mama and I came back from the bitter tragedy our people suffered. My hand quivers and my blood is still churning inside as I begin the Megillah of Chevron.
From the moment we arrived in the city on Sunday, August 18th, we heard talk of Arab violence in Yerushalayim. We sensed something terrible was about to happen. I kept questioning the local Jews who had lived there for generations. They assured me that we were safe in Chevron.
But my heart told me otherwise. Chevron has a population of 24,000 Arabs. Of what significance is the Jewish community there, a mere 100 families? And if trouble broke out, what could we do to protect ourselves?
Just one hour before candle lighting, pandemonium broke loose. Window panes were smashed on all sides and we heard the bitter news that a yeshiva student had been killed inside the yeshiva. We were terrified.
Although the night was relatively quiet, I could not sleep. On Shabbos morning, cars filled with Arabs armed with long iron bars, long knives, and axes kept racing back and forth through the streets. They were screaming out their plans to slaughter the Jews.
[Due to British regulations], none of us had any weapons. We were on the brink of despair. I could only pray that Hakodosh Boruch Hu would have mercy and miraculously spare us.
33 People in One Hideout
At eight o’clock in the morning Arabs began breaking into Jewish homes. We froze in terror as screams pierced the heavens. The Arabs were going from door to door, slaughtering everyone inside. We were thirty-three people in one hideout, with no hope of escape.
Just then, an Arab who lived in back of our house entered our hideout and insisted that we follow him to his house and take shelter there. He took us to his cellar while he and several Arab women stood outside near the door.
Five times those bloodthirsty animals stormed the house with axes, screaming at the Arabs standing guard to hand over the Jews to them. The Arabs shouted back that they had not hidden any Jews and knew nothing of their whereabouts, and pleaded with the murderers not to destroy the house.
We couldn’t silence the crying of the little children and knew this would spell our end. Each one of us said his vidui. With the pitiful cries of fellow Jews filling our ears, we lay on the floor begging that death come quickly.
The door suddenly opened and the police entered. They demanded that we go along with them. Trembling, we obeyed. They took us under guard to the police station where we were met with hundreds of other survivors. There in the station, we slowly came back to ourselves, discovering the full scale of the slaughter and the loved ones each had lost. Deafening cries of anguish tore the heavens.
Of the 63 kedoshim in the massacre, the Yeshiva suffered 23 killed and 17 wounded. Twenty three living sifrei Torah were extinguished! Eight of the dead and 14 of the wounded from the Yeshiva are American boys. May the Heavens open and avenge us!
My dear children, I ask of you that you put away this letter for the generations. Each year, you should all meet and give shevah vehodaah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who saved your parents from this great catastrophe, and make a generous contribution to tzedaka. The miracle took place on Shabbos, Parshas Eikev, the 18th day of the month of Av, 5689.
Tatte in Himmel, give your people strength to endure!
Your father, writing to you in tears,
Aharon Bernsweig
