Hebrew anniversary of 1929 Hebron Massacre commemorated
Israelis are marking the Hebrew anniversary of the 1929 Hebron Massacre this weekend, commemorating one of the deadliest pogroms of the British Mandate period and the destruction of Hebron’s centuries-old Jewish community.
The massacre took place on the 18th of Av, 5689—corresponding to Aug. 24, 1929—and this year the Hebrew date falls from Friday night through Saturday.
In a post on X marking the anniversary, Israel’s Foreign Ministry recalled that “67 Jews were murdered by their Arab neighbors in the Hebron Massacre, temporarily bringing centuries of continuous Jewish life in Hebron to an end.
“The nefarious ideology that fueled the massacre did not stop in 1929,” the ministry wrote. “It began long before Israel’s establishment.”
On this day in 1929, 67 Jews were murdered by their Arab neighbors in the Hebron Massacre, temporarily bringing centuries of continuous Jewish life in Hebron to an end.The nefarious ideology that fueled the massacre did not stop in 1929. It began long before Israel's… pic.twitter.com/Op2cMw74st
The violence erupted amid widespread riots across Mandatory Palestine after false rumors spread that Jews were threatening Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Arab rioters in Hebron attacked the city’s Jewish residents, killing 67 men, women and children, wounding dozens more, looting homes and desecrating synagogues. The surviving Jewish residents were evacuated by the British authorities, ending a continuous Jewish presence in the Judea city that had stretched back centuries.
Hebron, home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, is one of Judaism’s four holy cities (along with Jerusalem, Safed and Tiberias) and had maintained a Jewish community for hundreds of years before the massacre.
The anniversary comes two months after the death of Yitzhak Ben-Hebron, believed to have been the last surviving witness to the massacre. Ben-Hebron, who was four years old when Arab rioters attacked the city, returned following the 1967 Six-Day War and devoted much of his life to rebuilding Hebron’s Jewish community.
Today, a renewed Jewish community lives alongside a much larger Palestinian population in Hebron, where security remains tight because of the city’s religious significance and its history of Arab violence.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly cited the 1929 massacre as evidence that anti-Jewish violence in the Land of Israel predates both the establishment of the State of Israel and the modern Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Israel is commemorating the Hebrew anniversary of the 1929 Hebron Massacre, which occurred on the 18th of Av, 5689 (August 24, 1929). During this event, 67 Jews were killed by Arab rioters, temporarily ending centuries of continuous Jewish life in Hebron. The violence erupted amid false rumors that Jews were threatening Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, leading to attacks on Jewish residents, homes, and synagogues. The surviving Jewish community was evacuated by British authorities. Israel's Foreign Ministry noted that "The nefarious ideology that fueled the massacre did not stop in 1929. It began long before Israel’s establishment." The commemoration follows the recent death of Yitzhak Ben-Hebron, believed to be the last surviving witness, who returned to help rebuild the Jewish community after the 1967 Six-Day War. Today, a renewed Jewish community exists in Hebron alongside a larger Palestinian population, with tight security due to the city's religious significance and history of violence.
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