Rabbi Kaplan
“When I was in Hebron in 1929, there
occurred the tragic massacre of over twenty yeshiva
students, great scholars, plus another forty members
of the Jewish community. I would like to describe the
error that has circulated in Jewish communities –
a horrible error, that accuses the Arabs in Hebron of
being murderers who attacked the Jews simply because
the Arabs were “bad people.” In order to
correct the record, this error must be corrected. The
Arabs were very friendly people, and the Jewish People
in Hebron lived together with them and had very friendly
relations with them. They worked with Jews,
and everybody got along just fine.
To take just one example, I used to have the habit of
walking a mile or two out of town all by myself to visit
a tree that was believed to be the tree where our patriarch
Abraham met the three angels, as described in Genesis.
I especially enjoyed visiting the tree in the summertime.
Along the way I would talk to the Arabs, though it was
mostly using our hands because I didn’t speak
any Arabic. Interestingly enough, no one in
the yeshiva ever told me it was dangerous to go by myself
among the Arabs. We just lived with them, and
got along very well.
I have also seen a letter from the Grand Rabbi of the
Gerrer Hassidim of those days, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai
Alter of Poland, regarding his trip to the Holy Land
during the days when people were talking about emigrating
to Palestine. He wanted to find out what kind of people
the Palestinians were, in order to be able to advise
people whether to move there or not. He wrote in his
letter that the Arabs were a very friendly and
fine people.
Therefore it’s necessary to set the record straight
about the accusations that the Palestinians were terrible
killers who liked attacking Jews. This was never the
situation at all!
Today’s wicked Zionists are just like their predecessors,
who were responsible for causing terrible suffering
in Palestine with their wars with the Arabs, may G-d
have mercy. At that time in 1929, the Zionists had a
slogan arguing that the Western Wall in Jerusalem was
a Jewish “national symbol.” Of course, the
Arabs disagreed with this idea, considering that they
had control of the location for over 1,100 years. However,
the Zionist mobs were yelling that “The Wall is
ours!” It’s hard to understand why they
felt that way considering they have no connection to
the Jewish holy places whatsoever. An argument erupted
in the Jewish newspapers about establishing a permanent
prayer area for Jews at the Wall. This provoked the
Arabs, and the rabbi of Jerusalem at the time, Rabbi
Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld begged them to stop and to be
appreciative to the Arabs for allowing Jews to pray
at the Wall for so many centuries undisturbed. However,
the Zionists wanted a permanent setup under their control.
The Zionists refused to heed the calls of Rabbi Zonnenfeld,
and they called a large meeting of Jews in Jerusalem
– supposedly some 10,000 people showed up. One
of the speakers was their “chief Rabbi”
(Avraham Isaac Kook), who proclaimed, “Hear O
Israel, the Wall is our Wall, the Wall is One”
(which is a ridiculous pun on the blessing, “Hear
O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One”).
This began the conflict at the time between
the Zionists and the Arabs.
Afterwards, we were studying at the yeshiva in Hebron,
and saw a bunch of boys in short pants carrying weapons
on bicycles and motorcycles, running around the streets
of Hebron. We were very worried about this. What were
they up to?
In brief, our rabbi, the supervisor of our religious
academy, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, called them
for a meeting, but they refused. He was forced to go
over to them, and asked them what they were up to. He
accused them of wanting to provoke the Arabs. They responded
that they were coming to protect us!! We cried out,
“Woe is us! G-d have mercy!” They didn’t
want to leave town until it was too late!
These arrogant cowards only ran away when the local
leaders of the Arabs called for a mass meeting of the
people of the surrounding Arab villages. But it was
too late; the Arabs got organized, and the Mufti called
on his people to be ready Friday night when the yeshiva
would be attending prayers. At this point, the yeshiva
was alone against the Zionists, but the Arabs didn’t
know to distinguish between us and the Zionists. Sadly
they attacked and killed some of our people, including
the great scholar, Rabbi Shmuel Rosenhaltz.
The next morning we heard about the excitement in town,
and even worse, we heard the crying and shouting. I
and a friend, Avraham Ushpener, lived in an apartment
that was part of a three-story building leased by a
Jew from an Arab. We could hear all the noise from our
apartment on the third floor. We were terrified to let
the Arabs in because we knew how angry they had become,
but a while later things calmed down. In total, some
65 people were killed. On the other side of town, however,
the Jews were spared.
Why am I telling this story? It is because I
wanted to describe how the wicked Zionists, both today
and in those days, were the cause of our suffering!
They cooperated with the Nazis, and our religion
teaches that a person who causes someone to sin is worse
than someone who kills him.
It reminds me of an event recounted by Rabbi Moshe Schonfeld,
who once visited Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz {Chazon
Ish) when the Zionist state was established, and when
there was fighting between the Zionists and the Arabs.
Rabbi Schonfeld told Rabbi Karelitz about what was happening.
Rabbi Karelitz told him that the crimes of the Zionists
were much worse, because they were wicked heretics who
were uprooting hundreds of thousands of Jews from their
faith and that is much greater pain since our
Sages stated that a person who causes another person
to sin is much worse than if he kills him.
In our own days there is a Zionist leader (Begin), whose
arrogance and selfishness is more important than anything
else to him, and for which he is prepared to sacrifice
hundreds and thousands of Jews. These heretics and evildoers,
this Zionist leader of a state that killed the Judaism
of the Yemenite and Moroccan Jews, and of many other
Sephardic Jews! This is the work of these thugs and
gangsters. And there are religious Jewish parties
who dare to state that they love this man?! Everyone
must know that the anger of the Arabs against us is
only caused by the Zionists!
The Arabs were a friendly people to us, and I am a witness
to it. We lived very well with them in Hebron. Rabbi
Alter attested to this as well, and it is the accursed
Zionists who caused them to hate us. The Zionists dare
to use their power to expel the Arabs, and even today
in Lebanon, they kill and butcher the Arabs; they wipe
out whole villages with the airplanes they get from
the United States.
Everyone should know who the murderers are – the
Zionists are the biggest murderers in the world, who
refuse to let the Jewish People live in peace either
physically or spiritually!” |