HEBRON

Cave of Machpelah, Hebron, courtesy, Center for Israel Education

In ancient times Hebron was known as "Kiryat Arba”, after its reputed founder, Arba, father of the Anakim. The patriarch Abraham resided at Hebron and purchased a burial site in a cave known as Machpelah where Sarah was buried. Abraham, Isaac, Rebeccah, Jacob, and Leah were afterward buried there as well. During the time of Moses, the spies passed through the city on their way to a valley to the north, the Valley of Eshcol, named after one of Abraham’s allies (Numbers 13:22-23). During the time of Joshua, Hebron and its territory became a city allotted to the tribe of Judah. It was, at first given to Caleb, and then to the Levites of the family of Kohath. David lived there where he was anointed as king over Judah. And there he stayed until he conquered Jerusalem, where he was anointed king over all Israel.   

Many Jews returned to Hebron after the Babylonia Captivity. But few, if any inhabited the city after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. A small Jewish community formed in later centuries and, under early Arab rule, beginning in the 7^th century, they even built a synagogue on the site of Machpelah. But the community was driven out by the Crusaders which renamed the city, St. Abraham and the synagogue at Machpelah, the Church of St. Abraham. But in spite of this, Machpelah continued to attract Jewish visitors and pilgrims from all over Israel as well as from the Diaspora and this aroused the curiosity and wonder of the Christian settlers. In c. 1171, Benjamin of Tudela found only a single Jew in Hebron, but regarding Machpelah, he relates: "…The natives erected there six sepulchers, which they tell foreigners are those of the Patriarchs and their wives, demanding money as a condition of seeing them. If a Jew gives an additional fee to the keeper of the cave, an iron door which dates from the time of our forefathers opens, and the visitor descends with a lighted candle...” Rabbi Pethahiah of Regensburg visited the city and the cave shortly afterward and relates a similar description. R. Samuel bar Shimshon, who explored Palestine in 1209-10, stated that the visitor must descend by twenty-four steps in a passageway so narrow that the rock touches him on either hand. He makes no mention of a Jewish community in Hebron at all. In 1267, when Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman came to Hebron to inquire about purchasing a burial plot there for himself, a renewed, though very small, Jewish community had already been formed. It wasn’t until after the Crusader occupation had ended that Jews began to return to Hebron in any appreciable numbers. But this time, the Arab Muslims, who gained authority over the land, were more strict in Islamic law than they were before the Crusader period and this drastically stunted the growth of the Jewish community. The Arabs had converted the Crusader church into a mosque and only allowed Jews to ascend to the seventh step leading to the Cave where the patriarchs were buried. In the 14^th century, Ishturi haParhi visited Hebron, and later, came a company of Venetian Jews who introduced the art of glass making to the city. In the 14^th and 15^th centuries, some Jews lived there while pilgrimages to Machpelah increased. In 1489, Rabbi Ovadiah di Bertinoro visited Hebron and even briefly served as its Chief Rabbi. In the early years of the Ottoman conquest, the Arabs totally plundered the community, but the situation soon stabilized and later, a Karaite community was even formed alongside the Jewish community. In addition, the city became the home of the 16^th century Cabbalist author from Safed, Eliahu de Vidas; his gravesite can still be seen today as part of the Rabbi’s Plot section of the Jewish cemetery.

Local tradition attributes the foundation of the modern community to Malkiel Ashkenazi (c. 1540), in whose honor a service would be held every year on the anniversary of his death. He had consolidated the community and also established a synagogue within the Jewish quarter in a building purchased from the Karaites. This was the Avraham Avinu which became the center of Jewish life locally aside from the seventh step leading to Machpelah. But fifty years later, however, it was difficult to form a "minyan".

In the early 17^th century, the community began to flourish, if not materially, then religiously and scholarly, and in spite of the periodic Arab persecutions and the plague which occurred in 1618, causing the eminent Kabbalist Rabbi Avraham Azulai, to flee to Gaza. Avraham ibn Hananiah was Chief Rabbi of Hebron at this time. Avraham was the father-in-law of Rabbi Moshe Halevi, author of “Y’dei Moshe” and halukkah shaliach to Turkey and Greece. Contemporary with Halevi was Rabbi Avraham Conque an outspoken supporter of the messianic pretender Shavtai Zvi.

Israel Zvi, chief rabbi of Heborn from 1701 to 1731, founded a prominent yeshiva in the city. But during his reign and afterwards, the Jews of Hebron suffered from a series of misfortunes as the local Arabs would harass, extort money, and persecute. Often there were Arab civil wars in the area and Jews would suffer from the wrath of both sides. Most eventually lived behind the walls surrounding their neighborhood. Over time, this neighborhood was dubbed by the Spanish name “El Cortijo” (the court).

In the middle of the century, Avraham Castel became Chief Rabbi. He was followed in 1772 by Aaron Alfandari. During this time, Hayyim Abraham Israel Zvi became prominent among Hebron Jews. He was the grandson of Avraham Azulai and author of “Be’er Mayim Hayyim”. In c. 1785, Mordechai Ruvio succeeded Alfandari as Chief Rabbi. He was followed by David Melamed (c. 1789) and then by Yom Tov Eliakim.

In 1807 and again in 1811, Haim Badjayo, an Egyptian Jew, bought property in Hebron for the expansion of the community. In c. 1823, a group of Habad Hasidim arrived in the city and set about to form their own community. They built a synagogue and added greatly to the prestige of Hebron Jewry, but the next year, there was a minor property conflict over ownership of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue between the Jews and the Karaites who were represented by their leaders in Constantinople. This conflict, however, soon passed. At this time, the leader of all of Hebron and the surrounding area was a certain Sheikh Abd el Rahman who would not permit anyone to persecute the Jews – unless he wanted their property. He ruled from Dura (the Biblical Adoraim) and in 1834, he led a rebellion against Ottoman authority. Ibrahim Pasha was sent to crush the rebellion causing the local Arabs, under Abd el Rahman, to flee to the hills. The Jews did not because they felt they had no reason to. However, with his seemingly tacit approval, Ibrahim’s soldiers set about to plunder their property anyway, killing five in the process. He then placed an armed guard around the Jewish quarter and the whole community was sunk into poverty. Toward the end of Ibrahim’s rule, the Chief Rabbi of Hebron was Hayyim haLevi Polacco and during his tenure, the reign of Ibrahim came to an end (1841). Abd el Rahman, triumphantly, entered Hebron, but four years later, another of the many Arab civil wars that have historically erupted in the area took place, this time between Abd el Rahman and his brothers. Once again, Jews were persecuted by both sides. This was followed, again, by an era of stabilization.

Since the death of Chief Rabbi Polacco in 1847, those who held Hebron’s Chief Rabbinate were the following: Hai Cohen, Moses Pereira (1852-64); Eliahu Mani (1864-78) who founded the Knesset Eliahu Synagogue; and Raḥamim Joseph Franco (1878-1901). In 1890, Hebron’s Jewish population reached a peak of approximately 1,490 but it began to decrease afterwards. Since 1901, Jewish Hebron was ruled by Hezekiah Medini, formerly, the Haham Bashi Vakili (chief rabbi) of Karasu-Bazar in the Crimea.  

Avraham Avinu neighborhhod, courtesy, 

Shavei Hevron Yeshiva

In 1924, the Slobodka Yeshiva relocated from Lithuania to Hebron under Rabbi Nosson Zvi Finkel and became the preeminent yeshiva in the city. Before the beginning of the Arab riots in 1929, a Haganah delegation approached the head of the community, Eliezer Dan Slonim, offering the local Jews arms for protection in anticipation of trouble with the Arabs. Slonim stated that such protection was not necessary as they were on good terms with the Arabs. The Haganah felt this to be an affront and thus began their uncaring attitude toward the Jews, especially those Jews who were native Palestinians (which were the majority of Hebron Jewry) as well as those who did not identify themselves as “Zionists”. Shortly thereafter, the predictions of the Haganah came true. The local Arabs either massacred or expelled the Jews from Hebron, and they would not be allowed to return until the early 1930s. Many Jewish buildings were destroyed and some, such as the Slobodka Yeshiva, were occupied. (The occupation of the Slobodka remains to this day). Even this renewed community was driven out during the Arab riots of 1936-9. The last Jewish family left in 1948 during the War of Independence. During the period of Arab occupation (1948-67), just as in eastern Jerusalem, synagogues and yeshivas were destroyed and the Jewish cemetery was desecrated. When the city was liberated after 1967, both the Zionists and the Arabs formed an alliance and declared Hebron to be off-limits to Jews – even the cemetery. However, a compromise was reached and it was agreed that Jews could visit Hebron and study in its yeshiva which was rebuilt, but otherwise, everything was off-limits. In addition, the adjacent Jewish suburb of Kiryat Arba was established. In 1979, a group of Jews were forced to disguise themselves as tourists and they quickly occupied the old Hadassah hospital (now, a visitor center). This angered the Zionists and they kept them as prisoners there for the next few years. It wasn’t until a massacre of yeshiva students in 1981 that the Zionist government finally, though reluctantly, acquiesced, and the Hebron Jewish community was reestablished, though with severe restrictions, which accounts for the very low number of Jews in the city today. But in spite of constant harassment by both the Arabs and the Zionists, the community has remained, often playing host to tens of thousands who arrive for holidays and other events. Hebron as well as Kiryat Arba has now become home to the following sites: the Tarpat Museum recounting the massacre of 1929, Bet Romano, the Gutnik Center guest house, the Bet haShalom apartment building, the Bet Chaya Mushka synagogue, Shavei Hevron Yeshiva, Shaarei Hevron Square, Hall of Gymnastics sports center, Kiryat Arba Cultural Center, Mini Seminary for Girls, Technology Park, and the Tel Rumeida and Alonei Mamre archaeological sites.