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Jews Have Lived in Hebron for Three Millennia

[Wall Street Journal] Jerold S. Auerbach - On Aug. 23-24, 1929, the Jewish community of Hebron was exiled following a horrific pogrom. Until 1929, Jews had lived in Hebron for three millennia. There, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah. It was the first parcel of land owned by the Jewish people in their promised land. Ever since, religious Jews revered Hebron as the burial site of their matriarchs and patriarchs. The Jewish community of Hebron - some 700 people - recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of their return after the Six-Day War of 1967. All the other ancient peoples mentioned in the Bible have vanished. But Jews still live in Hebron. Hebron Jews are relentlessly vilified as fanatics who illegally occupy someone else's land. As religious Zionists, they are the militant Jewish settlers whom critics love to hate. It is seldom noticed that their most serious transgression - settlement in the biblical land of Israel - is the definition of Zionism: the return of Jews to their historic homeland. The writer, a professor of history at Wellesley College, is the author of Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel (2009).
2009-08-28 08:00:00
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