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90 Years Later, Last-Known Jewish Survivor Recalls Hebron Massacre

(Jerusalem Post) Tovah Lazaroff - Time has not dimmed the powerful memories that Avraham Kiryati, 98, has of the moment his grandfather, Eliyahu Capilouto, was stabbed during the Hebron massacre on August 24, 1929. "My grandfather was dressed just like the Arabs," said Kiryati. "He went out to see what was going on. They [the rioters] pushed him inside and stabbed him on the side of his body." Kiryati escaped out the back door of his grandparents' home and made his way to the family chicken coup where he hid until it was safe. When he returned, he found Eliyahu lying on the floor in a pool of blood as his grandmother Rivka blocked the wound with coffee grounds. In the following months, his grandfather died of his wounds. Kiryati is a descendant of Jews who escaped the Spanish Inquisition, settling first in Safed and then in Hebron. He said all of the survivors were taken to Jerusalem. In the early 1930s, his grandmother Rivka was among a small number of families who returned to the city and attempted to resurrect the Jewish community, but the British insisted that they leave during the Arab uprising of 1936. Kiryati was in the British army and in 1942 he returned to Hebron with the British and took a photograph of the Jewish cemetery, which was later used to locate the graves of the massacre victims. During the 1967 Six-Day War he was part of the unit that liberated Gush Etzion and Hebron from the Jordanians. He went to Hebron to look for the Jewish cemetery, but instead of graves he found a tomato garden. Kiryati is a firm believer that today, as then, the Palestinians want to drive the Jews into the sea. "We do not have any choice but to remain strong," he said.
2019-08-23 00:00:00
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