SUNDAY

FEBRUARY 13, 2000

Sunday. Chevron and K'far Etzion. Emotional and Wet.  

While we had initially planned to go to the Golan the constant rain and flooding conditions forced us to stay south. We juggled a few things and moved our Chevron trip up a day.

Its hard to understand what the struggle for Chevron is all about until you visit and see for yourself.  You may think your opinion on the matter is firm -- either for the effort to maintain a Jewish presence in that ancient, holy city, or against on the grounds that peace is paramount at any cost.

To visit Chevron is to walk on ground where Avraham Avinu -- Abraham the Patriarch -- stood. It's to see ruins four thousand year old, recently uncovered by archaeologists (right, top).  But visiting Chevron is also about going eye to eye with stories of amazing determination and heartbreaking sacrifice.  

In pouring rain we walked the streets of a neighborhood taken apartment by apartment, pre-fab trailer by pre-fab trailer. Most residents were at work, soldiers patrolled en masse.

David Wilder, our guide, took us to Beit Hadassah, the old hospital taken over in 1979 by a determined group of women who moved in one night and refused to leave until the government capitulated. Today the Wilders and a number of other Jewish families live there. (Right, second from top -- in a small shul in Beit Hadassah, Mark Zomick and David Wilder stand by the Aron Kodesh dedicated in memory of seven victims of Arab terror in Chevron and nearby Kiryat Arba. Among them, a good friend of Nachum's, killed outside the Beit Hadassah gate). 

We saw the bedroom where an elderly rabbi was stabbed to death by a terrorist two years ago. Today, his wife allows a kollel to study Torah in that room.  (Right, third from top -- note the door charred by a firebomb tossed after the stabbing. The victim's picture hangs on the wall). 

We saw the Avraham Avinu shul -- first built in the 16th century, later destroyed in the 1950's by Arabs who tore down the top of the building and filled  in the rest with tons of dirt and trash. When Jewish settlers  began to reclaim the shul in 1976 an animal pen stood on top. Today the shul has been rebuilt and daily T'filot are held there.  Noam Arnon, chairman of the Jewish Community in Chevron (right, fourth from top -- he stands at left) showed us several Sifrei Torah which were rescued from the shul during the Arab riots and massacre of 1929. They have been returned from safekeeping in Yerushalayim. One is over 300 years old.

Mincha at the Meoras HaMachpelah -- burial ground of the Patriarchs and Esav's head.  (right, second and third from bottom).  Then, on to K'far Etzion -- still raining. We saw the very moving "Multimedia Presentation of the History of the Etzion Bloc."  A group of Jewish settlements there fell in the first days of the War of Independence, despite the best efforts of the settlers, who fought almost to the last man.  Today the Gush Etzion area is lush and beautiful -- settled once and for all after 1967 by the children of those brave defenders.

The day ended on an upnote.  Nachum finally got to Burger King on Ben Yehudah street (right, bottom). 

Security is paramount in Israel. When the area surrounding the Jewish enclave in Chevron was turned over to Palestinian control, security demanded a new way of getting there. Two tunnels were constructed including the one above, at left.   At right, we pass through a security checkpoint into Chevron.