Baruch Goldstein
Baruch Goldstein was an American-born physician raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, who later moved to Israel. He served as a doctor in the Israel Defense Forces and lived in Kiryat Arba, adjacent to Hebron. Goldstein became infamously known for his involvement in a violent incident on February 5, 1994, at the Cave of the Patriarchs, a significant religious site for both Jews and Arabs. During the Jewish holiday of Purim, he entered the site wearing an army uniform and opened fire on Arab worshipers, an act that resulted in his death at the hands of the crowd.
Goldstein's actions sparked immediate outrage and led to increased tensions, riots, and further violence in the region, with dozens of additional fatalities in the aftermath. While the Shamgar Commission concluded that Goldstein acted alone, his actions were widely condemned as terrorism, and they had lasting implications on Israeli-Palestinian relations. Today, Goldstein's burial site in Kiryat Arba has become a controversial shrine for some right-wing supporters, despite efforts by the Israeli government to address the contentious legacy surrounding him.
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Baruch Goldstein
Brooklyn-born Israeli doctor
- Born: December 9, 1956
- Birthplace: Brookly, New York
- Died: February 25, 1994
- Place of death: Hebron, West Bank, Israel
Cause of notoriety: Goldstein, who was killed before he could be brought to trial, is believed responsible for the deaths of 29 Arab worshipers and the injury of 125 others in a shooting attack.
Active: February 25, 1994
Locale: Cave of the Patriarchs, Hebron, West Bank, Israel
Early Life
Baruch Goldstein (bah-ROOK GOHLD-steen) was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Yeshiva University and Albert Einstein Medical School. He was one of the original members of a group called the Jewish Defense League, which was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane to protect Jews from violent assaults in their Brooklyn neighborhoods. Goldstein moved to Israel and served as a doctor in the army there. After army service, he continued to work as a doctor (as part of a terrorist attack response team) and lived in the city of Kiryat Arba, located next to Hebron on the West Bank.
Terrorist Career
Goldstein had no previous criminal record. In the weeks leading up to the incident at the Cave of the Patriarchs—a biblical burial site in Hebron where both Jews and Arabs regularly pray—there were numerous indications of an impending attack by Arabs on Jewish worshipers in the cave. The preceding months were also filled with Arab terrorist attacks on Jews within Israel, especially in the area where Goldstein lived. As part of his emergency medical work, he was often one of the first on the scene of such attacks. There are news photographs of him attending to victims in a concentrated effort to save their lives.
On February 5, 1994 (coinciding with the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates Jewish resistance to persecution in ancient Persia), Goldstein entered the Cave of the Patriarchs. According to a commission report issued by then-president of the Israel Supreme Court, Justice Meir Shamgar, Goldstein was wearing an army uniform and began shooting. After being subdued, Goldstein was then killed by the Arab worshipers present at the time of his act. A pathologist’s report indicated that Goldstein died of a smashed skull from numerous blows to his head. Eyewitness reports confirm that Goldstein’s rifle was wrested away from him and that he was attacked by ten Arabs who used metal poles and a fire extinguisher to beat him to death.
It has been reported that the metal detector at the Arab entrance point to the Cave of the Patriarchs had been damaged the night before the shooting and that eight hundred Arab men and women were present that morning. Only a small percentage of the men were searched for weapons when they entered, and three weapons other than Goldstein’s gun were subsequently found at the scene, including one wrapped in an Arab keffiya (headscarf). Some speculated that Goldstein may have actually been trying to preempt a rumored attack by Arabs against Jewish worshipers in the same place on the same day. The terrorist organization Hamas had circulated a leaflet to Arab residents of Hebron advising them to stock up on basic supplies in light of a predicted curfew that would likely follow a massive attack on the Jews. A commission of inquiry was established, called the Shamgar Commission, which found that Goldstein acted on his own; the case was never adjudicated in a court of law. No Arabs were ever charged or prosecuted for Goldstein’s murder.
Impact
An immediate government and media uproar (both in Israel and abroad) followed the events at the Cave of the Patriarchs. There were also numerous riots, and an additional thirty people were killed during the next week. Most mainstream commentators condemned the act, classifying it as a terrorist incident. Some of the circumstances, however, continued to be unclear. For example, in the weeks preceding the incident, there were numerous documented Arab threats to the lives of Jews praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Baruch Goldstein’s burial site is in Kiryat Arba and has become a shrine for those sympathetic with his right-wing views, although the Israeli government has attempted to dismantle the site because of ongoing controversy; in particular, authorities have said that they would like to revise the laudatory inscription on his tombstone.
Bibliography
Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. A comparative analysis of the use of violence by fringe elements of groups from five major religions, including Judaism.
Shahak, Israel, and Norton Mezvinsky. Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. London: Pluto Press, 1999. Promotes the thesis that Jewish fundamentalist attitudes toward non-Jews and sovereignty over the land of Israel helped some to try to justify Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination and Goldstein’s attack at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Israel.
Simons, Chaim. Did or Did Not Dr. Baruch Goldstein Massacre Twenty-Nine Arabs? Kiryat Arba, Israel: Chaim Simons, 2003. A detailed analysis of the political atmosphere and events preceding the Goldstein incident, as well as its aftermath, including the Shamgar Commission report.