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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, September 29, 1983 - Page 7
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50 years later^ Hebron once again is called home
Toronto Jewish community leader DONALD CARR visited Hebron this summer, during his annual trip to Israel. He reports here on the tiny Jewish community that lives in that city which had a major Jewish presence for 2,000 years until 1929. * * *
Immediately behind the bustling shuk lie ruins of another era. They rise out of a crater — arches, old windows, the remains of tubular titles, a roof here and there. In the crater lies the debris of centuries and of 50 years ago. -
Squeezed into a narrow, flat area, some 15 feet wide and 40 feet deep, between the shuk and the ruins, stand four small trailers — "caravans" they call them. On the first one, closest to the shuk, flies the blue and white flag of Israel. In a corrugated iron hut inside the wall that separates the crater from the shuk, sit two soldiers. On two roofs above are separate guard posts, with a soldier in each.
Each caravan houses a family.
The Jews have come back to Hebron ...
Four hundred years ago on this spot the Avraham Aveinu Synagogue was built. By then, Jews were not allowed to go to the Machpela—the burial place of the patriarchs and the matriarchs; so they prayed in their new synagogue in the Jewish section of Hebron.
The Jewish presence there was uninterrupted for two thousand years, until Shabbat, Aug. 24, 1929. On that day, Hebron Arabs murdered 67 Jewish men, women and children and destroyed the synagogue, including Avraham Aveinu.
Thus came to an end the physical connection between Jews and Hebron.
But the spiritual link could not be severed.
the yearning to return to what is probably the second holiest site of Jewry — where Abraham lived, where David lived and where our ancestors were buried — remained.
Ten years ago, the mlns of the Avraham Aveinu Synagogue were used as a sheep pen. Only the women's section, with Its own little domed roof with carvings of palm trees, remained intact. Its outside wall was used as a latrine.
With ithe help of architect Ben Tzion Tauger, who had come from Russia, the synagogue has now been rebuilt. It sits in the midst of the ruins, a little jewel, with room for maybe 50 worshippers beneath its windowed dome. Niches in the walls hold large s'farim. Electric cables poke through the plastered roof and walls, waiting for fixtures. A single, unshaded light bulb dangles over the bimah.
The ark, which is new, is made of wood. In it repose three Torahs. In the front stands a magnificent Sephardic Torah — blue velvet and silver, the parchment yellowed with age. This Torah belonged to the late Rabbi Nissim, the former Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, It had been in his family for many years. When he died, his will left instructions that somehow the Sefer Torah was to be kept in Hebron. And so it is.
Avinoam Horowitz and his U.S. born wife, Shoshana, live with their baby in one of the trailers. It cannot be more than 7 feet wide by 5 feet long*. A curtain divides the caravan in half. One side is the living room/bedroom/. study, but a refrigerator encroaches upon it. The other half is kitchen and bathroom. A large board is propped against the wall outside the caravan. It is the Shabbat table which once a week is brought into the caravan for the shabbat meal.
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Wanted to live idtJi the Arabs^
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We sat in the "living room" and Avinoam^ told us why they were there, as the door creaked in the wind. Shoshana had left with the baby and the "next caravan" neighbor to do some shopping and to take sewing lessons^ The neighbar, of course, had his gun with him.
Avinoam aiid Shoshana lived for two months after they were married in Kiryat Arba, the Jewish suburb of Hebron, on the hill above the city. One of his friends who studied at the yeshiva with him was killed by an Arab in Hebron about a year ago.
The newly married couple decided there and then that they had to be part of the Jewish presence in Hebron Itself. They saw no
reason why Jews could not return to where they had lived for centuries. ^*Not to displace Arabs,** he says, "bat to live with them as neighbors."
Seven families live adjacent to the Avraham Aveinu Synagogue — four in the caravans and three in the old buildings.
Five other families live a couple of blocks, away in an old, rambling 2-storey building called Beit Romano after its former owner. That building also houses a Lubavitch yeshiva, where young students learn together.
There js no heating in the old structure; until mid^July, their only electricity was from an illegal connection to the city's service. The mayor of Hebron had refused all applications for electric service. Only when he had been deposed after the death of yeshiva student, Aharon Gross, in June and he had been replaced by an Israeli mayor, Zami Shemesh, was that application approved.
We remarked how clean and tidy Hebron looked. "Yes," said Avinoam. "You should have seen it just a few weeks ago. The Arab mayor did nothing for the Arab inhabitants. He was too busy trying to make trouble for the Jews. Within a week of Shemesh's appointment, all the garbage disappeared from the streets and the roads started to be fixed," He claimed that most of the Arab inhabitants were happy with the changeover... although ia vociferous minority is not.
* ♦ ♦
The leaders of the Jews in Hebron are Rabbi Moshe Levinger and his wife, Miriam.
For over two years, they and eight of their 11 children lived in one room hi Belt Hadassah, the third area of Jewish resettlement in Hebron. A short while ago, they moved into their "palatial" quarters, next to the Avraham Aveinu Synagogue. There are four rooms on three different levels In a ramshackle renovated ruin In the old Jewish section.
We saw photographs of the state of the rooms when they arrived there. Goats stare at the camera from what is now the "master bedroom" and from the living room.
In addition to cleaning out the place and building walls, plastering, installing windows, running water and electricity, one other — most significant — act had to be performed before they moved in. In the photographs one can see the diagonal niche cut into each doorway, where mezuzot had once been, for centuries perhaps, before the fateful Shabbat 54 years ago. The final act before moving in was performed by Rabbi Levinger, pressing new mezuzot into those niches and they are now held there with masking tape.
Rebbitzen Levinger came to Israel from New York 27 years ago, when she was 18. She and her husband are the cement which holds the 20 Hebron Jewish families together.
For her, being in Hebron Is as a divine commandment. She and her associates do not want to displace a single Arab. They merely wish to live their lives as neighbors In the Jewish sections. The Machpela and Avraham Aveinu are holy sites and they believe Jews are obliged to be there.
They are not part of any governmental scheme to esfablish a "fait accompli" in the West Bank, as so many allege. Their presence there has nothing to do with the politics of Israel. They support the state strongly. Many of them have served and still serve in the army. "I can't see how anybody could object to, or fear 20 families surrounded by 70,000 Arabs," she says simply.
Insofar as fear is concerned, it is the Jewish children who are afraid from time to time. Rebbitzen Levinger teaches them not to fear and insists that their 8-year-old take the younger children out, across the shuk, to the bus stop. If sandals need repairing, the children go alone into the casbah to get them fixed. She does admit, though, to a 20-minute near-panic when her 2 V2-year-old wandered away from her at a stall in the shuk and disappeared into the throng.
Two days before we were there, on Shabbat, a Shalom Achshav group came to the centre of Hebron and held a rally against the Jewish presence. Rebbitzen Levinger told us that some 200 Israelis stood there, near where Aharon Gross was stabbed to death, making speeches and handing out leaflets.
A crowd of some 2,000 local Arabs gathered and joined in the applause as speakers called for the removal of the Jews. She sees their actions and their words as incitement to yet other murders. Mordechai Bar On, a former director of education in the Israel Defence Forces, and a prominent leader of Shalom Achshav, has declared: "We will never rest until.all the Jews are out of Hebron."^ .Miriam Levinger^azes Intently from one of
Israeli soldier on patrol In Hebron. [Uzl Keren photo]
the bedroom windows, across the rooftops to the minaret and the Byzantine roof over the Machpela. "Can you Imagine Jews wanting this place to be judenrein?*'
On the previous Friday, architect Ben Tzion Tauger had died. In accordance with his requests, his coffin was carried first to the
Avraham Aveinu Synagogue, which had been his pride and joy, Next, it was taken to the Machpela where prayers were again read. Finally, it was carried to the old Jewish cemetery and he became one of the few who have been buried there in the past five decades.
war
BERT RAPHAEL, the Toronto lawyer who acted as a counsel for Canadian Jewish Congress at the recent extradition hearing for alleged war criminal Helmut Ranca, argues here that Canada could make use of deportation In bringing Nazi war criminals who reside here to justice.
The Ontario Court of Appeal, in the recent decision of Federal Republic of Germany v, Rauca held that while the extradition of a Canadian citizen violates his prima facie right to remain in Canada as guaranteed by S. 6(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, such extradition prescribed a reasonable limit which was demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society, from the meaning of S. 1 of the Charter. Helmut Rauca is now in Germany awaiting trial on a charge of murdering 11,584 Jews.
It is common knowledge that there are hundreds of Canadian citizens who committed heinous crimes during World _ War II, either as members of the Gestapo or as Allies of Nazi Germany, Notwithstanding that many. years have elapsed since the perpetration of the crimes, it is an affront to the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust that these "Canadians" are not brought to justice.
Extradition is still available but that leaves the decision as to whether or not to prosecute up to the requesting state and really involves little or no initiative on the part of the Canadian government.
In the Rauca case the Court of Appeal considered the possibility of the fugitive being tried in Canada under the provisions of the Geneva Conventions Act, the War Crimes Act or pursuant to the enactment of some future retroactive criminal legislation.
The court concluded that the Geneva Conventions Act was not a statute of general
Bert Raphael
application but was a piece of substantive law which did not have a retroactive effect, and equally that the War Crimes Act was not a statute of general application, and by its very terms did not cover the fact situation in the Rauca : case where the crimes were not committed against Canadian citizens.
With this pronouncement, it would seem highly unlikely that the minister of justice would prosecute'under the Geneva Conventions Act or the War Crimes Act. In the United States deportation has been used effectively to bring Nazi war criminals to justice.
Canada could do likewise. The procedure would involve a 2-step approach.
First, the Canadian citizen would have to be denaturalized and then deported to a state willing to admit such person. The fundamental basis for denaturalization would be that the citizen gave false representations when applying for admission to Canada. The relevant statute would be the 1946 Citizenship Act which provided that a naturalized Canadian could lose his citizenship If he obtained the same by fraud, false representation, or the concealment of vital information.
A similar provision is contained in the 1917 act which came into force on Feb. 15, 1977.
The Gestapo, the SS and being a core leader of the Nazi Party, were held at Nuremberg to be members of a criminal organization. An applicant for citizenship concealing his membership would be subject to loss of citizenship for that concealment. Th§ 1977 Citizenship Act deems a person to have obtained citizenship by fraud, false representation, or knowingly concealing material circumstances, if he was lawfully admitted to Canada for permanent residence by fraud, false representation or knowingly concealing material circumstances and he subsequently obtained citizenship on the basis of permanent residence.
Assiimlng that the government were to act and denaturalization occurs, concern has been expressed that denaturalization might lead to the creation of statelessness, which would be a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This would not be a factor In Canada because none of the alleged Nazi war criminals would be a natural-born Canadian and, upon denaturalization, would revert to his previous dtizen-shlp.
The denaturalized person would then be subject to deportation. The grounds for deportationwould be the false pretenses in obtaining permanent residence in Canada.
In the event that Jhe provisions "of the Immigration Act are too vague, Canada could amend the Immigration Act to make past . participation in Nazi activities a ground for deportation.
The United States recently passed an amendment to its immigration and nationality law to that effect. With the amendment which became law on Oct. 30, 1978, a non-naturalized or denaturalized American citizen became subject^to deportation if he had participated in Nazi persecution.