Page 20 - HaMizrachi #14 2019 Chayei Sarah USA

Sarah Nachshon

The Ancient Jewish

Cemetery in Hebron

grew up in the village of Kfar into the covenant of Avraham in through ancient Hebron as night fell,
Chassidim in northern Israel. My Hebron, the most ancient city of the determined to exercise the right and
I family lived in a small shack, and Jewish People in the Land of Israel, merit of every Jew. We passed the Cave
we didn't have any toys or anything be taken from me after only three of Machpela. We passed the 450-year-
else. I had only one dress, and if I months? Everything in this world has old Abraham Avinu synagogue, left
wanted to wear another dress I had to a purpose. What was the purpose of in ruins, destroyed by the Jordanian
trade with one of my friends. But I had my three-month-old son? conquerors in 1948. Blockades, set up
a wonderful childhood. My parents to stop the crowd, are pushed aside.
taught me to be happy with what I I decided that Avraham Yedidya Senior officers gave orders over their
had, and that is a value I have worked would be buried in the ancient Jewish walkie-talkies: “Stop them – don’t
hard to pass on to my own children as cemetery in Hebron. The cemetery let them proceed” – but the soldiers
well. had been last used to inter the 67 Jews radioed back: “We can’t stop them.
slaughtered in the 1929 Hebron riots.
Growing up, I learned from my It is minutes from the graves of Ruth If you want to stop them come down
parents the value of self-sacrifice for and Yishai (according to tradition) here and do it yourselves.”
the Land of Israel. I remember the and overlooks the Cave of Machpela. The procession continued, past Beit
stories my parents told us about how Perhaps this was Avraham Yedidya’s Romano, Beit Schneerson, home of
they fought against the British in role, to play a sad but vital part in Menucha Rachel Schneerson Slonim,
order to establish the State of Israel. the renewal of Jewish Hebron. After granddaughter of the “Ba’al HaTanya,”
My parents taught me that if the Jews up the steep hill to the ancient
want to keep the Land of Israel, we almost 50 years, the Jewish cemetery
must fight for it. If we don’t fight for it, of Hebron would again be the site of a cemetery.
we will lose it, G-d forbid. Jew’s last resting place. Moonlight illuminated the field.
It was late afternoon. The funeral I reluctantly let go of my precious
After the Six-Day War in 1967, my
husband, Baruch, and I joined a group procession left Kiryat Arba for the Avraham Yedidya, and his body was
of idealistic activists determined ancient Jewish cemetery. Then we lowered into the tiny grave.
to reestablish the ancient Jewish were stopped by soldiers! The cars The gravesite is only meters from
community inside newly-liberated came to a halt. Soldiers began opening the mass grave of 1929. Barely able to
Hebron. car doors, searching for something. speak, I uttered: “4,000 years ago, our
“No, you may not proceed to the
In 1975, following the establishment of cemetery,” the soldiers ordered the Patriarch Abraham purchased Hebron
Kiryat Arba, we celebrated the birth of mourners, “The cemetery is off limits.” for the Jewish people by burying his
a son and decided to perform his brit wife Sarah here. Tonight, Sarah is
milah inside the Cave of Machpela I got out of the car with a bundle in my repurchasing Hebron for the Jewish
– the burial place of Avraham and arms. people by burying her son Avraham
Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivka, Yaakov and I asked the soldiers, “Are you looking here.”
Leah. We named our baby Avraham
Yedidya. Yedidya means “friend of for me – are you looking for my baby? Written with the help of Noam Arnon.
G-d.” My name is Sarah Nachshon. Here is
my baby. If you won’t let us drive to
Three months later, I found Avraham the cemetery, we will walk!”
Yedidya in his crib, dead. Sarah Nachshon and her family were
We walked. Men with shovels and among the six original Jewish families to
Why should my new son, brought flashlights, and women, walked return to Hebron

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