Overview

Baruch Goldstein was an American-Israeli dual citizen and ultranationalist terrorist who shot 29 Palestinian Muslims to death and wounded 125 more in the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron, West Bank, in 1994. Survivors of the attack eventually stopped him from shooting and killed him. Goldstein, a follower of Israeli ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane and activist in Kahane’s political party, Kach, remains admired by some Kahanists today.

Goldstein was born as Benjamin Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Orthodox Judaism.“Baruch Goldstein (1956–1994),” National Library of Israel, accessed December 4, 2022, https://www.nli.org.il/en/a-topic/987007261976305171; “Peter Pringle, “Hebron Massacre: Brooklyn Doctor with a Prescription for Hatred,” Independent (London), February 27, 1994, https:/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/hebron-massacre-brooklyn-doctor-with-a-prescription-for-hatred-1396680.html; Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 70. As a youth, he was involved in the Jewish Defense League, a militant Jewish self-defense organization founded by Kahane. Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 70. Goldstein received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Yeshiva University. Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 70.

Goldstein moved to Israel in 1983. Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 70. He practiced medicine in the Israeli military and then as an emergency physician in Hebron, near which he lived in the settlement of Kiryat Arba. Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 70. He also continued his support for Kahane, who had immigrated to Israel in 1971 and formed the ultranationalist Kach political party, which advocated for turning Israel into a democratic theocracy governed according to Jewish law, transferring almost all Arabs out of Israel via compensation or force, and denying citizenship to any Arabs willing to remain in Israel on those terms. “Kahane Arrives in Israel,” United Press International, September 15, 1971, https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/15/archives/kahane-arrives-in-israel.html; Carla Hall, “The Message of Meir Kahane,” Washington Post, September 11, 1984, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20210513012100/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/09/11/the-message-of-meir-kahane/95a30f81-2e2e-431f-b9fb-33c0ad43ca39/; Robert I. Friedman, “The Sayings of Rabbi Kahane,” New York Review of Books, February 13, 1986, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20221130184946/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1986/02/13/the-sayings-of-rabbi-kahane. Goldstein joined Kach and ran as one of its leading candidates for the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in 1984. David B. Green, “Israel Election Results: Who Was Meir Kahane, and Why Is His Racist Legacy Relevant Again,” Haaretz (Tel Aviv), March 26, 2021, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20220809095719/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2021-03-26/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israel-election-who-was-meir-kahane-and-why-is-his-racist-legacy-relevant-again/0000017f-db3c-df62-a9ff-dfffe2fa0000. In 1981, before Goldstein immigrated to Israel, he wrote in a letter to the New York Times that Israel “must act decisively to remove the Arab minority from within its borders.”“A History of Anti-Arab Feeling,” New York Times, February 26, 1994, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020343/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/26/world/l-a-history-of-anti-arab-feeling-326254.html.

Goldstein was known for his militantly anti-Arab views, but was still permitted to serve in the army reserves and, according to the Independent:

… had full access to security information about the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which made his mission simple to carry out. Goldstein was even listed as the army doctor in case of emergency at the sanctuary and was frequently called on when clashes occurred. He therefore knew the duties and positions of army guards at the mosque and how to avoid them. His presence would not have been a surprise to the army guards. Sarah Helm, “Jewish Killer Attacked Mosque Last Year: Evidence Is Mounting That Baruch Goldstein Was Known to Be Dangerous Well before the Massacre, Writes Sarah Helm,” Independent (London), March 1, 1994, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/jewish-killer-attacked-mosque-last-year-evidence-is-mounting-that-baruch-goldstein-was-known-to-be-dangerous-well-before-the-massacre-writes-sarah-helm-1426229.html.

In 1994, on the Jewish holiday of Purim (which fell on February 25 that year), Goldstein went into a mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs holy site in Hebron while wearing his military uniform and started firing at worshippers. He killed 29 and wounded 125 before survivors subdued and killed him.Chris Hedges, “That Day in Hebron—A Special Report: Soldier Fired at Crowd, Survivors of Massacre Say,” New York Times, March 16, 1994, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20140423025152/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/16/world/that-day-hebron-special-report-soldier-fired-crowd-survivors-massacre-say.html?pagewanted=all; David B. Green, “Israel Election Results: Who Was Meir Kahane, and Why Is His Racist Legacy Relevant Again,” Haaretz (Tel Aviv), March 26, 2021, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20220809095719/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2021-03-26/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israel-election-who-was-meir-kahane-and-why-is-his-racist-legacy-relevant-again/0000017f-db3c-df62-a9ff-dfffe2fa0000; Rebecca Wolf, “Lunch With Baruch Goldstein, One Year before the Hebron Massacre,” Tablet, February 21, 2014, https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/lunch-with-baruch-goldstein-one-year-before-the-hebron-massacre.

Goldstein’s exact impetus and motives for the massacre remain in question. Testimony to a commission established by the government to investigate the incident claimed that Goldstein was anguished by the Israeli government’s transfer of territory to the Palestinian Authority pursuant to the Oslo peace process. Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 70. Some of his defenders, including Israeli far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, have claimed Goldstein acted to preempt an expected Palestinian attack on the Israeli Jewish settlers in Hebron. “He knew that Jewish blood was about to be shed, and so he protected his own people,” Ben Gvir said in 2010. “Perhaps some were innocent—but war is war.” Shmulik Grossman, “Goldstein Legacy Continues,” Yedioth Ahronoth (Tel Aviv), February 26, 2010, https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3854982,00.html.

The timing of the massacre, the Purim holiday, has reinforced this view of Goldstein’s actions as constituting proactive self-defense. Purim commemorates the events recounted in the biblical Book of Esther. In the biblical story, which is thought to have taken place in the 5th century BCE, Haman, a wicked senior official in the Persian Empire, plots to kill the empire’s entire Jewish community. However, his plans are foiled and the Jews fight back, preemptively killing those who sought to do them harm. The holiday has come to be associated with Jewish survival and triumph in the face of persecution.> Maureen Byrne, “Jews Ready to Celebrate Purim’s Story of Survival,” Tampa Bay Times, last updated September 12, 2005, https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1998/03/07/jews-ready-to-celebrate-purim-s-story-of-survival/.

Rioting and protests broke out among Palestinians following the shooting, leading the Israeli government to temporarily impose a curfew on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.Clyde Haberman, “West Bank Massacre: The Overview; Rabin Urges the Palestinians To Put Aside Anger and Talk,” New York Times, March 1, 1994, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20210316200255/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/01/world/west-bank-massacre-overview-rabin-urges-palestinians-put-aside-anger-talk.html. Clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli military led to the death of 20 Palestinians.Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 70. Matti Steinberg, former advisor on Palestinian affairs at Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, claims that Hamas’s strategic shift to engaging in suicide bombings against civilians in Israel instead of Israeli military targets in the West Bank and Gaza “stemmed directly from the Goldstein massacre.”Akiva Eldar, “Evacuate Jewish Hebron,” Haaretz (Tel Aviv), November 3, 2008, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20140304150421/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/evacuate-jewish-hebron-1.256505.

The Israeli government condemned the attack, with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declaring at the Knesset:

Today I stand before you, members of Knesset, and before the citizens of the State of Israel—and in front of the entire world—and as a Jew, as an Israeli, as a man and as a human being, I am shamed over the disgrace imposed upon us by a degenerate murderer… To him and to those like him we say: You are not part of the community of Israel. You are not partners in the Zionist enterprise. You are a foreign implant. You are an errant weed. Sensible Judaism spits you out. You placed yourself outside the wall of Jewish Law. You are a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism. A single, straight line connects the lunatics and racists of the entire world. A single line of blood and terrorism runs from the Islamic Holy War member who shot Jewish worshipers who stood in prayer in the synagogues of Istanbul, Paris, Amsterdam and Rome, to the Jewish Hamas member [Goldstein] who shot Ramadan worshipers. “West Bank Massacre: ‘I Am Shamed,’ Rabin Says,” New York Times, March 1, 1994, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20200423060736/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/01/world/west-bank-massacre-i-am-shamed-rabin-says.html.

Likewise, the massacre was decried by most other Israeli and Jewish leaders, including both Israeli chief rabbis.Yossi Klein Halevi, “The War on the Israeli Home Front,” Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2014, https://www.wsj.com/articles/yossi-klein-halevi-the-war-on-the-israeli-home-front-1416355411. Then–opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said “[i]t’s a crime, a terrible crime, and I condemn it totally.”George J. Church, Lisa Beyer, Jamil Hamad et al, “When Fury Rules,” Time, March 7, 1994, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20081209063436/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980291-3,00.html. British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called the attack “an obscenity and a travesty of Jewish values” and “a blasphemy”, adding, “As a religious leader I unequivocally condemn all acts of violence against the innocent, regardless of by whom and against whom they are committed.”Jonathan Sacks, Faith in the Future: The Ecology of Hope and the Restoration of Family, Community, and Faith (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1997), 99. The head of the Jewish Settler Council, Uri Uriel, said, “This is an act that is not Jewish, not humane, and in the end, which is less important but still important, it leads to nothing and only causes the situation to deteriorate.”David C. Jacobson, Does David Still Play Before You? Israeli Poetry and the Bible (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 91. However, members of Kahane Chai, an organization of followers of Meir Kahane founded after his assassination in 1990, issued a statement mourning Goldstein, calling him a “martyr” who “died… in the sanctification of God’s name.” Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 70. The Israeli government soon acted to ban Kahane Chai and Kach under a counterterrorism law.Clyde Haberman, “Israel Votes Ban on Jewish Groups Linked to Kahane,” New York Times, March 14, 1994, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20220906161302/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/14/world/israel-votes-ban-on-jewish-groups-linked-to-kahane.html.

Goldstein’s actions have had repercussions in Israeli politics. Yigal Amir, an Israeli ultranationalist who assassinated Rabin in 1995, claimed that he was inspired to do so after Goldstein’s attack. Amir went to Goldstein’s funeral and said later that after speaking with some of the terrorist’s friends, he had come to understand that “this is not just some fanatic, extreme community, but one that is fighting very hard for the nation. Values are very important to it.”Akiva Eldar, “Evacuate Jewish Hebron,” Haaretz (Tel Aviv), November 3, 2008, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20140304150421/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/evacuate-jewish-hebron-1.256505. Select ultranationalist Israelis continue to admire Goldstein, with some commemorating the massacre annually and visiting his grave.Shmulik Grossman, “Goldstein Legacy Continues,” Yedioth Ahronoth (Tel Aviv), February 26, 2010, https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3854982,00.html.

Also Known As

• Benjamin GoldsteinAlison Mitchell, “West Bank Massacre: At Least 40 Slain in West Bank as Israeli Fires into Mosque; Clinton Moves to Rescue Talks; A Killer's Path of Militancy: From Brooklyn to West Bank,” New York Times, February 26, 1994, archived in the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20220319133533/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/26/world/west-bank-massacre-least-40-slain-west-bank-israeli-fires-into-mosque-clinton.html.