The Day of the Chevron Massacre

Rav Chaim Sarna, Rav Yechezkel's son, who was born in Chevron in 1929, five years after Slobodka moved there, described his small part in the Chevron catastrophe in the introduction to his sefer Be'er Lechai Ro'i. “Five years after the yeshiva's founding came the great tragedy,” he wrote. “On Shabbos, the 18th of Av 1929, the Arabs of Chevron organized a pogrom, killing twenty-four bochurim of the yeshiva and wounding many others. Dozens of the town's Jews were killed and many were wounded. Miraculously, my father, the Rosh Yeshiva, was in Yerushalayim, for the Arab rioters were looking out for him, certain that as Rosh Yeshiva he was in charge of the yeshiva funds.

“Personally, I don't recall what happened that terrible Shabbos, as I was still a baby. I know that my mother fled with my sister and myself to her father's house. As she was running there, Arabs threw a huge stone in our direction. It miraculously missed her, and my mother, taking her two children in her arms, managed to escape.”

The Chevron Yeshiva moved to the Geulah neighborhood of Yerushalayim, keeping the name of the town hallowed by the blood of its kedoshim.