A shooting attack on 25 February 1994 inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, sacred to both Judaism and Islam, where Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli physician and adherent of the Kach movement, opened fire on Muslim worshippers gathered for Ramadan dawn prayers. The attack fell on Purim in the Jewish calendar and during Ramadan in the Islamic one, both faiths observing the shrine that week. Goldstein fired until his weapon jammed and was then overpowered and killed by surviving worshippers before security forces reached the hall.
Facts
The Event
When It Happened Principal PartiesBaruch Goldstein, a physician from the settlement of Kiryat Arba and an adherent of the outlawed Kach movement founded by Meir Kahane, acting alone against Muslim worshippers gathered in the Ibrahimi Mosque hall of the shared shrine; Israeli security forces present at the site that morning did not prevent the attack. 1 Victim GroupMuslim worshippers gathered for Ramadan dawn prayers in the Ibrahimi Mosque hall of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. 1 Perpetrator RegimeCarried out by a single individual rather than an organized group; Baruch Goldstein was killed at the scene by surviving worshippers before he could be arrested. The Shamgar Commission of Inquiry, led by former Supreme Court president Meir Shamgar, concluded Goldstein planned and acted alone, telling no one of his intentions, and attributed the security failure to poor coordination between the army, police and civil administration rather than to any conspiracy. 1 Consequences
What It SettledIsrael outlawed Kach and its offshoot Kahane Chai as terrorist organizations in the massacre's aftermath, and the Shamgar Commission's findings led to changes in Israeli security procedures at the shrine. Days of Palestinian protest and unrest followed across the West Bank and Gaza. A small fringe within the settler movement has since venerated Goldstein's grave as a shrine, a veneration Israeli authorities and the great majority of Israeli public opinion have condemned; the site was later altered to discourage pilgrimage to it. 1 Religious DimensionThe attack fell inside a shrine both faiths revere as the burial place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, on Purim in the Jewish calendar and during the Ramadan dawn prayers Islam observes; Goldstein's own Kach ideology held that Jewish sovereignty over the whole biblical land of Israel was a religious imperative, a position the great majority of religious Jewish authorities and organizations at the time and since have explicitly repudiated as a distortion rather than an expression of Judaism. 1 Status
Official RecognitionRecognition is contested 1 Recognition BasisThe Israeli government's own Shamgar Commission investigated the massacre as a security failure and the state outlawed Kach and Kahane Chai in response, an unambiguous official condemnation; the dispute this atlas names is narrower, that a small fringe has continued to venerate Goldstein's grave as a shrine against the state's own position, a veneration Israeli authorities have taken active steps to discourage. 1 Learn More
The 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre, an Attack on Ramadan Prayers
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
A shooting attack on 25 February 1994 struck inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a shrine sacred to both Judaism and Islam as the burial place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, where Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli physician and adherent of the Kach movement, opened fire on Muslim worshippers gathered for Ramadan dawn prayers. The attack fell on Purim in the Jewish calendar and during Ramadan in the Islamic one, both faiths observing the shrine that week. Goldstein fired until his weapon jammed and was then overpowered and killed by surviving worshippers before security forces reached the hall.
The Shamgar Commission of Inquiry, led by former Supreme Court president Meir Shamgar, concluded Goldstein planned and acted alone, telling no one of his intentions, and attributed the security failure to poor coordination between the army, police and civil administration rather than to any conspiracy. Days of Palestinian protest and unrest followed across the West Bank and Gaza in the massacre's immediate aftermath.
A Shrine Turned Into a Fringe Pilgrimage
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Israel outlawed the Kach movement and its offshoot Kahane Chai as terrorist organizations in the massacre's aftermath, and the Shamgar Commission's findings led to changes in Israeli security procedures at the shrine. Goldstein's own Kach ideology held that Jewish sovereignty over the whole biblical land of Israel was a religious imperative, a position the great majority of religious Jewish authorities and organizations at the time and since have explicitly repudiated as a distortion rather than an expression of Judaism.
A small fringe within the settler movement has nonetheless since venerated Goldstein's grave as a shrine, a veneration Israeli authorities and the great majority of Israeli public opinion have condemned; the site was later altered to discourage pilgrimage to it. The Israeli government's own Shamgar Commission investigated the massacre as a security failure and the state outlawed Kach and Kahane Chai in direct response, an unambiguous official condemnation, so the dispute this atlas records is narrower than the massacre itself: that a small fringe continues to honor an act the state and mainstream religious authority alike have formally disowned.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Islam, Religions Muslim worshippers gathered for Ramadan dawn prayers were the massacre's target, killed inside the Ibrahimi Mosque hall of the shared shrine.
Belongs to Tradition
Judaism, Religions Baruch Goldstein was a self-declared adherent of the Kach movement's reading of Jewish religious nationalism, but the great majority of religious Jewish authorities and organizations, then and since, have explicitly repudiated his act and his ideology; this edge connects his own claimed communal identity to the massacre without asserting it as Judaism's own position.
Sources
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