In the history of the state of Israel, there has been only one occasion in which a book’s editors/author were arrested and convicted. This week I acquired a copy of this now scarce title, titled Baruch Hagever, a memorial book for Baruch Goldstein, the perpetrator of the Hebron mass shooting. On Feb 25, 1994, Goldstein, dressed as an Israeli officer, opened fire in the Mosque in Me’arat Hamachpela, killing 29 people until he was overpowered and beaten to death by survivors.
Widely denounced throughout the Jewish world, with many attributing his action to mental health issues, he was described by Prime Minister Rabin as a “degenerate murderer” and “a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism.” The editors of this volume though lauded Goldstein as a hero, viewing his attack as a pre-emptive strike against a planned mass terrorist event by Palestinians in Hebron. The book is similar in structure to other sifre zikaron in the religious world, with writings of the deceased and his mentor and friend, R. Meir Kahane, halachic subjects in general and discussions of the halachic permissibility of pre-emptive killings of potential terrorists, as well as eulogies for Goldstein.
Baruch Hagever was edited by Michael Ben-Horin, Netanel Ozeri, Yoel Lerner and Yosef Dayan. The four editors were convicted by an Israeli court for incitement and agitating violence. The court’s verdict stated, “The defendants committed a serious act, since the book turns an act of slaughter into an act of heroism and rescue, and its perpetrator into a saint. People who read the book can learn and understand that this is a worthy act and even more, an act that brings the massacre of the Arabs closer to saintly virtues and the right to be immortalized as a person of a particularly high rank.”
The book was subsequently withdrawn from circulation and physical copies have become increasingly hard to find. Several years later, fearing that his gravesite would become a shrine for extremists, the State of Israel dismantled his gravesite in 1999.
