Today is Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 and it is now 1011 AM here in Philippines.
Today I will tell the story of what is taking place in my own Clan, since I am always talking about my wife's family.
Some who followed my Journal will remember a bit of my family history. My Clan is *Dwek,* which is sometimes spelled as *Dweck,* or when the Arab portion of my clan spells it in English, they do as as *Dweick.*
In Jewish Law your mother makes you Jewish, as our descent is matrilineal, but your father gives you your Clan. In the 1948 War my dad who was a young man then, fought, and afterwards, when we were finally independant he and some other males in our family Hebracised our name to *Ben Ami* which means *Son of My People.*
My Clan home area is Chevron, the town known in English as *Hebron.* In Arabic it is called *al Khalil* but even so called *Palestinians* will almost always call it *Hebron,* etc.
My Clan has been there, at least we know through well kept genealogies, since the beginning of the 10th Century CE/AD, meaning at least more than 1000 years, but in all likelihood since the Bible.
Hebron after all is the most Jewish town in the most Jewish country. Hebron is the town where Avraham Aveenoo (Abraham) passing through with his herds and Clan bought graves and it is where Suruh (Sarah) is buried, it is where Ya'akov/Yisroel (Jacob) is buried, and so on.
The town has always had a Jewish community since the day Avraham passed through and some of the Clan settled there to make sure our graves were kept sancrosanct. This is supported not only by legend and the Bible but by actual archaeology and independant histories of surrounding populations.
My Clan, being an ancient Clan, lost a segment to Islam when we were occupied by the first Muslims under 'Umar Khalifa, known in English as the Caliph Omar and today they still live in the town, same surname, spelled a bit different in english but sounding exactly the same in Arabic or Hebrew. We have not talked to most in many centuries, and all the more so since 1929, the year I need to focus on.
That year, my paternal grandfather Rabbi Eliezer Dan Sloneem Ben Ya'akov Ben Yosef Dwek, usually known as Rabbi Eliezer Dan Slonim Dwek who was 29 years old was the Mukhtar Yahood, or the Jewish Chief, as well as the Chief Rabbi of Hebron (I will call it by its usual English name to avoid confusion).
Like his father Rabbi Ya'akov, my great grandad, my grandad Rabbi Elizer was a man of great fame even at his realtively young age. He had 3 sons by his 2 wives, my dad being the youngest at just under 1 year of age. The eldest had died of a Jewish genetic disease that also killed my eldest son. But he had another son, who was just about 3 and what a handful, from what people to say. He was my eldest uncle.
Like most Jewish families there, ours had ancient roots and as a result, since we predated Arabs there even before the first Arab existed in history, we naturally owned most land, and most major buisnesses. My own Clan had 4 US million in holdings, in 1929 value mind you, in the city limits of Hebron alone.
The Clan compound sat on a street still called Worshippers' Way in English and it is the route that leads to the Caves of Machpelah, the Cave of the Patriarchs where Avraham, etc. are buried and revered, which is nearer the village of Kiryat Arbah than Hebron itself. Most Jews lived in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, then as now.
On August 20th with sporadic violence breaking out, against Jews by Arabs, all through the British Mandate, the Haganah, the underground Jewish Army came to Hebron to confer with my Grandfather. They brought a healthy load of weaponry but instead of showing gratitude my here to fore wise grandad got angry and threw the men out of his home!
He said that in his lifeitme and that of his father even when Arabs killed Jews elsewhere they never killed in Hebron. In Hebron most Arabs have Jewish blood, some like us come from the same stock, and my proud grandfather thought that again we would ride it out without even a wave or rumble.
The Haganah reps went to the Beit Romano Police Station where Cafferta, the only Jew on the force kicked them out of the city.
Rumors swirled throughout the country and those sporadic attacks became even more frequent and yet Hebron remained safe.
Then on Friday, August 23rd, just before evening and the start of the Jewish Sabbath a truckload of Arabs came from Jerusalem 30 km. away and announced that Jerusalem's Jews had entered the Temple Mount and began slaughtering worshipping Arabs (this never happened of course).
That was all it took. They killed many and when they came to our main house, on Worhsippers' Way, my grandad Eliezer stood there holding my eldest uncle in his hands, with more than 100 Jews in our home, most of them clansmen, but others as well, he pled for the peace they had always shared...and as he stood there on our front stairs outside, they said later that my uncle began whining his head off, as my dad hung to his mum's leg before being stowed in a cupboard, as both wives stood behind my grandad, and the Arabs stabbed my grandad to death, snatched my uncle and tore him limb from limb, ripping him to death literally.
My grandfather tried, as he lay dying, to pull his old pistol but it did not even work! He trusted Arabs so much!
In the aftermath, they took all surviving Jews and bussed them to Jerusalem telling us our lands and holdings would be guarded by British Police until our short return, a return that never came. From Jerusalem our Clansmen went to Alleppo where the majority of our Clan had lived for a couple of centuries.
My dad was covered in blood but he and his mum lived. My dad who was to be a Mukhtar and an reknowned Rabbi instead became a labourer in a Syrian factory until he emigrated to Jerusalem, and began selling nuts and fruits on a pushcart!
Fast forward to 2004 and my Clan decided to reclaim what was ours, by the only way left us, BUYING IT BACK! An Arab was living on the land, of course, and now had title thanks to the PA which makes it a capital offence to sell land to Jews, even when said land was owned by Jews in the first place!!!
So we took teams of attroneys, used some of our companies (Clan owned), and even used a Jordanian business associate as our face man, although the seller knew what was what. We paid , in cash, the first installment of 700,000 US Dollars, in 100 dollar bills as he demanded and we filmed it, the entire counting down to last hundred dollar bill.
We allowed 20 Jewish families unrelated to us live in the property, and we called it *Beit HaShalom,* which ironically means *House of Peace.*
I will finish in a following post...
Today I will tell the story of what is taking place in my own Clan, since I am always talking about my wife's family.
Some who followed my Journal will remember a bit of my family history. My Clan is *Dwek,* which is sometimes spelled as *Dweck,* or when the Arab portion of my clan spells it in English, they do as as *Dweick.*
In Jewish Law your mother makes you Jewish, as our descent is matrilineal, but your father gives you your Clan. In the 1948 War my dad who was a young man then, fought, and afterwards, when we were finally independant he and some other males in our family Hebracised our name to *Ben Ami* which means *Son of My People.*
My Clan home area is Chevron, the town known in English as *Hebron.* In Arabic it is called *al Khalil* but even so called *Palestinians* will almost always call it *Hebron,* etc.
My Clan has been there, at least we know through well kept genealogies, since the beginning of the 10th Century CE/AD, meaning at least more than 1000 years, but in all likelihood since the Bible.
Hebron after all is the most Jewish town in the most Jewish country. Hebron is the town where Avraham Aveenoo (Abraham) passing through with his herds and Clan bought graves and it is where Suruh (Sarah) is buried, it is where Ya'akov/Yisroel (Jacob) is buried, and so on.
The town has always had a Jewish community since the day Avraham passed through and some of the Clan settled there to make sure our graves were kept sancrosanct. This is supported not only by legend and the Bible but by actual archaeology and independant histories of surrounding populations.
My Clan, being an ancient Clan, lost a segment to Islam when we were occupied by the first Muslims under 'Umar Khalifa, known in English as the Caliph Omar and today they still live in the town, same surname, spelled a bit different in english but sounding exactly the same in Arabic or Hebrew. We have not talked to most in many centuries, and all the more so since 1929, the year I need to focus on.
That year, my paternal grandfather Rabbi Eliezer Dan Sloneem Ben Ya'akov Ben Yosef Dwek, usually known as Rabbi Eliezer Dan Slonim Dwek who was 29 years old was the Mukhtar Yahood, or the Jewish Chief, as well as the Chief Rabbi of Hebron (I will call it by its usual English name to avoid confusion).
Like his father Rabbi Ya'akov, my great grandad, my grandad Rabbi Elizer was a man of great fame even at his realtively young age. He had 3 sons by his 2 wives, my dad being the youngest at just under 1 year of age. The eldest had died of a Jewish genetic disease that also killed my eldest son. But he had another son, who was just about 3 and what a handful, from what people to say. He was my eldest uncle.
Like most Jewish families there, ours had ancient roots and as a result, since we predated Arabs there even before the first Arab existed in history, we naturally owned most land, and most major buisnesses. My own Clan had 4 US million in holdings, in 1929 value mind you, in the city limits of Hebron alone.
The Clan compound sat on a street still called Worshippers' Way in English and it is the route that leads to the Caves of Machpelah, the Cave of the Patriarchs where Avraham, etc. are buried and revered, which is nearer the village of Kiryat Arbah than Hebron itself. Most Jews lived in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, then as now.
On August 20th with sporadic violence breaking out, against Jews by Arabs, all through the British Mandate, the Haganah, the underground Jewish Army came to Hebron to confer with my Grandfather. They brought a healthy load of weaponry but instead of showing gratitude my here to fore wise grandad got angry and threw the men out of his home!
He said that in his lifeitme and that of his father even when Arabs killed Jews elsewhere they never killed in Hebron. In Hebron most Arabs have Jewish blood, some like us come from the same stock, and my proud grandfather thought that again we would ride it out without even a wave or rumble.
The Haganah reps went to the Beit Romano Police Station where Cafferta, the only Jew on the force kicked them out of the city.
Rumors swirled throughout the country and those sporadic attacks became even more frequent and yet Hebron remained safe.
Then on Friday, August 23rd, just before evening and the start of the Jewish Sabbath a truckload of Arabs came from Jerusalem 30 km. away and announced that Jerusalem's Jews had entered the Temple Mount and began slaughtering worshipping Arabs (this never happened of course).
That was all it took. They killed many and when they came to our main house, on Worhsippers' Way, my grandad Eliezer stood there holding my eldest uncle in his hands, with more than 100 Jews in our home, most of them clansmen, but others as well, he pled for the peace they had always shared...and as he stood there on our front stairs outside, they said later that my uncle began whining his head off, as my dad hung to his mum's leg before being stowed in a cupboard, as both wives stood behind my grandad, and the Arabs stabbed my grandad to death, snatched my uncle and tore him limb from limb, ripping him to death literally.
My grandfather tried, as he lay dying, to pull his old pistol but it did not even work! He trusted Arabs so much!
In the aftermath, they took all surviving Jews and bussed them to Jerusalem telling us our lands and holdings would be guarded by British Police until our short return, a return that never came. From Jerusalem our Clansmen went to Alleppo where the majority of our Clan had lived for a couple of centuries.
My dad was covered in blood but he and his mum lived. My dad who was to be a Mukhtar and an reknowned Rabbi instead became a labourer in a Syrian factory until he emigrated to Jerusalem, and began selling nuts and fruits on a pushcart!
Fast forward to 2004 and my Clan decided to reclaim what was ours, by the only way left us, BUYING IT BACK! An Arab was living on the land, of course, and now had title thanks to the PA which makes it a capital offence to sell land to Jews, even when said land was owned by Jews in the first place!!!
So we took teams of attroneys, used some of our companies (Clan owned), and even used a Jordanian business associate as our face man, although the seller knew what was what. We paid , in cash, the first installment of 700,000 US Dollars, in 100 dollar bills as he demanded and we filmed it, the entire counting down to last hundred dollar bill.
We allowed 20 Jewish families unrelated to us live in the property, and we called it *Beit HaShalom,* which ironically means *House of Peace.*
I will finish in a following post...
