The following is a translation of a Hebrew document from the 1929 Hebron massacre. The actual document is show in the photo gallery below. Risa Imerman's husband, the bakery owner Noah Imerman (alternatively spelled Immerman), was killed by his Arab co-worker. The brutality of his murder and the fact that the perpetrator was an acquaintance led this specific incident in the day-long riots to be mentioned in several books.

 

The document was sent to the Jewish community of Hebron offices following the passing of 97-year-old Miriam Kercer, the Imerman's daughter, who survived the riots by hiding in the home of a sympathetic Arab neighbor. For the full story of her escape click here.

Bikur Holim Hospital
Jerusalem
During the bloody riots
Av, 1929

Published:
"East and West"
Vol. IV, Booklet (I"Y) Tishrei, 1930
Jerusalem

Testimony of Risa Imerman, 27 years old. 

The landlord advised us to pay money to an Arab to guard the house on Friday night, but as far as I know there was no guard on that night even though they paid him the money he demanded. There were three neighbors plus my husband and four children, one of whom was Betzalel Samarik, a man and a woman, and another neighbor, Shlomo Unger and his wife and two children. Samarik had four yeshiva students.

 

On Friday night all the neighbors gathered in the Samarik's apartment and we prayed together. After supper I and my family went down to Unger's house because it was more convenient for the children. That night we all slept on the floor to guard ourselves from bullets. Behind the door slept an Arab while Unger walked by and guarded the door. This Arab promised that on Saturday morning more Arabs would come to protect us. On the Sabbath at about eight-thirty in the morning, after we heard the cries of the savage rioters, they attacked our house.

 

My husband, Mr. Unger and his wife stood by the door and held off the pillagers. But they finally succeeded and burst in... I only saw how they killed Ungar and his wife with large clubs, and my eyes were injured.

 

My daughter Ta'ama was wounded with a knife in her head. The rest of my children remained uninjured.

 

Then they began to rob the house and left. Some time later important landlords came and promised to bring police to

protect us, but they did not return. 

 

...I found my husband wallowing in his blood by a kerosene burner (paraffin stove) half burnt.

After I had left the room where my husband was lying, the murderers attacked me and clubbed my head. I knew the workers of the baker Salman Farji.

 

Then they transferred me to the Health Ministry. One sheikh who lived by our house took my child to his house, but the same sheikh robbed our house down to the last object. 

 

Examination report:

1) A wound length of 2 centimeter and a width of 1 centimeter on the left arm.
2) A 3 centimeter long incision on the inside of the left hand.
3) Two thirds of the third finger of the right hand has been amputated, the second and fourth fingers are injured.
4) Wound to the bone from the third finger of the left hand.
5) Superficial wounds on the nose and left arm.
6) On the vertex in the middle of a 'cross section of 7 centimeters' comes bone.

 

Ta'ama, nine years old.

 

She was injured in Hebron. She has a wound above the left eye, which is deep to the bone, a puffy and bloody eye, dead blood under her eyes.

 

The photographs in the gallery below have been provided by the family of Miriam Kercer. They show Noah Imerman with two co-workers in his bakery, the street in Hebron where the bakery once stood, Mrs. Imerman with mangled hands, an injury suffered during the riots, (photo by Gershon Gera) and the Imerman family in Jerusalem, with Miriam second from the right. The documents are from the hospital report and testimony of Risa Imerman.

 

 
United States contact info:

http://www.hebronfund.org
1760 Ocean Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11230
718-677-6886
info@hebronfund.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hebronofficial
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/hebronfund

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jewishcommunityofhebron/

Israeli contact info:
http://en.hebron.org.il/
02-996-5333
office@hebron.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hebron.machpela
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/hebronvideo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jewishcommunityofhebron/

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES:

* Hebron Mourns Loss of 1929 Massacre Survivor Miriam Sasson
* Sholom Ber Goldshmid: Child Survivor Continued Family Legacy

* In Memoriam: Miriam Kercer, Child Survivor of Hebron Massacre

* Conference & Memorial for 1929 Hebron Massacre