The Jewish Community of Hebron mourns the passing of David Levy, former Israeli Minister of Housing who initiated the reconstruction of the Jewish quarter of Hebron in the 1980s.

“In consecrating homes in Hebron, we are returning to the land of our forefathers,” Levy stated during a dedication ceremony in which Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu affixed new mezuzahs to the historic Beit Hadassah and Beit Hasson buildings. These Jewish owned properties were the site of a horrific massacre in 1929 after which the surviving Jewish community members were deported by the British. Today, they are residential complexes populated by tax-paying Israeli civilians as part of what eventually became a normal neighborhood.

David Levy was an immigrant from Morocco who worked as a construction worker before becoming a workers-rights advocate and then an important elected official.

He pushed to have Israel reestablished the thriving Jewish community that once existed before the Hebron riots. Under his direction, the apartments, institutions, and synagogues destroyed by the Jordanians who occupied Judea & Samaria from 1948-1967 were rebuilt. The Avraham Avinu synagogue which has been turned into a sheep pen and public latrine was reconstructed based on the original design from the year 1540.

 

 

* Apartments in the Heart of Hebron Renovated for Jewish Occupancy - JTA - 1986

* David Levy comments at Knesset session on rebuilding Hebron - 1984