How Dr. Benjamin C. Goldstein Became a Mass Murderer in Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

                     Dr. Benjamin Goldstein;  Baruch Kopel  was born on December 9, 1956, as Benjamin Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York, to an Orthodox Jewish family. He attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush religious day school. He studied medicine at Yeshiva University, receiving a medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He belonged to the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant Jewish organization founded by his boyhood acquaintance Meir Kahane.  I'd add that he was a highly impressive man, impressed with Kahane's  ideals.                      

 Benjamin while attending Yeshiva University in New York

Goldstein (Hebrew: ברוך קופל גולדשטיין; born Benjamin Carl Goldstein; December 9, 1956 – February 25, 1994) was an Israeli-American mass murderer, religious extremist, and physician who perpetrated the 1994 terrorist attack on a mosque attended by Palestinians, known as the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron

My husband and I made aliyah in September 1980 from Portland, Oregon.  Benjamin Goldstein immigrated to Israel in 1983. He served as a physician in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), first as a conscript, then in the reserve forces. Following the end of his active duty, Goldstein worked as a physician, and lived in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron, where he worked as an emergency doctor, and was involved in treating victims of Arab-Israeli violence. He changed his name from Benjamin to Baruch, married a Soviet immigrant named Miriam, and had four children.

Israeli press reports claimed that Goldstein refused to treat Arabs, even Arab soldiers serving in the IDF, believing it was against Jewish laws to treat non-Jews even for payment. This was also reflected in comments by his acquaintances. 

         American Rabbi Meir Kahane from Brooklyn, NY(1 August 1932-5 November 1990) Manhattan,NY. buried in Jerusalem 

Goldstein was active in Kahane's Kach party, and was third on the party list for the Knesset during the 1984 elections. My 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot, had also been friends with Kahane and had driven him about in Israel, if my memory hasn't failed me.  Stanley was from South Africa.  Our grandparents had come from Lithuania. Rabbi Meir Kahane was a militant and founder of the Jewish Defense League. Kahane was born August 1, 1932 – November 5, 1990) and was an American-born Israeli ordained Orthodox rabbi, writer, and ultra-nationalist politician who served one term in Israel's Knesset before being convicted of acts of terrorism. 

Jewish Religious Leader. At age 15, he was arrested in a protest against the British policy on Jewish immigration to Palestine. Ordained as an Orthodox rabbi, he earned a law degree from New York University, and became a synagogue rabbi and editor of the Jewish Press. In the 1960s he founded the Jewish Defense League, which advocated the use of violence to defend Jewish rights. 

                  Kahane in 1975

After moving to Israel (1971), Kahane founded Kach, a movement aimed at removing Arabs from Israel. He earned a seat in the Israeli parliament (1981), but his party was later barred from office. He was assassinated in New York, and his alleged assailant, an Egyptian-born American citizen, was found not guilty. He was the author of The Jewish Stake in Vietnam and Never Again.  

The late Rabbi Meir Kahane was the founder and leader of the American Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant Jewish organization in the United States which was very active in struggles against anti-Jewish activities there. After emigrating to Israel, Kahane run for elections to the Knesset in his Kahane to the Knesset whose initials formed the word KAKH. Kahana got one seat in the Knesset and was quite bold in his ultra-right views.

Four years later the Supreme Court banned his movement from running again, basically because the movement was against the democratic character of the state. Kahane kept his activities outside the Knesset. Kahane was eventually killed in the USA, and his movement split into two fractions. One kept the old name, the other one called Kahane Chai (meaning Kahane is alive) led by his son. Both were declared illegal few years ago, and the use of their symbols is banned (even if you can still see them).
Dov Gutterman, 13 November 2001

 Goldstein  compared Israel's democracy to the Nazi regime, and was in the habit of wearing a yellow star with the word JUDE on it.  Perhaps it's why Israel reacted with shock at such an anti-Jewish act by a Jew.  

The Israeli government and the international community condemned the massacre. Israel arrested followers of Meir Kahane, criminalized the Kach movement and affiliated movements as terrorist, forbidding certain Israeli settlers to enter Palestinian towns, and demanding that those settlers turn in their army-issued rifles, although rejecting a Palestinian Liberation Organization demand that all settlers in the West Bank be disarmed and that an international force be created to protect  Palestinians.             

                  This act was not good for any Jews, not good for Israel, and certainly not good for Goldstein--good heavens---a doctor!  He was certainly not WOKE to his own Jewish religion, that's for sure, even though he waseducated  in it.    

I match 75 Goldsteins with FTDNA and that's 3 pages worth.7 were 3rd to 5th cousins, the rest were 4th cousins. One of my immigrant friends was a Goldstein.  

Resource:

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/06/obituaries/meir-kahane-58-israeli-militant-and-founder-of-the-jewish-defense-league.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Kahanehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Goldstein#:~:text=On%20February%2025%2C%201994%2C%20that,and%20wounding%20more%20than%20125.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12601381/meir-kahane

https://www.fotw.info/flags/il%7Dkakh.html

Rabbi Meir Kahane, USA Born, Israeli Fighter-Friend of Stanley Goldfoot

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

US finally removed Rabbi Kahane from a terror blacklist.

He had founded the Kahane Chai Group that was designated as a terror movement back in 1997 after it had voiced support for a Jewish man who had massacred 29 Palestinians. "The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre of 1994, also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre or the Hebron massacre, was a

shooting massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli extremist and physician, and member of the far-right Kach movement. " 

The Israeli government of Yitzhak Rabin condemned the massacre, and so must have Bill Clinton, USA president at the time,  and responded by arresting followers of Meir Kahane, criminalizing the Kach movement and affiliated movements as terrorist, forbidding certain Israeli settlers to enter Palestinian towns, and demanding that those settlers turn in their army-issued rifles, although rejecting a Palestinian Liberation Organization demand that all settlers in the West Bank be disarmed and that an international force be created to protect Palestinians

Rabbi Meir was only 2 years older than myself, born on August 1, 1932 in the United States as Meir David Kahane.  He became an Israeli  ordained Orthodox rabbi, writer, and ultra-nationalist politician who served one term in Israel's Knesset. He didn't move to Israel until 1971.  My husband and I had done this in 1980.  In 1980, Kahane was arrested for the 62nd time since his emigration, and he was jailed for six months after a detention order that was based on allegations of him planning armed attacks against Palestinians in response to the killings of Jewish settlers. Kahane was held in prison in Ramla, where he wrote the book They Must Go. Kahane was banned from entering the UK in 1981. 

He called for immediate Jewish mass migration to Israel to avoid a potential "Holocaust" in the United States, supported the restriction of Israel's democracy to its Jewish citizens, and endorsed the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

 A cofounder of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and founder of the Israeli political party Kach in 1971, he espoused strong views against antisemitism.  In 1984, he became a member of the Knesset, when Kach gained its only-ever seat in parliamentary elections. Kahane was boycotted across the aisles of the Knesset, and would often speak in front of an empty chamber. Well, that's how Democracy is supposed to work.  People were very direct in their feelings.  

That same year, he was convicted in New York for conspiracy to manufacture explosives and received a suspended sentence of five years.

 In Israel, he was convicted for plotting to blow up the Libyan embassy in Brussels in revenge for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, receiving a suspended sentence and probation.

He became friends with my 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot, my mother's age,  early on, as Stanley was born and raised in South Africa, and was also more radical than most Americans at age 18.  Stanley had also gone to Israel and had become Chief of Intelligence of the Stern Group (Lohame Herut Israel) standing for "fighters for the Freedom of Israel", for short called Lehi, which the Brits called "The Stern Gang," the more radical of defensive groups of his day, being born on May 2, 1914.  Their leader soon was Yitzhak Jazaminsky (Shamir).  Stanley told me how he drove Rabbi Meir around on his rounds.  They were friends.  Stanley, a journalist, had been jailed by the Brits.  They had that in common.  There was a lot of shooting going on at Israeli citizens then, lots of attacks by Hamas in '94.  Stanley is known for his Letter to the World, which is how he demonstrated his frustration. 

Feb 19, 1994	A pregnant Israeli woman was shot to death in the West Bank. HAMAS claimed responsibility for the attack which prompted widespread rioting by settlers in the West Bank.
Feb 24, 1994	In Hebron, US born Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein, a member of Kach, opened fire on Muslim worshipers in the cave of the Patriarchs, killing 29 people and wounding over 100 more. Goldstein was then beaten to death by Palestinians in the Mosque. PLO chairman Arafat called on the UN to deploy forces in the Occupied Territories and asked the security council to condemn the killings.
Feb 27, 1994	Israel issued orders for the administrative detention of 5 members of Kach and Kahane Chai movements, and announced that some settlers in Hebron would be disarmed and approximately 15 would be barred from entering the West Bank. A commission was created to investigate the Hebron killings. Israel also announced the planned release of 1,000 Palestinians prisoners by March 7.
Mar 1994	During the month of March 21 Palestinians were killed and 223 more were wounded.              Kahane in 1975 in Canarsie, Brooklyn, NY

Meir Kahane was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Orthodox Jewish family. Kahane descended from a line of well-known rabbis, including his father, who was head of the Flatbush Board of Rabbis. His father, Yechezkel Shragei (Charles) Kahane (1905–1978), had studied at Polish and Czech yeshivas, and was the author of the rabbinic work Torah Yesharah. He was deeply involved in the Revisionist Zionist movement as a close friend of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Kahane's grandfather was Nachman Kahane (1869–1937), a leading rabbinic scholar in Safed, who was the son of Baruch David Kahane (1850–1925), the author of Hibat ha-Eretz, and a disciple of Chaim Halberstam of Sanz. Baruch David was a direct descendant of Simcha Rappaport (1650–1718), of the Rappaport rabbinic family, who were allegedly able to trace their ancestry back to Eleazar ben Azariah, a 1st-century sage in the Land of Israel. Baruch David immigrated to Mandatory Palestine from Poland in 1873.  As a teenager, Kahane became an ardent admirer of Jabotinsky and Peter Bergson, who were frequent guests in his parents' home. 

I'd say that he was a rabbi of leading Jews who had decided to really do something about anti-Semitism but just couldn't balance his thoughts with action vs effects on all of humanity.  He had one main thought in mind and that was it. 

 He had the fortitude of our past Aluf "General" Bar Kokhba who had fought and died from 132-135 against the Romans.  With the fall of Jerusalem and then Bethar, the fortress to the southwest of Jerusalem where Bar Kokhba was slain, the rebellion was crushed in 135. Bar Kokhba was successful but it only lasted for 3 years, and then the Romans did him in, embarrassed and angry for showing them up.  

 According to Christian sources, Jews were thenceforth forbidden to enter Jerusalem.  We hadn't tried it again for 2,000 years, finally realizing the dream on May 14, 1948 with talk.  

In 2007, the FBI released over a thousand documents relating to its daily surveillance of Kahane since the early 1960s.

Resource: 

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2021/12/stanley-goldfoots-letter-to-world.html

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h1spr00ypq?utm_source=email

https://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38a8c.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Goldstein