Baruch Goldstein

My wife Miriam and I are the parents of the late Dr.Baruch Goldstein z"tl. We made aliya in December 1987, our three children having preceded us, and we have been living in the beautiful town of Kiryat Arba ever since. Miriam, whose grandfather was a milkman in Hebron last century, is a direct descendant of the Ba'al HaTanya.

Your article headed "WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE CAVE OF THE PATRIARCHS?" in the September 16 issue of THE JEWISH PRESS merits an answer. But first, some background information.

Baruch, our eldest child, was named after my father of blessed memory who, too, bore the English name of Benjamin (the latter appellation given to him after the turn of the century by some Ellis Island functionary).

Baruch, a soft-spoken, sweet, pious, humble, yet proud Jew, lived for his people and died for them.

A top student, he attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush, was president of his class at Yeshiva University and, when he graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, his distinguished performance there earned him acceptance into AOA, the national medical honor society.

He excelled in all that he did, whether as student, basketball player, waterfront head at Camp Hillel or, to the amazement of sundry garage mechanics, in keeping his old car running. More important, he was devoted heart, body and soul to Hashem and to the Jewish people.

After making aliya in 1982, he married his wonderful sabra wife, Miryam, who bore him four children, the oldest now ten and the youngest two. He could have chosen to serve in the IDF for 18 months, but elected instead to stay in for a full three years. That was Baruch.

As a matter of fact, Baruch was to have been promoted to the rank of Major this past Independence Day (after the February 25th incident, the IDF, to be sure, denied that fact until someone made public the official recommendation which had been appmved).

Also enclosed are copies of awards that he received and other material attesting to the exemplary nature of his work.

Baruch's walkie-talkie was with him 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At night, he slept in sweatpants so that he would waste no time in responding to emergency calls.

With regard to emergency calls, they kept him running day and night. Once upon arriving at the scene of a terrorist road attack where three soldiers had been shot, two doctors there who had come from nearby immediately deferred to him, well aware of the superior level of his ability to render emergency care. His high degree of competence was wellknown to and uniformly praised by the staffs of hospital emergency rooms in Jerusalem. Always up to-date on the latest developments in the field, in Israel Baruch maintained his subscription to Emergency Medicine.

Those two doctors informed him that one soldier was dead, and suggested that he work on the other two who had been less severely wounded. But Baruch would not accept that. Pleading with Hashem and praying fervently, he wrenched the "dead" soldier's mouth open with all his might, called his ambulance driver to hand him the equipment he needed and, thank G-d, was able to save the man's life. That "dead" soldier is alive and well today - as are the other two.

I could go on and on without end in describing similar life - saving acts on his part. I'll mention just one other incident, this one where some student drowned in a pool. There was no sign of life when Baruch arrived. That "drowned" Israeli youngster is, thank G-d, in ezcellent health today.

Baruch, in addition to being the emergency service physician in the area, drove regularly several times a week to nine yishuvim in the vicinity to provide family practice medical care. Although having served in that capacity for years, and despite a marked increase in terrorist shooting incidents on the roads around here, he refused to give up the assignment and take a less dangerous one (Not too long ago, on one of those roads, Rabbi Druckman?s driver was shot and killed and the rabbi injured). Baruch knew that he was needed and, as a dedicated physician and proud Jew, he just wouldn't quit.

I am told that whenever he arrived at a yishuv, even people not ill would gather around just to enjoy the warming glow of his understanding, extremely sensitive and selfeffacing presence.

When the family was sitting shiv'a, people came to us and declared that although Baruch, with the help of the Almighty, saved many lives while he lived, he saved many more when he died.

Friday, Purim morning, was the middle of Ramadan. For days before, loudspeakers on mosques in Hebron had been blaring forth their message of hate, "Itbach el-yahood!" ("Slaughter the Jews!") without any interference by the IDF (Contrast that with the way Jews in Israel today are being locked up for extended periods without trial for alleged acts of incitement).

By means of notices and wall inscriptions, Arab terrorists were urging the Hebron masses to store up lots of food for the long curfew that would inevitably follow a mid-Ramadan slaughter of Jews.

A few days before Baruch's preemptive strike in the Me'arat Hamachpela (Cave of the Patriarchs) - and this can be verified by members of the Kiryat Arba Town Council who were present - a high ranking IDF officer came and urged Baruch to prepare emergency operating facilities for an egpected Purim attack upon Jews!

The day before Purim, while Baruch was at afternoon prayers in the Me'arah, "innocent Arab worshippers" pushed in from an adjacent room (the very room of their next morning's convocation) shouting "Itbach el-yahood!" My son turned to an IDF officer on the scene and asked him to stop this outrage. The officer simply shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

On Purim, early the negt morning, "innocent Arab worshippers", many wearing outlawed-egtremist-group green kaffiahs and including at least one wanted terrorist who had come all the way from Sh'chem with his gang, showed up for a pre-dawn, slaughter-the-Jews pep-rally prayer session. But Baruch, who had donned his officer's uniform for this last act of sacrifice for his people, showed up, too, with his Galilon rifle.

After the incident, an IDF officer was overheard on his walkie-talkie excitedly reporting his finding a Kalashnikov, axes and other weapons on the scene.

All of this has been covered up. As Minister of Defense, didn?t Rabin know of the ongoing terrorist incitement in Hebron and of the impending Purim massacre of Jews? If not, why not? Can he have written off the lives of the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza in his blind, bloody race for the Nobel Peace Prize? How can that be, for is not Rabin an honorable man?

The official death certificate shows the cause of Baruch's death to have been "murder". The Shamgar Commission found that he was already disarmed and helpless when he was held and killed, and so his killing was unlawful. Our family has petitioned the police to investigate and arrest his murderers. Nothing.

Hundreds of Jews would have been in the Me'arat Hamachpela later on that Purim morning. Who knows how many of those men, women and children would have been massacred, had it not been for Baruch's kiddush Hashem? Lots of them came to us with tears in their eyes as we sat shiv'a, trying to comfort us and expressing their gratitude for Baruch's having give up his life to save them.

The world rushed to condemn and vilify our son. Respected Jewish leaders lost no time in crying out their profuse apologies and laying down a groveling, breast-beating barrage as they jumped on the bandwagon. Where was their sustained outcry when Jews (including his good friends, the Lapids) were dying in Baruch's arms, victims of unrelenting Arab terrorism? Where were they as, week after week, he would make his weary way home, his clothing soaked in Jewish blood?

Where are the leaders of the schools Baruch attended, who joined in the chorus of unbridled censure? Not a single word of sympathy or consolation did they send to the family.

Save for an appearance with my dear daughter-in-law, Miryam, before the Shamgar Commission, I have remained silent until now, taking the counsel of D'Israeli, i.e., never complain and never explain. The media here are experts at deceit and distortion. When spoken to, they do an excellent job of twisting words. Thus, we did not grant interviews, but some reporters just went ahead and fabricated them. When no picture of my daughter-in-law was available, a newspaper printed one of a stranger and said that it was she.

They have hounded her and the children mercilessly, and have even gone after her former classmates and teachers, clawing in vain for some negative comment about her. One woman reporter paid a shiv'a call wearing a hidden taperecorder and sat there looking and sounding so concerned and solicitous. How low can a person get?

Your article raising the question of what really happened was a catalyst. I have confidence in THE JEWISH PRESS and trust you and Rabbi Klass not to be intimidated by would-be censors and to have the courage to print this letter in its entirety, the letter which tells the truth about Baruch Koppel Goldstein HY"D.