The last known survivor of the 1929 Hebron mass murder

The Jerusalem Post spoke with a man who'd been a child during the Islamic massacre in Hebron during 1929:

Time has not dimmed the powerful memories that 98-year-old Avraham Kiryati has of the moment his grandfather Eliyahu Capilouto was stabbed during the Hebron massacre of 1929.

“My grandfather was dressed just like the Arabs,” said Kiryati. “He went out to see what was going on. They [the rioters] pushed him inside and stabbed him on the side of his body.”

Kiryati was then a boy of eight. He and his 18-year-old uncle Moshe Capilouto were in their grandparents’ home as Arabs made their way through the Hebron streets calling for Jews to be slaughtered.

The two boys escaped out the back door of their grandparents’ home, safely making their way to the family chicken coup where they hid until it was safe.

When they came out of hiding, they found Eliyahu lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Kiryat recalled how his grandmother Rivka had blocked the wound with coffee grounds.

Sitting in a reclining corner chair in the living room of his Jerusalem home, wearing glasses and black sandals, the white haired nonagenarian explains how his life is one long map of the history of mandate Palestine and the state of Israel. In spite of this, Kiryati said, he often shies away from media interviews.

This week, however, ahead of the 90th anniversary of the August 24 massacre that decimated Hebron’s ancient Jewish community, Kiryati opened his door to journalists. He is almost for sure the last survivor of the massacre who can still recall the fatal events of that day, in which Arab rioters killed 67 Jews.

Whether or not he's the last survivor, he's done the right thing to recall the horror that took place for historians to record for future education and reference.