巴鲁克·戈登斯坦1956—1994

1994年，他对约旦河西岸地区巴勒斯坦人的清真寺发动恐怖袭击（易卜拉欣大惨案）。当时他身穿以色列军装进入麦比拉洞一个房间，向正在做礼拜的800名巴勒斯坦穆斯林开枪，造成29人死亡、125人受伤。他本人也被巴勒斯坦穆斯林打死。

戈德斯坦的墓地后来成为犹太极端分子的朝圣地。坟墓上刻着这样的文字：“他为以色列人民、以色列的托拉和土地献出了自己的生命。” 1999年，以色列军队拆除了位于戈德斯坦墓地的神殿。不过墓碑及其墓志铭并未受到影响。

早年生活和教育

戈德斯坦生于纽约州布鲁克林区的一个犹太教正统派家庭，原名本杰明·戈尔茨坦。他曾在叶史瓦大学学习医学， 并获得阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦医学院医学学位。他后来加入犹太保卫同盟。

移民以色列

1983年，戈德斯坦移居以色列。他曾在以色列国防军担任医生。退役后，戈德斯坦住在希伯伦附近的以色列定居点，他是一位急诊医生。 他将自己的名字从本杰明改为巴鲁赫，并与一位名叫米丽娅姆的苏联移民结婚，两人 育有四个孩子。戈德斯坦拒绝给阿拉伯人看病，在以色列国防军服役的阿拉伯士兵也不例外，因为他认为给非犹太人看病违反犹太戒律。

Baruch Kopel Goldstein (Hebrew: ברוך קאפל גולדשטיין; born Benjamin Carl Goldstein; December 9, 1956 – February 25, 1994) was an American-Israeli physician and religious extremist who, in 1994, murdered 29 Palestinians in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an incident of Jewish terrorism. Goldstein was a supporter of Kach, a religious Zionist party that the United States, the European Union and other countries designate as a terrorist organization. Kach was banned less than a month after Goldstein's attacks on account of statements made in support of his actions.

Born in 1956 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, to an Orthodox Jewish family, Goldstein received his education there, starting with Jewish scripture studies, and eventually studying medicine at Yeshiva University. In the United States, he was a member of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant Jewish organization founded by his boyhood acquaintance Meir Kahane. In 1983, Goldstein immigrated to Israel, and served as a physician in the Israeli military, during which he refused to treat Arabs, including those serving as soldiers. Later, he worked as a physician, and lived in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Goldstein was active in Kahane's Kach party, and was third on the party list for the Knesset during the 1984 elections.

On February 25, 1994, Goldstein dressed in an Israeli military uniform, entered a mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs and opened fire on the 800 Palestinian Muslim worshippers praying there during the month of Ramadan, killing 29 and wounding 125 worshippers, until he was beaten to death by survivors.

Goldstein's gravesite became a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists. The following words are inscribed on the tomb: "He gave his life for the people of Israel, its Torah and land." In 1999, after the passing of Israeli legislation outlawing monuments to terrorists, the Israeli Army dismantled the shrine that had been built to Goldstein at the site of his interment. The tombstone and its epitaph, calling Goldstein a martyr with clean hands and a pure heart, was left untouched. After the flagstones around it were removed, the ground was covered with gravel.

Early life and education

Goldstein 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.

Immigration to Israel

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.

Massacre

On February 25, 1994, that year's Purim day, Goldstein entered a room in the Cave of the Patriarchs that was serving as a mosque, wearing the official Israeli Ground Forces uniform "with the insignia of rank, creating the image of a reserve officer on active duty". He then opened fire, killing 29 worshippers and wounding more than 125.

Gravesite and shrine

Israeli military authorities refused to allow Goldstein to be buried in the Jewish cemetery in Hebron. He was buried opposite the Meir Kahane Memorial Park in Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement adjacent to Hebron. The park is named in memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Israeli far-right political party Kach, a group classified by the United States and Israeli governments as a terrorist group. Goldstein was a long-time devotee of Kahane.

Veneration by extremists

While mainstream Jewish religious leaders, including the chief rabbis of Israel, rejected the suggestion that killing Palestinians was authorized by the Torah, some extremist religious Jews have defended Goldstein's actions.

At Goldstein's funeral, Rabbi Yaacov Perrin claimed that even one million Arabs are "not worth a Jewish fingernail".