In the latest episode of IsraelCast, Jewish National Fund-USA’s flagship podcast, award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer Yardena Schwartz sheds new light on the 1929 Hebron Massacre and its chilling parallels to the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Schwartz, author of the new book Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict, joined host Steven Shalowitz to unravel the events of that fateful August day nearly a hundred years ago—when a mob of thousands of Arab rioters descended upon the Jewish community of Hebron, brutally murdering 67 Jewish men, women, and children in their homes.
"The atrocities committed in 1929—the mutilation, the rape, the slaughter of babies in their mothers' arms—were eerily similar to what happened on October 7," Schwartz said. "The parallels are undeniable. The past is not just prologue—it is present."
The conversation revealed how the massacre was fueled by disinformation spread by Haj Amin al-Husseini, the infamous Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who falsely claimed Jews were plotting to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. That lie, Schwartz noted, was echoed nearly a century later when Hamas named its October 7 assault “The Al-Aqsa Flood.”
Schwartz, who spent a decade reporting from Israel for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Policy, framed the 1929 Hebron massacre as more than just a historical footnote—it was the match that lit a century-long fire of mistrust and violence.
The podcast episode also touched on the personal: Schwartz’s husband lost two cousins on October 7, and her daughter’s Hebrew school teacher is the uncle of Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her husband and two red-haired sons.
"History repeated itself before my eyes as I was writing the book," Schwartz said. “The same lies, the same hatred, the same cruelty. And the same refusal—then and now—to believe it could happen until it did.”
Drawing on never-before-published letters from David Shainberg, a 22-year-old American yeshiva student murdered in Hebron, Ghosts of a Holy War weaves a narrative of tragedy, betrayal, and the loss of innocence in a city once considered a model of Jewish-Muslim coexistence.
For Jewish National Fund-USA, whose mission is to build a strong, vibrant future for the land and people of Israel, the conversation is part of a broader effort to educate, inform, and inspire. “This isn’t just about history,” said host Steven Shalowitz. “It’s about understanding how we got here—and how we move forward.”
Listen to the full episode at jnf.org/israelcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
This article was written in cooperation with JNF-USA.