Mordechai Weingarten

Mordechai Weingarten (Hebrew: מרדכי ויינגרטן‎) was a Jewish community leader in Jerusalem during the British Mandate.

Mordechai Weingarten and Abdullah el Tell in Jerusalem, 28 May 1948

Mordechai Weingarten, a long-time resident of the Old City of Jerusalem, was the mukhtar of the Jewish Quarter from 1935 to 1948.^[1] His family had lived in the courtyard of the Or HaChaim synagogue, on the way to the Armenian Quarter, for five generations.^[2] As chairman of the Jewish Council he was responsible for the distribution of funding from the Jewish Agency, which by 1948 amounted to £5,000 per month.^[3][4]

Weingarten was an advocate of co-operation with the British authorities and opposed the Haganah's presence in the Old City. In February 1948 the Haganah took charge of food distribution in the Jewish Quarter. Some weeks later Weingarten was apparently involved in the arrest by the British of the local Haganah commander who was returned to 'New Jerusalem'.^[5][6] On May 13, 1948, as the British Army left Jerusalem, a Major from the Suffolk Regiment presented Weingarten with the key for the Zion Gate.^[7][8] With the soldiers departure Haganah forces began occupying parts of the Armenian quarter. That night after a long meeting with the Armenian Patriarch, Guregh II Israelian, Weingarten insisted that the Haganah withdraw, on condition that the Armenians prevented their properties being used for attacks on the Jewish quarter.^[9]

Fifteen days later, on Friday May 28, with the Jewish Quarter completely cut off, Weingarten and a Hagana representative met Abdullah el Tell, local commander of the Arab Legion to discuss surrender terms.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} Under the surrender terms 'all men capable of bearing arms, were to be made prisoners of war. Weingarten 'succeeded in rescuing some fifty to sixty men'^[15] and insisted on accompanying the 340 POWs to Transjordan.^[16][17][18] On his return to 'New Jerusalem' on June 7 he was put under house arrest. Despite this, on July 9, he was chosen to meet Abdullah el Tell, now the Jordanian Military Commander of the Old City, to discuss the release of the prisoners taken in the Jewish Quarter, the burial of bodies left in the Quarter, and the rescue of any Scrolls of the Law that had survived. On August 17 he appeared before a commission investigating events in the Old City. His evidence was critical of the Haganah's actions, describing "complete confusion during the last week of fighting, with no military effort to maintain contact with the civilians."^[19][20]

References

1. ^ Zion Gate: The Big Key
2. ^ Where heaven touches earth: Jewish life in Jerusalem, Dovid Rossoff
3. ^ Larry Collins/Dominique Lapierre, 'O Jerusalem!' History Book Club, 1972. Page 185.
4. ^ A ratio of about P£2.50 per person which compares with municipal spending of P£3.90 in Tel Aviv, P£1.31 in Petah Tikvah, P£1.14 in Jaffa, P£0.57 in Nablus, P£0.32 in Bethlehem, P£0.31 in Ramle. Figures from 1941-42. Benny Morris, "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949", 1987, ISBN 0 521 33028 9. Page 18.
5. ^ Dov Joseph, 'The Faithful City - The Siege of Jerusalem, 1948.' Simon and Schuster, New York. 1960. Library of Congress: 60 10976. Page 60: 'Our only alternative was to allow Weingarten to control the distribution of food and other essential supplies, which would have given him control over the morale of the population.' Page 64: Avraham Halperin's arrest.
6. ^ Collins/Lapierre pages 185-186. On Avraham Halperin's arrest.
7. ^ Joseph, page 69: 'and a sten gun and ammuntion'. Collins/Lapierre, page 10: 'a bar of rusted iron about a foot long.'
8. ^ This story was repeated by President George W. Bush in his address to the Knesset on the 60-year anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel.[1] 'a short iron bar'
9. ^ John Roy Carlson, "Cairo to Damascus". Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 1952. 3rd printing. Library of Congress number 51-11068. pages 317-319. Page 318: "the two...were personal friends."
10. ^ Joseph, page 172: concerned for his safety his daughter, Yehudit, insisted on being a member of the delegation.
11. ^ J.R. Carlson in his eye-witness account describes Weingarten as "medium height, with bespectacled blue eyes, serious face, professorial beard and a Western felt hat" and Yehudit as "A nurse ... a thin slip of a girl who appeared exhausted and worn, dressed in a bloodstained white smock." Page 330. Yehudit is visible behind el Tell's left shoulder in the picture above.
12. ^ Collins/Lapierre, page 423: phone contact made with a priest at Terre Sancta. Insists on surrender to the Arab Legion. page 497: Hagana shoot Rabbi Reuven.
13. ^ Chaim Herzog, 'The Arab-Israeli Wars'. ISBN 0 85368 367 0. (1982). Page 62. 'the commander of the Quarter gave in to the pressure and pleading of the Rabbis, and allowed them to negotiate with the Arab Legion for surrender.'
14. ^ Yitzak Rabin, 'The Rabin Memoires'. ISBN 0 316 73002 5. (1979). 'On May 28 I went up to Mount Zion, where I witnessed a shattering scene. A delegation was emerging from the Jewish Quarter bearing white flags. I was horrified to learn that it consisted of rabbis and other residents on their way to hear the legion's (sic) terms for capitulation.' Carlson, page 328, names the delegation as Rabbi Ben Zion Ireq (72) and Israel Zief Mintzberg (86).
15. ^ Joseph, page 174: including his son-in-law
16. ^ Joseph, page 175: 'begged to remain with prisoners.' 'feared to go to new Jerusalem.'
17. ^ The Scotsman June 1st 1948:'After the Jewish surrender over 1000 non-combatant residents were evacuated to Katamon, south-west of Jerusalem, 150 Jews were handed over to the Red Cross, and 350 prisoners taken to Transjordan.'
18. ^ Collins. Page 498: 'The residents huddling in the cellars of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakai Synagogue had learned of the surrender delegation. Shrieking shouts of joy and thanksgiving, they rushed past their Haganah guards into the street. Within minutes, Arabs and Jews who had been killing each other hours before were embracing in the street, old friends greeted each other with tears of relief, the Legionnaires moved out of their posts and began to mingle with the men of the Hagannah, Jewish shopkeepers opened their stores. Bitterly, Russnak noted that some of them who had given his men a glass of water begrudgingly were offering cakes and coffee to the Arabs.'
19. ^ Joseph, page 178.
20. ^ Collins/Lapierre, page 564: 'until his death, lived his life in accordance with the rigid principles of Jewish mourning, a personal sign of grief for the loss of the quarter he had presided for so many years.' Joseph is not so charitable: page 179: 'You can see Wiengarten today walking about Jerusalem etc.' Also: 'nothing handicapped us as much as the character of the Jewish population there (the Old City).' He also quotes returning prisoners as describing Weingarten as "pretentious, power-greedy and in suspiciously close contact with the British."