Ha-Rav Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld: The Arabs should not think that they have succeeded in banishing the Jews from even one corner or street in Yerushalayim!

 

During the 5689 Arab Pogrom, on Friday, the 17th of Av, rioters ran wild throughout Eretz Yisrael, cruelly ransacking and murdering. In the afternoon, thousands of inflamed Arabs stormed out of the Mosque of Omar after being saturated with the hateful incitement of the Mufti, Haj Amin Al-Huseini, and marched forward, armed with knives and clubs. Most of them advanced towards the neighborhoods of Meah Shearim and Beit Yisrael, their leader had his sword drawn and they screamed, "Slaughter the Jews!"

When they passed the flour mill, two Charedi Jews came out, one wielding a pistol, and shot and killed the leader of the gang. The second one threw a hand grenade and the entire gang fled while the two of them pursued them – one with a pistol and the other with a hand grenade. The Arabs killed many of their own in their panicked flight, trampling one another.

The next day, Ha-Rav Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, who lived within the walls of the Old City, had to go to Meah Shearim to serve as a Mohel.  His family and friends were terribly worried about him, and they begged him not to go, but he insisted.  He would not forego the Mitzvah.

The eighty year-old Rabbi, clad in his Tallit, walked to Meah Shearim through "Sha'ar Shechem" (the Damascus Gate), and in front of their eyes lay the dead Arabs.  He returned to the Old City by way of "Sha'ar Yafo (the Jaffa Gate). When he was later asked why he went specifically by way of the Damascus Gate, he responded, “So that the Arabs should not think that they have succeeded in banishing the Jews from even one corner or street in Yerushalayim."  And why had he returned by way of Jaffa Gate?  “Such is my regular custom, in order to fulfill the words: “Walk around Zion.  Circle her" (Tehilim 48:13) (Related in the book "Ha-Ish Al Ha-Chomah" Vol. 2, pp. 175-180).

By the way, the Charedi Jew who fired the pistol was Ha-Rav Aharon Fischer, the father of Ha-Gaon Ha-Rav Yisrael Yaakov Fischer, who was the Av Beit Din (head of the rabbinic court) of the Edah Ha-Charedit until a few years ago (Be-Dor Tahapuchot pp. 226-229, 393-396).