Shavei Chevron Yeshiva Students Move Into Casbah Building For First Time Since 1929

Dozens of students from Shavei Chevron Yeshiva moved into Beit Valero in the Casbah of Chevron on Wednesday, renewing Jewish residential presence there for the first time since the 1929 Chevron massacre.

The move is being presented by the yeshiva as a historic return to a Jewish-owned property in the heart of Chevron’s Old City, nearly 96 years after the city’s Jewish community was expelled following the massacre. Israeli security forces prepared heavily around the site ahead of the move because of the area’s sensitivity.

Jews lived in Chevron continuously for centuries until Arab rioters murdered 67 Jews in the city during the 1929 massacre. Across Mandatory Palestine, 133 Jews were killed in the attacks. The surviving Jewish community in Chevron was evacuated by the British, ending Jewish residence in the Casbah area.

Although Israel regained control of Chevron in 1967 and Jewish residents later returned to parts of the city, the Casbah remained one of the most sensitive and densely populated Palestinian sections of the Old City. New Jewish residential expansion there faced years of security, political and legal obstacles, along with the need for ownership verification and coordination with Israeli authorities.

According to the yeshiva, Beit Valero was legally purchased in a complex acquisition process and later underwent extensive renovations before students could move in. Israeli reports said the structure had previously served as a carpentry workshop and lacked basic infrastructure, including water, electricity and sewage systems.

The yeshiva said thousands of donors from Israel and abroad helped fund the project and its security infrastructure. The IDF said forces would secure the building and surrounding area on an ongoing basis to allow normal daily life for the students living there.

Rabbis and public figures arrived at the site Wednesday for a mezuzah ceremony formally opening the building to residents.

Rabbi Chananel Etrog, head of the yeshiva, said: “The students of King David have returned to his city.”

“On the eve of Shavuot, the holiday of King David, yeshiva students who toil in Torah, which is King David’s very soul, are entering the house,” he said. “And all the students are army veterans, soldiers of King David. To touch eternity.”

Rabbi Mishael Rubin, a senior teacher at the yeshiva, described the move as “similar to the departure from the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City,” calling it “breaking a glass ceiling” for Jewish presence in the area.

Amram Baldav, one of the students moving into the building, said he was “excited to be part of history.”

“This is the first Jewish foothold in many years,” he said. “I hope and pray this move will be the opening step toward a permanent and expanding Jewish presence in the Casbah.”