Goldstein, Baruch (1957–1994)

né Benjamin Carl Goldstein

Ultra-nationalist and member of the Jewish group Kahane Chai, Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Muslims bowed in prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994.

Born in Brooklyn, Goldstein was a serious and quiet child, graduating a year early near the top of his high school class. At Yeshiva University in Manhattan, Goldstein changed his name to Baruch and became involved in Kahane Chai, a group founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, a militant Jewish nationalist who had argued that no Jew was safe as long as there was a single Arab in the land of Israel. Goldstein met his wife at Kahane Chai headquarters in Jerusalem, and Kahane officiated at their wedding. Kahane was assassinated in New York in 1990.

Goldstein graduated from medical school and moved to Israel in 1983, joining the Kiryat Arba settlement in the Israeli-occupied West ...