The Shafrir synagogue shooting attack was an attack which was carried out by Palestinian terrorists on 11 April 1956. Three Palestinian militants who crossed into Israel from Egypt attacked the

study hall Study hall, known as private study, SAS, structured study or free periods in the United Kingdom, is a term for a place to have a study time during the school day where students are assigned to study when they are not scheduled for an academic cl ...

of a

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

while it was full of children and teenagers, in the farming community of

Kfar Chabad Kfar Chabad ( he, כְּפַר חַבָּ"ד, ''lit.'' "Chabad Village") is a Chabad-Lubavitch village in central Israel. Between Beit Dagan and Lod, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sdot Dan Regional Council. In it had a population of . His ...

(Shafrir). Six people (five children and a youth worker) were killed.

Attack

A Palestinian Arab

fedayeen Fedayeen ( ar, فِدائيّين ''fidāʼīyīn'' "self-sacrificers") is an Arabic term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves for a larger campaign. Etymology The term ''fedayi'' is derived from Arabic: '' ...

squad entered

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. They came to the village of

(Shafrir) during the evening of 11 April 1956, which at the time was mainly inhabited by refugees from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. One waited by the escape vehicle, another cut the electricity to the synagogue, plunging the interior into darkness, and the third entered the

and fired into the crowd of 46 children aged 9–16 inside at the time. Five boys and their 24-year old instructor Simcha Zilberstrom were killed. Five children were injured, three of them in serious condition. One teacher named Yeshayahu Gopin threw children out the window during the shooting, saving several lives. A group of village men gathered firearms kept in a small defense locker and rushed to the school, arriving about five minutes after the attack began, but by that time, the

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...

had stopped and the perpetrators had made their escape. The police were called with the village's only telephone, and the only two vehicles in the village were used to take the wounded to the nearby Tzrifin Medical Center. Kfar Chabad (997009452977305171

Aftermath

Following the attack, the traumatized villagers began to seriously consider abandoning the settlement. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi

Menachem Mendel Schneerson Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Modern Hebrew: מנחם מענדל שניאורסון; old-fashioned spelling: מנחם מענדל שניאורסאהן; April 5, 1902 OS – June 12, 1994; AM 11 Nissan 5662 – 3 Tammuz 5754), known to man ...

, was consulted and responded that they should remain and continue to build.https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1765/jewish/The-Rebbe-Who-Saved-a-Village.htm The incident shocked the Israeli public. Newspapers reported on the attack and the despondent national mood in its aftermath for days.

Herzl Rosenblum Herzl Rosenblum ( he, הרצל רוזנבלום, also known as Herzl Vardi, 14 August 1903 – 1 February 1991) was an Israeli journalist and politician. A signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence, he worked as editor of Yedioth Ahr ...

wrote in '' Yediot Ahronoth'' that "Entering the school's modest synagogue was like visiting Kishinev after the pogrom of 50 years ago." The day following the attack, Israeli Foreign Minister

Moshe Sharett Moshe Sharett ( he, משה שרת, born Moshe Chertok (Hebrew: )‎ 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was a Russian-born Israeli politician who served as Israel's second prime minister from 1954 to 1955. A member of Mapai, Sharett's term was b ...

sent an urgent message to

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Secretary-General

Dag Hammarskjöld Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld ( , ; 29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 196 ...

informing him on the latest fedayeen raids and highlighting the attack on Kfar Chabad. Speaking to delegates of the

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...

, Israel's United Nations ambassador

Abba Eban Abba Solomon Meir Eban (; he, אבא אבן ; born Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban; 2 February 1915 – 17 November 2002) was an Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages. During his career, he served as Fo ...

condemned the "murder of Israeli children and their instructor in the sacred moment of prayer." At the end of the traditional thirty-day mourning period for the victims, thousands of people from across Israel attended the cornerstone laying ceremony for a new vocational school in the village, including numerous political figures and Israel's two chief rabbis.

References

External links

Israel Says Arabs Made Night Attack
- published on

Star-News ''Star-News'' is an American, English language daily newspaper for Wilmington, North Carolina, and its surrounding area (known as the Lower Cape Fear). It is North Carolina's oldest newspaper in continuous publication. It was owned by Halifax Me ...

on 11 April 1956 {{coord missing, Israel Mass murder in 1956 Terrorist attacks attributed to Palestinian militant groups Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency Murdered Israeli children 20th-century attacks on synagogues and Jewish communal organizations Terrorist incidents in Asia in 1956 Terrorist incidents in Israel in the 1950s 1956 murders in Israel School shootings in Israel 20th-century mass murder in Israel April 1956 events in Asia 1956 mass shootings