Michael Talbot, University of St Andrews
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Despite attempts to build, improve, and police roads, travelling between Ottoman towns and villages could be a dangerous business. Court records, petitions, and news reports are full of examples of thefts and murders on Ottoman roads. One rather sensationalist report from the Hebrew-language newspaper Ḥavatselet from 8 Kislev 5658 (3 December 1897) shows just how violent such cases could be in graphic detail.
The incident in question took place in the environs of the bustling port city of Jaffa. According to the online database of the museum of Rishon LeZion's genealogical centre, the victim, Moshe Yehoshu‘a Ha-Leṿi Heyman, was born in Vilnius in 1860, and moved to Palestine in 1886. He settled in Neve Tsedeq, a Jewish suburb of Jaffa, and at some point he married and had five children. In around 1897, he was commissioned along with his brother to build the ark for Torah scrolls in the new synagogue of the colony of Rishon LeZion.
By the end of that year, Yehoshu‘a would be dead. His tombstone still stands in the old cemetery of Rishon LeZion, the inscription on which reads:
Moshe Yehoshu‘a Heyman
Felled at the hands of murderers
In Rishon LeZion as he walked to work
About 38 years old
3 Kislev 5658
May his soul be bound in the bundle of life
So, how did this Lithuanian carpenter who moved to Ottoman Palestine meet his untimely end? To begin with, it is important to understand that the road between Rishon LeZion and Jaffa was ill-defined. Those who made the 10-mile (16-kilometre) journey often had to traverse the sand dunes, and those on foot would have been particularly vulnerable to the dangers of travel. On 3 Kislev 5658 (27 November 1897), this commute would cost Yehoshu‘a his life.
A terrible disaster occurred this week in our midst. Mr Yehoshu‘a Ha-Leṿi Heyman, a carpenter resident in Jaffa and working in Rishon LeZion, left Jaffa on Saturday night with another three Hebrew labourers to go to Rishon LeZion.
They were on the road between Ya‘zur and Bayt Dajan when they were attacked by bandits. They beat them with murderous blows, and stripped them of their clothes. The three labourers managed to flee. Only Mr Yehoshu‘a remained behind, and fought with the bandits until they overwhelmed him. At that moment, a cart came from Jaffa that was also going to Rishon LeZion with Hebrew labourers on board, and all the robbers fled and made their escape.
The labourers got down and found the battered body, almost without the breath of life. They took him onto the cart, and brought him to the colony. After a few hours, he faded away and died.
A dramatic and sad tale indeed. It was, of course, difficult to then track down the perpetrators of such crimes, especially given that the events had taken place at night. Yet in this case there appears to have been success, although it is not clear by what process the criminals were located, nor who they were.
Two of the murderers were apprehended. The companions of the victim recognised them, and the clothes of one of them were still stained with blood. They were brought to Jaffa and detained in prison.
So perhaps justice was done in a formal sense, although the newspaper does not give any indication of the prisoners' fate. For the family of Yehoshu‘a Heyman, however, the death of the main breadwinner must have been a devastating financial as well as emotional blow. But it seems that Yehoshu‘a's neighbours came together to help out, and provide some relief.
The murdered man was brought with dignity to the cemetery. Other members of the colony called for alms for his widow and his five orphans, and at the funeral seven hundred francs were collected. May his soul be bound in the bundle of life.
Lack of records and the accidence of the survival of sources often leave us with gaps in such narratives. But, at least in this case thanks to a number of resources, it has been possible to discover some details about the life as well as the death of one unfortunate victim of violent crime in Ottoman Palestine.
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