Baruch Goldstein

Baruch Kopel Goldstein (Hebrew: ברוך קאפל גולדשטיין; born Benjamin Carl Goldstein; December 9, 1956 – February 25, 1994) was an American-Israeli physician and religious extremist who, in 1994, murdered 29 Palestinians in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an incident of Jewish terrorism. Goldstein was a supporter of Kach, a religious Zionist party that the United States, the European Union and other countries designate as a terrorist organization. Kach was banned less than a month after Goldstein's attacks on account of statements made in support of his actions.

Born in 1956 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, to an Orthodox Jewish family, Goldstein received his education there, starting with Jewish scripture studies, and eventually studying medicine at Yeshiva University. In the United States, he was a member of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant Jewish organization founded by his boyhood acquaintance Meir Kahane. In 1983, Goldstein immigrated to Israel, and served as a physician in the Israeli military, during which he refused to treat Arabs, including those serving as soldiers. Later, he worked as a physician, and lived in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Goldstein was active in Kahane's Kach party, and was third on the party list for the Knesset during the 1984 elections.