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JewishHistoryעברית

Tiberias massacre

Date
2 October 1938Hebrew date: 7th of Tishrei, 5699
Location
TiberiasIsrael
Then part of
British administration in Palestine
Perpetrators
  • Armed Arab rebel gang (Militia / auxiliaries)
Killed (estimate)
19 – 21[1]Jews killed. The British colonial secretary, citing the High Commissioner, told the House of Commons that the gang murdered 19 Jews, including three women and nine children, and that three Jews were wounded; two of the dead were Jewish supernumerary police. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported at least 21 Jews slain, including two Jewish constables. The Mandatory's 1938 report to the League of Nations stated that of 19 Jews killed, all but four were stabbed to death.
Locality

0.35% – 0.39% of the Jewish population of Tiberias[4]

Country

0.011% – 0.012% of the Jewish population of British administration in Palestine (c. 1931)[26]

Worldwide

0.00011% – 0.00013% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1939)[5]

Category
Massacre
Confidence
DisputedThe High Commissioner's figure given in Parliament and in the Mandatory's League of Nations report is 19 Jews killed. JTA, writing while searches of ruined houses continued, reported at least 21, including two Jewish constables named in its list of victims.

Summary

On 2 October 1938, during the Arab revolt, an armed gang raided the Jewish quarter of Tiberias. The Mandatory's report to the League of Nations called the raid systematically organized; attackers cut communications, struck government offices and burned a synagogue and houses. The colonial secretary told Parliament that the murdered Jews, except two supernumerary police, were unarmed private individuals, and that the raiders entered the town disguised before the signal to attack.

Sources

  1. Malcolm MacDonald, Secretary of State for the Colonies, PALESTINE (Hansard, 5 October 1938). UK Parliament (Historic Hansard) (1938)
  2. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (1938). United Kingdom (UNISPAL copy) (1938)
  3. 21 Jews Slain in Tiberias Massacre, Worst Since '29; Synagogue, Homes Razed. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1938)
  4. Tiberias’ Nakba: authority and health in the aftermath of the 1934 flood. Contemporary Levant (2026)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 16,500,000 – 16,633,675[5]c. 1939DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1939 is 16.5 million. The American Jewish Year Book 1948–49 compiled 16,633,675 at the end of 1939.
  • British administration in Palestine: 174,610 – 175,000[26]c. 1931Jewish Virtual Library's Mandate table (citing British/CBS series and Bachi) gives 174,610 Jews in 1931; DellaPergola's 2003 AJYB table rounds the same series to 175,000. Territory is British Mandatory Palestine.
  • Tiberias: 5,381[4]Jews in Tiberias in the British census of 1931, nearly seven years before the 2 October 1938 attack.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
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  32. Kirsten E. Schulze, The Jews of Lebanon between Coexistence and Conflict. Internet Archive full text
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  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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