News Brief

A Bible inscribed by an Irgun fighter and given to his British guard moments before he blew himself up in prison will be returned to the fighter’s family. In 1947, Meir Feinstein, 19, and Moshe Barazani, 21, had been sentenced to death by British Mandate authorities — Feinstein for his role in bombing the Jerusalem train station, Barazani for weapons possession and the attempted assassination of a British commander. Rather than be hanged by authorities Feinstein, of the Irgun, and Barazani, of Lehi, decided to kill themselves. Feinstein inscribed the Bible he kept in his cell in Hebrew and English. “In the shadow of the gallows, 21.4.47. To the British soldier as you stand guard. Before we go to the gallows, accept this Bible as a memento and remember that we stood in dignity and marched in dignity. It is better to die with a weapon in hand than to live with hands raised,” he wrote in the Hebrew version. The two gave the Bible to Sgt. Thomas Henry Goodwin, then saved his life by asking him to leave the cell while they prayed, at which point they detonated bombs hidden in two oranges. Goodwin left a request in his will that the Bible be returned, and his son will give the volume to Feinstein’s nephew Eliezer at a ceremony at the Museum of the Underground Prisoners in Jerusalem. The Bible, which contains some 115 woodcut illustrations by Gustave Dore, will be kept at the museum.