Robert Avrech, the Emmy Award winning screen writer, wrote about Joan Winters’ in his blog; that is where I first learned about her. Avrech wrote, (her life) “reads like the plot of a movie. A young, beautiful, restless American show-girl travels to the exotic east where she finds intrigue, romance—and a violent death.” Joan was murdered late in October 1933. Her body was found near the Garden of Gethsemane in an olive grove. It was a frightening time in Jerusalem and all of Palestine. Arab rioting against the Jews and the British had, violently, bloodily, and terrifyingly, flared up again. Winters was almost 24.....Jerusalem had once again been the focal point of an Arab riot incited by Palestinian leadership and supported by the Grand Mufti, Mohammed Amin al-Husayni. Husayni had along history of incitement, using Jews as the scapegoat. It was a proven, reliable, historic pathway to political power.
Joan Winters' grave site had been lost, unmarked for almost 81 years. She was a beautiful young woman to have been so innocently, tragically, and violently thrown into the Arab-Jewish Palestinian conflict.
JASHP, with the help of two other Jewish individuals, marked her resting place with a dignified memorial.
