Career
On May 13, 1948, as the British Army left Jerusalem, a Major from the Suffolk Regiment presented Weingarten with the key for the Zion Gate. With the soldiers departure Haganah forces began occupying parts of the Armenian quarter. That night after a long meeting with the Armenian Patriarch, Guregh II Israelian, Weingarten insisted that the Haganah withdraw, on condition that the Armenians prevented their properties being used for attacks on the Jewish quarter.
Fifteen days later, on Friday May 28, with the Jewish Quarter completely cut off, Weingarten and a Haganah representative met Abdullah el Tell, the local commander of the Arab Legion to discuss surrender terms.
Under the surrender terms "all men capable of bearing arms, were to be made prisoners of war. Weingarten "succeeded in rescuing some fifty to sixty men" and insisted on accompanying the 340 POWs to Transjordan.
The total number of Jews killed during the fighting for the Jewish Quarter was 39 combatants and 30 residents. On his return to "New Jerusalem" on June 7 he was put under house arrest.
Despite this, on July 9, he was chosen to meet Abdullah el Tell, now the Jordanian Military Commander of the Old City, to discuss the release of the prisoners taken in the Jewish Quarter, the burial of bodies left in the Quarter, and the rescue of any Scrolls of the Law that had survived.
On August 17 he appeared before a commission investigating events in the Old City. His evidence was critical of the Haganah"s actions, describing "complete confusion during the last week of fighting, with no military effort to maintain contact with the civilians.".
