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he dilapidated structure ofthe Magen Avraham syna-gogue is nearly all that re-mains of the Jewish presencein Lebanon. A once vibrantcommunity that numbered in

the tens of thousands is now almostnon-existent. The few Jews that re-main in Lebanon live as discreetly aspossible. A new project to raise $1million, launched by the LebaneseJewish Community Council to re-store the Magen Avraham synagoguein downtown Beirut, holds the possi-bility of bringing back the communi-ty’s presence. Those behind the reno-vation plan want to reestablish Ma-gen Avraham as a functioning syna-gogue, and they’ve raised hopes thatan overt Jewish presence in Beirutand the Mount Lebanon environs —which has Jewish history that maystretch back as far as 3,000 years —can emerge again.

The Magen Avraham synagogue— the name means “Abraham’s

TShield” — was built in 1926 in whatwas the Jewish quarter of Wadi AbuJamil in downtown Beirut. Thegrandness of the synagogue plansmeant that a great deal of moneyneeded to be raised. The LebaneseJewish Community Council, just afterWorld War I, managed to raise somefunds for its construction, but it wasconsiderably less that what was need-ed for the ambitious project.

While the community kept a verydistinct Lebanese identity, the majori-ty were also part of the transnationalSephardi Jewish community. TheSephardi Jews originally came fromthe Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Por-tugal) and North Africa and, despitetheir early geographical dispersal,kept a distinct identity and liturgyseparate from the Jews of Eastern Eu-ropean descent, the Ashkenazi, andthe Jews who remained in the MiddleEast, called Mizrahi Jews. Thus, theLebanese Jews used this SephradiJewish network to raise funds for the

synagogue. The community appealedto Moise Abraham Sassoon from Cal-cutta, who donated money towardthe completion of the Magen Avra-ham synagogue, while the land wasdonated by Raphael Levy Stambouli.Sassoon would dedicate the syna-gogue to his father.

The synagogue was designed byarchitect Bindo Manham and wasbuilt in the imposing symmetricalstyle of the Renaissance. When com-pleted the synagogue would be de-clared the grandest in the Middle Eastand secured Wadi Abu Jamil as thefocal point for the Lebanese Jewishcommunity. Jacques Baghdadi, whogrew up in Wadi Abu Jamil and leftwhen he was 18 (in 1970) to the Unit-ed States, described to EXECUTIVE

what it was like living in the Jewishquarter of Beirut.

“It was very cliquey; it was likeliving in one big family,” he said. “Wehad two schools and everyone wentto the two schools… so it was a verycocooned area and I have very fondmemories of the community there.”

The wider communityDespite the fact that the Jewish

community was “cocooned” in WadiAbu Jamil, there is a historical Jewishpresence in other areas of Beirut aswell. One noticeable trace of theonce thriving community is the BethElamen cemetery just off Sodecosquare that, similar to the synagogue,is in disrepair and overgrown withtrees and weeds. According toGeorges Zeidan, who wrote an arti-cle on the history of the Jewish ceme-tery in Beirut in French, entitled“Histoire du Cimetière Juif à Bey-routh,” the first Jew was buried inthe cemetery in 1829. Now thegravestones lie in tatters.

The Jewish community also had apresence in other parts of Lebanon.

“The first significant wave of Jewsto Lebanon came in 1710 when a sig-nificant number of Andalusian Jewsfled from the Spanish inquisition tothe safety of the Chouf mountains,”Kirsten Schulze wrote in her book“The Jews of Lebanon: Between Co-existence and Conflict.”

The Jewish revival LLeebbaannoonn

Rebuilding Beirut’s Magen Avraham synagogue

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fortunately not in Lebanon. “BeingLebanese and Jewish was a real win-ner when it came to trade and bank-ing,” George Lati, a Lebanese Jewwho left Lebanon when he was ateenager and immigrated to the US,told EXECUTIVE.

The Latis are a famous bankingfamily whose members still ownproperty in Beirut and exemplify thebusiness success of the Lebanese Jew-ish community.

“Italy saw an export resurgence inthe 1970s thanks to Lebanese Jews[who emigrated] as well as HongKong, Mexico, Brazil, Panama, USA[and] Canada, where there were allsuccessful Lebanese Jewish business-es,” he said.

Most famous of all the LevantineJewish families was the Safra family. TheJacob Safra Bank was a central bankinginstitution in Beirut for many of theSephardi Jewish families of Lebanonand Syria. Safra’s son, Edmond Safra,was born in Beirut and earned a reputa-tion for being one of the outstanding fig-ures in 20th century banking, and died abillionaire. The Safra family would

In Miziara, a village in the moun-tains above Tripoli in northernLebanon, Diab Doudib, in his 70s,said Jews had once lived there. “Ifyou look at the patterns of the olivetrees, that is not our way, but theJewish way of planting. They werehere a long time ago, but there areno Jews here now,” he said.

Deir al-Qamr was the location ofone of the first concentrations ofLebanese Jews. The Chouf village isstill home to the oldest synagogue inLebanon, but like most of the rem-nants of the Lebanese Jewish pres-ence, the synagogue is in a ruinedstate. From the Chouf, the LebaneseJewish community spread to Saidaand Tripoli as they increasinglymoved toward commercial hubs.

This migration would ultimatelylead the community to Beirut andWadi Abu Jamil, as the city was be-coming an ever-more dominanttrading hub at the beginning of the20th century.

Lebanese Jews would rise toprominence around the world fortheir business acumen, although un-

move from Lebanon to Italy in 1949,just after Israel declared statehood. Al-though the Safra family left Lebanonwhen Israel was created, this was nottypical of Lebanese Jews.

“Lebanon was the only Arabcountry in which the number of Jewsincreased after the first Arab-Israeliwar,” Schulze wrote.

Lebanese Jews were highly inte-grated into Lebanese society and be-came the only Jewish community inthe Middle East to be constitution-ally protected in the proclamationof Greater Lebanon in 1920. Evenafter the first Arab-Israeli war, thetradition of sharing religious festi-vals continued.

“In 1951, during the Passovercelebration, the president of the Jew-ish community Joseph Attie held areception at Magen Avraham syna-gogue which was attended byLebanese Prime Minister Sami as-Solh, Abdallah Yafi, Rachid Bey-doun, Joseph Chader, Habib AbiChahla, Charles Helou, PierreGemayel and the Maronite Arch-bishop of Beirut,” Schulze wrote.

Prominent Lebanese Jewish business families — where are they now?

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J u l y 2 0 0 944

The disappearanceA gradual exodus of Jews began

with the internal strife in Lebanon in1958. Jacques Baghdadi, a LebaneseJew who left the country in 1970, de-scribed to EXECUTIVE how tensions in-creased after the Six Day War.

“We never felt the threat like inSyria and Iraq. We never felt op-pressed, but after the Six Day Waryou felt in the air a certain botheringfeeling,” he said. “Even though wewere born Lebanese, you felt notwelcome… so [the Lebanese Jewishcommunity] left… and it was like asixth [sense]; sure enough the civilwar broke [out].”

The decisive moment was the Is-raeli invasion and occupation ofLebanon in 1982, which was effec-tively the beginning of the end of theJewish presence in Lebanon. RobertFisk, a British foreign correspondentwho lived in Beirut during the civilwar, wrote in his book “Pity the Na-tion,” that “incredibly, the Israelishells even blew part of the roof offthe city’s synagogue in Wadi AbuJamil, where the remnants of Beirut’stiny Jewish community still lived…The last 10 families to worship therepadlocked the door after the Israelishells came through the roof.”

The Israeli invasion of 1982 leftthe Lebanese Jewish community par-ticularly exposed to the vicious vio-lence that would occur post-invasion.Wadi Abu Jamil was the scene offierce fighting, and was first occupiedby the Palestine Liberation Organiza-tion and then the Amal Movement.The Amal logo is still on the walls ofthe synagogue to this day, along withtorn pictures of the late Amal leader

Musa Sadr. Former Associated Pressbureau chief Terry Anderson, whowas kidnapped in 1985 and held forsix years, was reportedly taken intothe Wadi Abu Jamil area.

Between 1984 and 1987, 11 lead-ing members of the Jewish communi-ty were kidnapped and killed by amilitant Shiite Islamic organizationcalled “Organization of the Op-pressed of the Earth,” according toSchulze and news reports from thetime. The terminal decline of the com-munity began, as did the under-ground nature of the remaining Jews.

Fred Kanter, whose great-grandfa-ther was a rabbi at the AllianceSchool in Beirut (a Jewish school sys-

tem founded and funded by the Roth-schild family), articulated the fear ofthose few Jews who did remain.

“I was in touch with a young Jew-ish man in Beirut who photographedthe gravestone of my grandfather,”Kanter told EXECUTIVE by email.“When a Jewish friend went to visitBeirut, he was afraid to be seen meet-ing a Jewish person from the West.”

EXECUTIVE contacted a numberof Jews still residing in Lebanon,but none were willing to talk aboutthe community, even anonymously.

Of those that have left the coun-try, many in the Lebanese Jewishcommunity have maintained a strongcohesion. Jacques Baghdadi said thatdespite leaving Lebanon nearly 40years ago, he is still in contact withthe Lebanese Jews who he grew upwith in Wadi Abu Jamil.

“We see each other in syna-gogues… there are two big syna-gogues [in Brooklyn] that are espe-cially for Lebanese Jews… theLebanese by nature are very clannishpeople and we hang out with allLebanese — Christians or Muslims —it doesn’t matter here.”

A testament to the strength ofLebanese Jewish identity is theMaghan Avraham synagogue inMontreal that was set up by LebaneseJewish immigrants.

The Internet, and particularly so-cial networking sites like Facebook,have also enabled Lebanese Jews tomaintain contact. Most recently, theofficial Lebanese Jewish Community

Council website (www.thejewsofle-banonproject.org) has been launchedthat now gives an official public faceto the community. The website wasalso set up to help raise funds for re-constuction of the Magen Avrahamsynagogue.

Community revival“Those who don’t have a past

don’t have a future,” Isaac Arazi,president of the Lebanese JewishCommunity Council, is quoted assaying on the website’s welcome page— ostensibly linking the renovationof the Magen Avraham synagogue tothe reconstruction of a Jewish pres-ence in the country.

“It pains me immensely that Ihave to pass by [Magen Avraham]every day without being able to en-ter,” wrote one anonymous Lebanese

L E VAN T

““IITT PPAAIINNSS MMEE TTHHAATT II HHAAVVEE TTOO PPAASSSS BBYY MMAAGGEENN AAVVRRAAHHAAMM EEVVEERRYY DDAAYY WWIITTHHOOUUTT BBEEIINNGG AABBLLEE TTOO EENNTTEERR””

A panoramic look at the inside of Beirut’s Magen Avraham synagogue

Jew on the website. “If only to viewthe destruction, to say a prayer (eventhough I do not know how to sayprayers), to stand there and imagineand visualize what the 1940s, 1950sand 1960s were like.”

Mira Elmann and other LebaneseJews are already discussing how thesynagogue will function once it hasbeen renovated.

“The Magen Avraham synagoguewill only succeed as a place of wor-ship for the Orthodox Jews. Servicesmust be with an Orthodox Rabbi,”she wrote in an email.

Elmann, a Lebanese Jew who leftLebanon in October of 1968, believesthat if the reconstruction of the syna-gogue is achieved, the Lebanese Jew-ish community may even come back.

“The only way the Jews will everreturn to Beirut would be because ofthe renovation of the synagogue,” shesaid. “The Lebanese Jewish commu-nity of the Diaspora is looking for-ward for the day to go back to thenew Wadi Abu Jamil.”

Yet, it is unclear whether the syn-agogue will be rebuilt soon or not, asEXECUTIVE was unable to interviewthe head of the Lebanese Jewish Com-munity Council, Isaac Arazi.

An article in Israel’s Haaretznewspaper on May 27 said the reno-vation of the synagogue was about tostart. The article, entitled “Beirut shul[synagogue] to be refurbished, andeven Hezbollah’s on board” stated:

“The ruined main synagogue incentral Beirut is due to be renovated

in the coming weeks, after an agree-ment between various religious de-nominations and permission from theLebanese government, planning au-thorities and even Hezbollah.”

Déjà vu?If the Haaretz article is accurate,

then the reconstruction of the syna-gogue, and Lebanon’s Jewish commu-nity, could come soon. There is goodreason for skepticism, however, as it isnot the first time a newspaper an-nounced the imminent refurbishmentof Magen Avraham.

Haaretz reported that Soliderewas to donate $150,000, but citedunnamed sources regarding $200,000more that had been raised throughprivate donations.

Nabil Rached, Solidere’s pressofficer, confirmed Solidere’s contri-bution, but would not say whetherreconstruction would actually takeplace.

“The [financial] contribution is anold decision taken by Solidere for therestoration of each one of the reli-gious buildings in the Beirut CityCenter,” Rached said. “But therestoration of each religious buildingis done by its respective community.So it is not a Solidere project.”

Angus Gavin, the planning advi-sor for Solidere, also refused to com-ment on the renovation of the syna-gogue but added that it’s “about time[the synagogue] is reconstructed.”

A Bloomberg article in September2008 also claimed that $240,000 had

been raised, quoting the LebaneseJewish Community Council PresidentArazi. Unconfirmed reports suggest-ed the Safra Foundation put up$100,000 of this money with anotherunnamed Swiss bank. Arazi refusedto name where the money came from,while the Safra foundation has alsodeclined to comment.

Whether the Lebanese Jewishcommunity has been able to obtainthe $200,000 that Haaretz reported,or the other funds for the restoration,is doubted by some in the community.

George Lati is among those whothrow cold water on the idea:“There just has not been the interestin the community financially to beable to raise the money; the moneyhas not been raised.”

History repeating Like in the early 1920s, when the

original synagogue was constructedwith the financial assistance of thelarger community of Sephardi Jews, asimilar approach may be underwayregarding the rebuilding. Regardlessof whether the Lebanese Jewish com-munity actually has the money nowor not, the community council ap-pears determined to see that the re-construction of the synagogue eventu-ally does take place.

“The plans to renovate the MagenAvraham synagogue are already un-derway,” the website states.

The community council seemsconvinced that as long as the MaghanAvraham synagogue remains in itscurrent dilapidated state, so too willthe status of Lebanon’s 18th sect.

Jacques Baghdadi told EXECUTIVE

that while the return of Lebanon’sJewish community is not yet at hand,there is no reason why in the long runthe community cannot reestablish.

“There was a time of Jewish per-secution in Spain and again you havea Jewish population in Spain, thesame in Italy and Portugal… historyrepeats itself, people come back.”

(Editor’s note: This is the first in aseries of articles profiling Arab Jewishcommunities EXECUTIVE will publishin the coming months.)

The Jewish cemetery in Saida has seen better days

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