Beirut's Only Synagogue to Reopen Next Year After Restoration by Diaspora
By Massoud A. Derhally - Jun 30, 2010 7:12 AM GMT-0400


Restoration of Beirut’s only synagogue will be completed in October and religious services will be held there in 2011 for the first time in more than three decades, the leader of the country’s Jewish community said.

“We started from zero with this project and now we hope with the restoration we will be able to once again rebuild a community in Lebanon,” Isaac Arazi, 67, said June 24 in an interview in Beirut.

The Maghen Abraham Synagogue in Wadi Abou Jmil, the city’s historic Jewish quarter, opened in 1926 and once hosted a thriving community that has been eroded by decades of civil war. Prospects for stability have improved since elections a year ago were won by the pro-Western coalition of Saad Hariri, which formed a national unity government with rival Hezbollah and the Muslim group’s Christian allies.

The synagogue’s restoration has so far cost $700,000 and the final bill is expected to reach $1.2 million, Arazi said. Most of the financing has come from Lebanese Jews outside the country, while Christians and Muslims have also contributed.

About 100 Jews now live permanently in Lebanon, while there are some 1,900 living abroad who still own property in the country and visit regularly, according to Arazi, who owns a food-machinery business. In the mid-1960s, there were as many as 22,000 Lebanese Jews, he said.

Haven for Refugees

Historically, Lebanon was a haven for Jews, some of whom descended from people who fled the Spanish inquisition. The country later served a similar role for refugees from Nazi Germany. Lebanon had “no history of anti-Jewish tensions,” and was the only Arab country whose population of Jews increased after Israel’s creation in 1948, said Kirsten Schulze, a lecturer at the London School of Economics and author of “The Jews of Lebanon.”

Jews began to flee Lebanon, emigrating to Europe as well as North and South America, after sectarian fighting broke out in the 1970s among the nation’s Christian, Muslim and Druze factions. The last religious service at Maghen Abraham was held around the middle of that decade.

When it opens again early next year, the synagogue will have seating for 600 men and 300 women. Religious artifacts such as the Torah and other books and items required for services will be brought from Turkey and Syria, and the synagogue will seek to appoint a rabbi familiar with Middle Eastern and North African Sephardic Jewish rituals from the region, possibly from Yemen, Egypt or Turkey, Arazi said.

The community has also begun to repair the Jewish cemetery in Beirut, where about 4,500 Jews are buried, at a cost of about $200,000, and there are also plans to restore defunct synagogues elsewhere in the country, including one in Bhamdoun, a town 23 kilometers (14 miles) from the capital.

In an interview in 2008, Fouad Siniora, prime minister at the time, said the synagogue “is a religious place of worship and its restoration is welcome.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut at mderhally@bloomberg.net.

Reuters Pictures

August 3rd

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Beautiful!!! But.....Whats up with the swirlies?

^^ maybe a Jew can explain? :dunno:

If we can find a Lebanese one... that is. This is the saddest part of the forum.. no Leb Jews.

^^ That is true.. And yet so many other Lebanese forums do have Leb jews.
I want to invite one to this forum because it would be cool to have their perspective on stuff... but I also dont want to come off as some creep that looks as though he is collecting Lebanese jews lol

The interior is looking sooo beautiful now!

I think its alot of Faux finishes...Like look under the arches its not marble but fake

http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/7.123.1272521992!/image/2358286532.gif_gen/derivatives/default/2358286532.gif

Beirut synagogue restored to glory, despite tensions with Israel
The main Jewish prayer house in the Lebanese capital has been renovated beautifully, demonstrating tolerance for places of worship, although there is still residual anger in the country over its conflict with Israel.

The renovation of the Maghen Abraham Synagogue in downtown Beirut is nearing completion. Artists have been putting the finishing touches on the interior of the temple sanctuary, which was constructed in 1925 in the Wadi abu-Jmil district of the city, also home to the country's parliament buildings.

Renovations on the ruined synagogue in central Beirut began in 2009 after an agreement between various religious denominations and permission from the Lebanese government, planning authorities and even Hezbollah. The project received the green light after political officials and community leaders became convinced it could show that Lebanon is an open country, tolerant of many faiths including Judaism.

Renovations have included mending the gaping hole in the Moroccan-style synagogue's roof and repairing the chandeliers that once hung from it. The Torah ark and prayer benches will also be refurbished to their former states, having been seriously damaged in fighting between Muslim and Christian forces during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.

Several dozen Jews still living in Lebanon will fund the project to the tune of $200,000, along with others in the Diaspora. The project has also received a $150,000 grant from Solidere, a construction firm tasked with rebuilding central Beirut from the destruction of the civil war. The company is privately owned by the family of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister assassinated in 2005.

Lebanon's Jewish community is one of the country's 17 officially recognized faiths. Over the years the Lebanese Jewish community has dwindled due to emigration, including to Israel. The several dozen people in its remaining Jewish community hold few religious activities other than prayer services during the High Holidays. Many Jewish residents are in middle age or older, and affluent, and many live outside Lebanon, mostly in Europe.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/beirut-synagogue-restored-to-glory-despite-tensions-with-israel-1.308626

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/08/22/gps.last.look.synagogue.cnn

http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/7.123.1272521992!/image/2358286532.gif_gen/derivatives/default/2358286532.gif

Beirut synagogue restored to glory, despite tensions with Israel
The main Jewish prayer house in the Lebanese capital has been renovated beautifully, demonstrating tolerance for places of worship, although there is still residual anger in the country over its conflict with Israel.

The renovation of the Maghen Abraham Synagogue in downtown Beirut is nearing completion. Artists have been putting the finishing touches on the interior of the temple sanctuary, which was constructed in 1925 in the Wadi abu-Jmil district of the city, also home to the country's parliament buildings.

Renovations on the ruined synagogue in central Beirut began in 2009 after an agreement between various religious denominations and permission from the Lebanese government, planning authorities and even Hezbollah. The project received the green light after political officials and community leaders became convinced it could show that Lebanon is an open country, tolerant of many faiths including Judaism.

Renovations have included mending the gaping hole in the Moroccan-style synagogue's roof and repairing the chandeliers that once hung from it. The Torah ark and prayer benches will also be refurbished to their former states, having been seriously damaged in fighting between Muslim and Christian forces during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.

Several dozen Jews still living in Lebanon will fund the project to the tune of $200,000, along with others in the Diaspora. The project has also received a $150,000 grant from Solidere, a construction firm tasked with rebuilding central Beirut from the destruction of the civil war. The company is privately owned by the family of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister assassinated in 2005.

Lebanon's Jewish community is one of the country's 17 officially recognized faiths. Over the years the Lebanese Jewish community has dwindled due to emigration, including to Israel. The several dozen people in its remaining Jewish community hold few religious activities other than prayer services during the High Holidays. Many Jewish residents are in middle age or older, and affluent, and many live outside Lebanon, mostly in Europe.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/beirut-synagogue-restored-to-glory-despite-tensions-with-israel-1.308626

One (I hope) is a clear error: Solidere is not privately owned by the Hariri family.
The other is maybe less a clear error as I don't know how much damage the synagogue or that area as a whole sustained during the first years of the fighting. But it is often claimed that the area was severely shelled in 1982 by the Israelis, and that the damage to the synagogue was inflicted then. Would have been much more interesting for Haaretz to have mentioned that claim, or, unless they know the cause for sure, not to have attributed cause at all...

C.of Daylife.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/01KlgcE1Bn2ys/610x.jpg

Roman ruins
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view towards the Serail
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2X4TuPfvSPA

Courtesy of suziedance1 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/43752792@N02/)

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http://english.aljazeera.net/photo_galleries/middleeast/2010113011444886787.html

renovated ceiling, still missing chandeliers

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs062.snc6/167244_10150091750991025_52472386024_6299689_1742907_n.jpg

Also, update the synagogue is opening its doors sometime this year. I dunno from where they are getting the Torah for the place.

President of the Jewish Community Council of Beirut Isaac Arazi said that the Jewish Cemetery (in Sodeco) is going to be restored soon. At the moment, its just covered in vegetation.

http://iloubnan.info/uploads/resisable_images/other/Cimetierejuif2OK.jpg

http://iloubnan.info/uploads/resisable_images/other/Cimetierejuif1OK.jpg

Beirut synagogue restored to glory, despite tensions with Israel
The main Jewish prayer house in the Lebanese capital has been renovated beautifully, demonstrating tolerance for places of worship, although there is still residual anger in the country over its conflict with Israel.

The renovation of the Maghen Abraham Synagogue in downtown Beirut is nearing completion. Artists have been putting the finishing touches on the interior of the temple sanctuary, which was constructed in 1925 in the Wadi abu-Jmil district of the city, also home to the country's parliament buildings.

Renovations on the ruined synagogue in central Beirut began in 2009 after an agreement between various religious denominations and permission from the Lebanese government, planning authorities and even Hezbollah. The project received the green light after political officials and community leaders became convinced it could show that Lebanon is an open country, tolerant of many faiths including Judaism.

Renovations have included mending the gaping hole in the Moroccan-style synagogue's roof and repairing the chandeliers that once hung from it. The Torah ark and prayer benches will also be refurbished to their former states, having been seriously damaged in fighting between Muslim and Christian forces during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.

Several dozen Jews still living in Lebanon will fund the project to the tune of $200,000, along with others in the Diaspora. The project has also received a $150,000 grant from Solidere, a construction firm tasked with rebuilding central Beirut from the destruction of the civil war. The company is privately owned by the family of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister assassinated in 2005.

Lebanon's Jewish community is one of the country's 17 officially recognized faiths. Over the years the Lebanese Jewish community has dwindled due to emigration, including to Israel. The several dozen people in its remaining Jewish community hold few religious activities other than prayer services during the High Holidays. Many Jewish residents are in middle age or older, and affluent, and many live outside Lebanon, mostly in Europe.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/beirut-synagogue-restored-to-glory-despite-tensions-with-israel-1.308626