Lebanon Synagogue Reopens After $1M Spruce Up
Image by wikimedia
Beirut’s only synagogue is set to reopen following a five-year renovation.
The Magen Avraham synagogue, located in the former Jewish quarter of the city, was opened in 1926 but partially destroyed at the beginning of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1975, according to the Times of Israel, via an Arabic report in London’s A-Sharq al-Awsat.
The Lebanese Jewish community now has 100 members, and Isaac Arazi, the community’s leader, says Jews, Christians and Muslims all donated toward the project, estimated to cost $1 million. Renovation began in 2009.
Arazi hopes the synagogue will rejuvenate Jewish life in Lebanon. He said he is proud to be Lebanese, and conveyed antipathy toward Zionism and Israel.
“You can rest assured that if I was a Zionist-Israeli, I would not stay in Lebanon for a second,” said Arazi, according to Times of Israel. The Lebanese Jewish community “has no connection to those who wanted to give live in Palestine and kill innocent people. We identify as Lebanese 100%.”
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/05/19/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/beirut-synagogue-to-reopen#ixzz329oLpoun
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
