Article

2023-12-28 -Obits-

Leader of Lebanon’s tiny Jewish community dies

[IsraelTimes] The former president of Leb
Leb

...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
’s tiny Jewish community, who had pushed for the rehabilitation of Beirut’s abandoned synagogue, has died, his family and the community’s lawyer tell AFP.

Isaac Arazi, 80, who headed the Lebanese Jewish Community Council, "died on Tuesday and was buried the same day," lawyer Bassem el-Hout says.

Jews have been living in Lebanon for 2,000 years but their numbers shrank from some 22,000 before the 1975-1990 civil war to around 30 today, according to Hout.

They left steadily for the United States, Brazil and Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
after the State of Israel was established in 1948, "but they are still attached to Lebanon and many come back regularly," Hout adds.

Arazi’s family published an obituary in a Lebanese newspaper describing him as the driving force behind the reconstruction of the Magen Abraham Synagogue in central Beirut, one of the largest and most ornate in the Arab world.

The Jewish council that Arazi headed had helped fund the project through donations.

In 2009, Arazi told AFP he was "ecstatic" about renovating the synagogue, which opened to worshipers in 1926, and expressed hope that the endeavor would "ensure that the community grows once again."

The synagogue’s last rabbi fled the country in 1977 as Lebanese Jews left in droves, particularly after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, where the words "Jews" and "Israelis" are often synonymous.

A handful of buildings that were once synagogues still stand in Lebanon, including one in the northern city of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
and another in the southern city of Sidon.

Posted by trailing wife 2023-12-28 00:00|| || Front Page|| [22 views ] Top

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