[LCM Articles] Lebanon Jews to rebuild Beirut's Maghen Abraham Synagogue

[zsaab@MIT.EDU]

Lebanon Jews to rebuild Beirut's Maghen Abraham Synagogue
http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2008/09/_lebanon_jews_t.php

Beirut- In 1983, Isaac Arazi and his wife were caught in sectarian fighting
during Lebanon's 15-year civil war. A Shiite Muslim militiaman helped the
couple escape.

Arazi, a leader of Lebanon's tiny Jewish community, sees the incident as a
lesson in the Arab country's tradition of tolerance. Now he is trying to make
use of that tradition, along with the global diaspora of Lebanese Jews, in a
drive to rebuild Beirut's only synagogue, damaged during the war.

``Those who don't have a past don't have a future,'' Arazi said to explain his
push to rebuild the synagogue.

Beirut's Maghen Abraham Synagogue opened in 1926 in Wadi Abou Jmil, the city's
Jewish quarter, located on the edge of west Beirut near the Grand Serai palace,
where the government meets, and within walking distance of parliament.

Lebanon then was something of a haven for Jews, some of whom were the
descendants of those who had fled the Spanish inquisition; it later served a
similar role for refugees from Nazi Germany. With ``no history of anti-Jewish
tensions,'' it was the only Arab country whose Jewish population rose after
Israel's creation in 1948, according to Kirsten Schulze, a lecturer at the
London School of Economics and author of ``The Jews of Lebanon.''

By the mid-1960s, there were as many as 22,000 Lebanese Jews, said Arazi, 65. In
addition to heading the Jewish Community Council he owns a food-machinery
business with 1,000 customers.

All Together

``Christians, Muslims and Jews were all living together when I was growing up,''
said Liza Srour, 57. ``Whenever there was a war with Israel, or tension, the
government used to provide protection for us.''

That changed with the nation's 1975-1990 civil war, as Jews fled the violence
triggered by rivalries among the nation's Christian, Muslim and Druze factions
and emigrated to Europe, North and South America.

Now, Arazi said, only 100 Jews live permanently in the country, while another
1,900 go back and forth or have intermarried into other religions. Srour is the
only Jew still residing in Wadi Abou Jmil.

In 1982, according to an Associated Press report at the time, Israeli shells
tore through roof of Maghen Abraham as the Jewish state invaded southern
Lebanon in an effort to crush Palestinian guerrillas. The synagogue has been
closed ever since, its brittle entrance gate chained and padlocked. Plaster and
rubble are scattered on the floor.

Political Calm

Arazi figures it will cost about $1 million to restore the synagogue. Making the
effort possible is the end of an 18-month crisis between Lebanon's political
factions, the blessing of the Lebanese government, financial support from a
downtown reconstruction project and acquiescence from the Shiite Hezbollah
movement that fought a month-long war against Israel in 2006.

He so far has raised about $40,000 for the project, but has promises of more.
Ten percent of the estimated cost will come from Solidere SAL, a company
founded in 1994 by then-Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri -- later assassinated in a
bombing supporters blame on Syria -- to rebuild the capital's downtown.

The company has given $150,000 to each of 14 religious organizations that are
restoring places of worship in Lebanon -- about $2.1 million in all. ``We help
all the communities,'' said Solidere chairman Nasser Chammaa.

The Safra family, whose Safra Group includes Brazil's Banco Safra SA and Safra
National Bank of New York and which was based in Lebanon in the 1940s as part
of the Jewish community, has agreed to help fund the project once work begins,
Arazi said.

Financial Help

Joseph R. Safra, nephew of Republic National Bank of New York founder Edmond
Safra, said: ``We do not comment on private matters.'' Joseph Safra heads
Arview Holdings, Inc., a New York financial-consulting and advisory firm.

Two banks in Switzerland whose founders have Lebanese- Jewish roots also agreed
to provide financing, Arazi said. One of the banks has pledged $100,000 toward
the synagogue's restoration. Arazi declined to name the banks.

Even the warring factions in Lebanon's government have blessed the project.
``This is a religious place of worship and its restoration is welcome,'' Prime
Minister Fouad Siniora, 65, said in an interview. Hussain Rahal, a spokesman
for Hezbollah, said his group -- which refuses to recognize Israel's right to
exist, and which the West considers a terrorist organization -- also supports
the restoration of Maghen Abraham.

``We respect the Jewish religion just like we do Christianity,'' he said. ``The
Jews have always lived among us. We have an issue with Israel's occupation of
land.''

Arazi said work on the restoration is to begin next month. Meanwhile, his
council is already working on plans for its next project: restoring Beirut's
Jewish cemetery, where about 4,500 people are buried.

Walking among the weeds overgrowing the cemetery's tombstones, Arazi said: ``I
remember my father when I come here.''