The Joba Synagogue in Damascus had been a pilgrimage site since before Talmudic times.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
As a result of the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria, the handful of Jews left in the country can now visit again an ancient synagogue that had been off-limits since the civil war began thirteen years ago.
Bakhour Chamntoub, 74, is the leader of the nine-member Jewish community, all that is left of the tens of thousands who lived in Syria prior to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 but dwindled rapidly afterwards due to the Arab regime’s persecution.
He himself never had to deal with antisemitic discrimination he told AP, although he had spoken openly of being a Jew as he was proud of it.
He told the news agency that prior to the outbreak of the war in 2011, he and his mostly elderly coreligionists would often go to the Joba Synagogue in the Damascus suburb of that name, which was originally built “720 years before Christ,” as a marble slab in Arabic attested at its gate, making it one of the oldest Jewish houses of worship in the world.
“This synagogue means a lot to us,” he said, describing how beautiful it had been, with marble columns, chandeliers, tapestries and carpets.
Now, it is mostly rubble, with a few walls left standing but all rooms inside looted of their lovely trappings.
There was fierce fighting in this area during the war. According to a 2013 report by Diarna.org, the Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life, the house of worship was mostly reduced to rubble that year.
The neighborhood was held by the rebels until 2018, when regime forces took it back, but visits to the suburb were tightly constrained, and the Jewish community had no access to the synagogue until now.
Although Jihadist by philosophy, the new rulers of Syria are trying to portray themselves as moderates to the Western world and have declared that they would protect all the minorities in their country and allow freedom of religion.
Chamntoub said that Jews from all over the world have been calling him to say they would like to help him rebuild the synagogue.
Jews know this house of worship as the Eliyahu Hanavi (Elijah the Prophet) Synagogue.
The legends state that it was built on the spot that Elijah anointed Elisha as his successor, in the days of the Kingdom of Israel whose borders stretched to part of what is today’s Syria.
The prophet hid in a cave from King Ahab, who wanted to kill him for his opposition to his idolatrous ways, and the synagogue was allegedly constructed on top of the cave.
According to Diarna, “A marble headstone” which used to stand in the main sanctuary, contained “inscriptions in Hebrew, Arabic, and French” declaring this to be true.
Its report cited historical records claiming that Roman King Titus, who destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, also destroyed the Eliyahu Hanavi shul. It was rebuilt in the first century, and is referenced in the Babylonian Talmud, which was compiled around the year 500.
It was destroyed again in the 1500s, and was rebuilt once again, always serving as a pilgrimage site due to its link to the famed prophet.