History of the Jews in Lebanon - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The history of the Jews in Lebanon deals with the presence of Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

in Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, which stretches back to Biblical times.

Jews in Lebanon today

Lebanese Jews are traditionally a Mizrahi community living mostly in and around Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

. Almost all of the community has emigrated to Israel

Aliyah

Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, USA, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

There are only between 20 and 40 Jews now living in the country. Emigration was not great even after Lebanon's first civil war in 1958, as Lebanese Jews were tightly integrated into society and felt no need to abandon their homeland. But emigration increased after Lebanon's 1975 civil war, and increased further after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982.

Early history

In pre-Biblical times, the region between Gaza and Anatolia (essentially modern day Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Syria ) was a single cultural unit. Despite the lack of any central political authority, the region shared a common language family (Northwest Semitic languages

Northwest Semitic languages

The Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic language family. The languages of this group are spoken by approximately eight million people today. The group is generally divided into three branches: Ugaritic , Canaanite and Aramaic...

, including Phoenician, Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic), religion and way of life. This included some of the world's first permanent settlements arranged around early agricultural communities and independent city states, many of which maintained a wide network of trade relations throughout the Mediterranean and beyond.

By the time of the Israelite Kingdoms, Lebanon and Israel (including present-day Jordan) could be recognized as distinct entities, although they remained close allies, experiencing the same fates with changing regional developments. During this period, parts of modern Lebanon were under the control of Jerusalem, and Jews lived as far north as Baal-Hermon on the slopes of Mount Hermon

Mount Hermon

Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top there is “Hermon Hotel”, in the buffer zone between Syria and Israeli-occupied...

(sometimes identified with Hasbaya, which once again became an important center of Jewish life in the first half of the 20th century ).

According to the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...

, the territory of the Israelite

Israelite

According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...

tribes of Asher

Tribe of Asher

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Asher! was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...

and Naphtali

Tribe of Naphtali

The Tribe of Naphtali was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...

extended into present-day Lebanon as far as Sidon

Sidon

Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...

in the north. These tribes formed part of the united Kingdom of Israel

Kingdom of Israel

The Kingdom of Israel was, according to the Bible, one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It was thought to exist roughly from the 930s BCE until about the 720s BCE, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...

and then the northern kingdom of the same name. However, Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

captured Naphtali in c. 732 BCE and deported its population, a fate which befell the rest of the northern kingdom in c. 723 BCE. The New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

also refers to Jesus's sojourn around Mount Hermon which appears to take for granted Jewish presence in this locality. Some people also add the locality of Qana (near Tyre in Lebanon) but the Bible clearly avoids confusion by referring to it as "Qana of Galilee".

Following the Bar Kokhba Revolt against Rome in c. 132 CE, several Jewish communities were established in Lebanon. Caliph Muawiya (642–680) established a Jewish community in Tripoli, Lebanon

Tripoli, Lebanon

Tripoli is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in Lebanon. Situated 85 km north of the capital Beirut, Tripoli is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District. Geographically located on the east of the Mediterranean, the city's history dates back...

. Another was founded in 922 in Sidon. The Jewish Academy was established in Tyre in 1071. In the 19th century, hostility between the Druze and Maronites communities led many Jews to leave al-Qamar

Al-Qamar

Surat Al-Qamar is the 54th sura of the Quran with 55 ayat. Some verses refer to the Splitting of the moon. "Qamar" , meaning "'Moon" in Arabic, is also a common name among Muslims.-Arabic Text:...

, with most moving to Hasbaya

Hasbaya

Hasbeya or Hasbeiya is a town in Lebanon, situated about 36 miles to the west of Damascus, at the foot of Mount Hermon, overlooking a deep amphitheatre from which a brook flows to the Hasbani. In 1911, the population was about 5000....

by the end of the century.

Early 20th century

In 1911, Jews from Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

moved to Beirut, expanding the community there with additional more than 5,000 members. Articles 9 and 10 of the Lebanese Constitution of 1926 guaranteed the freedom of religion and provided each religious community, including the Jewish community, the right to mange its own civil matters, including education, and thus the Jewish community was constitutionally protected, a fact that did not apply to other Jewish communities in the region. The Jewish community prospered under the French mandate

French Mandate of Lebanon

The state of Greater Lebanon, the predecessor of modern Lebanon, was created in 1920 as part of the French scheme of dividing the French Mandate of Syria into six states....

and Greater Lebanon, exerting considerable influence throughout Lebanon and beyond. They allied themselves with Pierre Gemayel

Pierre Gemayel

Sheikh Pierre Gemayel , was a Lebanese political leader...

's Phalangist Party (a right wing, Maronite group modelled after similar movements in Italy and Germany, and Franco's Phalangist movement in Spain.) and played an instrumental role in the establishment of Lebanon as an independent state.

During the Greater Lebanon period, two Jewish newspapers were founded, the Arabic language

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

Al-Alam al-Israili (the Israelite World) and the French Le Commerce du Levant, an economic periodical which still publishes (though it is now owned by non-Jews).

The Jewish community of Beirut evolved in three distinct phases. Until 1908, the Jewish population in Beirut grew by migration from the Syrian interior and from other Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

cities like Izmir, Salonica, Istanbul, and Baghdad. Commercial growth in the thriving port-city, consular protection, and relative safety and stability in Beirut all accounted for the Jewish migration. Thus, from a few hundred at the beginning of the 19th century, the Jewish community grew to 2,500 by the end of the century, and to 3,500 by the First World War. While the number of Jews grew considerably, the community remained largely unorganized. During this period, the community lacked some of the fundamental institutions such as communal statutes, elected council, welfare and taxation mechanisms. In this period, the most organized and well-known Jewish institution in the city was probably the private Tiferet Israel (The Glory of Israel) boarding-school founded by Zaki Cohen in 1874. The school attracted Jewish students from prosperous families like Shloush (Jaffa), Moyal (Jaffa), and Sassoon (Baghdad). Its founder, influenced by the Ottoman reforms and by local cultural trends, aspired to create a modern yet Jewish school. It offered both secular and strictly Jewish subjects as well as seven languages. It also offered commercial subjects. The school was closed at the beginning of the 20th century due to financial hardships.

The Young Turk Revolution

Young Turk Revolution

The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...

(1908) sparked the organization process. Within six years, the Beirut community created a general assembly, an elected twelve-member council, drafted communal statutes, appointed a chief rabbi, and appointed committees to administer taxation and education. The process involved tension and even conflicts within the community, but eventually, the community council established its rule and authority in the community. The chief rabbi received his salary from the community and was de facto under the council's authority.

With the establishment of Greater Lebanon (1920), the Jewish community of Beirut became part of a new political entity. The French mandate rulers adopted local political traditions of power-sharing and recognized the autonomy of the various religious communities. Thus, the Jewish community was one of Lebanon's sixteen communities and enjoyed a large measure of autonomy, more or less along the lines of the Ottoman millet system. During the third phase of its development, the community founded two major institutions: the Magen-Abraham Synagogue (1926), and the renewed Talmud-Torah Selim Tarrab community school (1927). The community also maintained welfare services like the Biqur-Holim, Ozer-Dalim, and Mattan-Basseter societies. The funding for all these institutions came from contributions of able community members, who contributed in Jewish holidays and celebrations, through subscription of prominent members, fund-raising events and lotteries the community organized. In fact, the community was financially independent and did not rely on European Jewish philanthropy.

The development of the Jewish yishuv in Palestine influenced the Jewish leadership, who usually showed sympathy and active support for Zionism. Interestingly, the Jewish leadership in Beirut during this time aligned itself ideologically with the American-Based B'nai B'rith organization through its local proxy (Arzei Ha-Levanon Lodge) which was stuffed by local community leaders. The B'nai B'rith lodge in Beirut attracted the social and economic elite. It embarked on community progress and revival through social activism, Jewish solidarity, and philanthropic values. Unlike the Alliance, who mainly aspired to empower the Jewish individual through modern education, the B'nai B'rith strove the empower both the individual and the community as a whole. In Beirut, unlike other Jewish communities, most of the community council members were also B'nai B'rith members, hence there existed an overlap between the council and the lodge. Of course, the Alliance school was popular in the community as it focused on French and prepared students for higher education. Since there was no Jewish high school in Beirut, many Jewish students attended foreign (Christian) schools, either secular or religious. The Jewish community was one of the smaller communities in the country, and hence it was not entitled for representation in the Parliament. Being excluded from Lebanese political life, the Jewish leadership aspired to improve the community's public standing by consolidating and improving the community as a whole. Overall, the French mandate period was characterized by growth, development, and stability.

Surnames

Abadie
Abboud or Aboud
Abulafia
Ades
Ajami
Akkad
Alalou
Albamnes
Alfieh
Alfandari
Almohsen
AlTabbakh
Alwan
Amranian
Antaki
Antebi
Anzarouth
Araman
Arazi
Argalgi
Aramouth
Askenazi
Attar
Attieh
El-Azar
Azouri
Al-Baghdadi

Bahbout
Baleciano
Baruch
Bassal
Bassoul
Battat
Bazbaz
Behar
Benisti
Blanco
Btesh
Carrio
Cattan or Kattan
Cazes
Chacho
Chaki
Chalhon
Cham’a
Chamma
Chammah
Chams
Chattah
Chayo
Chekoury
Choua
Cohen

Chreim
D'Jamus
Dabbah
Dahan
Dana
Dayan
Darwiche
Dichy
Diwan
Douek
Doumani
Durzieh
Elia
Elbaz
Elmaleh
Eskenazi
Esses or Assis
Fakes
Faham
Farha
Farah
Farhi
Farran
Fattal
Finan
Fnounou
Gabbay

Grego
Gindi
Haber; Habre
Haddad
Hadid
Hakim
Al-Halabi
Hallak
Hamdani
Hara
Hanono
Harari
Hasbani
Hassan
Hassan (surname)
Hassan Hassan Hassan (also spelled Hasan, Hassen, Hasson, Hassin, Hassine, Hacen, Hasen, Hasin, Hass, Hassa, Hasa, Haas, Cassin, Chassan, Chasan, Chasson, Chason, Khassan, Khasan, Cassan, Casan, Hasso, Hassanein, Hasnen, Hassani, Hasani,...
Hassoun
Hazzan
Hazzan
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...

or Hazan
Hafez
Helouani
Jamousi
Jajati
Jammali
Juda or Judi
Kachi
Kalache
Kameo or Cameo

Kamhine
Kamkhaji
Kassar
Kattan or Cattan
Khafif
Kbabieh
Khabbaz
Khaski
Khayat
Khamri
Kishk
Kishk-Cohen
Kredi
Laham
Liniado
Lati
Laoui or Lawi
Lisbona
Lizmi
Mhanna
El-Mann
Masri
Mansour
Mawas

Mizrahi
Moghrabi
Moshe
Mouaddeb
Moussalli
Moze or Moza
Mozahem
Nahmoub
Najjar
Nahon
Nassim
Nmer
Nigri
Obersi
Ozon
Pariente
Picciotto
Pinto
Rabih
Rahme
Reuben
Romano
Saad;
Sabra
Sacal or Sakkal
Safadi
Safra
Safra
Safra may refer to:*People:**Edmond J. Safra***Lily Safra, chairman of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation**Jacob Safra**Jacqui Safra**Joseph Safra**Safra A...
Sakka or Saka

Salem
Sankari
Sananes
Saradar
Sassoun
Sayegh
Srougo
Srour
Stambouli
Sutton
Shamah
Shams
Shattah
Shrem or Chrem
Solomon
Soued
Tabbakh
Tarrab
Tarazi
Tawil
Tayar
Totah
Toubiana

Turkieh
Uzun or Ozon
Yedid
Zakaria
Zakki
Zaafarani
Zaroukh
Zeitouni

Jewish Community Presidents

The Jewish Community Presidents include:

Ezra Anzarouth Prior to 1910
Joseph. D. Farhi 1910–1924
Joseph Dichy Bey 1925–1927
Joseph D. Farhi 1928–1930
Selim Harari 1931–1934
Joseph D. Farhi 1935–1938
Deab Saadia & Joseph Dichy Bey- 1939–1950
Joseph Attiyeh 1950–1976
Isaac Sasson
Isaac Sasson
Isaac Sasson was a leader of the Lebanese Jewish community, who was taken at gunpoint March 31, 1985, on his way from the Beirut International Airport, after a trip to Abu Dhabi.Earlier, kidnappers had also seized Eli Hallak, 60-year-old physician; Haim Cohen, a 39-year-old Iranian Jew; Isaac...

1977–1985
Raoul Mizrahi 1985
Joseph Mizrahi 1986
Issac Arazi 2005 – present

Chief rabbis

Between the years of 1799 and 1978, a series of Chief Rabbis led the Lebanese Jewish community.

Rabbi Moïse Yedid-Levy 1799-1829
Rabbi Ralph Alfandari
Rabbi Youssef el Mann
Rabbi Aharoun Yedid-Levy
Rabbi Zaki Cohen
Zaki Cohen
Zaki Cohen born in 1829 in Aleppo in the Ottoman Empire, was a Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1875 he founded Beirut first Jewish school at the time, where he served as Director. The school named after him continued to operate until 1899, when the school was superseded...

1875
Rabbi Menaché Ezra Sutton
Rabbi Jacob Bukai
Rabbi Haïm Dana
Rabbi Moïse Yedid-Levy
Rabbi Nassim Afandi Danon 1908–1909
Rabbi Jacob Tarrab 1910–1921
Rabbi Salomon Tagger 1921–1923
Rabbi Shabtai Bahbout 1924–1950
Rabbi Benzion Lichtman 1932–1959
Rabbi Jacob Attiyeh 1949–1966
Rabbi Yakoub Chreim 1960–1978

External links

The official site of the Lebanese Jewish Community Council
Jewish Lebanese community in Canada
Lebanon Jews Tap Diaspora to Rebuild Beirut's Shelled Synagogue By Massoud A. Derhally of Bloomberg News-Sept. 18, 2008
Restoration of Beirut’s Synagogue Begins With Help of Diaspora By Massoud A. Derhally of Bloomberg News-Aug. 5, 2009
Lament Lebanon's lost tribe, The Daily Star (Lebanon).
Time Blog:The Jews of Lebanon
Jewish Virtual Library: The Jews of Lebanon
Review of the book, "The Jews of Lebanon" by Kirsten E. Schulze
A Biobliogrpahy on Lebanese Jewry (In Hebrew and English)
Lebanon – Jews Library of Congress Country Studies
Library of Congress Country Studies
The Country Studies are works published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress , freely available for use by researchers. No copyright is claimed on them; therefore, they have been dedicated to the public domain and can be copied freely. Note that not all the pictures used...
Beirut's Jewish community faces slow decline AFP
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...

Jul 20, 2008

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