Rabbi Elie Abadie left his native Lebanon more than five decades ago and has not even visited since, but his Lebanese roots remain an integral part of his identity.
asserted
roots → leave → identity
He has 3,000 Arabic songs on his smart phone.
asserted
He → have → phone
His wife, an American, learned from his mother how to cook the Lebanese dishes he loves.
asserted
he → learn → dishes
When he speaks with his siblings, he uses a mixture of Arabic and French, like many citizens of Lebanon, a former French protectorate.
asserted
he → speak → Lebanon
The once-thriving Lebanese Jewish community has been largely forgotten in the decades since most of them left the country.
asserted
most → thrive → country
But the latest Israel-Hezbollah war — which pushed Lebanon and Israel into direct negotiations — has brought them under the spotlight again.
asserted
which → push → spotlight
Last month, Israel agreed to release five civilians detained by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon in exchange for Lebanon’s help in searching for the bodies of Lebanese Jewish leaders abducted and killed in the 1980s, during Lebanon’s civil war.
asserted
Israel → agree → war
The news stirred painful memories for Lebanese Jews like Abadie, 65, who was born and raised in Beirut to parents who moved to Lebanon from Syria.
asserted
who → stir → Syria
Abadie left his country of birth at 10 and settled for some years in Mexico.
asserted
Abadie → leave → Mexico
He is now based in Dubai, serving as the senior rabbi emeritus of the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf states.
asserted
He → base → Emirates
He remembers the Lebanon of his childhood in the 1960s in its “best days” with “beautiful beaches and rivieras, mountain resorts, skiing resorts.”
His family, like many Lebanese Jews, left as anti-Jewish sentiment rose after the 1967 war between Israel and Arab countries.
asserted
sentiment → remember → Israel
Security fears have kept him away since, but Abadie hopes to come back one day to reopen Beirut’s long-shuttered central synagogue.
asserted
Abadie → keep → synagogue
“It is unfortunately a sad reality that, since Lebanon and the Jews go back over 3,000 years from the time of King Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre and their peaceful and friendly relations, the situation in the last 50 years marked such a decline in Jewish population and life in Lebanon,” he said.
asserted
he → go → Lebanon
A once-thriving community has scattered
Nada Abdelsamad, a Lebanese journalist who wrote two books about Lebanon’s Jewish community, said the country once had between 18,000 and 20,000 Jews, many of them living in the central Beirut district of Wadi Abu Jmil, which was nicknamed the Valley of the Jews.
asserted
which → thrive → Jews
After the war surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948, many Jews fled other Arab countries like Syria and Iraq, where they faced increasing discrimination and sometimes violence, and came to Lebanon, a religiously diverse country where they felt safer.
asserted
they → surround → Lebanon
Some were then smuggled into Israel, but many stayed in Lebanon.
asserted
many → smuggle → Lebanon
That changed after the 1967 war in which Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria in addition to east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
asserted
Israel → change → Jerusalem
Lebanon was polarized between pro-West groups and others that supported Palestinian factions and Egyptian leader Gamal Abdul-Nasser.
asserted
that → polarize → factions
In 1969, Lebanon and Palestinian factions signed the Cairo Agreement, allowing the Palestinian groups to operate freely in Lebanon.
asserted
groups → sign → Lebanon
“From that day on, the Jewish community in Lebanon felt very insecure and threatened,” recalls Abadie.
asserted
Abadie → feel → Lebanon
“We started seeing marches and protests in the streets of Lebanon, chanting, ‘Death to Israel and to the Jews.’”
asserted
We → see → Jews
His family left.
asserted
family → leave → ?
The situation deteriorated further after the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975.
asserted
situation → deteriorate → 1975
With kidnappings by armed groups rampant, prominent figures from Lebanon’s dwindling Jewish community were taken by force from their homes, work or the streets.
asserted
figures → dwindle → homes
An organization calling itself the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth — believed to be linked to Hezbollah — was blamed.
asserted
organization → call → Hezbollah
Former Jewish leaders are among 17,000 missing since the civil war ended
At least seven Jews are among the 17,000 missing Lebanese people whose fate remains unknown decades after the 15-year war ended, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
uncertain
war → miss → Agency
The Jewish news agency says they include Isac Sasson, then-president of Lebanon’s Jewish community; doctor Elie Hallak, known for treating people from all religious sects at his Beirut clinic; and Salim Jamous, the Jewish community’s former secretary general.
asserted
they → say → clinic
Several others were confirmed killed and their bodies recovered at the time.
asserted
bodies → confirm → time
Lebanese officials have not announced any breakthrough in discovering the fate of the missing Jews.
asserted
officials → announce → Jews
It’s not clear what will be done with their remains if they are found.
asserted
they → ’ → remains
“In the end these are Lebanese citizens, and there is a legal process if they want to move them outside the country,” said Bassem El Hout, an attorney representing Lebanon’s Jewish community.
asserted
Hout → be → community
Asked about Israel’s interest in the disappeared Lebanese Jews, Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, said, “Israel, as the nation-state of the Jewish people, has a profound and enduring responsibility to Jews throughout the world” which “does not end at Israel’s borders, nor does it end with death.”
asserted
it → ask → death
A small community remains
Judaism is still one of Lebanon’s 18 officially-recognized religious sects, but only a handful of Jews remain.
asserted
handful → remain → Jews
El Hout said no one knows the exact number.
asserted
one → say → number
Abadie estimated that about 20 Jews are scattered across the country.
asserted
Jews → estimate → country
“Not all of them profess publicly about their Jewish religion, except for maybe to close friends and neighbors,” he said.
asserted
he → profess → friends
On voting lists of Lebanese citizens, about 4,000 Jews are still listed in Beirut and about 1,000 in the southern port city of Sidon, but many are likely living abroad.
asserted
many → list → Sidon
El Hout said there are five remaining synagogues in Lebanon, the oldest of which is in Sidon.
asserted
oldest → say → Sidon
A sign reading “the Jewish quarter” still stands in the narrow alleyways of Sidon’s old quarter, where the synagogue and some Jewish-owned homes are shuttered.
asserted
synagogue → read → quarter
Taleb Kara Ahmed, who wrote several books about the city’s Jewish community, said many left to Latin America before Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
asserted
many → write → Lebanon
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
