levantine-viper: The Maghen-Abraham Synagogue in Beirut The Maghen-Abraham Synagogue in Beirut was b
levantine-viper: The Maghen-Abraham Synagogue in Beirut The Maghen-Abraham Synagogue in Beirut was built in 1925. It served as a house of worship, a venue for lectures, weddings, and other festivities. It is a fairly young synagogue, when compared to Lebanon’s other two main synagogues, in Deir Al-Qamar (built in the 17th century) and the one in Sidon (built in 833 AD, but believed to have been built on the site of an older synagogue originally built in 66 AD). The Maghen-Abraham synagogue was destroyed by Israeli shelling during the Lebanese Civil War, and was abandoned up until 2008 when donations came in and renovations on the synagogue began. The renovation is now almost complete. The first photo is from the service held to inaugurate the synagogue by members of Lebanon’s Jewish community, in 1926. Below that is a photograph of Isaac Sasson, head of the Lebanese Jewish community back then, holding the Torah Scroll in the 1960s. The third photograph from top is of the synagogue as it appeared in the late 1920s. Below that is a photograph of PLO militants guarding the synagogue from vandals in December of 1975. The next three photos show the synagogue as it was up until 2008, and the damage caused that was caused by Israeli bombing. The last three photographs show the synagogue as it is today, with its renovation almost complete. For more information and photographs, see the synagogue’s Facebook page here, run by a member of the Lebanese Jewish community. -- source link