Hizbullah Backs Restoration of Lebanon Synagogue

 
Source: Al-Manar TV, 21-11-2008

One of Lebanon's sole remaining synagogues was set to get a restoration that has the rare blessing of all the factions in this country including Hizbullah's. But the global financial crisis has scuttled the effort for now. The synagogue was damaged during the 1975-90 civil war.

A $1 million project set to begin in November had been organized by the Lebanese Jewish community to restore the two-story ramshackle building which is now surrounded by the gleaming new skyscrapers of Beirut's downtown building boom. But potential Jewish donors overseas who were to provide the bulk of the funds said the reconstruction would have to wait because of the hard times brought on by the global financial crisis, Isaac Arazi, leader of the country's tiny Jewish community, told The Associated Press.

"I'll wait for two or three months. If no money is forthcoming, I'll launch a fundraising campaign in America and Europe for the rebuilding project," he said. In addition to Magen Abraham, there are two other synagogues in mountain towns east of Beirut which were damaged by the fighting and then closed, 65-year-old Arazi said. He pointed out that as many as 22,000 Jews lived in Lebanon in the mid-1960s. The number dropped to 15,000 at the outbreak of the civil war in 1975 and by its end, a mere 100 were left.

Hizbullah backs the restoration of the Synagogue. "We respect divine religions, including the Jewish religion," said Hussein Rahhal, Hizbullah's media chief. "The problem is with "Israel's" occupation (of Arab lands), not with the Jews."