Synagogue becomes home for destitute
Syrian who has made building his home in Lebanon for 25 years says he will leave if asked
In an alleyway in the Old City of Lebanon’s southern city of Sidon, a rundown synagogue that once served a vibrant Jewish community now houses destitute Syrian and Palestinian families.
There are only a handful of signs that the building — abandoned as Lebanon’s Jews fled the country in the last decades — was once a house of worship.
The sun shining on the blue paint peeling from its walls enters through a skylight adorned with wrought-iron stars of David.
The remains of a large mural in red and gold decorate the interior, though its Hebrew letters have been painted over.
For decades the building in the heart of Sidon’s Jewish quarter was central to the city’s Jewish community, which dated to the Roman era.
But for the last 25 years, Syrian Jihad Al Mohammad has known it simply as home.
“In 1990, the place abandoned and infested rats,” he said. “I cleaned and I moved in.”
Mohammad, who moved to Lebanon for work, lives in the building with his six children, wife and mother — one of five Palestinian and Syrian families who have made their homes in the unlikely setting.
Built in 1850, the synagogue was with it up still technically belongs to the Jewish community, but has played host to numerous other residents since the 1982 departure of Sidon’s last Jewish family, the Levys.
During Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, Israeli soldiers took up positions in the synagogue, and later Syrian intelligence forces set up inside the building.
“It was a house of worship, but for me it’s just a house like any other. I’m just a Mohammad said.
The Syrian’s home is set up in the part of the synagogue where men once prayed and includes a kitchen, a small bathroom, two bedrooms and a living room with a television.
While little remains of the synagogue’s former life, its past has not been forgotten.
“I’ve received visitors from Canada, France and Brazil who showed me photos of their [Jewish Lebanese] ancestors from Sidon,” said Mohammad.
In 2012, two rabbis from Neturei Karta — a group of antiZionist Jews who believe the Israeli regime should not exist — prayed in the synagogue, much to the surprise of its residents.
It was the first prayer held in the building for 40 years, and came as part of a tour that also included a visit to the nearby tomb of Zebulon, one of the sons of the biblical patriarch Jacob.
For now, there is little chance the synagogue will return to its former purpose, though Mohammad said he would leave if asked.
“But I am attached place,” he said.
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