Jewish artefacts disappear from Damascus in fog of Syria war
Al Assad regime has accused Israel of stealing ancient items with the help of Turkey
Jewish artefacts, including ancient parchment Torahs from one of the world’s oldest synagogues, have gone missing from the Syrian capital amid the tumult of ongoing civil war, with some precious items reportedly surfacing abroad.
Activists say the artefacts, moved from the now-destroyed Jobar Synagogue in Damascus’ eastern Ghouta suburb when it was taken by rebels, were allegedly put into safekeeping to avoid theft and damage in 2013, but twice since then local officials have discovered some are missing.
The main missing cache, they say, contained Torahs written on gazelle leather as well as tapestries and chandeliers, and was given to a militia by a local council for safekeeping when rebels surrendered the neighbourhood to government forces earlier this year. That group, the Islamist-inspired Failaq Al Rahman brigade, later said that it was not in possession of the items. Another set of objects appears to have been stolen by a Syrian guardian entrusted by the local council to hide the items in his home. The man, who officials involved declined to name, disappeared with the artefacts in 2014 before some allegedly resurfaced in Turkey.
Activists say antiquities theft is rife in Syria. “Some of the items that went missing in 2014 and this year have started surfacing now in Turkey,” said an activist who lived near the synagogue his whole life until fleeing the area in March after a crushing government offensive.
The man, who goes by the name of Hassan Al Dimashqi, said the ensuing government air strikes and bombardment destroyed most of the synagogue and the surrounding neighbourhood, although some of the building’s pillars remain standing.
Al Dimashqi said that for months after rebels seized the neighbourhood in 2013, the synagogue was protected by the main local force in Jobar, known at the time as the Haroun Al Rashid Brigade.
Some local officials say the man who disappeared in 2014 reached Europe and the artefacts he took ended up in Israel, according to Al Dimashqi, although his ultimate fate and that of the antiquities remain unknown.
The whereabouts of the items entrusted with Failaq Al Rahman have not been verified, although Al Dimashqi and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, say some of the pieces, including carpets, chandeliers and historical scripts, have surfaced in Turkey.
Turkish state media reported in May that authorities had detained five people who were trying to sell two old Torahs for 8 million Turkish liras ($1.7 million, Dh6.23 million).
Syria has accused Israel, with whom it has been in a state of war for 70 years, of stealing the artefacts with the help of Turkey, a more recent enemy.
Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Bashar Al Ja’afari, publicised the accusation with a letter in March, saying the two countries’ intelligence services worked with the rebels to smuggle them to Istanbul.