Thursday, June 12, 2014

More on the destroyed Jobar Synagogue

ADAM BLITZ: Damascus Days: Jobar’s beleaguered synagogue (Times of Israel). Lots of background information. Excerpt:
For now, questions remain as to the synagogue’s last days and whether the artefacts will endure or whether they will reach the illegal antiquities market. Equally for the more religiously inclined, there is the question of commemoration. Elijah is revered in all three Abrahamic faiths. The Catholic Church (the Carmelite order) celebrates a feast day in July after the prophet. How, now, should we respond to the desecration of a site associated with Elijah and the destruction of a synagogue where memory and catastrophe are woven together? Be it with fast, Damascene piyyutim (liturgical poetry) or scientific endeavours, Jobar must not be forgotten.
It seems there is no further information on the current state of the synagogue beyond the already-published photographs of its ruins.

Background here and links.