MORE ON THE ALEPPO CODEX and the effort to recover more of its lost pages:

Search hastens for lost pages of oldest Hebrew Bible

By Jay Bushinsky (Washington Times)
December 24, 2007

JERUSALEM — A worldwide hunt is under way for missing segments of the oldest and most reliable copy of the Hebrew Bible, nearly half of which disappeared 60 years ago during anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo, Syria.

Although the effort has been under way for some time, it has accelerated in recent months.

The Ben-Zvi Institute here is spearheading the effort and hopes to enlist the help of Aleppo's now-dispersed Jewish population, some of whom live in the U.S.

"We are appealing to the older members of Aleppo's once-great Jewish community, who are scattered throughout the world, to look for the missing fragments and bring them to us," said Zvi Zameret, the institute's director.

[...]

Then there's this rather interesting statement:

Mr. Zameret said the institute has contacted Syrian Jewish communities around the world in search of lost parts of the codex.

"We do not intend to compromise on this," he said. "It is in our highest and ultimate interest to find as many of the missing pages as possible."

He said the request has spurred many reactions and responses.

"In one instance, we received several pages that were willed to us by the late Shmuel Sabag, who had emigrated from Syria to the USA and settled in Brooklyn," he said. "No material compensation whatsoever was requested for sending us this precious material."

My understanding was that Mr. Sabag gave them a single fragment, not several pages (see here). I wonder if the reporter got this wrong, or if there's more to the story.

More background here and here.

UPDATE (4 January 2008): More here.