Ancient synagogue damaged but not destroyed

JOBAR SYNAGOGUE:

Ancient Syrian synagogue hit by looting, shelling

BEIRUT | Mon Apr 1, 2013 6:10pm BST

(Reuters) - Theft and shelling have damaged a 2,000 year-old synagogue in Damascus, one of the oldest in the world, Syrian government and opposition activist sources said on Monday.

Syria's historic monuments have increasingly become a casualty of the civil war has killed more than 70,000 people. Parts of Aleppo's medieval stone-vaulted souk have been reduced to rubble, and many ancient markets, mosques and churches across the country are threatened with destruction.

The damage has so far been light at the Jobar Synagogue, built in honour of the biblical prophet Elijah, according to Mamoun Abdulkarim, the head of Syria's antiquities department.

"Local community officials say the place's sanctity has been violated and there were thefts but I cannot verify the nature of the thefts without investigation," Abdulkarim told Reuters by telephone.

"Four months earlier they (Jewish authorities) tried to go in and were prevented from entering due to the presence of fighters."

He said that authorities believed looters have mostly stolen gold chandeliers and icons dating back 70 to 100 years.

But Abdulkarim said he doubted that thousands of priceless manuscripts had been stolen from the synagogue as most of them, including Torahs in filigreed silver cases, had already been moved to the synagogue inside Damascus's Old City, a UNESCO world heritage site.

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A similar report comes from the AP: Historic synagogue in Damascus damaged, looted. It sounds as though JTA got ahead of itself when it reported yesterday that the synagogue was destroyed. So the current status is that the news is bad, but not nearly as bad as was initially reported. I hope the current report is the one that is accurate.