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Sunday, March 25, 2018

Torah manuscripts taken from the Jobar Synagogue?

UPDATE: Syria accuses Israel of stealing artifacts from ancient synagogue. Damascus' ambassador to the UN alleges 'terrorist groups cooperated with the Turkish and Israeli intelligence services to loot artifacts and manuscripts from the ancient synagogue'; Israeli ambassador dismisses charges as 'another attempt by Syrian regime to draw attention away from the horrible atrocities it commits.' (Itamar Eichner, Ynet News).
Syria filed an official complaint to the United Nations this week accusing Israel of smuggling Torah books and precious artifacts from the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Damascus in a secret operation with Turkey.

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This article basically covers the same ground as the Jerusalem Post article from last week, noted here. But it specifies that the manuscripts supposedly recovered from the Jobar Synagogue included Torahs. I would have guessed that, but this the first time I've seen it said. And there's also this:
Theft and shelling during the Syrian civil war have damaged the ancient synagogue, one of the oldest in the world. There are conflicting reports about the fate of the artifacts in the synagogue. One report claims the rare Torah books were smuggled out of the synagogue by rebels, but were seized by the Syrian army.
Who knows what the basis is for that report or whether it is credible. But there you have it.

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