Jobar Synagogue
The Jobar Synagogue, also Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, was an ancient synagogue complex in the village of Jobar, now part of the metropolitan area of Damascus, Syria. It was severely damaged during the Syrian civil war in May 2014.
The synagogue was once adjoined to a complex with rooms for the rabbi and other functionaries of the community. The synagogue was built atop a cave traditionally thought to have served the prophet Elijah in hiding. The hall center was said to be the place where Elijah anointed Elisha. During the Syrian civil war, the synagogue was hit by mortar bombs, looted, and later two-thirds of the structure was totally destroyed at the end of May 2014.
Description
According to a 1959 article from The Jewish Quarterly Review using the Syrian cadastre of the Djobar district and confronting its data with a then-recent Israeli article, "its east side was long, its west side and the building wide. According to Lurya..., it would be 18.4 m long and 11.6 m wide."Benjamin II, who visited Syria in the late 1840s, described the synagogue as reminding him of "the Mosque Moawiah". "The interior is supported by 13 marble pillars, six on the right and seven on the left side, and is everywhere inlaid with marble." "There is only one portal by which to enter. Under the holy shrine... is a grotto... the descent to which is by a flight of about 20 steps. According to the Jews, the Prophet Elisha is said to have found in this grotto a place of refuge.... At the entrance of the synagogue, toward the middle of the wall to the right, is an irregularly formed stone, on which can be observed the traces of several steps. Tradition asserts that upon this step sat King Hazael when the Prophet Elisha anointed him king."
History and traditions
The synagogue had a plaque stating it was from 720 and was frequently but incorrectly perceived to be a 2,000-year-old synagogue located in the suburb of Jobar, Damascus. The earliest verifiable literary sources indicate that it is at least medieval in origin. It was built in commemoration of the biblical prophet Elijah, and has been a place of Jewish pilgrimage for many centuries. It also is the burial-place of a wonder-working sage of the sixteenth century.According to tradition, the synagogue was built atop a cave where the prophet Elijah concealed himself during persecution. The synagogue was said to have been built by Elisha and repaired during the first century by Eleazar ben Arach. Another tradition states that the biblical anointing by Elisha of King Hazael of Syria took place at the synagogue.
Though much cited as one of the earliest sources mentioning the existence of a synagogue at Jobar is from the Talmud, there is no incontrovertible evidence to support the reading that states that Rabbi Rafram bar Pappa prayed there. The challenge to this interpretation has also led to discord and controversy
Medieval period
During the medieval period, Jobar was home to a significant Jewish community. In 1210, a French Jew, Samuel ben Samson, while visiting Damascus, recounted the "beautiful synagogue situated outside the city", i.e. in Jobar. An anonymous Jewish traveller who arrived a few years after the Spanish immigration to the Levant following the 1492 Edict of Expulsion of the Jews of Spain, found 60 Jewish families living in the village of Jobar, who had a very beautiful synagogue. "I have never seen anything like it," says the author; "it is supported by thirteen columns." Shams Ibn Tulun Al Dimashki mentions that "Jobar is a Jewish village with a Muslim presence." The Chronicle of Joseph Sambari says that the Jewish community of Damascus lived chiefly in Jobar, and he knows of the synagogue of Elisha and the cave of Elijah the Tishbite.19th century onward
J. J. Benjamin described the synagogue in some detail.Documents from the early 19th century reveal properties in the village that belonged to Jewish wakf, which were leased to members of other communities. During the rioting following accusation of ritual murder against the Jews of Damascus in 1840, the mob fell upon the synagogue, pillaged it and destroyed the scrolls of the Law. In 1847, only one Jewish family was left in the village, and they took care of the synagogue. On festival days, many of Jews from Damascus assembled at the synagogue to worship and during the year, the synagogue was often visited by Jews. A few rooms in the court adjoining the synagogue were used as a retreat by some Damascus Jews for a few days during the spring and summer.
After the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews in Syria faced greater discrimination as the Syrian government enforced tighter restrictions on them. Jewish property could not be sold and those that had been abandoned were confiscated. Part of the land associated with the synagogue was taken over and converted into a school for displaced Palestinian Arabs.
The synagogue is venerated as one of Syria's holiest pilgrimage site for Jews. In the past, sick people were brought into the cavern below the synagogue and left there alone at night in the hope that Elisha's spirit would exercise a healing influence over them.