One of the oldest, most prevalent and insidious forms of prejudice, antisemitism has inspired some of the most heinous events in human history, and impacted millions of Jews worldwide. In Lebanon, anti-Jewish sentiments began stirring with the rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism, and soon after the establishment of the state of Israel and the dispersion and dispossession of the Palestinian people in 1948. Religious tolerance and diversity were the fist casualties of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Once a thriving community with 16 synagogues in Beirut alone, Lebanese Jews have now become one of the country’s smallest minority groups, with an estimated population of 60 people, according to Arutz Sheva. The Jewish exodus from Lebanon started following the Palestine war in the late 1940s, but by the end of the Lebanese Civil War, which lasted from 1975 to 1990, the community had virtually no presence in the country due to mass emigration. But Lebanon’s Jewish heritage lives on in the country’s last standing synagogue, which has recently been renovated and restored. Built in 1925, the Maghen Abraham Synagogue has been one of Lebanon’s most iconic Jewish landmarks for almost a century….
