Remembering Beirut’s Historic Maghen Abraham Synagogue
Resumo
r/Lebanon shares a reflection on Maghen Abraham synagogue in Beirut’s former Wadi Abu Jamil Jewish Quarter. The story recalls the synagogue’s grand architecture and its place in Beirut’s Jewish heritage, highlighting a meaningful part of the city’s diverse history.
"Remembering Beirut's synagogue, a jewel of Indian and Arab Jewry "
Remembering Beirut's synagogue, a jewel of Indian and Arab Jewry
Vijay Prashad17 Mar, 2025
It seems like a century ago I stood in the graveyard in Beirut's Al-Basta neighbourhood. There was magic in the graveyard, which is in an area of shops — bassata, from which the quarter gets its name, means to "spread your merchandise on the ground".
I had come on the advice of the Irish journalist Robert Fisk (1946-2020) to see where St. John Philby (1885-1960) had been buried.
During one of our coffees at Café Younes at the upper end of Hamra, I had brought along a copy of Elizabeth Monroe’s Philby of Arabia (1973) an old-fashioned biography riddled with errors but filled with charm — a book written based on Monroe’s conversations with Philby, who had gone from socialism to the British Foreign Office to Islam and then to being the principal advisor of King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.
"You better go have a look at where Philby was buried," Fisk said. And what Fisk said, I did.
The jaunt, however, was a bit disappointing. I could not find his grave. It was said that Philby’s son, the famous British intelligence agent who had all along been spying for the Soviets, had scrawled on his father’s gravestone something about him being a great explorer. An ancient man at the cemetery told me that a lot of old graves had been covered over by the dead of the civil war.
I got lost on my walk back and found myself in front of the Maghen Abraham synagogue.
The building stopped me because it has an exterior that resembles a Venetian palazzo, the white and yellow ochre walls and embellishments a little out of place in what had been Beirut’s Wadi Abu Jamil, the Jewish Quarter.
I understand why the synagogue had been built in this fashion. Beirut is a city of trade and merchants, and it made sense for the Jewish community to erect a grand building to rival other grand buildings (banks and markets). The neighbourhood had other synagogues, mostly in apartments, so this was a statement of the community’s establishment rath...
Post Author: /u/EreshkigalKish2
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