Lebanese Heritage Video

traveling and wandering over time is no strange concept to the Jew for thousands of years going back to the times of the Torah when we were slaves in the land of Egypt Jews of all kinds have wandered from land to land adapting and readapting to their surroundings what kept us going was how we clung to our values to the Torah to the mitv and to the communities that we built and were part of what you are about to see is an inside look at one of these fascinating communities the Jewish community of Lebanon I was born in Lebanon we were part of the Jewish community over there Lebanon for us it was like a memory that we always have in our mind in 1800 they start to coming down from Lithuania 1830 everybody start to come down from the mountains from all over Lebanon used to be under the Mandate of the French government After the War World War I when the Ottoman Empire collapsed French took over Syria and Lebanon and they stayed there till 1943 one of the things that establishes a tick Community is an exclusive area that enables a community to live together to mingle together and to form themselves as a true community in Lebanon this concept was no different the main communal area was known as the wadii neighborhood we were concentrated in one block it's called Wadi Abu I was young and we the the Jew is only one place so each one knows each other and that's why the the friendship was very strong there everybody came to to the W Abu J it was full of Jewish people I remember going to school going to uh you know downtown like where the area we used to play my parents used to take us on Sunday afternoon after school we used to go on trips to the mountain go to the ocean go swimming my father used to have a gross I used to help him when I finish school I want to continue my father couldn't because he has a store he need help I love to play football I have to play soccer I have to play basketball I to play wrestling we have a good time what can I tell you when you have the barv whatever you make in the house this what you serve for the people we go to the wedding to the to the sh inviting everybody and then when we have to when they finish the prayer and everything they gave piece of candy in a box to everyone you know came to the place we don't do like here, people 500 900 ma Mafia had we don't have as with all communities what holds Us close together and serves as a central point is the synagogue in Beirut the central synagogue was none other than the famous menen Abraham synagogue menen Abraham it was donated by a Indian his his name is Abraham SAS they built it in 1926 by uh an engineer from Kolkata he built it and it was the first and the only big synagogue back in Lebanon we have maybe around six to seven CH in the same area with the main one which was M Abraham and many other minim were in the small sh and usually they are sponsored by some family like the men family theun family and the S family I used to go to m Abraham which is the main one it was beautiful you know to see all the kahal down there especially during the holiday it was there when we used to have I mean all the weddings it was only on this big Sho I was born in Zuni then we needed a bigger house you know we got like eight kids so we we we rented the house near the sh by m Abraham and sometimes if I don't go to sh I'm sick or something you can hear them praying you know from the window also there was lot of people from from alip people they run away from Syria they came a lot of people from Damascus also we had also some asazin people it has been said and proven that behind every great religious community are great rabbis and leaders that educate us Inspire us and motivate us to serve Hashem in the best possible way in Lebanon this was no different as the community was fortunate to have acceptional Rican leadership my father was born in Aleppo he grew up as a yum basically he l his father at a young age so when my father got there the community in Lebanon is they're very nice people they're uh very Mis like started teaching classes in the afternoon after school and shabat shom started exchanging letters with him they built inir which was a little more har than the rest of the schools AR he teacher also in the school you don't give him money that it mean peanut even though he was you know halachically like very strict and they realize he's stricter on himself than others little by little they you know he earned their respect and the relationship became like brotherly fatherly whatever you want to call it and they even helped him in accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish what shapes us and forms our very spiritual Essence is a solid Torah education the Lebanese Community was fortunate to have a stellar educational system that everyone was able to participate in and take advantage of it was like a small school at that time we had a lot of kids that the parents like to have them more to study Torah and all this in the alliance it was a little bit different experience I went to T behind me from 8:00 till 5 they were very strong in Hebrew and Alan one day W not as strong as us in him the Alli school they goes more in French and the and Arab more Arabic more than Hebrew alance israelit Universal very good school at 5 six years old we were we spoke four languages as English French Arabic of course all throughout Jewish history our people were constantly forced to evolve and change with the times due to different political climates and current events in their country in Beirut this was no different as in in 1967 after the famous 6-day War the community was forced to suffer the consequences and eventually pick up and leave 1967 it was ganeden everything was beautiful finally what happened 67 the war broke up they were wiped up in one week we had half a million Palestinian they came to Lebanon and they set up over there so when they lost I remember it was a set day 100 Palestinian they came they said they want to come in and they're going to do trouble and kill and this and that we called the police we called the army they came and they set up guards and army all every corner my father said to my mother this is it we cannot stay here anymore it looks like there going to be big trouble in the future 1968 December 68 Israel attack but in 1969 everything collapsed everything changed so I was thinking about coming to America when the 67 War come out I said what I'm doing here if everybody living why we should stay I see bad situation is not it's getting better it's getting worse told her if we're going to marri we have to leave as did many Middle Eastern communities and Eastern European communities wander around the world a large Haven of Jews was slowly forming in the Western hemisphere in the United States it was only natural that the Lebanese Community would soon follow suit and join their brethren in none place other than Brooklyn New York when I sat here I didn't go to sh I I was working and after my my father passed away in goes on the on single floor I come on satday morning and you know I don't if you remember we used to put the the been here like this after this I got to go to work I'm praying with him he didn't say nothing and he came to me come they took me boy you're here my father passed away okay he take his name I I leave it here but then I think you take it so I just said oh here something else that's how I that couple friends over here but uh life was miserable you want to find a job you have to work on Shabbat if you don't work on Shabbat they won't hire you we used to go my cousin to see how they doing and everything told me Jewish quarter is here from Ocean Parkway all the way down to to Z over the old Jewish I said this is this is my place Le banese Community start growing we start praying in the basement of Aer during the high holiday so I was like the in between marketing between both of them after this I was the Vice President in a also I joined the Kaya in 1988 one thing we should give credit to that is Dr M I think you should give him a lot of credit because uh he was President for a very long time and thank God we have a good leader that that that at that time he was really very good leader as a matter of fact he was vice president of AK we have opportunity to have one group to say we need to buy land and build the Sho late 1980s we purchased this building over here remember vividly when they were building this synagogue my father brought me to show me what was going on how they were building and I was just shocked how big everything everything looked Albert ay Isaac Abid and Dr Isaac Med they were basically the ones that were involved directly with the contractors leadership it doesn't come overnight the leadership you learn from your own people you are directing you have to have AA that if you want to do something leim Shay it will work no matter what you think our fathers and our grandfathers who came to this country close to 50 years ago came with one mission to preserve the minhagim the Traditions their Vision was to make this place for all their kids and their grandkids to be to have a community we built the Sho we built the community we built everybody but now we're focusing on the future I hope be the successible in all her life to be whatever we doing to continuation with the new generation to come these last 50 years have been truly amazing thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of our grandparents and great-grandparents I have no doubt that the next 50 years will be even [Music] greater