'Violated': One of world's oldest synagogues hit by Syrian shelling, looters

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After two years of war, Syria's economy is facing crisis. Food is scarce, cash in short supply, while constant bombardments are causing more damage - which will cost billions to rebuild. Alex Thomson Channel Four reports.BEIRUT - Theft and shelling have damaged a 2,000 year-old  synagogue in Damascus, one of the oldest in the world, Syrian government and  opposition activist sources said on Monday.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld  Syria's historic monuments  have increasingly become a casualty of the civil war has killed more than 70,000  people. Parts of Aleppo's medieval stone-vaulted souk have been reduced to  rubble, and many ancient markets, mosques and churches across the country are  threatened with destruction.  


The damage has so far been light at the  Jobar Synagogue, built in honor of the biblical prophet Elijah, according to  Mamoun Abdulkarim, the head of Syria's antiquities department.

"Local  community officials say the place's sanctity has been violated and there were  thefts but I cannot verify the nature of the thefts without investigation,"  Abdulkarim told Reuters by telephone.

"Four months earlier they (Jewish  authorities) tried to go in and were prevented from entering due to the presence  of fighters."

He said that authorities believed looters have mostly  stolen gold chandeliers and icons dating back 70 to 100 years.

But  Abdulkarim said he doubted that thousands of priceless manuscripts had been  stolen from the synagogue as most of them, including Torahs in filigreed silver  cases, had already been moved to the synagogue inside Damascus's Old City, a  UNESCO world heritage site.

The Jobar Synagogue is inside a run-down  outer district of Damascus called Jobar, which was home to a large Jewish  community for hundreds of years until the 1800s.

Rebels fighting to  overthrow President Bashar al-Assad began moving into Jobar last July and the  area has suffered heavy shelling from government air strikes and artillery since  then.

Pro-Assad groups blame rebels for damage to Syria's heritage,  while the opposition blames the government. Video has shown both sides  destroying ancient castles and shrines with shelling, gun battles and targeted  explosions.

"Jobar has been shelled by Assad's forces for  more than 60 days ... There is no building that has been spared by the shelling  in Jobar, whether it is holy or not," said opposition activist Mohammed  al-Shami, who lives in the area.

"But luckily many artifacts from the  synagogue were removed by a local council in Jobar and are now being stored for  safety," he said, speaking by Skype.

Other Jewish sites remained  unharmed and in government hands, according to the Syrian official Abdulkarim.  

"We deal with these (synagogues) in their archaeological value as we are  dealing with a mosque or church, no differently. It is part of our heritage.  Jewish culture is preserved," he said.

Abdulkarim said Jews still living  in Damascus were storing Jewish artifacts in the Old City's Jewish Quarter at a  synagogue that dates back to the Ottoman era and where Syria's tiny Jewish  community, only a few dozen, still prays.

The Jobar site, built atop a  cave where the prophet Elijah was believed to have hidden from persecution, has  been a place of pilgrimage for Syrian and Arab Jews.

Activists said at  least six mortars had hit the synagogue, but that damage was still minimal.  

Video published by opposition groups in early March showed damage to the  concrete outer walls surrounding the synagogue and a pile of rubble next to the  entrance, which is marked with an inscription in Arabic, Hebrew in English.

- Reuters

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