Historic Damascus synagogue looted

DAMASCUS: A historic Jewish synagogue in Damascus has been damaged and looted as clashes have consumed the surrounding neighborhood, a Syrian official and an anti-government activist said yesterday.
Damage to the synagogue, believed to be hundreds of years old, is the latest example of Syria’s rich cultural heritage falling victim to the civil war between the regime of President Bashar Assad and fighters seeking his ouster.
The synagogue, built in honor of the prophet Elijah, has long been considered an important pilgrimage site. Maamoun Abdul-Karim, head of the Antiquities and Museums Department of the Syrian Culture Ministry, said objects from the Jobar Synagogue were stolen last year, but that officials haven’t been able to visit the building for months because fighters control the area. Opposition forces established footholds in a number of Damascus suburbs and last year pushed into Jobar, a neighborhood on the city’s northeast corner. Since then, they have been clashing with government troops. Abdul-Karim said there was no way for the government to protect all of Syria’s historical sites because there are thousands of them across the country. He called the looting “a crime” and “a big loss for us.”
“It’s the heritage of the homeland regardless of religion, whether it’s Jewish, Muslim or Christian,” he told The Associated Press by phone. “It’s the Syrian mosaic and the heritage of the people.”
An activist video posted online on March 1 showed a simple metal door on the building with a pile of rubble in front of it. One wall had a hole in it and part of a short wall around the roof was missing. It showed two plaques near the door. One, in English, read: “Shrine and synagogue of Hanabi, 720 B.C.”