Unbelievable.
October 14th, 2007 at 6:32 pmThis is a message we received yesterday evening.
Is anyone in the world listening?
I am a Lebanese Jew [and] I was forced to change my family name because my family origins are from Wadi Abu Jmil. I still live there under a false name, my family did not emigrate during the war, we hid in a sieged town in the Shouf district named Deir al Kamar were I got a new name. I am a father of 3 kids, my wife is a Druze women, she knows I am Jewish but my kids don’t [and] I work as a road engineer and [I] give you my life story to tell you that I love Lebanon [and] I want to live in it. I am a Lebanese Jew.
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Leila Said,
October 15, 2007 @ 4:31 am
Wow, his story is like the Maranos of Spain, who pretended to convert and remained Jewish in secret through centuries of persecution. The authorities would spy on their households to see if their cookstove chimneys smoked on Saturdays (when orthodox Jews do not use fire). Some Maranos immigrated to the New World via Mexico, and settled in NEw Mexico. Their descendants after four hundred years are discovering that they are actually Jewish.
God bless this fellow.
T.J. Said,
October 15, 2007 @ 6:30 pm
This sad story is similar to the saga of Jews throughout the ages. Many a Jew has had to conceal his true beliefs.
Any country that requires that for survival is not a place worth living in. My advice is to take your family out of anti-Semitic Lebanon, and move somewhere free. I know this may be a hard pill to swallow, but it is reality.
May G-d bless you and the Jewish people.
ram79 Said,
October 15, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
im proud to hear this, i would say,better to have a true lebanese jew patriot than to have a thousand non-patriot lebanese.
ramiwalid@hotmail.com
rami faoor
Global Voices Online » Lebanon: A Lebanese Jew Said,
October 15, 2007 @ 7:15 pm
[...] the war, we hid in a sieged town in the Shouf district …” says a message written to The Jews of Lebanon. Share [...]
Sami K Said,
October 16, 2007 @ 10:04 am
This is saddening.
The government ought to pay the Jews of our country real compensation.
Lebanon is the ONLY Arab state with Judaism as an official religion, but the government is not acting up to it.
Lebanon was created for the minorities by the minorities. We need to all rebuild their synagogues, schools and centers and we ought to make them feel loved.
Kellna lil watan
robert Said,
October 16, 2007 @ 11:55 am
its not about being a patriot to your country anymore. In other words we all are patriots everyone in this project living abroad or in lebanon. We escaped all the terror and ignorance to lead better lives as LEBANESE. We will always be lebanese
allah ma3akon
Fadi Said,
November 11, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
I am so sad to hear this story. This shows how important this site and this movement is for so many Lebanese Jews, and for the Lebanese in general. Our society has been so severly fragmented and shattered; Despite all the traumas we’ve been through, despite all the exodus many of us have had to take, despite all the trying circumstances they keep putting us into, we should be proud that what brings us together is our belief in our true identity: tolerance, and variety.
known_as_the_one Said,
November 12, 2007 @ 10:52 am
It is so sad to hear such a story, but after all, you got a big support from many lebanese people that deserve to be called so, non descriminative, I wonder how could discrimation rise in a diversified country! It’s sad!
I got a question though, how are you planning to keep going? How old are your children? Do they know what’s a jew, usually “jew” is used as an isult in Lebanon! What’s their education?
I think the best thing to do is to tell your story through media.
There’s plenty of infos you got to share about this subject, anyway, I think it might be the key to a more non discriminative tolerant society, thus, country.
Paul Said,
March 7, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
I find your story hard to believe, and by any mean i am not accusing you of lying but the fact that you are married in lebanon it had to be a religious ceremony and u had to write the religion of your kids on their IDs . Coz changing your name is not enough to conceal your religion
Fares N. Said,
March 18, 2008 @ 12:10 pm
Dear friends, i am a student in audio visual art,
it’s my final year at University, and one of my final projects is a documentary,
i choose this topic as my idea, the Jews of Lebanon, but i came to a dead end where as for everything is ready, the documentary need a interview with someone that is a Jew, the teachers are ready to discard my Idea and fail me the class, it won;t be a big deal, but the thing is i want to finish this work to show the world that people have the right to exist and be what they are, without the need to hide.
any help would be more than appreciated.
Fares.
jack Said,
March 20, 2008 @ 2:49 pm
Lebanese are lebanese, and we all love our country no matter our religion. sad how our dear country have become. Honestly i never care about anyone’s religion. Its our country and belong to all lebanese. There is nothing but home. Bad that our stupid leaders care only about steling money money those leader have never ever in the history of lebanon did any good but steal. I hope they will rot in hell them and their families.
aboulyla Said,
July 13, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
this is the first time i know we still have lebanese jews still in lebanon and as muslim shiit i stand by ur side and tell to all the lebanese jews u are my brothers i know the war made the lebanese became close mine and think only my relagion is the right i stand by ur side to regain ur full right and i hope all the lebanese understand thier is big different betwen isreal and jews and for u to stay in lebanon with all the stress the you face u prove that u are 100% lebanese plz as muslin shiit ask u to stand in lebanon and regain ur root plz be lebanese as u always been the cedar needs all it
s branch to be great and u are one of those branch
karim Said,
July 31, 2008 @ 4:21 pm
I find that story hard to believe ( forgive me for doubting)because as another person mentioned it is hard to conceal your religion in Lebanon, people know about others’ history and roots and the fact that he married a druze make sit even harder to believe unless it was khatifeh” marriage by kidnapping). However, on the main point in this thread, I think that you should not hide the fact that you are jewish, I can understand if you were a teenager but as an adult you should not be scared, except maybe in dahieh, but as you know if you live in christian or druze regions of lebanon, i can’t see why you’d have a problem. Personally, if you were my neighbor i’d open my door to you without preconceived ideas. And yes being jewish doesn’t make you israeli or less lebanese. i wish you the best. Best analogy to lebanese jews are israeli druze.