Palmyra, Syria – Syria’s Jewish History At Risk After Islamic State Takes Over

Palmyra, Syria – Syria’s relics showing its Jewish past are at risk of being lost forever due to the Islamic State’s takeover of Palmyra.

Among the remnants of the city’s Jewish past at risk is the longest Biblical Hebrew inscription from ancient times: the opening verses of the Shema carved into a stone doorway, according to the Times of Israel (http://bit.ly/1AvNZYr).

The four opening lines of the Shema, one of the central Jewish prayers, is carved into the doorway of a house in central Palmyra. The sides of the doorway also contain two apotropaic inscriptions in Hebrew that are believed to have been taken from Deuteronomy. The last recorded documentation of the verses was taken in 1933, when Israeli archaeologist Eleazar Sukenik of Hebrew University photographed it.

Scholars do not know if the etching is still at the site, or if it has been destroyed or sold on the black market.

Located at an oasis connecting East and West, Palmyra grew to an estimated population of 150,000-200,000 in the third century Common Era. For many centuries, it was home to a large Jewish community. Two terra cotta lamps found next to one of the pagan temples show menorahs on either side of a conch, signifying that Jews and gentiles both lived together in the city.

Evidence of a Jewish population in Palmyra diminishes after the 4th century. In 1400, Turkic Muslim conqueror Tamerlane took the city and demolished it, ending hundreds of years of Jewish life in Palmyra.

Archaeologists and historians now fear the ruins of the ancient city will be gone forever after the recent takeover by the Islamic State, much like what happened to the relics in Hatra and Mosul in Iraq in the last few months.

Information taken from the Times of Israel