Published: 9 June 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
NEARLY HALF THE JEWISH SITES in Syria and a quarter of the sites in Iraq have been destroyed, according to a research project.
In Iraq, at least 68 out of 297 Jewish heritage sites have deteriorated to the point that they are beyond repair, the London-based Jewish Cultural Heritage Initiative said in its report, published earlier this week.
In Syria, at least 32 out of 71 such sites have crossed the point of no return, the report said.
The structures date from the second half of the first millennium BCE up to the present day. Most sites were built in the 19th or 20th centuries.
The condition of many sites is not known despite efforts by the research team. In Iraq, there is uncertainty about two-thirds of the sites. Only 11% of the 297 Iraqi sites are still standing. Of those, most are in poor or very bad condition.
FULL STORY Nearly half the Jewish sites in Syria have been ruined. The fate of most Iraqi sites is unknown (JTA)
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Photo: Courtyard of the Bandara synagogue in 2011 (Flickr/Wikipedia)
