As pogroms targeted Aleppo's Jews, my family made a dangerous choice: To flee - Israel News (original) (raw)
When the Jewish café opposite our home was torched after the UN vote on the partition of Palestine, we decided that we had to escape Syria before it was too late
Ofra Basul Bengio
May 20, 2021
May 20, 2021
Ofra Basul Bengio
May 20, 2021
May 20, 2021
The first time we attempted to escape Aleppo was shortly after the United Nations vote on the partition of Palestine in November 1947. A powerful fear seized us and all the Jews in the city during the war, when we were compelled to cope with bitter experience of seeing the burning of our businesses, schools and synagogues, including the Central, or Great, Synagogue, which housed the ancient Aleppo Codex (the priceless manuscript of the Hebrew Bible created in Tiberias in the 10th century). Our family, who lived in a Muslim neighborhood and saw with our own eyes the torching of the Jewish-owned café opposite our home, and heard the angry crowds chanting that, “Palestine is our land, and the Jews are our dogs,” decided that there was no alternative but to try and flee Syria before it was too late.