:Jobar

One of the earliest sources mentioning the existence of the village is from the Talmud, which states that the village was one of ten surrounding Damascus inhabited by Jews.Josef W. Meri. [https://books.google.com/books?id=CJ8_4Kt0XUgC&pg=PA33 The cult of saints among Muslims and Jews in medieval Syria], Oxford University Press, 2002. Pg. 33. {{ISBN|0-19-925078-2}}. Rabbi Rafram bar Papa was recorded as having prayed in the synagogue of Jobar.Berakhot 50a. During the medieval period, it was "the most important and longest lasting Jewish community outside of the old city walls." An anonymous Jewish traveller who arrived a few years after the Spanish immigration (1522) found 60 Jewish families living in the village of Jobar, who had a "very beautiful synagogue."[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=21&letter=D&search=damascus Damascus], Jewish Encyclopedia. Ibn Tulun (died 1546) mentions that "Jobar is a Jewish village with a Muslim presence." The "Chronicle" of Joseph Sambari (1672) says that the Jewish community of Damascus lived chiefly in Jobar and in 1735 the village was populated solely by Jews.Jean Baptiste Labat. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mzI-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA462 Mém. du chevalier d'Arvieux, contenant ses voyages à Constantinople, dans l'Asie, la Syrie, etc, Volume 2], 1735. [University of Lausanne, 18 Sep 2009.] "Il n'est habité que par des juifs sans mêlange d'aucune autre Nation."

Documents from the early 19th century describe properties in the village that belonged to Jewish wakf (religious endowment) and were leased to members of other communities.Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Renata Holod, Attilio Petruccioli, André Raymond. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nY2DqJNPmioC&pg=PA945 The city in the Islamic world, Volume 1], BRILL, 2008. pg. 945. {{ISBN|90-04-17168-1}}. In 1839, the village was described as "...prettily situated on a green fertile spot," that formed part of the Garden that surrounds Damascus. The inhabitants were reported as numbering 1,000 and seeming to be in a "tolerably prosperous state." Its population was "wholly Hebrew" and governed by local Jewish institutions with a "little hierarchy of rulers and subjects."[https://books.google.com/books?id=UF8oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA558 The Christian reformer, or, Unitarian magazine and review, Volume 6], Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, 1839. [Harvard University, June 17, 2008.] pg. 558. During the rioting following accusation of ritual murder against the Jews of Damascus in 1840, the mob fell upon the synagogue, pillaged it and destroyed the scrolls of the Law.[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=22&letter=D&search=damascus Damascus affair], Jewish Encyclopedia.

{{rquote|right| The winter in Damascus is sometimes long and dreary; and when the spring comes… the Jews begin to visit Jobar, by some thought to be built on the site of the ancient Hobah. It is a large village about three quarters of an hour's ride from the city, and is inhabited entirely by Mohammedans; but strange to say, the Jews have a synagogue and a few rooms in the court adjoining it. Only the people who have charge of the synagogue live there; but during the spring and summer we constantly see Jews riding on donkeys laden with beds and bedding, and going out to spend three or four days or a week in these rooms.|Mrs. Mackintosh, 1883.Mrs. Mackintosh. [https://archive.org/stream/damascusanditsp00mackgoog/damascusanditsp00mackgoog_djvu.txt Damascus and its people: sketches of modern life in Syria], Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, 1883. [New York Public Library, August 14, 2007.]}}

There are conflicting reports from the mid-19th century onwards as to the ethno-religious makeup of the village. In 1839, it was reported that the village "is entirely peopled by Jews." But an account a few years later in 1847 stated that the village was home to three to four thousand Muslims, with the exception of one Jewish family who took care of the synagogue,Wilson, John. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xVqnVORHpz4C&pg=PA331 The lands of the Bible: visited and described in an extensive journey undertaken with special reference to the promotion of Biblical research and the advancement of the cause of philanthropy, Volume 2], William Whyte, 1847. [University of Michigan, Nov 8, 2008.] pg. 331. and according to a certain Mr. Graham, "the village, the people, the synagogue and the family that inhabit it, are wretched and miserable in the extreme." In 1869, a visitor, while acknowledging the existence of the old synagogue, questions if there was ever a permanent Jewish presence in the village.Josias Leslie Porter. [https://books.google.com/books?id=fdZGAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA340 The giant cities of Bashan and Syria's Holy places], T. Nelson, 1869. [University of California, November 27, 2007]. pg. 340. She goes on to reveal that the village is, however, a "favourite resort of wealthy Jews...It is their park and café. There they spend their long summer afternoons, often the entire night, under the bower of vine and jasmine." A publication in 1874 makes a claim to the contrary, that the village is "principally a colony of Jews".S H Kent. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ygFAW0QWBZcC&pg=PA152 Gath to the Cedars; Experiences of Travel in the Holy Land and Palmyra], F. Warne and Co. 1874. General Books LLC, 2009. pg. 152. {{ISBN|1-150-05718-1}}. It is probable that the Jewish population must have dwindled, since by 1893, Richard F. Burton writes "it is a Muslim village with a synagogue dedicated to Elijah and is a pilgrimage for Damascus Jews",Isabel Arundell Burton. [https://books.google.com/books?id=KCZRSVhNQCoC&pg=PA483 The life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, Volume 1] Chapman & Hall Ltd., Oxford, 1893. [Adegi Graphics LLC, 2006.] pg. 483. {{ISBN|1-4021-1339-0}}. and the 1907 edition of Cook's handbook for Palestine and Syria states that "Jobar is only a Muslim village."[https://books.google.com/books?id=EvxtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA232 Cook's handbook for Palestine and Syria], Thos. Cook & Son, 1907. [University of Michigan, August 25, 2008]. pg. 232. However, during these years, Jewish visits to the village persisted, and on festival days many of the Damascus Jews assembled at the synagogue to worship.Malta Protestant College. [https://books.google.com/books?id=m8Rx2bSALkAC&q=jobar+damascus Journal of a deputation sent to the East by the committee of the Malta Protestant college, in 1849: containing an account of the present state of the Oriental nations, including their religion, learning, education, customs, and occupations, Volume 2], J. Nisbet and co., 1854. [Harvard University, 20 Dec 2005] pg. 483.

After the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews in Syria faced greater discrimination as the Syrian government enforced tighter restrictions. Jewish property could not be sold and those that had been abandoned were confiscated.James A. Paul. [https://books.google.com/books?id=N-xjxWYWnlwC&pg=PA91 Human rights in Syria], Middle East Watch. pg. 92. A religious centre in the neighbourhood was taken over by Palestinian Arabs and the old synagogue was converted into a school for displaced Arabs.Zwy Aldouby, Jerrold Ballinger. [https://books.google.com/books?id=pJGEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA285 The shattered silence: the Eli Cohen affair], Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1971. pg. 285.

The neighbourhood is the burial-place of a wonder-working sage of the 16th century, the patriarch of the Abuhatzeira rabbinical dynasty, Rabbi Shmuel Elbaz-Abuchatzira.Norman De Mattos Bentwich. [https://books.google.com/books?id=SmNtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA234 A wanderer in the Promised land], Soncino Press, 1932. pg. 234.[http://www.otzadikim.com/NewsItem.aspx?ID=10 From Yemen to Syria] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715022057/http://www.otzadikim.com/NewsItem.aspx?ID=10 |date=2011-07-15 }}, Oholei Zadikim, May 5, 2008. The fate of the synagogue remains a source of controversy.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-case-for-jobar-syria-synagogues-and-subterfuge/|title=The case for Jobar: Syria, synagogues and subterfuge (17 January 2014) | Adam Blitz | The Blogs | The Times of Israel|publisher=blogs.timesofisrael.com|access-date=2014-09-25}}

On July 28, 2010, a number of TV satellite dishes were removed by municipal workers enforcing a conservation project in the neighborhood.[http://www.syriabuild.com/news/214/ARTICLE/4491/2010-07-28.html Indiscriminate removal of satellite dishes at Jouber]{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, syriabuild.com, July 28, 2010.

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100501185401/http://www.syria-dir.com/accj/page.php?id=361 Arab Cultural Center of Jobar]

{{Damascus}}

Category:Neighborhoods of Damascus

Category:Historic Jewish communities

Category:Jewish Syrian history

Category:Jews and Judaism in Damascus