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Minority Report: Arab News’ in-depth look at Lebanon’s Jewish community
A once-thriving community with roots dating back hundreds of years, they are now a silent and forgotten minority. The Arab News Newspaper, the Middle East’s leading English language publication, tracked down Lebanese Jews in the diaspora to talk to them about their memories of a lost ‘paradise’
As Gulf countries embrace more faiths in a growing climate of tolerance, Arab News, Saudi Arabia’s leading English language daily, takes on the topic of Lebanon’s Jewish community as part of a new series called Minority Report.
The long-form multimedia story, to be published online in French and English on Sept. 12, includes video interviews with members of the community and graphics showing when and where they settled, shining a light on this silent and forgotten minority.
“As the voice of a changing region, Arab News takes on topics that were once taboo in the region,” said Faisal J. Abbas, the Editor-in-Chief of Arab News. “This is a story that deserves to be told, and we hope that it promotes a dialogue between Arabs and Jews. We may have our differences, but we also have similarities.”
Arab News’ New York correspondent Ephrem Kossaify (@ephremkossaify) stumbled into the story in a store in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, where the signs were in Hebrew but everyone inside spoke the Lebanese dialect.
“It turns out all of Gravesend is a miniature of Lebanese culture: stores, bakeries, social norms, language,” said Kossaify. “Of course that was fascinating because we hardly ever hear of the existence of a Lebanese Jewish minority.”
Kossaify’s research led him to the historian Nagi Zeidan, who dedicated the last 20 years to finding out more about the Jewish community in his homeland, which will appear in a soon-to-be published book in French called “Juifs du Liban.” Zeidan’s editorial, in which he says “a dialogue is possible,” concludes the Minority Report.
To read the full series, click this link: www.arabnews.com/JewsOfLebanon
French version
Rapport sur les Minorités : l’étude approfondi de Arab News sur la communauté juive du Liban
RIYAD – Alors que les pays du Golfe s’ouvrent davantage aux croyances dans un climat de tolérance en pleine croissance, Arab News, le premier quotidien anglophone d’Arabie saoudite, aborde le sujet de la communauté juive du Liban dans le cadre d’une nouvelle série intitulée Rapport sur les Minorités.
Le rapport multimédia qui sera publiée en ligne en français et en anglais le 12 septembre prochain, comprend des entrevues vidéo avec des membres de la communauté juive et des graphiques montrant quand et où ils se sont installés. Une manière de faire la lumière sur cette minorité silencieuse et oubliée.
«Arab News, en tant que porte-voix d’une région en mutation, aborde des sujets qui étaient autrefois tabous dans la région», a déclaré à cet égard Faisal J. Abbas, rédacteur en chef d’Arab News. «C’est une histoire qui mérite d’être racontée, et nous espérons qu’elle favorisera un dialogue entre les Arabes et les Juifs. Nous pouvons avoir nos différences, mais nous avons aussi des ressemblances. »
Le correspondant d’Arab News à New York, Ephrem Kossaify (@ephremkossaify), a voulu raconter cette histoire lorsque son chemin a croisé par hasard un magasin de quartier à Gravesend dans Brooklyn. Les panneaux de cette échoppe étaient en hébreu mais tout le monde à l’intérieur parlait libanais.
« Il s’est avéré que tout Gravesend est une miniature de la culture libanaise : magasins, boulangeries, normes sociales, langue », dit Kossaify. « Bien sûr, c’était fascinant parce que nous entendons rarement parler de l’existence d’une minorité juive libanaise. »
Les recherches de Kossaify l’ont conduit à l’historien Nagi Zeidan, qui a consacré les 20 dernières années à en savoir plus sur la communauté juive de son pays d’origine. Ses recherches sont à paraître dans un livre qui sera bientô]t publié en français sous le titre « Juifs du Liban». L’éditorial de Zeidan, dans lequel il dit qu ’« un dialogue est possible », conclut ce Rapport sur les Minorités.
Lien : www.arabnews.fr/LesJuifsduLiban
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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