The Maghen Abraham Synagogue of Beirut, built in 1926, is currently closed to the public. Archive photo Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour
MP Paula Yacoubian from the Change bloc submitted a bill to Parliament last Thursday proposing to replace the term “Israelite” with “Jew” in Lebanese official documents, “such as legislative texts and identity papers,” she told L’Orient-Le Jour.Members of Lebanon’s Jewish community are currently identified as belonging to the “Israelite community,” a term rooted in the historical French mandate on Lebanese territory. The label “Israelite,” now outdated, was used in 19th- and early 20th-century France to refer to Jewish citizens.“It is a disgrace to keep this designation for the Jews of Lebanon, who are Lebanese citizens like any others,” said Yacoubian, who had submitted the same bill in February 2019, though it was never discussed. “Calling them ‘Israelites’ is obsolete and inaccurate: they are Jews, that’s the only correct term,” she...
MP Paula Yacoubian from the Change bloc submitted a bill to Parliament last Thursday proposing to replace the term “Israelite” with “Jew” in Lebanese official documents, “such as legislative texts and identity papers,” she told L’Orient-Le Jour.Members of Lebanon’s Jewish community are currently identified as belonging to the “Israelite community,” a term rooted in the historical French mandate on Lebanese territory. The label “Israelite,” now outdated, was used in 19th- and early 20th-century France to refer to Jewish citizens.“It is a disgrace to keep this designation for the Jews of Lebanon, who are Lebanese citizens like any others,” said Yacoubian, who had submitted the same bill in February 2019, though it was never discussed. “Calling them ‘Israelites’ is obsolete and inaccurate: they are Jews,...
'American sponsorship is a guarantee,' says Lebanese-American coordination committee