Page 24 - Nahlaot-Intermediate-RA_Neat

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Intermediate Level – ‫נחלאות‬

The Addes Synagogue

In Nachlaot there is a big and beautiful synagogue - the Addes synagogue.
This is the synagogue of the Jewish community from Syria - the Aleppo
community. The community has an interesting story: the story of the
Aleppo Codex. A codex is a different name for a Bible.
The Aleppo Codex is an important Bible, which was written in Tiberias
1,000 years ago. It (was) moved to Jerusalem from there, and later to
Egypt.
In the 15th century, the codex arrived at the Jewish community in Halab
(Aleppo), Syria. The community is called Aram Tzuba, and so the codex’
name is ‘the Aram Tzuba Codex’.
The codex was very important to the Jews in Aleppo, and they kept it safe
for many years. In 1947 there was a pogrom in Aleppo. The Syrians entered
the synagogue and broke the book’s cabinet. After the pogrom the Jews
arrived in the synagogue and saw that many pages are missing.
In Israel (they) heard about the codex and wanted to bring it to Israel, in
order to keep what was left safe. Yizhak Ben-Zvi, Israel’s second
President, and Professor Cassuto, a Bible professor, worked hard in order
to bring the book here. In 1957 a Jew from Aleppo - Mordechai Fachem -
made Aliyah and smuggled the codex inside a washing machine. Today
you can see the codex at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Many people
continue to search all over the world for the pages that disappeared.

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