Last Jewish Family from Aleppo, Syria is Safe in Israel | Itamar Eichner ISRAEL TODAY

The Last Jewish Family from Aleppo, Syria is Safe in Israel

Wednesday, November 25, 2015 |  Itamar Eichner  ISRAEL TODAY

The two women in this story, whose personal story could make a great Hollywood thriller, are now living in Ashkelon's Absorption Center. These last Jews to live in Aleppo, Syria, were smuggled out of the bombarded city in an intricate operation carried out a year ago by Free Syrian Army Muslim men. This operation was financed and run by Moti Kahana, an American Israeli businessman who for the last four hears has been in close contact with Syrian insurgents. 88 year-old Miriam (not her real name) and her 53 year-old daughter were smuggled from Aleppo through the Turkish border to Istanbul and from there were brought to Israel.

Miriam kept a Jewish life style, and continued to eat kosher food despite it being difficult to obtain in the midst of civil war. Miriam's second daughter Linda (not her real name), along with her Muslim husband and his three children from his first marriage escaped with her to Istanbul. However, Since Linda converted to Islam, the couple didn't want to go to Israel and, in any case, were not entitled to enter Israel under the Law of Return which is applicable to Jews only. They, in the end, chose to return to Syria.

Miriam knows biblical Hebrew from the prayer book and at a young age attended Aleppo's main synagogue, where the legendary Hebrew Bible manuscript, the Aleppo codex, was kept. In retaliation to the 1947 UN "Partition Plan," this synagogue was set on fire and destroyed.

The Jewish family lived in extremely difficult conditions in the area of Aleppo which is in an area controlled by the Syrian government forces. Water and electricity were cut off after this area was severely bombarded by the insurgents. The journey from Aleppo to Turkey lasted 12 hours. On the way the family was stopped at a Jabhat al-Nusra road block. Disguised as Muslims, and only after a grueling investigation, were they allowed to continue on their way.

"This is the last Jewish family from Aleppo," stated Moti Kahana. This brings to closure 2700 years of Jewish life in this city. Kahana criticized the Jewish Agency for not permitting the converted daughter to enter Israel and de facto abandoned them in Istanbul. In return the Jewish Agency blamed Kahana for luring the family to leave Aleppo with the promise to bring them to the United States, and that the family initially did not want to go to Israel. The Jewish Agency stressed that they offered Linda's family to arrive in Israel, initially as tourists, but they have refused the offer.

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An ISIS fighter: ‘I was forbidden at the Gates of Heaven…’

An ISIS fighter: ‘I was forbidden at the Gates of Heaven…’

Wed, Mar 4, 2015

Syria

By ORIENTAL REVIEW

This fabulous story came from Aleppo, Syria earlier this week. An 32-year old ISIS jihadist has recently experienced clinic death after receiving multiple gun shot wounds in clashes with the Syrian Army forces and left helpless by his fellow fighters at the battlefield. He was found unconscious by monks of the Saint Dominican Catholic Presbytery of Ayyash hours after his collapse. They carried his body 26 kilometers to give a proper burial before this man came miraculously back to life.

As he came back to his senses, he reported to priest Hermann Groschlin of the visions he had whilst in the afterlife, an event that profoundly changed him.

“He told me that he was always taught that to die as a martyr would open him the Gates of Jannah, or Gates of Heaven” recalled the priest. “Yet, as he had started to ascend towards the light of the Heavens, devilish entities, or Jinns he called them, appeared and led him to the fiery pits of Hell. There he had to relive all the pain he had inflicted upon others and every death he had caused throughout his entire life. He even had to relive the decapitations of his victims himself”, an experience the jihadist claims will haunt him for the rest of his life.

“Then Angel spoke unto him and told him that he had failed miserably as a human soul, that he would be banned from the Gates of Heaven if he chose to die, but that if he chose to live again, he would have another chance to repent of his sins and walk along God’s path once again”

The young man claims he was brought back to life in moments and eventually converted to Christianity days later,being assured that  he had been misled throughout his religious life in the jihadist environment.

The young man, who’s wounds have surprisingly healed in a very short time, has chosen to live amongst the members of the Catholic presbytery who rescued him from the desert and hopes his story will help other ISIS fighters change their ways and convert to the one and only true God.