The Menarsha synagogue attack took place on 5 August 1949 in the Jewish quarter of Damascus, Syria.Cyrus Adler, Henrietta Szold
American Jewish year book, Volume 52
American Jewish Committee, 1951. The grenade attack claimed 12 lives.

Background

The security situation of the

Syrian Jewish Syrian Jews ( he, יהודי סוריה ''Yehudey Surya'', ar, الْيَهُود السُّورِيُّون ''al-Yahūd as-Sūriyyūn'', colloquially called SYs in the United States) are Jews who lived in the region of the modern state of Syri ...

community deteriorated in the late 1930s, during a period of increased Arab nationalism, pressure for independence from the French Empire leading to Syrian independence in 1946, World War. Anti-Western and Arab nationalist fervour took on an increasingly anti-Jewish tone. Before and after the

establishment of the State of Israel The Israeli Declaration of Independence, formally the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel ( he, הכרזה על הקמת מדינת ישראל), was proclaimed on 14 May 1948 ( 5 Iyar 5708) by David Ben-Gurion, the Executive ...

in 1948, the Jews in Syria faced greater discrimination as the government adopted anti-Jewish measures. During this period, Jews and their property became the target of numerous attacks, including the Aleppo pogrom in 1947.

Attack

On Friday night, 5 August 1949, several hand grenades were thrown into the Menarsha Synagogue in Damascus that killed 12 Jews, 8 of them children, and injured about 30. The attack occurred at the time of the Lausanne Conference, when Syria and other frontline Arab states were conducting armistice talks with Israel at

Lausanne, Switzerland Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...

. The armistice agreement between Israel and Syria had been signed on 20 July 1949. A simultaneous attack was also carried out at the Great Synagogue in Aleppo.

Reaction

Official condolences

Syrian President

Husni al-Za'im Husni al-Za'im ( ar, حسني الزعيم ''Ḥusnī az-Za’īm''; 11 May 1897 – 14 August 1949) was a Syrian military officer and politician of Kurdish origin. Husni al-Za'im, had been an officer in the Ottoman Army. After France institute ...

sent his personal representative to visit the carnage area and ordered a legal probe into it.Joseph B. Schechtman
On wings of eagles: the plight, exodus, and homecoming of oriental Jewry
T. Yoseloff, 1961. pg. 163.

Investigation

The police attributed the attack to an underground movement calling itself Arab Redemption Suicide Phalange, and held numerous suspects. On 9 August, a seventeen-year-old Syrian veteran of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War confessed that he and two friends were behind the attack. President al-Za'im ordered the execution of the accused, but a few days later the coup of Colonel

Sami al-Hinnawi Sami Hilmy al-Hinnawi ( ar, محمد سامي حلمي الحناوي, Muḥammad Sāmī Ḥilmī al-Ḥinnāwī; 1898 – 31 October 1950) was a Syrian politician and military officer. Life On December 19, 1949, Shishakli carried out a coup d' ...

took place and al-Za'im was executed. In 1950, the suspects of the attack were acquitted due to lack of evidence.The Jewish Agency's digest of press and events, Volume 3
Jewish Agency for Israel, 1950. pg. 1,080. niversity of California, February 1, 2010./ref>

References

{{coord missing, Syria Mass murder in 1949 Terrorist incidents in 1949 Terrorist attacks attributed to Palestinian militant groups 20th-century attacks on synagogues and Jewish communal organizations Jewish Syrian history 1948 Arab–Israeli War Anti-Jewish pogroms by Muslims 1941-49 Jews and Judaism in Damascus 20th century in Damascus 1949 riots Attacks on buildings and structures in Damascus 1949 murders in Syria Terrorist incidents in Syria in the 1940s 1949 in Judaism Antisemitism in Syria Mass murder in Damascus Attacks on religious buildings and structures in Asia Grenade attacks Massacres in 1949