Wadi Abu Jamil, located in Beirut's Centre Ville, is the Jewish quarter in Beirut, Lebanon.
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Formally known as Wadi al-Yahoud (meaning "Valley of the Jews").[1], the quarter was the center of the Lebanese Jewish community, with Beirut's largest and most important synagogue, the Maghen Abraham Synagogue, located there. The neighborhood was home to Lebanon's centuries-old Jewish community and also for the more recent Jewish refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Most of the community emigrated during the 1958 Crisis and the Lebanese Civil War.
The greater part of the community had already emigrated by the 1982 Lebanon War, when Yasir Arafat's PLO forces took over the neighborhood. This led to an Israeli bombardment that damaged the Magen Abraham Synagogue.
Renovation of the Magen Abraham synagogue began in the summer of 2009.[2] Funding for the renovation includes donations from the Lebanese Jewish Community Council and Jewish Lebanese living overseas. Isaac Arazi, the leader of the Jewish community in Lebanon has managed to raise $40,000 from private donors.[3] Renovation is estimated to cost between $1 million and $1.5 million.[4] Solidere, the Lebanese joint-stock company responsible for much of Central Beirut’s reconstruction, has donated $150,000 toward the renovation effort.[5] Lebanese architect Nabil Gholam has played an important role in the redevelopment planning process.