Essays and Features

 

Lebanon’s dwindling Jewish community is not a recent development, yet it has been reported on like a fascinating phenomenon for years. The once-bustling Jewish quarter in Beirut, Wadi Abu Jamil, is a mere memory. The Magen Abraham Synagogue, built in the district in 1925, now stands abandoned as a silent witness to a bygone era. Only a few dozen members of the Jewish community remain in Beirut, and even fewer are known to the public. In 2019, Liza Srour, one of the last residents of the Jewish quarter, passed away. Last year, the community lost one of its last known members, the art critic and journalist Joseph Tarrab, who refused to leave Lebanon and remained until his death on January 1, 2025.

 

 

Pope Leo XIV visited Turkey from November 27 to 30 and Lebanon from November 30 to December 2, 2025, completing his first foreign trip since assuming leadership of the Catholic Church. Lebanon welcomed the Pope with open arms as he arrived at Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, greeted by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and First Lady Naamat Aoun.

 

Fascination with the Titanic has grasped the public for well over a century. Its name easily brings to mind several artistic and literary works — the 1997 film by James Cameron, the 1995 nonfiction book by American historian Walter Lord, “A Night to Remember,” and numerous sources like Encyclopedia Titanica dedicated to recording as many details as possible about the ship and its downfall. Syrian-American writer Leila Salloum Elias’ 2010 book “The Dream and then the Nightmare: Syrians Who Boarded the Titanic” broached the often overlooked Syrian and Lebanese victims of the sinking. The losses of the maritime tragedy — arguably among the most famous and deadly in history — were felt and mourned across the ocean, in Lebanese villages, where names of loved ones were lost, mis-reported, or remain unknown.

 

Renowned Lebanese writer Emily Nasrallah’s legacy continues to broaden the understanding of emigration and exile, celebrated seven years after her death and living on through a foundation established in her honor, the Beit Touyour Ayloul Foundation, named after her first novel, “Birds of September.” On July 7, 2025, the Oriental Library of the Saint Joseph University of Beirut became the new home to a part of Nasrallah’s archive. A decade ago, Nasrallah had also donated 17 documents of her literary works to the same library.

 

The 10th of September every year marks World Suicide Prevention Day. The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and World Health Organization (WHO) estimate more than 720,000 suicides occur each year worldwide. Large-scale studies conducted on a global level find that the rates of suicidality (encompassing suicidal ideation, plans, attempts, and death by suicide) are low in the Arab world compared to other countries. 2019 statistics from the World Health Organization reported that countries within the Arab world held figures between 2.0 to 4.8 suicides per 100k (with Syria reporting 2.0 and Iraq 3.6 per 100k).