The Dura Europos Synagogue, Dura Europos, Syria. Images of the Excavation and Frescoes via the Yale

The Dura Europos Synagogue, Dura Europos, Syria. Images of the Excavation and Frescoes via the Yale University Art Gallery and Yale Divinity School Eikon Database.Initially, I had preplanned this post in light of the upcoming Jewish holiday of Pesach (in English, Passover), which begins at sundown on April 10th, 2017. In the 1920′s and 1930′s, Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters began excavation work of the Roman city of Dura Europos, located in modern day Syria.As an archaeological site, Dura Europos provided a early archaeologists with an amazing view into the expanses of the Roman Empire, and the great diversity which existed within this city. The city has provided endless fascinating discoveries: it gives us our earliest found example of Chemical Warfare between the Sassanids and the Romans in 265 CE, as well as the earliest found example of a Christian Church, and the earliest found example of a Jewish Synagogue at the site, where inscriptions inform us that in 244 CE, a Jewish leader of the local community enlarged and refurbished the synagogue. The frescoes beautifully illustrate a variety of scenes from the Jewish Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), including scenes following Moses’ life in the Book of Exodus. Above are two fresco scenes: the first depicts the infancy of Moses, and his rescue from the Nile, before the wife of the Pharaoh hands her adopted son to Moses’ real mother, who then serves as his Hebrew nursemaid. The second is a later scene which moves from left to right. The scene begins with Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, then transitions, showing Moses raising his staff as the parted seas crash down upon Egyptian armies, before the scene ends with Moses and the Israelites standing together under the outstretched hands of God, having successfully survived their flight from Egypt. And this is where this planned post took another course – I could not write about the history of Dura Europos without discussing the present of Dura Europos, and the state of Syria. Due to ISIL/Daesh activity, Dura Europos has been one of many archaeological or historical sites attacked. As a historian who works with artistic and archaeological material, I understand that the destruction of our past is a dangerous thing, and that destroying heritage and culture (especially of minority religions) is a part of terrorism.However, I also understand that it is our human duty to be concerned for humanity first, and objects second. The story of Exodus is a story of refugees, and it therefore feels imperative to talk about the refugees of today. In this case, the story is about Syrian refugees,  but in 2015, the UNCHR estimated that about 60 million people in the world are refugees, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. Syrians accounted for roughly 11 million of those people. The Syrian Jewish community has dwindled over several decades: in the 1970′s, the population of Syrian Jews was roughly 4,600 people. Over the course of about thirty years, Canadian music teacher Judy Feld Carr helped smuggle some 3,228 Syrian Jews out of Syria. By 2014, the total Jewish population of Syria was thought to be under twenty remaining people, and after a 2015 rescue operation for the Halabi family organized by Israeli Authorities and assisted by Muslim rebels in Aleppo, it is suspected the remaining number of Jews in Syria is zero, or close to it. The refugee and humanitarian crisis of Syria is not over, however. And while no one person can fix it, each person willing to put forth the effort to help can improve the world. Or, in other words – You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon itלֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמוֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּהPirke Avot, 2:20I know watching a humanitarian crisis anywhere in the world unfold can be overwhelming - and that we often feel like what we do doesn’t matter, or that there is no hope, or that we can’t singlehandedly fix the problems ourselves. Politics can overwhelm many people, threats of war can frighten us into complacency, and that sometimes terrifying times feel incomprehensible, even if we are the ones being affected by them. But I also know that each step gets us a little further to completing the work of making the world a better place. Here is a listing of Charity Navigator’s highly rated charities working on the Syrian Crisis. - Asianhistory Mod (Chag pesach sameach, Jewish followers)  -- source link

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