Jobar

Jobar جوبر
Joubar on the District map of Damaskus
Jobar
Coordinates: 33°31′51.6″N 36°20′13.6″E / 33.531000°N 36.337111°E / 33.531000; 36.337111
Country	Syria
Governorate	Damascus Governorate
Municipalities	Jobar Municipality
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)

Jobar (Arabic: جوبر‎‎) also spelled Jawbar, Jober or Joubar, is a municipality of the Syrian capital Damascus. A once historical village on the outskirts of Damascus, it is now a suburb of the capital city. It lies 2 km northeast of the old city walls. It contains the most venerated site for Syrian Jews, an ancient 2,000-year-old synagogue and shrine in commemoration of the biblical prophet Elijah, which has been a place of Jewish pilgrimage for many centuries. Today Jobar lies in ruins due to ongoing battles between regular Syrian Army and various opposition groups.

One of the earliest sources mentioning the existence of the village is from the Talmud, which states that the village was one of ten surrounding Damascus inhabited by Jews. Rabbi Rafram bar Pappa was recorded as having prayed in the synagogue of Jobar. During the medieval period, it was "the most important and longest lasting Jewish community outside of the old city walls." An anonymous Jewish traveller who arrived a few years after the Spanish immigration (1522) found 60 Jewish families living in the village of Jobar, who had a "very beautiful synagogue." Ibn Tulun (died 1546) mentions that "Jobar is a Jewish village with a Muslim presence." The "Chronicle" of Joseph Sambari (1672) says that the Jewish community of Damascus lived chiefly in Jobar and in 1735 the village was populated solely by Jews.

Documents from the early 19th century describe properties in the village that belonged to Jewish wakf (religious endowment) and were leased to members of other communities. In 1839, the village was described as "...prettily situated on a green fertile spot," that formed part of the Garden that surrounds Damascus. The inhabitants were reported as numbering 1,000 and seeming to be in a "tolerably prosperous state." Its population was "wholly Hebrew" and governed by local Jewish institutions with a "little hierarchy of rulers and subjects." During the rioting following accusation of ritual murder against the Jews of Damascus in 1840, the mob fell upon the synagogue, pillaged it and destroyed the scrolls of the Law.