Secret Op Rescues Ancient Hebrew Bibles

It was a James Bond-style, continent-wide operation with many participants. It began in Syria, continued in the United States and ended in Israel. And yet, not a single word has been published about it – until now.

Bibles rescued from Syria in secret op
Holy books dating back 1,000 years, meticulously guarded by Jewish community, travel from Damascus to Israel in continent-wide, James Bond-style operation
Uri Misgav • Ynet

It was a James Bond-style, continent-wide operation with many participants. It began in Syria, continued in the United States and ended in Israel. And yet, not a single word has been published about it – until now.

Yedioth Ahronoth has revealed the amazing rescue of some of the world's most ancient Bibles from Damascus.

The 11 holy books, some dating back 1,000 years, were written by copyist of the Scriptures around the world and arrived in the Syrian capital in different periods. The Jewish community took pride in them and guarded them meticulously, helping them survive the political upheavals that took place in the city over the years.

The Damascus books are considered the world's most ancient Bibles after the Aleppo Codex, which compared to them is torn and shabby.

The Rabin government decided to bring the books to Israel in 1995. The defense establishment, governmental organizations and immigrants from Syria took part in the secret operation.

"It was one of the most important operations we participated in," says Eliyahu Hasson, chairman of the community of Damascus Jews in Israel, who served as director-general of the Transportation Ministry at the time.

Judy Peled-Carr [sic], a Canadian pensioner who turned helping Syria's Jewry into her life's work, lauds the operation as well. "Out of all the things I have done in my life, this operation was the most brilliant," she declares.
 
Mystery remains

On their way from Israel to Syria, the ancient Bibles made a stop in New York. They arrived at a safe haven thee, inside a grey container, without anyone guessing its priceless content.

The mystery surrounding the books' journey from Damascus has not been fully cleared, and some parts of the story cannot be published.

"I'm sorry, I can’t tell you exactly how I got it out of there," says Peled-Carr [sic] about the book she personally helped bring to Israel. "When I had a famous rabbi look at it, a Tunisian Jew, he burst into tears and said, 'Get this book out of my house. I feel like I have just seen God.'"

The people involved in the operation say that its execution was very costly. "It cost a lot of money, a lot," says Hasson. "Whoever did it acted wisely and knocked on the right doors. One weak link would have been enough to break the entire chain."

Hasson explains that in light of the sensitivity of the operation, it was supervised by high-ranking officials. "I have no doubt that Yitzhak Rabin was in on the secret," he says. "Unfortunately, the prime minister was murdered before they arrived in Israel and did not get to see the mission accomplished."

Since being brought to Israel, the books are being kept at the National Library in the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They will be presented to the wide public on Wednesday evening in a festive event attended by guests from Israel and abroad.

The woman mentioned in this article as Judy Peled-Carr is actually Judy Feld-Carr, and she's a real hero who rescued many Syrian Jews.

I'm not sure which codexes (or codex) this article is talking about.

Perhaps Mississippi Fred can tell us, if he happens to see this post.

Update 10-6-2011 – According to the AP, there were several rescues. The rescued codices are collectively known as the Damascus Keter.

Comments

[anuran]

A very interesting story

[Yosef ben Matitya]

'Judy Peled-Carr'
yes, because letters bg'd kf't at the begining of a word come with dagesh.
hence in israel, they celebrate pestivals etc...
she is lucky the shmuck who was transliterating didn't call her Goudy Peled Qar (as in hebrew cold).
'I'm not sure which codexes (or codex) this article is talking about'.
Keter Dameseq and others.

[ah-pee-chorus]

in the photo there looks to be no difference between "chet" and "hey".

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

APC
FWIW, in Torah font the chet is made from two mirrored zayins connected by an angled line. OTOH there are no tagin here.

[Aleksandr Sigalov]

Its probably from the same family as Aleppo Codex and these:

http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/mss/

What I don't like though is that Israel had been notoriously bad at making such important manuscripts available in person or online to the general public and researchers.

I hope it will be different this time.

[ruthie]

very moving
beautiful

[Gevezener Chusid]

Ah-pee.....there is a difference between het and hay but it is different from what we think of as the difference. The top horizontal stroke of the hey extends over the left side of the letter whereas the horizontal "roof" of the het (of which there is only one example) is squared off.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

"On their way from Israel to Syria, the ancient Bibles made a stop in New York."

and all the while we thought the books were going the other way around, no?

[Forty Eighter]

The picture accompanying this article is of the Aleppo Codex which has been in israel since the 50's. The story of how that one was smuggled to israel is faciniating in itself. The manuscripts they are talking about here don't seem to be related to the picture. They must be referring the manuscripts which have never been seen by the public.

[Adam Neira]

"The Scroll Who Loved Me"

New 2012 Bond movie by the Broccoli Franchise starring Daniel Craig, Natalie Portman and others. Not sure if the narrative will play well to the secular crowd but the religious public will storm the box office.

A nice story to balance the other articles on FM today. We need to see the world as it really is, but stories of hope, co-operation and joy help calm the seas.

[nu-nu]

this site is solely to trash cheridim.. so why is this story here? can anyone spin it somehow negatively on the cheridim!