Elia sets her book in the timeframe between 1925 and 1975, but also includes a briefing of the living conditions of Jews under the Ottoman Empire. The Empire hosted Jews of various ethnicities, as well as native Jews who spoke Arabic and Turkish. Consequently, they were also present in Lebanon and Syria. In the former they lived mostly in Saida and Deir el Kamar, and in the latter in commercial centers of the country. Sultan Beyazid II generally welcomed the Jews, as he thought they would make good minority citizens.

The Ottoman Tanzimat, coupled with the increased commercialization of Beirut in the early 1900s, led to a reorganization of the city center. The Jews, like other Beirut residents moved to different quarters, and settled in Wadi Abou Jmil. Until the dismantling of the Empire, they lived in the city like any other community, and were protected by the Ottoman state. After the war, Syrian Jews started arriving in Beirut, escaping political turmoil. The community flourished as the city became a main stop for Jews from Arab countries, and “the life of citizens was governed by the lenient laws of a young country” (page 9).

The book pays close attention to the education of the Jewish community. At the time when missionary education institutions were flourishing in the country, the Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU) school was also established as a branch of the institution in Paris. However, while the numbers of Jews increased in the city over the century, enrollment in Jewish schools did not. Students instead attended other Christian denominational schools, and avoided the hefty fees of the AIU. This indicates the ease with which all religious communities interacted. Though Jewish institutions never had any Zionist outlook at first, the 1920s and 1930s saw growing sympathy for Zionism among the Jews in Beirut.

The community’s well-being developed throughout the first half of the 20th century with the efforts of prominent figures and businessmen such as Joseph Farhi. Inspired by the organization of Jewish communities in Europe, he looked to improve religious, educational and administrative institutions. He constructed a large synagogue in Wadi Abou Jmil to which he invited Lebanese officials on holidays, and tried to lower the AIU fees so as to attract more Jewish students. He also created a community council and established a communal tax. Throughout these years the number of Jews in Beirut multiplied from around 100 at the start of the 20th century, to 3588 in the census of 1932. In reality, however, this number reached 6000.

Tensions started in the 1940s and reached new heights in the second half of the decade when it became evident to the community that in order to maintain their status they needed to remain discrete. The council made an effort to reduce any pro-Zionism among its members. Jewish youth movements were all dissolved as the government had suspended their activities. In 1950, a bomb was planted in the AIU school, destroying the building. At this point many Jews began to leave Lebanon for Israel. But Jewish migration out of Lebanon only expanded after the 1967 war and the increased presence of Palestinian refugees and militants in the country. Elia asserts that, in the years between 1925 and 1975, anti-Semitism in Beirut was almost ‘imperceptible’.

She closes the book with a touching tribute to her father, Albert Elia, who had been abducted in 1971 for helping illegal Jewish refugees from Syria escape to Palestine. With the start of the war in 1975 and the intense frustration with Israel in Lebanon, many Jewish families left the city, and none have come back since. Today the number of Jews is less than 200. Their small number and absence from political life does little to remind Lebanon of their historical presence, a presence almost forgotten due to the lack of remnants or resources. It is no surprise then that Elia’s work is mostly a compilation of journal entries, photos, and interviews, for the lack of better resources. This nostalgia for the happier days of the community evokes a somewhat childish naiveté in the author’s tone, but still triggers the curiosity of the reader about a realm seldom explored in Lebanon.

Elia, Gabrielle. The Tightrope Walkers: A Chronicle of the Jews of Lebanon from 1925-1975. Elia Press Ltd., 2010. Pp. 316. Print.