00:00:00.339 --> 00:00:02.756
(soft music)

00:00:07.437 --> 00:00:10.187
(dramatic music)

00:00:39.997 --> 00:00:42.414
(soft music)

00:01:08.461 --> 00:01:09.294
- [Avi] When I was a boy,

00:01:09.294 --> 00:01:12.557
there was a TV series about
a wealthy family from Aleppo.

00:01:12.557 --> 00:01:15.900
Back then, there was only
one channel in Israel,

00:01:15.900 --> 00:01:17.800
and the whole country was watching it.

00:01:22.930 --> 00:01:25.170
I wasn't aware how unusual it was

00:01:25.170 --> 00:01:27.860
to see a respectful representation of Jews

00:01:27.860 --> 00:01:29.400
who immigrated from Arab countries,

00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:30.303
like my family.

00:01:34.420 --> 00:01:36.111
They usually got the
role of the low-class,

00:01:36.111 --> 00:01:37.955
uneducated character,

00:01:37.955 --> 00:01:39.890
but on this show,

00:01:39.890 --> 00:01:42.753
being Aleppian was considered a pride.

00:01:45.790 --> 00:01:47.950
That same year, we took a school trip

00:01:47.950 --> 00:01:49.540
to the Israel Museum

00:01:49.540 --> 00:01:51.550
to see the most important manuscript

00:01:51.550 --> 00:01:53.690
of the Bible in the world,

00:01:53.690 --> 00:01:55.630
the Aleppo Codex,

00:01:55.630 --> 00:01:57.453
also known as the Crown.

00:01:58.389 --> 00:01:59.640
(soft music)

00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:01.550
When I got home from the museum,

00:02:01.550 --> 00:02:03.393
my father told me a secret.

00:02:03.393 --> 00:02:05.514
Your great-grandfather, Ezra,

00:02:05.514 --> 00:02:07.950
was one of the guardians of the Crown,

00:02:07.950 --> 00:02:10.812
when I twas kept in the
Great Synagogue of Aleppo.

00:02:10.812 --> 00:02:13.073
I felt great pride,

00:02:13.073 --> 00:02:15.414
but I did not know the whole story.

00:02:15.414 --> 00:02:18.033
Not even the half of it.

00:02:18.033 --> 00:02:20.450
(soft music)

00:02:35.540 --> 00:02:37.228
The story begins in Aleppo.

00:02:37.228 --> 00:02:39.430
The Jewish community of Aleppo

00:02:39.430 --> 00:02:41.870
was one of the oldest in the world.

00:02:41.870 --> 00:02:44.750
The Crown was named after the city.

00:02:44.750 --> 00:02:47.012
It was sacred to the Jews of Aleppo.

00:02:47.012 --> 00:02:51.190
(singing in foreign language)

00:02:51.190 --> 00:02:52.390
My grandfather told me

00:02:52.390 --> 00:02:54.940
they believed the Crown
protected the community,

00:02:54.940 --> 00:02:56.745
and if it would be lost,

00:02:56.745 --> 00:03:00.010
they community would be lost forever.

00:03:00.010 --> 00:03:01.966
That is exactly what happened.

00:03:01.966 --> 00:03:04.810
Much of the Crown disappeared,

00:03:04.810 --> 00:03:05.950
hundreds of pages

00:03:05.950 --> 00:03:09.140
from the ancient
manuscript simply vanished.

00:03:09.140 --> 00:03:10.926
The synagogue was destroyed,

00:03:10.926 --> 00:03:14.263
and the community was
scattered to the four winds.

00:03:55.086 --> 00:03:57.680
- [Avi] For the first time after years

00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:00.069
of my estrangement from my Aleppo origins,

00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:02.688
I feel a true sense of mission.

00:04:02.688 --> 00:04:05.390
Perhaps as the great-grandson

00:04:05.390 --> 00:04:06.885
of the guardian of the Crown,

00:04:06.885 --> 00:04:08.820
I am the one who should find out

00:04:08.820 --> 00:04:10.920
what happened to the community's treasure?

00:04:12.085 --> 00:04:16.485
It turns out the missing
pages weren't completely lost.

00:04:16.485 --> 00:04:19.880
Decades later, they
resurfaced out of nowhere

00:04:19.880 --> 00:04:23.000
in the hands of an antiques
dealer in Jerusalem.

00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:25.826
They were offered for sale
for a million dollars.

00:04:25.826 --> 00:04:29.140
The dealer who tried to sell the pages

00:04:29.140 --> 00:04:31.590
was found dead in a hotel room,

00:04:31.590 --> 00:04:33.546
and the pages disappeared once again.

00:04:33.546 --> 00:04:36.709
How did the missing pages disappear,

00:04:36.709 --> 00:04:38.709
and who took them?

00:04:38.709 --> 00:04:42.048
That's what I went to find out.

00:04:42.048 --> 00:04:44.798
(dramatic music)

00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:35.706
My first stop is the Israel Museum.

00:05:35.706 --> 00:05:38.460
I go back to where the remaining pages

00:05:38.460 --> 00:05:40.983
of the Crown are preserved.

00:05:40.983 --> 00:05:43.400
(soft music)

00:06:44.590 --> 00:06:46.450
- [Avi] How did the Crown get to Aleppo

00:06:46.450 --> 00:06:48.986
and become the community's beating heart?

00:06:48.986 --> 00:06:51.950
The Codex was written in the 10th century

00:06:51.950 --> 00:06:53.833
by a scribe of the Karaites,

00:06:53.833 --> 00:06:55.410
a Jewish religious movement

00:06:55.410 --> 00:06:57.283
in the Jewish city of Tiberias.

00:06:59.950 --> 00:07:01.340
The book was stolen,

00:07:01.340 --> 00:07:02.550
brought to Cairo,

00:07:02.550 --> 00:07:04.540
and then ransomed by the Jews of Egypt

00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:05.733
for a lot of money.

00:07:06.640 --> 00:07:09.303
Here, the Crown came to the
world-renowned philosopher

00:07:09.303 --> 00:07:11.560
and Rabbi Maimonides,

00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:14.310
who determined that it was
the most authentic version

00:07:14.310 --> 00:07:15.530
of the Jewish Bible,

00:07:15.530 --> 00:07:18.684
and the blueprint for all further studies.

00:07:18.684 --> 00:07:22.065
Maimonides' descendants
sent the Crown to Aleppo,

00:07:22.065 --> 00:07:25.270
where it was safe guarded for 600 years

00:07:25.270 --> 00:07:27.323
until everything went wrong.

00:08:03.303 --> 00:08:06.220
- [Avi] I guess I'm the other type.

00:08:07.290 --> 00:08:09.940
I look for someone who
knows about antiquities,

00:08:09.940 --> 00:08:12.230
someone who'll give me an insider's look

00:08:12.230 --> 00:08:14.943
into the shady world of the antique trade.

00:08:44.588 --> 00:08:47.085
Lenny doesn't look too thrilled
about getting into this,

00:08:47.085 --> 00:08:49.540
but there must be others

00:08:49.540 --> 00:08:50.743
who'd be glad to help.

00:09:09.121 --> 00:09:09.954
- Okay.

00:09:27.660 --> 00:09:29.983
- [Avi] I think my
father is a bit worried.

00:10:05.099 --> 00:10:06.950
- [Avi] I'm going to meed
writer Amnon Shamosh,

00:10:06.950 --> 00:10:09.163
who wrote the book the series is based on.

00:10:48.370 --> 00:10:51.597
- [Avi] Shamosh tells me
about one particular guest

00:10:51.597 --> 00:10:53.150
who came to Aleppo in the 1930s

00:10:53.150 --> 00:10:54.640
to see the Crown.

00:10:54.640 --> 00:10:57.560
It was the historian Yitzhak Ben-Zvi,

00:10:57.560 --> 00:10:59.230
one of the most important leaders

00:10:59.230 --> 00:11:00.760
of the Zionist movement.

00:11:00.760 --> 00:11:03.139
He would later become the
second president of Israel.

00:11:03.139 --> 00:11:06.570
Ben-Zvi belonged to the European elite

00:11:06.570 --> 00:11:09.880
that was Jewish but not religious.

00:11:09.880 --> 00:11:11.784
Quite the opposite

00:11:11.784 --> 00:11:14.533
of the traditional Syrian
Rabbis he encountered.

00:11:32.018 --> 00:11:35.070
- [Man On Radio] Guatemala, no.

00:11:35.070 --> 00:11:36.493
- [Avi] The story of
fictional Aleppian family

00:11:36.493 --> 00:11:40.120
merges with the story of the Crown.

00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:41.660
It all began on the evening

00:11:41.660 --> 00:11:43.130
of the UN resolution

00:11:43.130 --> 00:11:46.669
on the partition plan between
Jews and Palestinians.

00:11:46.669 --> 00:11:50.289
- Ukraine, yes.

00:11:50.289 --> 00:11:51.372
Uruguay, yes.

00:11:53.709 --> 00:11:55.209
South Africa, yes.

00:12:16.258 --> 00:12:17.160
- [Avi] For the community of Aleppo,

00:12:17.160 --> 00:12:19.981
like other Jewish communities
in Arab countries,

00:12:19.981 --> 00:12:21.900
this was an ambiguous moment

00:12:21.900 --> 00:12:23.997
of both joy and deep concern.

00:12:23.997 --> 00:12:27.203
How will their Arab neighbors react?

00:13:48.036 --> 00:13:49.980
- [Avi] In the 1990s, my Aleppian
community is on TV again,

00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:53.030
this time in a documentary

00:13:53.030 --> 00:13:54.713
about the mystery of the Crown.

00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:03.000
- [Avi] Rafi was born in Aleppo,

00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:06.793
escaped and joined the Israeli
secret service, the Mossad.

00:14:09.860 --> 00:14:12.103
He is sent to meet an important witness.

00:14:53.858 --> 00:14:55.517
- [Avi] It turns out that the Crown

00:14:55.517 --> 00:14:57.450
is missing nearly 200 pages,

00:14:57.450 --> 00:14:59.510
and today, the missing pages

00:14:59.510 --> 00:15:01.990
are worth 10s of millions of dollars.

00:15:01.990 --> 00:15:03.997
If the Crown wasn't burned in the riots,

00:15:03.997 --> 00:15:06.136
when did the pages disappear,

00:15:06.136 --> 00:15:10.310
and how did the Crown
get from Syria to Israel?

00:15:10.310 --> 00:15:13.130
As time passes, more questions arise,

00:15:13.130 --> 00:15:14.563
but no answer in sight.

00:15:16.680 --> 00:15:19.000
I thought I'd be able to
solve the mystery by myself,

00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:22.263
but I guess it's time to
meet the real experts.

00:15:24.920 --> 00:15:26.740
This is Ezra Kassin

00:15:26.740 --> 00:15:29.030
who comes from a well-known Aleppo family.

00:15:29.030 --> 00:15:31.980
He is the most enthusiastic
researcher of the Crown.

00:15:31.980 --> 00:15:33.880
He's been investigating this mystery

00:15:33.880 --> 00:15:35.480
for more than 10 years.

00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:37.720
He discovered hundreds of documents

00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:38.820
and digs through them

00:15:38.820 --> 00:15:41.403
until he finds the secrets hidden within.

00:15:42.278 --> 00:15:44.056
This is Matti Friedman,

00:15:44.056 --> 00:15:46.098
journalist and author.

00:15:46.098 --> 00:15:49.158
He was assigned to write
an article about the Crown,

00:15:49.158 --> 00:15:51.037
but after it was published,

00:15:51.037 --> 00:15:53.400
he realized that everything
he wrote was wrong.

00:15:53.400 --> 00:15:56.696
So he wrote a whole book instead.

00:15:56.696 --> 00:15:58.856
And this is Yifat Erlich.

00:15:58.856 --> 00:16:02.597
She's a journalist as well and an author.

00:16:02.597 --> 00:16:05.210
Yifat carried on Matti's research

00:16:05.210 --> 00:16:07.653
and caught the Crown fever as well.

00:16:07.653 --> 00:16:10.258
This trio, the Crown Underground,

00:16:10.258 --> 00:16:13.070
is not quick to accept me.

00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:14.520
They send me to do homework.

00:16:14.520 --> 00:16:17.320
To read all the documents they found.

00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:19.277
A lot of documents.

00:16:19.277 --> 00:16:22.560
They made me realize I'm not even close

00:16:22.560 --> 00:16:25.913
to understanding the story.

00:16:50.630 --> 00:16:52.880
- [Avi] Aleppo, 1957.

00:16:52.880 --> 00:16:55.360
The Crown, which was rescued from the fire

00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:57.060
by the synagogue's caretaker

00:16:57.060 --> 00:16:59.662
is taken from one hiding place to another.

00:16:59.662 --> 00:17:02.150
The community is falling apart

00:17:02.150 --> 00:17:04.510
under the pressure of
the Syrian government.

00:17:04.510 --> 00:17:06.350
And many Jews leave the city

00:17:06.350 --> 00:17:08.670
in whatever way possible.

00:17:08.670 --> 00:17:11.870
The community's Rabbis
decide with heavy hearts

00:17:11.870 --> 00:17:14.423
to try to smuggle the
Crown out of the city.

00:17:14.423 --> 00:17:18.240
For some reason, they
decide to place the Crown

00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:21.884
in the hands of a cheese
merchant named Murad Faham.

00:17:21.884 --> 00:17:25.660
Ezra introduces me to son
of one of the head Rabbis,

00:17:25.660 --> 00:17:28.550
Rabbi Tawil, who tells me how,

00:17:28.550 --> 00:17:31.310
and mainly why, Faham was chosen

00:17:31.310 --> 00:17:32.663
to smuggle out the Crown.

00:18:15.522 --> 00:18:17.900
- [Avi] At the time, Jews
were forbidden to leave Syria.

00:18:17.900 --> 00:18:20.000
But Faham did have a foreign passport,

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:22.450
which allowed him to get
out with his belongings.

00:18:58.220 --> 00:19:00.740
- [Avi] Faham was supposed to
hand the Crown to Rabbi Dayan,

00:19:00.740 --> 00:19:03.159
the head of the Aleppian
community in Tel Aviv.

00:19:03.159 --> 00:19:05.900
But when he reached the Haifa Harbor,

00:19:05.900 --> 00:19:09.287
Israeli officials were
already waiting for him.

00:19:39.479 --> 00:19:40.840
- [Avi] The Crown is handed to Shragai,

00:19:40.840 --> 00:19:42.570
the head of the immigration department

00:19:42.570 --> 00:19:44.563
at the Jewish agency in Israel.

00:19:48.110 --> 00:19:50.280
Faham, the smuggler,
apparent met with Shragai,

00:19:50.280 --> 00:19:52.150
and a few days later,

00:19:52.150 --> 00:19:53.960
sent him a strange letter,

00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:56.763
explaining why he chose
to hand him the Crown.

00:19:57.832 --> 00:20:01.270
I, Mordechai son of Ezra Faham HaCohen,

00:20:01.270 --> 00:20:03.620
who was exiled from Aleppo, Syria,

00:20:03.620 --> 00:20:05.770
and came to Israel with my family.

00:20:05.770 --> 00:20:07.682
And upon my departure from Syria,

00:20:07.682 --> 00:20:11.858
Rabbi Moshe Tawil and
Rabbi Shlomo Zafrani,

00:20:11.858 --> 00:20:14.759
gave me this bible to take to Israel

00:20:14.759 --> 00:20:17.840
and to give to whoever I deemed

00:20:17.840 --> 00:20:21.413
to be the most honest
man in worshiping God.

00:20:34.098 --> 00:20:37.116
- [Avi] Therefore, I saw fit
to give it to Mr. Shragai.

00:20:37.116 --> 00:20:39.533
(soft music)

00:20:44.870 --> 00:20:47.858
The Crown was passed from
one person to another.

00:20:47.858 --> 00:20:50.310
From the Rabbis to Faham,

00:20:50.310 --> 00:20:52.773
then to Shragai to the Jewish Agency.

00:21:06.380 --> 00:21:07.260
- [Avi] Meanwhile, the Crown

00:21:07.260 --> 00:21:09.340
remained in Shragai's home in Israel.

00:21:09.340 --> 00:21:11.660
I assume that by this point,

00:21:11.660 --> 00:21:14.210
many pages were already missing.

00:21:14.210 --> 00:21:16.340
But Ezra speaks to Shragai's son

00:21:16.340 --> 00:21:18.793
who tells an entirely different story.

00:21:46.990 --> 00:21:48.735
- [Avi] According to this testimony,

00:21:48.735 --> 00:21:52.650
the Crown reached Shragai almost complete.

00:21:52.650 --> 00:21:54.378
But much to Shragai's annoyance,

00:21:54.378 --> 00:21:58.590
the treasure didn't stay in
his hands for a long time.

00:21:58.590 --> 00:22:01.223
Someone else was yearning for the Crown.

00:22:03.700 --> 00:22:07.919
By 1949, a year after the state
of Israel was established,

00:22:07.919 --> 00:22:11.722
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was nominated
to be a parliament member.

00:22:11.722 --> 00:22:14.410
He founded the Ben-Zvi Institute

00:22:14.410 --> 00:22:16.458
for the Study of Jewish
Communities in the East,

00:22:16.458 --> 00:22:20.890
and began collecting important
and rare Jewish manuscripts

00:22:20.890 --> 00:22:22.490
from the Muslim countries,

00:22:22.490 --> 00:22:24.963
not forgetting the Crown for a moment.

00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:57.030
- [Avi] In this broadcast about the Crown,

00:22:57.030 --> 00:22:58.420
the guests say that it was delivered

00:22:58.420 --> 00:23:00.356
straight to President Ben-Zvi,

00:23:00.356 --> 00:23:02.356
but behind the scenes,

00:23:02.356 --> 00:23:05.413
a struggle over the treasure took place.

00:23:26.036 --> 00:23:28.869
(doorbell chimes)

00:26:27.883 --> 00:26:30.810
(soft music)

00:26:30.810 --> 00:26:33.250
- [Avi] After the 1947 riots,

00:26:33.250 --> 00:26:35.798
many of the Aleppo Jews left the city.

00:26:35.798 --> 00:26:38.040
Some of them came to Israel

00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:40.020
while others moved to the United States

00:26:40.020 --> 00:26:41.530
and South America.

00:26:41.530 --> 00:26:44.758
Young Maurice Silvera
migrated to Israel first,

00:26:44.758 --> 00:26:47.158
but decided to leave some years later.

00:26:47.158 --> 00:26:51.915
- When I left Aleppo in 1957,

00:26:51.915 --> 00:26:54.540
my father gave me a book.

00:26:54.540 --> 00:26:58.540
He said, you take it and you give it

00:26:58.540 --> 00:27:01.056
to your grandmother in Israel.

00:27:01.056 --> 00:27:06.000
- [Avi] In 1961, Maurice's
father, David Silvera,

00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:08.496
decided to donate his
family's ancient manuscript.

00:27:08.496 --> 00:27:11.536
He asked his old friend
from Aleppo, Rafi Sutton,

00:27:11.536 --> 00:27:14.973
where he could deposit
such an important piece.

00:27:36.678 --> 00:27:40.330
- Ben-Zvi President sent him
his presidential limousine,

00:27:40.330 --> 00:27:42.215
they pick him up from the hotel

00:27:42.215 --> 00:27:46.434
and he went to meet the president

00:27:46.434 --> 00:27:47.923
at the Ben-Zvi Institute.

00:27:56.170 --> 00:27:58.360
- In 1970, when I went to Israel,

00:27:58.360 --> 00:28:00.160
I went to the Ben-Zvi Institute

00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:01.323
with Rafi Sutton

00:28:02.495 --> 00:28:03.700
and we showed them the letter

00:28:03.700 --> 00:28:05.370
and they took me to the safe

00:28:05.370 --> 00:28:07.240
at the Ben-Zvi Institute there

00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:08.460
and to look around

00:28:08.460 --> 00:28:10.333
and they say it's not there.

00:28:28.274 --> 00:28:29.150
- [Avi] Did you hear any
other similar stories

00:28:29.150 --> 00:28:30.940
to your family's?

00:28:30.940 --> 00:28:32.610
- I heard a few people,

00:28:32.610 --> 00:28:34.650
they say the same story.

00:28:34.650 --> 00:28:36.150
- [Avi] In Ben-Zvi Institute?

00:28:36.150 --> 00:28:36.983
- Yeah.

00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:39.550
- [Avi] The Silveras' manuscript

00:28:39.550 --> 00:28:41.000
may be less important

00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:42.641
and valuable then the Crown.

00:28:42.641 --> 00:28:47.073
But now, it's not longer
an isolated incident.

00:31:09.523 --> 00:31:11.630
- [Avi] What do we know so far?

00:31:11.630 --> 00:31:14.660
The Crown was sent to Israel
by the Rabbis of Aleppo.

00:31:14.660 --> 00:31:17.710
It was given to Faham,
the cheese merchant,

00:31:17.710 --> 00:31:19.150
to smuggle out and give

00:31:19.150 --> 00:31:21.382
to the Aleppian Rabbi Dayan in Tel Aviv.

00:31:21.382 --> 00:31:24.219
But on the way, he ran into Israeli agents

00:31:24.219 --> 00:31:26.950
and had to hand it over to the head

00:31:26.950 --> 00:31:29.057
of the Immigration Department, Shragai.

00:31:29.057 --> 00:31:33.499
Shragai, too, had to give
up the secret treasure

00:31:33.499 --> 00:31:36.503
and the Crown was delivered
to President Ben-Zvi.

00:31:38.830 --> 00:31:41.217
At this pint one thing is clear,

00:31:41.217 --> 00:31:43.537
the missing pages weren't lost in Aleppo

00:31:43.537 --> 00:31:45.398
or on the way to Israel.

00:31:45.398 --> 00:31:47.700
They made it to Jerusalem

00:31:47.700 --> 00:31:50.233
where they resurfaced 30 years later.

00:33:00.449 --> 00:33:02.820
- [Avi] The obvious next step

00:33:02.820 --> 00:33:04.210
would be the find the dealer

00:33:04.210 --> 00:33:07.270
who offered to sell the
pages to Moussaieff.

00:33:07.270 --> 00:33:10.350
He probably has the answer to the mystery,

00:33:10.350 --> 00:33:12.600
and maybe the lost pages, too.

00:33:12.600 --> 00:33:14.267
But it's too late.

00:33:14.267 --> 00:33:16.934
(phone ringing)

00:33:22.207 --> 00:33:24.093
- [Avi] I returned to Lenny
Wolf, the antiques dealer.

00:33:58.140 --> 00:33:59.560
- [Avi] According to the press,

00:33:59.560 --> 00:34:02.610
Shneibaig was apparently poisoned.

00:34:02.610 --> 00:34:04.120
Lenny refers me to someone

00:34:04.120 --> 00:34:06.290
who knew Shneibaig personally,

00:34:06.290 --> 00:34:08.203
an expert in ancient manuscripts,

00:34:08.203 --> 00:34:11.403
who calls himself Tuvia Jacobson.

00:34:11.403 --> 00:34:15.043
Tuvia prefers not to appear on camera.

00:35:13.073 --> 00:35:15.910
- [Avi] Finally, a thread that might help

00:35:15.910 --> 00:35:18.010
lead to the lost pages.

00:35:18.010 --> 00:35:20.550
I travel abroad with high hopes

00:35:20.550 --> 00:35:22.413
to find pages or a lead

00:35:22.413 --> 00:35:23.888
among the Aleppo community in Brooklyn.

00:35:23.888 --> 00:35:26.430
The wealthy families of Aleppo

00:35:26.430 --> 00:35:29.220
used to have their summer
vacation in Beirut.

00:35:29.220 --> 00:35:31.073
Here, the community goes
to a town in New Jersey

00:35:31.073 --> 00:35:33.851
on the Atlantic shore.

00:35:33.851 --> 00:35:36.268
(soft music)

00:35:57.566 --> 00:36:00.399
- Deal is like Heaven with parties

00:36:02.430 --> 00:36:06.050
and clothing and the silver

00:36:06.050 --> 00:36:08.150
and the jewelry and the this and the that.

00:36:09.009 --> 00:36:10.660
- On the last day of school,

00:36:10.660 --> 00:36:11.650
there's a mas exodus.

00:36:11.650 --> 00:36:14.410
Everybody has their cars and trucks,

00:36:14.410 --> 00:36:16.891
and we all pick up and go together.

00:36:16.891 --> 00:36:19.233
- Do you blame us?

00:36:19.233 --> 00:36:21.710
(laughs)

00:36:21.710 --> 00:36:23.313
It's so beautiful.

00:36:23.313 --> 00:36:25.730
(soft music)

00:36:27.240 --> 00:36:28.510
- [Avi] The town has no less

00:36:28.510 --> 00:36:30.926
than 14 Aleppian synagogues.

00:36:30.926 --> 00:36:32.770
Everyone is welcomed

00:36:32.770 --> 00:36:34.380
as long as they Aleppo style

00:36:34.380 --> 00:36:36.200
and tradition are maintained.

00:36:36.200 --> 00:36:37.760
Is any of your grandchildren

00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:39.480
married to a non-Halabi?

00:36:39.480 --> 00:36:41.073
- Yeah.

00:36:41.073 --> 00:36:43.340
- Any of you children,

00:36:43.340 --> 00:36:45.809
yeah, your son was
married to an Ashkenazi.

00:36:45.809 --> 00:36:47.909
- Oh yes.

00:36:47.909 --> 00:36:52.272
She took our ways, everything.

00:36:52.272 --> 00:36:54.890
- [Avi] So she became Halabi?

00:36:54.890 --> 00:36:58.049
- Well, you can't say she became Halabi,

00:36:58.049 --> 00:37:00.609
but anything we did she did.

00:37:00.609 --> 00:37:04.690
- Growing up, we had a
tremendous amount of pride

00:37:04.690 --> 00:37:07.051
in being part of the Syrian community.

00:37:07.051 --> 00:37:08.790
And when I went to study in Israel

00:37:08.790 --> 00:37:10.849
in a mostly Ashkenazi yeshiva,

00:37:10.849 --> 00:37:12.460
I was very surprised,

00:37:12.460 --> 00:37:13.930
it was like a culture shock

00:37:13.930 --> 00:37:16.628
that people looked down on Sephardim.

00:37:16.628 --> 00:37:19.270
And one of the teachers made some comment

00:37:19.270 --> 00:37:24.020
about the way we treat
our wives or something.

00:37:24.020 --> 00:37:26.113
And this was the first
time I ever heard it.

00:37:26.113 --> 00:37:27.750
I'd never experience it before.

00:37:27.750 --> 00:37:29.291
It was very surprising to me.

00:37:29.291 --> 00:37:31.166
- I have three daughter-in-laws.

00:37:31.166 --> 00:37:33.849
- And they're all Askenazi?

00:37:33.849 --> 00:37:35.010
- Yeah.

00:37:35.010 --> 00:37:35.843
Are they?

00:37:35.843 --> 00:37:36.979
- Yeah, yours are.

00:37:36.979 --> 00:37:39.395
- I think so.
- Not mine.

00:37:39.395 --> 00:37:41.432
Mine are all Halabi.

00:37:41.432 --> 00:37:42.544
- How did that happen?

00:37:42.544 --> 00:37:44.096
- [Avi] All married to Halabis?

00:37:44.096 --> 00:37:47.929
(singing in foreign language)

00:38:02.590 --> 00:38:05.178
I joined the morning services
and try to sniff around

00:38:05.178 --> 00:38:06.976
and see if anyone knows anything

00:38:06.976 --> 00:38:09.053
about the missing pages.

00:38:15.640 --> 00:38:17.010
- [Avi] In front of the camera,

00:38:17.010 --> 00:38:18.909
nobody talks about the Crown,

00:38:18.909 --> 00:38:20.789
but some discretely suggest

00:38:20.789 --> 00:38:23.312
that there are pages going around.

00:38:23.312 --> 00:38:25.729
(soft music)

00:38:32.090 --> 00:38:35.280
I meed Murad Guindi who
left Aleppo in the 70s

00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:37.227
after undergoing brutal torture.

00:38:37.227 --> 00:38:39.970
Rumor has it that he keeps

00:38:39.970 --> 00:38:42.960
an ancient manuscript
from Aleppo in his house.

00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:44.280
- You know, the Syrians talk,

00:38:44.280 --> 00:38:45.989
we talk, like me, I talk.

00:38:45.989 --> 00:38:49.268
But I and ever heard that anybody

00:38:49.268 --> 00:38:51.547
has a piece of the (mumbles).

00:38:51.547 --> 00:38:54.850
Today people will pay
you a million dollars

00:38:54.850 --> 00:38:56.425
if you have a page.

00:38:56.425 --> 00:38:58.423
It's missing a lot of pages.

00:39:00.840 --> 00:39:01.673
Me,

00:39:02.850 --> 00:39:05.125
I've been able to take a piece,

00:39:05.125 --> 00:39:08.043
I don't know if you want to record it.

00:39:12.405 --> 00:39:15.867
There was a guy in Syria,

00:39:15.867 --> 00:39:20.830
he find one day in the (mumbles) of Aleppo

00:39:20.830 --> 00:39:22.970
a very old book.

00:39:22.970 --> 00:39:24.987
It went all over the world.

00:39:24.987 --> 00:39:28.060
And one day they knock at my door,

00:39:28.060 --> 00:39:29.444
they bring it.

00:39:29.444 --> 00:39:31.445
I have it.

00:39:31.445 --> 00:39:32.504
- You have it?

00:39:32.504 --> 00:39:33.509
- Yeah.

00:39:33.509 --> 00:39:34.342
- Can we see it?

00:39:34.342 --> 00:39:35.175
- I'll show you it, not on TV.

00:39:35.175 --> 00:39:36.830
- [Avi] Okay.

00:39:36.830 --> 00:39:38.130
But with no camera.

00:39:38.130 --> 00:39:38.980
I'll go with you.

00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:43.480
- Stop it.

00:39:43.480 --> 00:39:44.313
- [Avi] Stop the camera?

00:39:44.313 --> 00:39:45.521
- Stop it.

00:39:45.521 --> 00:39:46.354
- [Avi] Okay.

00:39:46.354 --> 00:39:48.150
- I'll bring it here.

00:39:48.150 --> 00:39:50.210
- [Avi] The manuscript
I saw in Guindi's house

00:39:50.210 --> 00:39:52.240
was extremely impressive.

00:39:52.240 --> 00:39:53.568
It even looked ancient.

00:39:53.568 --> 00:39:56.400
But it certainly wasn't the Crown.

00:39:56.400 --> 00:39:57.950
- I don't believe that
large amounts of pages

00:39:57.950 --> 00:39:59.445
are kept by the Aleppian community.

00:39:59.445 --> 00:40:04.445
I think the Ben-Zvi
Institute has information.

00:40:04.747 --> 00:40:06.645
I don't think they're hiding the pages.

00:40:06.645 --> 00:40:08.350
But I think they have information

00:40:08.350 --> 00:40:10.140
about some of the details

00:40:10.140 --> 00:40:12.325
that happened during those years.

00:40:12.325 --> 00:40:16.171
- [Avi] Here, I discovered a tight-knit,

00:40:16.171 --> 00:40:18.571
well educated affluent community.

00:40:18.571 --> 00:40:22.709
Somewhat envious, I returned to Israel.

00:40:22.709 --> 00:40:25.413
I have to look for a new angle.

00:40:25.413 --> 00:40:27.173
I go back to the beginning,

00:40:27.173 --> 00:40:29.740
to Aleppo of the 1940s.

00:40:29.740 --> 00:40:32.251
The Crown is still safely
kept in the Great Synagogue.

00:40:32.251 --> 00:40:34.192
But it turns out that someone

00:40:34.192 --> 00:40:36.033
was scheming to take it away.

00:41:02.280 --> 00:41:03.690
- [Avi] Author Amnon Shamosh

00:41:03.690 --> 00:41:05.000
tells me about the mission

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:07.050
on which Ben-Zvi and the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem

00:41:07.050 --> 00:41:10.833
sent his brother in the
middle of World War II.

00:41:55.528 --> 00:41:56.400
- [Avi] After the expected refusal

00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:58.110
by the community elders,

00:41:58.110 --> 00:42:00.331
Yitzhak Shamosh receives a tempting offer

00:42:00.331 --> 00:42:02.133
from the youngsters.

00:42:37.741 --> 00:42:39.567
- [Radio Reporter] This
is the air route to Yemen.

00:42:39.567 --> 00:42:41.844
Yemen is a remote kingdom

00:42:41.844 --> 00:42:45.970
beyond the Arabian Desert by the Red Sea.

00:42:45.970 --> 00:42:46.958
- [Avi] In 1950,

00:42:46.958 --> 00:42:49.798
Ben-Zvi traveled to Yemen
for a special mission.

00:42:49.798 --> 00:42:52.742
He visited the transit camp in Aden,

00:42:52.742 --> 00:42:55.579
where Jews from Yemen arrived
on their way to Israel.

00:42:55.579 --> 00:42:57.996
(soft music)

00:43:01.670 --> 00:43:04.918
Most recent immigrants take
books and Torah books with them.

00:43:04.918 --> 00:43:07.860
In Aden, the objects are delivered

00:43:07.860 --> 00:43:09.260
to the central storerooms

00:43:09.260 --> 00:43:10.970
where they are placed in boxes

00:43:10.970 --> 00:43:12.775
and left for safekeeping.

00:43:12.775 --> 00:43:14.640
I opened two or three boxes

00:43:14.640 --> 00:43:17.019
and usually found printed material,

00:43:17.019 --> 00:43:18.976
as well as ordinary manuscripts.

00:43:18.976 --> 00:43:21.563
Probably among these books

00:43:21.563 --> 00:43:24.453
there are valuable manuscripts.

00:43:27.670 --> 00:43:29.090
All these items will be brought

00:43:29.090 --> 00:43:30.758
to the Agency's immigration department

00:43:30.758 --> 00:43:34.214
and must be concentrated in one place

00:43:34.214 --> 00:43:37.290
before they are returned to their owners

00:43:37.290 --> 00:43:39.760
to see if they have any valuable material

00:43:39.760 --> 00:43:42.643
that can be purchased
for the institute I lead.

00:43:44.219 --> 00:43:46.636
(soft music)

00:45:07.070 --> 00:45:08.780
- [Avi] Ben-Zvi returned from Yemen

00:45:08.780 --> 00:45:11.024
and continues to enrich the Institute.

00:45:11.024 --> 00:45:14.830
But something is missing, the Crown.

00:45:14.830 --> 00:45:16.910
To happy I'm, it's the ultimate piece

00:45:16.910 --> 00:45:18.923
of Jewish cultural heritage,

00:45:18.923 --> 00:45:21.810
and he sees it as his personal duty

00:45:21.810 --> 00:45:23.093
to bring it to Israel.

00:45:32.864 --> 00:45:34.086
- [Avi] In 1952, Ben
Zvi is elected president

00:45:34.086 --> 00:45:37.777
and can now finally fulfill his dream.

00:46:42.477 --> 00:46:44.054
- [Avi] The JDC, a relief organization

00:46:44.054 --> 00:46:47.579
that helps Jewish
communities around the globe

00:46:47.579 --> 00:46:49.760
declares that it never accepted

00:46:49.760 --> 00:46:51.950
the request to pressure or threaten

00:46:51.950 --> 00:46:53.540
the Aleppo community.

00:46:53.540 --> 00:46:55.140
But Ben-Zvi carries on.

00:46:55.140 --> 00:46:57.770
1958.

00:46:57.770 --> 00:47:01.222
The leader of the Aleppian
community in Israel, Rabbi Dayan,

00:47:01.222 --> 00:47:04.140
waits in the Aleppian
synagogue in Tel Aviv

00:47:04.140 --> 00:47:05.782
for Faham's arrival with the Crown.

00:47:05.782 --> 00:47:07.741
Faham doesn't show up.

00:47:07.741 --> 00:47:11.301
Instead Rabbi Dayan receives
a surprise invitation

00:47:11.301 --> 00:47:14.083
to the president's residence.

00:47:59.880 --> 00:48:00.990
- [Avi] The Aleppo Rabbis in Israel

00:48:00.990 --> 00:48:03.496
discover that the Crown
fell into the wrong hands.

00:48:03.496 --> 00:48:06.453
And they don't intend to let it pass.

00:48:16.080 --> 00:48:18.070
- [Avi] About a year after
sending the Crown off

00:48:18.070 --> 00:48:21.270
with Faham, Rabbi Tawil leaves Aleppo

00:48:21.270 --> 00:48:22.638
and moves to Israel.

00:48:22.638 --> 00:48:24.958
He appears in court to give his testimony.

00:48:24.958 --> 00:48:27.939
It seems that now everything
will come to light

00:48:27.939 --> 00:48:31.007
and the Crown will return to its owners.

00:49:38.337 --> 00:49:40.015
- [Avi] Whether all communities

00:49:40.015 --> 00:49:41.240
should give their cultural assets

00:49:41.240 --> 00:49:42.300
to the state or not,

00:49:42.300 --> 00:49:43.960
that's an interesting question.

00:49:43.960 --> 00:49:48.278
But the Aleppo community
wasn't even asked.

00:49:48.278 --> 00:49:50.657
They trial goes on for four years,

00:49:50.657 --> 00:49:52.440
far from the public eye.

00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:56.215
Despite Rabbi Tawil's
conclusive testimony,

00:49:56.215 --> 00:49:58.494
the Aleppians are forced to give up

00:49:58.494 --> 00:50:00.493
and go home empty handed.

00:50:30.970 --> 00:50:32.080
- [Avi] Yitzhak Ben-Zvi

00:50:32.080 --> 00:50:33.730
was established in the public eye

00:50:33.730 --> 00:50:35.040
as the man who rescued

00:50:35.040 --> 00:50:37.983
and preserved the most
important Bible in the world.

00:50:50.590 --> 00:50:52.622
- [Avi] Ben-Zvi dies in 1963.

00:50:52.622 --> 00:50:54.659
After Ben-Zvi's death,

00:50:54.659 --> 00:50:56.222
it turns out one man,

00:50:56.222 --> 00:50:57.920
who was in on the secret,

00:50:57.920 --> 00:50:59.430
left Israel unexpectedly.

00:50:59.430 --> 00:51:01.459
It was our cheese man, the smuggler.

00:51:01.459 --> 00:51:05.160
You heard about Murad Faham?

00:51:05.160 --> 00:51:07.240
- He's my brother-in-law.

00:51:07.240 --> 00:51:09.180
- [Avi] So you met him?

00:51:09.180 --> 00:51:10.740
- Oh, I knew him.
- You knew him.

00:51:10.740 --> 00:51:12.499
- He made cheese.
- Yes.

00:51:12.499 --> 00:51:14.222
- Did you know he made?
- Yeah.

00:51:14.222 --> 00:51:15.055
- Yeah.

00:51:16.770 --> 00:51:18.259
- We all had--
- Take off your glasses.

00:51:18.259 --> 00:51:19.220
- Huh?

00:51:19.220 --> 00:51:20.462
- Take your glasses off.

00:51:20.462 --> 00:51:21.939
- Well, I did.

00:51:21.939 --> 00:51:22.772
- [Avi] Did he ever tell you

00:51:22.772 --> 00:51:24.360
why he left Israel and came here?

00:51:24.360 --> 00:51:26.319
- The family is here.
- No, no.

00:51:26.319 --> 00:51:31.319
Money, opportunity, jobs.

00:51:32.170 --> 00:51:34.593
How much jobs does Israel have?

00:51:35.510 --> 00:51:36.680
- [Avi] Faham the
smuggler moves to the US,

00:51:36.680 --> 00:51:39.480
but a letter written by Shragai

00:51:39.480 --> 00:51:42.033
makes it clear that it's not over yet.

00:55:22.130 --> 00:55:23.750
- [Avi] We go to meet the current director

00:55:23.750 --> 00:55:25.670
of the Ben-Zvi Institute.

00:55:25.670 --> 00:55:28.743
Will he finally reveal what
happened to the missing pages?

00:58:08.403 --> 00:58:11.350
- [Avi] It seems that the
head of the Ben-Zvi Institute

00:58:11.350 --> 00:58:13.182
doesn't see the cultural appropriation

00:58:13.182 --> 00:58:16.222
which took place in the 1950s in Israel.

00:58:16.222 --> 00:58:21.222
But would Israeli society
fall apart, as he says,

00:58:21.540 --> 00:58:25.003
if there will be recognition
of mistakes and wrongdoings?

00:58:28.210 --> 00:58:29.854
I return home to my father.

00:58:29.854 --> 00:58:31.850
I show him the documents

00:58:31.850 --> 00:58:33.513
and tell him the whole story.

00:58:34.570 --> 00:58:35.523
In the beginning,

00:58:36.917 --> 00:58:37.990
my father was concerned
that I'd get into trouble

00:58:37.990 --> 00:58:39.033
with the underworld.

00:58:39.930 --> 00:58:41.280
I didn't expect the story

00:58:41.280 --> 00:58:43.913
to end up involving the
Israeli establishment.

00:59:41.552 --> 00:59:43.410
- [Avi] But it's not over yet.

00:59:43.410 --> 00:59:44.696
I believe that recognition

00:59:44.696 --> 00:59:46.493
of the cultural appropriation

00:59:46.493 --> 00:59:49.334
may also open the way
for whoever holds them

00:59:49.334 --> 00:59:52.834
to reveal the lost pages of the Crown.

00:59:52.834 --> 00:59:56.754
Until then, as a loyal, stubborn Aleppian,

00:59:56.754 --> 01:00:00.490
I will have to continue the search.

01:00:00.490 --> 01:00:02.907
(soft music)