Summary of Matti Friedman's The Aleppo Codex (eBook)

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs. The vote followed months of desperate diplomacy and strong-arm politics. For supporters of the Jewish national movement, Zionism, passage of the resolution would mean justice for a persecuted people and the realization of a two-thousand-year-old dream of national rebirth.#2 The American voice on the radio began reading from a list of countries, and as he did, Arab leaders and diplomats moved beyond threatening to eradicate the Jewish enclave in Palestine by force to threatening the Jews of the vulnerable Diaspora archipelago.#3 The resolution was adopted by 33 votes, 13 against, and 10 abstentions. Arab leaders and diplomats responded with fury. The Syrian delegate to the United Nations warned before leaving the assembly that his country would never recognize the decision.#4 The delegates at Flushing Meadow set in motion the events that would lead to a war in Palestine, a Jewish victory, and the birth of the state of Israel. But they also began a different chain of events: the story of the Crown of Aleppo, one that must be rescued from decades of neglect, myth, and deception.