Jews in Lebanon Today
Lebanese Jews are traditionally a Mizrahi community living mostly in and around Beirut but also in Sidon and Baalbek. Almost all of the community has emigrated to Israel and to countries with already well established Lebanese diaspora like France, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Australia and Central and Eastern Europe (particularly Russia and Bulgaria, mostly university students who married locals). Some of those Lebanese Jews who emigrated to Israel would later return as occupying troops in 1982.
There are only between 50-100 Jews now living in the country. Emigration was not great even after Lebanon's first civil war in 1958, as Lebanese Jews were tightly integrated into society and felt no need to abandon their homeland. But emigration increased after Lebanon's 1975 civil war, and increased further after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982.
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