Fortunée Abadie is still haunted by the day in 1947 when mobs
stormed the Jewish Quarter of the ancient Syrian city of Aleppo,
shortly after the United Nations vote that laid the groundwork
for the creation of Israel. Aleppo, a city where Jews and
Muslims had lived together for centuries, exploded with anti-
Jewish violence. Mrs. Abadie, now 88, remembers watching
attackers burn prayer books, prayer shawls and other holy
objects from the synagogue across the street. She heard the
screams of neighbors as their homes were invaded. "We thought we
were going to be killed," she says. The family fled to nearby
Lebanon. Mrs. Abadie left behind all she had: clothes,
furniture, photographs and even a small bottle of French perfume
that she still misses, Soir de Paris—Evening in Paris. The
Abadie family's story is moving from the recesses of history to
a newly prominent place in the debate over the future of the
Middle East. Arab leaders have insisted for decades that
Palestinian refugees who fled their homes following