Lebanon's Embassy in Paris will host a "family reunion" in honor of the Lebanese Jewish community in France next month, Lebanese media reported on Sunday.
"The presence of the Lebanese Jewish community in Lebanon and in the countries where many Lebanese have made their home is a source of pride and marks the uniqueness of our country," wrote the embassy in the invitation to the event shared by Lebanese media.
"Lebanon is today, more than ever, attached to the promotion of its inclusive model and we know very well that our future depends only on our capacities to remain united, and on our will to remain open to the world and its richness," read the invitation.
The embassy added that it was organizing the "family reunion" in honor of the Jewish community, with determination to find common roots and aspirations for a world at peace.
The invitation to the event was sent to a number of Lebanese residents of France from all sects, according to Lebanese news source Annahar Al-Araby.
The Annahar report on the planned event stressed that 'a country that presents itself to the world as a 'model of coexistence' cannot remain silent about the feeling of a group of its citizens of 'ostracism,' while Israel, which presents itself to the world on the basis that it is the 'state of the Jews,' hosts three thousand Lebanese who sought refuge in it after its withdrawal from southern Lebanon, twenty-one years ago."
A report on the planned event by MTV Lebanon stated that the event is "a step to reconnect what has been cut off" and "an occasion to recall that the Jews of Lebanon were, and still are, Lebanese citizens."
Lebanon once had a thriving Jewish community and its Jewish population actually grew after the State of Israel declared independence in 1948, although the Jewish population then largely fled the country after the 1967 Six Day War and the Lebanese Civil War which began in 1975 amid increasing antisemitism.
There are only 29 Jews believed to be left in Lebanon, although there are no official estimates of the number of Jews left in the country. Those left in the country live in hiding, praying in secret, despite the restoration of the Magen Abraham synagogue in Beirut in recent years.