History Of The Jews In Syria

Syrian Jews had predominantly two origins: those who inhabited Syria from early times and the Sephardim who fled to Syria after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 CE. There were large Jewish communities in Aleppo, Damascus, and Qamishli for centuries. In the early 20th century, a large percentage of Syrian Jews emigrated to Israel, the U.S., and Latin America. The largest Syrian-Jewish community is now located in Israel and is estimated to number 80,000.

Following the Syrian Civil War and rise of ISIL, the majority of the remaining Jews of Syria have fled to Israel. As of June 2020 there are no known Jews remaining in the country. However, around 20,000 to 22,300 Israeli Jews are living in Israeli settlements on the Golan Heights. The international community recognizes the Golan Heights to be official Syrian territory and widely rejects Israeli military occupation.

Second Temple period

The tradition of the community ascribes its founding to the time of King David in c. 1000 BCE, whose general Joab occupied the area of Syria, described in the Bible as '' Aram Zoba'': this name is taken by later tradition as referring to Aleppo. Modern scholarship locates Aram Zoba in Lebanon and the far south of Syria: the identification with Aleppo is not found in rabbinic literature prior to the 11th century. Whether or not Jewish settlement goes back to a time as early as King David, both Aleppo and Damascus certainly had Jewish communities during Late Antiquity.

Post Second Temple

In Roman times, about 10,000 Jews lived in Damascus, governed by an ethnarch. Paul of Tarsus succeeded, after a first rebuff, in converting many of the Jews of Damascus to Christianity in 49 CE. This irritated the Jewish ethnarch to such a degree that he attempted to arrest Paul; the latter's friends only saved his life by lowering him in a basket out of a window built into the wall of the city. Many Jews were murdered by the pagan inhabitants upon the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War. Later, Damascus, as the coins show, obtained the title of metropolis, and under Alexander Severus, when the city was a Christian colony, it became the seat of a bishop, who enjoyed a rank next to that of the Patriarch of Antioch. In the 5th century, under the rule of the Byzantine Empire, being the Talmudic time, Jews were living at Damascus for the rabbi Rafram bar Pappa went to pray in the synagogue of Jobar.

An early Jewish community is likely to have existed in Aleppo during the 5th century, when a synagogue was constructed there. Also in the 5th century, Jerome reports the presence in Beroea (Aleppo) of a congregation of Nazarenes (Jewish Christians) using a Hebrew gospel similar to that of Matthew.

After the Islamic conquest

Damascus

The rule of the Umayyads brought a new period of splendor to the city, which now became the capital of that caliphate. This period ended with the rise of the Abbasids, and the city suffered during the following centuries from continuous wars. The Jewish community continued, and certainly existed in 970; "for," says a historian, "Joseph ben Abitur of Cordoba, having lost all hope of becoming the chief rabbi of that city, went to Palestine in that year, and settled at Damascus". Fortunately for the Jews, it resisted the siege of the Second Crusade in 1147. Some time afterward a large number of Palestinian Jews sought refuge in Damascus from the enormous taxes imposed upon them by the Crusaders, thus increasing the community in Damascus. Little information exists concerning the Jews in Damascus during the following centuries. A little information is given by travelers who visited the city. In 1128, Abraham ibn Ezra visited Damascus (though compare the note of Harkavy.) According to Edelmann, Judah ha-Levi composed his famous poem on Zion in this city; but Harkavy has shown that "ash-Sham" here designates Palestine and not Damascus. In 1267, Nahmanides visited Damascus and succeeded in leading a Jewish colony to Jerusalem.

Benjamin of Tudela visited Damascus in 1170, while it was in the hands of the Seljukian prince Nur ad-Din Zangi. He found there 3,000 Rabbanite Jews and 100 Karaites. Jewish studies flourished there much more than in Palestine; according to Bacher it is possible that during the 12th century the seat of the Palestinian academy was transferred to Damascus. The principal rabbis of the city were Rabbi Ezra and his brother Sar Shalom, president of the tribunal; Yussef ִHamsi, R. Matsliaִh, R. Meïr, Yussef ibn Piat, R. Heman, the parnas, and R. Tsadok, physician.

About the same time, Petaִhiah of Regensburg was there. He found "about 10,000 Jews, who have a prince. The head of their academy is Rabbi Ezra, who is full of the knowledge of the Law; for Rabbi Samuel, the head of the Academy of Babylon, ordained him". It was a Damascus rabbi, Judah ben Josiah, who, toward the end of the twelfth century, was "nagid" in Egypt. At a later period another nagid, David ben Joshua, also came from Damascus.

In 1210, a French Jew, Samuel ben Samson, visited the city. He speaks of the beautiful synagogue situated outside the city (Jobar) and said to have been constructed by Elisha.

Under Saladin the city again enjoyed considerable importance; but upon his death the disturbances began anew, until in 1516 the city fell into the hands of the Turks, since which time it has declined to the rank of a provincial town.

It seems probable that Yehuda Alharizi also visited Damascus during the first decade of the 13th century. At least he mentions the city in the celebrated 46th "Makamah."

Toward the end of the 13th century Jesse ben Hezekiah, a man full of energy, arose in Damascus. He was recognized by Sultan Qalawun of Egypt as prince and exilarch, and in 1289 and in June 1290, in conjunction with his 12 colleagues, he put the anti-Maimonists under the ban.

The letters of the rabbis of Damascus and of Acre have been collected in the "Minִhat Qena'ot " (a compilation made by Abba Mari, grandson of Don Astruc of Lunel). No information is available for the 14th century. Estori Farִhi (1313) contents himself with the mere mention of Damascene Jews journeying to Jerusalem. A manuscript of David Kimhi on Ezekiel was written by Nathan of Narbonne and collated with the original by R. ִHiyya in Damascus, Ab 18, 1375. The Jewish community of Damascus continued to exist under the sultans ( Burjites and Mamelukes) of Egypt, who conquered Syria; for the Jewish refugees of Spain established themselves among their coreligionists in that city in 1492, constructing a synagogue which they called "Khata'ib." The anonymous author of the "Yiִhus ha-Abot" also speaks of the beauties of Damascus; and of the synagogue at Jobar, "half of which was constructed by Elisha, half by Eleazar ben Arach".

Elijah of Ferrara in 1438 had come to Jerusalem and had a certain jurisdiction in rabbinical matters over Damascus as well. He speaks of a great plague which devastated Egypt, Syria, and Jerusalem; but he does not say how much the Jews of Damascus suffered. Menaִhem ִHayyim of Volterra visited Damascus in 1481, and found 450 Jewish families, "all rich, honored, and merchants." The head of the community was a certain R. Joseph, a physician.

Obadiah of Bertinoro in 1488 speaks in one of his letters of the riches of the Jews in Damascus, of the beautiful houses and gardens. A few years later, in 1495, an anonymous traveler speaks in like eulogistic terms. He lived with a certain Moses Makran, and he relates that the Jews in Damascus dealt in dress-goods or engaged in some handicraft. They lent money to the Venetians at 24% interest.

Aleppo

Maimonides, in his letter to the rabbis of Lunel, speaks of Aleppo as being the only community in Syria where some Torah learning survived, though the effort devoted to it was in his opinion less than impressive.

Benjamin of Tudela visited Aleppo in 1173, where he found a Jewish community of 1,500 (or on another reading 5,000) souls with three noteworthy rabbis attending to their spiritual needs: Moses Alconstantini, Israel, and Seth. Petaִhiah of Regensburg was there between 1170 and 1180, and Alִharizi fifty years later. The former calls the citadel the palace of King Nour-ed-din, and says that there were 1,500 Jews in Aleppo, of whom the chief men were Rabbis Moses Alconstantini, Israel, and Seth. Yehuda Alharizi, author of the ''Taִhkemoni'' has much to say in praise of the Aleppo Jews. In 1195 the leading Jew was Joseph ben Judah, who had migrated from the Maghreb by way of Egypt, where he was the friend of Maimonides, who wrote for him the Guide for the Perplexed. Other men of learning were Azariah and his brother Samuel Nissim, the king's physician Eleazer, Jeshua, Jachin Hananiah, and Joseph ben ִHisdai. Although he respected them far more than their Damascene counterparts, Alharizi thought little of the Aleppo poets, of whom he mentions Moses Daniel and a certain Joseph; the best was Joseph ben Tsemah, who had good qualities but wrote bad verse. Their piety must have been extreme, for Eleazer is held up to scorn for having traveled on the Sabbath, although at the sultan's command. Alharizi died in Aleppo and was buried there.

In 1260 the Mongols conquered Aleppo, and massacred many of the inhabitants, but many of the Jews took refuge in the synagogue and were saved. In 1401 the Jewish quarter was pillaged, with the rest of the city, by Tamerlane; and a Jewish saint died there after a fast of seven months.

Arrival of Spanish Jews in Syria

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephardi Jews settled in many of the Islamic countries bordering the Mediterranean, including Syria, which then formed part of the Mameluke sultanate of Egypt. For the most part they founded their own communities, but they often assumed positions of rabbinic and communal leadership in their new homes. A social distinction remained between the newly arrived Sephardim and the native communities, which took several decades to accept them. Aleppo Jews of Spanish descent have a special custom, not found elsewhere, of lighting an extra candle at Hanukkah: it is said that this custom was established in gratitude for their acceptance by the local community. In both Aleppo and Damascus, the two communities supported a common Chief Rabbinate. Chief Rabbis were usually but not always from Spanish-descended families: in Aleppo there were five in a row from the Laniado family.

The Sephardic presence was greater in Aleppo than in Damascus which maintained closer ties to the Holy Land. In particular, the Damascus community was strongly influenced by the Safed Kabbalistic school of Isaac Luria, and contributed several notable personalities, including ִHayim Vital and Israel Najara. This explains certain differences in customs between the two cities.

Captain Domingo de Toral, who visited Aleppo in 1634, mentions over 800 houses of Jews who spoke Castilian. An anonymous Jewish traveler who arrived a few years after the Spanish immigration, found at Damascus 500 Jewish households; also a Karaite community whose members called themselves "Muallim-Tsadaqah"; and a more important Rabbanite community, composed of three groups and possessing three beautiful synagogues. One of these belonged to the Sephardim; another, to the Moriscos (Moorish Jews) or natives; and the third, to the Sicilians. In each synagogue there was a preacher, who read the works of Maimonides to the pious every day after the prayer. The preacher of the Sephardim was Isִhaq Mas'ud, that of the natives Shem-ִTob al-Furani, and that of the Sicilians Isaac ִHaber. There were also two small schools for young students of the Talmud, containing respectively thirty and forty pupils.

Sixty Jewish families were living in the village of Jobar, from Damascus, who had a very beautiful synagogue. "I have never seen anything like it," says the author; "it is supported by thirteen columns. Tradition says that it dates from the time of the prophet Elisha, and that he here anointed King Hazael. R. Eleazar ben Arach (a tannaite of the 1st century) repaired this synagogue." In order to indicate, finally, that the city was even then under the Ottoman rule, the narrator adds that the people of Damascus had just received a governor ("na'ib") from Constantinople.

Under the Ottoman Empire

In 1515 Selim I defeated the Mamelukes and Syria became part of the Ottoman Empire.

The "Chronicle" of Joseph Sambari (finished 1672) contains the names of a number of rabbis of note who lived in Damascus during the 16th century. He says that the Jewish community lived chiefly in Jobar, and he knows of the synagogue of Elisha ( Central Synagogue of Aleppo) and the cave of Elijah the Tishbite. At the head of the community was a certain Abu ִHatseirah (so-called from a peculiar kind of headdress which he wore), who was followed by 'Abd Allah ibn Naִsir. Of the rabbis of Damascus proper he mentions Joseph ִHayyaִt; Samuel Aripol, author of "Mizmor le-Todah"; Samuel ibn 'Imran; Joseph al-ִSa'iִh; Moses Najara, author of "Lekaִh ִTob"; ִHayim Alshaich; Joseph Maִtalon; Abraham Galante. In this home of learning there was also a model-codex of the Bible called "Al-Taj" (the Crown). In 1547 Pierre Belon visited Damascus in the train of the French ambassador M. de Fumel. He speaks of the large number of Jews there; but makes the singular confusion of placing in this city the events connected with the famous Ahmad Shaitan of Egypt.

Among the spiritual leaders of Damascus in the 16th century may be mentioned: Jacob Berab, who, in the interval between his sojourns in Egypt and at Safed, lived there for some years (c. 1534); ִHayim Vital the Calabrian (1526–1603), for many years chief rabbi of Damascus, and the author of various cabalistic works, including "Etz ִHayim"; Samuel ben David the Karaite (not "Jemsel," as Eliakim Carmoly has it), who visited Damascus in 1641, mentions the circumstance that the Karaites there do not read the Haftarah after the Pentateuch section. Moses Najara; his son, the poet Israel Najara; Moses Galante (died in 1608), the son of Mordecai Galante; and Samuel Laniado ben Abraham of Aleppo were also among the prominent men of the 16th century.

The most celebrated rabbis of the 17th century were Josiah Pinto, a pupil of Jacob Abulafia, and author of the "Kesef-Nibִhar", and his son-in-law, Samuel Vital, who transcribed and circulated a large number of his father's Kabbalistic manuscripts. At the same time in Aleppo ִHayyim Cohen ben Abraham wrote "Meqor ִHayyim", published at Constantinople in 1649, and at Amsterdam by Menasseh ben Israel in 1650. Other Aleppo worthies are Samuel Dwek and Isaac Lopes in 1690 followed by Yehudah Kassin, Isaac Berachah and Isaac Atieh in the 18th century.

From the 17th to the 19th century, several Jews of Spanish and Italian origin settled in Syria for trading reasons. Whenever possible, they kept their European nationality in order to be under the jurisdiction of the consular courts under the Ottoman capitulations, rather than being treated as '' dhimmis'' under Islamic law. These European Jews were known as ''Señores Francos'' and maintained a sense of social superiority to the native Jews, both ''Musta'arabi'' and Sephardi. They did not form separate synagogues, but often held services of their own in private houses. There were also Jews of Baghdadi origin who claimed British nationality through family connections in India.

Some information is obtainable from travellers who visited Damascus during the 19th century. Alfred von Kremer, in "Mittel-Syrien und Damaskus" (1853), states that in the municipal government of the city two Christians and one Jew had places; the number of Jews was 4,000, only 1,000 of whom, however, paid the poll-tax; the last Karaite had died there some fifty years previously, the Karaite synagogue being then sold to the Greeks, who turned it into a church. The traveller Benjamin II gives the same number of inhabitants. He describes the synagogue at Jobar (to the north-east of the city) thus:

"The structure of this ancient building reminds one of the Mosque Moawiah; the interior is supported by 13 marble pillars, six on the right and seven on the left side, and is everywhere inlaid with marble. There is only one portal by which to enter. Under the holy shrine . . . is a grotto . . . the descent to which is by a flight of about 20 steps. According to the Jews, the Prophet Elisha is said to have found in this grotto a place of refuge. . . . At the entrance of the synagogue, toward the middle of the wall to the right, is an irregularly formed stone, on which can be observed the traces of several steps. Tradition asserts that upon this step sat King Hazael when the Prophet Elisha anointed him king".

Benjamin II also speaks of valuable copies of parts of the Bible to be found in Damascus; though the dates he gives (581 and 989) are unreliable. Neubauer mentions a copy of the Bible which belonged to Elisha ben Abraham ben Benvenisti, called "Crescas," and which was finished in 1382.

Damascus had eight chief rabbis during the 19th century, namely: (1) Joseph David Abulafia (1809–16). (2) Jacob Antebi (1816–1833). (3) Jacob Perez (1833–48). (4) Aaron Bagdadi (1848–66). (During the next two years the office of chief rabbi was vacant, owing to internal quarrels.) (5) ִHayim Qimִhi of Constantinople (1868–72). (6) Mercado Kilִhi of Nish (1872–76). (7) Isaac ben Moses Abulafia (1876–88). (8) Solomon Eliezer Alfandari, commonly called "Mercado Alfandari" of Constantinople, who was appointed by an imperial decree in 1888 (still in office in 1901). A more recent chief rabbi was Nissim Indibo, who died at the end of 1972. Other Damascus Rabbis are Mordechai Maslaton, Shaul Menaged and Zaki Assa.

During the 19th, century the Jews of Damascus were several times made the victims of calumnies, the gravest being those of 1840 and 1860, in the reign of the sultan Abdülmecit I. That of 1840, commonly known as the Damascus affair, was an accusation of ritual murder brought against the Jews in connection with the death of Father Thomas. The libel resulted in the arrest and torture of senior members of the Jewish community, as well as the kidnapping of 63 children ages three to ten in an attempt to coerce a confession from their parents. The second accusation brought against the Jews, in 1860, was that of having taken part in the massacre of the Christians by the Druze and the Muslims. Five hundred Muslims, who had been involved in the affair, were hanged by the grand vizier Fuad Pasha. Two hundred Jews were awaiting the same fate, in spite of their innocence, and the whole Jewish community had been fined 4,000,000 piastres. The condemned Jews were saved only by the official intervention of Fuad Pasha himself; that of the Prussian consul, Dr. Johann G. Wetzstein; of Sir Moses Montefiore of London, and of the bankers Abraham Salomon Camondo of Constantinople and Shemaya Angel of Damascus. From that time to the end of the 19th century, several further blood accusations were brought against the Jews; these, however, never provoked any great excitement.

Prominent Aleppo rabbis include Eliahu Shamah, Abraham Antebi and Mordechai Labaton in the 19th century, Jacob Saul Dwek who died in 1919, followed by Ezra Hamwi and Moses Mizrahi who was prepared to be burnt with the Torah Scrolls but was removed by the Arab mob from the Jamilieh Synagogue during the pogrom of 1947. He was followed by Moses Tawil, Shlomo Zafrani and Yomtob Yedid.

In the 19th century, the commercial importance of Aleppo and Damascus underwent a marked decline. Beginning around 1850, and with increasing frequency until the First World War, many families left Syria for Egypt, and later moved from there to Manchester in England, often following the cotton trade. Later still a considerable number left Manchester for Latin America, in particular Mexico and Argentina.

Jews continued to emigrate from Syria into the early 20th century. From around 1908, many Syrian Jews migrated to New York City, where the Brooklyn community is now the world's largest single Syrian Jewish community.

French Mandate and independence era

With anti-Jewish feeling reaching a climax in the late 1930s and early 1940s, many Jews considered emigrating. Between 1942 and 1947, around 4,500 Jews arrived in Palestine from Syria and Lebanon. From 1945 to 1948, about 1,300 Syrian Jewish children were smuggled into Palestine.

On 17 April 1946, Syria became independent from France. After independence, the Syrian government banned Jewish emigration to Palestine, and those caught trying to leave faced the death penalty or imprisonment with hard labor. Severe restrictions were also placed on the teaching of Hebrew in Jewish schools.

In 1947, there were 15,000 Jews in Syria. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations approved a Partition Plan for Palestine, which included an independent Jewish state. Pogroms subsequently broke out in Damascus and Aleppo. The December 1947 pogrom in Aleppo in particular left the community devastated; 75 Jews were killed, hundreds were injured, and more than 200 Jewish homes, shops, and synagogues were destroyed.

Thousands of Syrian Jews illegally escaped to Palestine following these attacks.

In August 1949, the Menarsha synagogue grenade attack in Damascus killed 12 Jews, and injured dozens.

Post-1948

In 1948, Israel was created as a Jewish state and defeated an Arab coalition that involved Syria during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. During that war, the Syrian Army invaded the Galilee, but its advance was stopped, and the Syrians were pushed back to the Golan Heights.

Despite an exodus to Israel or other countries of Jews that occurred throughout the Muslim world, Syrian Jews were not officially expelled. But after Israeli independence in 1948, the situation for Syrian Jews deteriorated once again. The Aleppo Arab riot of 1947 killed dozens of Jews and destroyed hundreds of homes, shops, and shuls. This marked the beginning of mass Jewish emigration from Syria to Israel, despite the Syrian government's willingness to put to death those who attempted to flee. Other repressive measures against Jews included barring them from government service, not allowing them to own telephones or driver's licenses, and forbidding them to buy property. The anti-Semitic attitude of Syria's government was displayed to the world when it provided shelter for Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner, an aide to Adolf Eichmann

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