Syrian Jews - History

History

There have been Jews in Syria since ancient times: according to the community's tradition, since the time of King David, and certainly since early Roman times. In 70 BC there were about 10,000 Jews in Damascus. Jews from this ancient community were known as Musta'arabim (Arab Jews) to themselves, or Moriscos to the Sephardim. Many Sephardim arrived following the expulsion from Spain in 1492, and quickly took a leading position in the community, but still in Syria, much like in other countries in the Arab world, the situation of the Jews was unstable.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some Jews from Italy and elsewhere, known as Señores Francos, settled in Syria for trading reasons, while retaining their European nationalities.

Jews who are members of the Kurdish community (hailing from the region of Kurdistan) represent another portion of Syrian Jewry whose presence in Syria predates the arrival of Sephardic Jews following the reconquisita.

Today, there is no clear distinction between these groups, as they have intermarried extensively, and all regard themselves as "Sephardim" in a broader sense. It is said that one can tell Aleppo families of Spanish descent (in the narrow sense) by the fact that they light an extra Hanukkah candle. This custom was apparently established in gratitude for their acceptance by the more native Syrian based community.

In the nineteenth century, following the completion of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1869, trade shifted to that route from the overland route through Syria, and the commercial importance of Aleppo and Damascus underwent a marked decline. Many families left Syria for Egypt (and a few for Lebanon) in the following decades, and with increasing frequency until the First World War, Jews left the near East for western countries, mainly Great Britain, the United States, Mexico and Argentina. This pattern of migration largely was caused by repetitive Muslim aggression towards the Jewish Communities in Syria.

Beginning on the Passover Holiday of 1992, the 4,000 remaining members of the Damascus Jewish community (Arabic Yehud ash-Sham) as well as the Aleppo community and the Jews of Qamishli, were permitted under the regime of Hafez al-Assad to leave Syria provided they did not emigrate to Israel. Within a few months, thousands of Syrian Jews made their way to Brooklyn, with a few families choosing to go to France and Turkey. The majority settled in Brooklyn with the help of their kin in the Syrian Jewish community. The few remaining Jews in Syria live in Damascus.,