Syrian Jews
Syrian Jews are Jews who live in the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times, and sometimes classified as Mizrahi Jews ; and from the Sephardi Jews who fled to Syria after the Alhambra Decree forced the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
There were large communities in Aleppo and Damascus for centuries, and a smaller community in Qamishli on the Turkish border near Nusaybin. In the first half of the 20th century a large percentage of Syrian Jews immigrated to the U.S., Latin America and Israel. Most of the remaining Jews left in the 28 years following 1973, due in part to the efforts of Judy Feld Carr, who claims to have helped some 3,228 Jews emigrate; emigration was officially allowed in 1992. The largest number of Jews of Syrian descent live in Israel. Outside Israel, the largest Syrian Jewish community is in Brooklyn, New York and is estimated at 75,000 strong. There are smaller communities elsewhere in the United States and in Latin America.
In 2011, there had been about 250 Jews still living within Syria, mostly in Damascus. As of December 2014, fewer than 50 Jews remained in the area due to increasing violence and war. In October 2015, with the threat of ISIS nearby, some of the remaining Jews in Aleppo were taken to Ashkelon, Israel in a rescue covert operation. In August 2019, BBC Arabic visited some of the last remaining Jews living in Damascus. By the fall of the Assad regime, it is believed that only 6 Jews remained in Syria.
History
According to the community's tradition, Jews have been in Syria since ancient times, since the time of King David and certainly since early Roman times. Jews from this ancient community were known as Musta'arabim "Arabizers" 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. For example, five successive Chief Rabbis of Aleppo were drawn from the Laniado family.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, some Jews from Italy and elsewhere, known as Señores Francos, notable Franco families are the Ancona, Silvera, and Pichotto families they settled in Syria for trading reasons, while retaining their European nationalities.
Kurdish Jews, hailing from the region of Kurdistan, represent another sub-group of Syrian Jews. Their presence in Syria predates the arrival of Sephardic Jews following the Reconquista. The ancient communities of Urfa and Çermik also formed part of the broader Syrian community and the Aleppo community included some migrants from these cities.
Today, some distinctions between these sub-groups are preserved because particular families have traditions about their origins. However, there is considerable intermarriage among the groups, and all regard themselves as "Sephardim" in a broader sense. One can tell Aleppo families of Spanish descent by the fact that they light an extra Hanukkah candle. This custom was established in gratitude for their acceptance by the more native Syrian-based community.
In the 19th 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 in the following decades, and with increasing frequency until the First World War, many Jews left the Middle East for western countries, mainly Great Britain, the United States, Mexico and Argentina.
In the time period surrounding Israeli independence the situation for Syrian Jews deteriorated, when an anti-Jewish riot in Aleppo killed dozens of Jews and destroyed hundreds of homes, shops, and shuls in 1947. 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. Initially, Lebanon allowed Syrian Jews escaping to Israel free passage through its territory. This ended when the Syrian government began confiscating the passports of Jews, and Lebanon announced that it could not allow persons through its borders without travel documents. Between 1948 and 1961, about 5,000 Syrian Jews managed to reach Israel. Many Syrian Jews also immigrated to Lebanon, but a few were deported back to Syria upon the Syrian government's request. The Syrian Jews in Lebanon, along with the rest of the Lebanese Jewish community, would largely leave that country for Israel, Europe, and the Americas in later years.
Beginning on the Passover holiday of 1992, most of the last 4,000 remaining members of the Damascus Jewish community, as well as the Aleppo community and the Jews of Qamishli, were permitted under the government of Hafez al-Assad to leave Syria provided they did not immigrate 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.
In December 2025, Hind Kabawat registered the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation, making it the first Jewish organization ever registered in Syria. The organisation plans to return properties confiscated under previous governments and restore Jewish holy sites.
Present-day Syrian Jewish communities
Israel
There has been a Jewish Syrian presence in Jerusalem since before 1850, with many rabbinical families having members both there and in Damascus and Aleppo. These had some contact with their Ashkenazi opposite numbers of the Old Yishuv, leading to a tradition of strict orthodoxy: for example in the 1860s there was a successful campaign to prevent the establishment of a Reform synagogue in Aleppo. Some Syrian traditions, such as the singing of Baqashot, were accepted by the mainstream Jerusalem Sephardi community.A further group immigrated to Palestine around 1900, and formed the Ades Synagogue in Nachlaot. This still exists, and is the main Aleppo rite synagogue in Israel, though its membership now includes Asiatic Jews of all groups, especially Turkish Jews. There is also a large Syrian community in Holon and Bat Yam.
Many Jews fled from Syria to Palestine during the anti-Jewish riots of 1947. After that, the Syrian government clamped down and allowed no emigration, though some Jews left illicitly. In the last two decades, some emigration has been allowed, mostly to America, though some have since left America for Israel, under the leadership of Rabbi Abraham Hamra.
The older generation from prior to the establishment of the Israeli state retains little or no Syrian ethnic identity of its own and is well integrated into mainstream Israeli society. The most recent wave is integrating at different levels, with some concentrating on integration in Israel and others retaining closer ties with their kin in New York and Mexico.
There is a Merkaz 'Olami le-Moreshet Yahadut Aram Tsoba in Tel Aviv, which publishes books of Syrian Jewish interest.