Author's Note: This article is also available in French. With thanks to Sacha Bergheim.
It is important to note that modern countries like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Kuwait did not exist in the early 1900s. For example, Syria was formed in April 1946. Lebanon was formed on November 26, 1941, but was only recognized as a country on the 22nd of November in 1943. Israel, often referred to as Palestine (a term which dates back to the Roman Empire colonialists rather than Arabs), did exist as a Jewish kingdom historically. Much of the Middle East was a region controlled by the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. The British later took control of the region and created countries, installing kingdoms, such as the Jordanian Hashemite Kingdom, that had not existed before. Many other people aside from Muslims lived in these places and encompassed significant portions of populations of cities like Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus prior to the Arab national movement. The Jews were among people who have had a continuous presence in places ranging from Jerusalem to Hebron to what is Yemen and Iraq today.
Jews in Syria lived as Dhimmis under Islamic rule and therefore had fewer legal and social rights than Muslims. The situation of Jews in the 1940s was getting much worse due to the Arab national movement. Mobs often rioted in Damascus. Looting Jewish homes and raping Jewish women was a common occurrence. My maternal grandmother who lived in Damascus escaped from Syria during the mid-1940s. Her parents had died and she was forced to live with an older sister. My grandmother was cognizant that life for Jews was becoming more tumultuous in the 1940s. Under French colonial rule Jews found a bit more acceptance in Syria but the advent of the Arab national movement made the situation of Jews rapidly deteriorate.
At the age of 16-years-old, my brave grandmother decided to pay a Druze man with the gold her mother left to her and made the long, tedious journey to modern-day Israel.
My grandmother with me, 1988
Because Syrian officials would incarcerate any Jew fleeing in the direction of Israel, my grandmother and other individuals making their way from Syria to Israel would only be able to walk at night. Several Syrian Jews found it nearly impossible to flee. The last few Jews from Syria made their escape in the early 1990s. Our male relatives who arrived in Israel in the 1990s shared their stories with us. They were taken by Syrian authorities and tortured for years, experiencing unspeakable crimes at the hands of Syrian police.
A Jewish family, pictured in their ancient Damascus home, in what was Turkish-controlled Damascus, 1901.
Before 1947 there were over 30,000 Jews living in Syria. The three major groups that composed Syrian Jewry were the original eastern (Mizrahi) Jews of Damascus, the Kurdish-speaking Jews of Kamishli, and the Jews of Aleppo who had ties to Spain.
Jewish presence in Syria can be traced back to before the introduction of both Christianity and Islam. Some periods for Jews in Syria were relatively good. For example, the Jew Menashe Ibrahim El-Kazzaz ran the Syrian administration and granted Jews the ability to hold government positions.
Jewish wedding in Aleppo, Syria, 1914.
Following Syrian independence from France in 1946, attacks against Jews and their property increased and often culminated in bloody pogroms. The pogrom of 1947, for example, left all shops and synagogues in Aleppo in ruins. Jews were declared enemies by the government. Thousands of Jews fled the country despite that the Syrian government would incarcerate (and potentially kill) anyone who dared to escape. Jewish homes and property were taken over by the local Muslims and the government.
The remaining Syrian Jews found it impossible to escape the country. They were hostages of a fascistic regime. Jews were told they could only leave Syria on the condition that they leave members of their family behind. Thus the community lived under a blockade and lived under fearful surveillance of the secret police.
The last exodus of Syrian Jewry took place around October 1994 in which Jews departed with their chief rabbi. 1,262 Syrian Jews were rescued from Syria and brought to Israel. Rabbi Avraham Hamra, a spiritual leader for the Syrian Jewish community, was among those who left Syria and immigrated to New York (he now lives in Israel).
Today there are less than 100 Jews living in Syria. Jews in Syria are the only minority with passports and identity cards that indicate their religion.
Sources:
"Country Reports on Human Rights Practices." U.S. Department of State. 4 Mar. 2002. US Department of State. 19 Jan. 2009.
Frankel, Jonathan. The Damascus Affair. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Singer, David and Lawrence Grossman. American Jewish Year Book 2003. American Jewish Committee, 2003.
Stillman, Norman. The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1991.
Yadin, Yigael. Bar-Kokhba; the Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Last Jewish Revolt against Imperial Rome. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971.
Ye'or, Bat et.al. Islam and Dhimmitude. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.
Related Post:
- 1,000,000 Middle Eastern Jews
Other Useful Information:
- Nazism and Radical Islam
- The Forgotten Refugees
- Yemenite Jewish Community Under Attack (Again)
- Don't Forget the Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands
- Intro to the Farhud
- The Silent Exodus of Jewish Refugees
It is important to note that modern countries like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Kuwait did not exist in the early 1900s. For example, Syria was formed in April 1946. Lebanon was formed on November 26, 1941, but was only recognized as a country on the 22nd of November in 1943. Israel, often referred to as Palestine (a term which dates back to the Roman Empire colonialists rather than Arabs), did exist as a Jewish kingdom historically. Much of the Middle East was a region controlled by the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. The British later took control of the region and created countries, installing kingdoms, such as the Jordanian Hashemite Kingdom, that had not existed before. Many other people aside from Muslims lived in these places and encompassed significant portions of populations of cities like Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus prior to the Arab national movement. The Jews were among people who have had a continuous presence in places ranging from Jerusalem to Hebron to what is Yemen and Iraq today.
Jews in Syria lived as Dhimmis under Islamic rule and therefore had fewer legal and social rights than Muslims. The situation of Jews in the 1940s was getting much worse due to the Arab national movement. Mobs often rioted in Damascus. Looting Jewish homes and raping Jewish women was a common occurrence. My maternal grandmother who lived in Damascus escaped from Syria during the mid-1940s. Her parents had died and she was forced to live with an older sister. My grandmother was cognizant that life for Jews was becoming more tumultuous in the 1940s. Under French colonial rule Jews found a bit more acceptance in Syria but the advent of the Arab national movement made the situation of Jews rapidly deteriorate.
At the age of 16-years-old, my brave grandmother decided to pay a Druze man with the gold her mother left to her and made the long, tedious journey to modern-day Israel.
Because Syrian officials would incarcerate any Jew fleeing in the direction of Israel, my grandmother and other individuals making their way from Syria to Israel would only be able to walk at night. Several Syrian Jews found it nearly impossible to flee. The last few Jews from Syria made their escape in the early 1990s. Our male relatives who arrived in Israel in the 1990s shared their stories with us. They were taken by Syrian authorities and tortured for years, experiencing unspeakable crimes at the hands of Syrian police.
A Jewish family, pictured in their ancient Damascus home, in what was Turkish-controlled Damascus, 1901.Before 1947 there were over 30,000 Jews living in Syria. The three major groups that composed Syrian Jewry were the original eastern (Mizrahi) Jews of Damascus, the Kurdish-speaking Jews of Kamishli, and the Jews of Aleppo who had ties to Spain.
Jewish presence in Syria can be traced back to before the introduction of both Christianity and Islam. Some periods for Jews in Syria were relatively good. For example, the Jew Menashe Ibrahim El-Kazzaz ran the Syrian administration and granted Jews the ability to hold government positions.
Jewish wedding in Aleppo, Syria, 1914.Following Syrian independence from France in 1946, attacks against Jews and their property increased and often culminated in bloody pogroms. The pogrom of 1947, for example, left all shops and synagogues in Aleppo in ruins. Jews were declared enemies by the government. Thousands of Jews fled the country despite that the Syrian government would incarcerate (and potentially kill) anyone who dared to escape. Jewish homes and property were taken over by the local Muslims and the government.
The remaining Syrian Jews found it impossible to escape the country. They were hostages of a fascistic regime. Jews were told they could only leave Syria on the condition that they leave members of their family behind. Thus the community lived under a blockade and lived under fearful surveillance of the secret police.
The last exodus of Syrian Jewry took place around October 1994 in which Jews departed with their chief rabbi. 1,262 Syrian Jews were rescued from Syria and brought to Israel. Rabbi Avraham Hamra, a spiritual leader for the Syrian Jewish community, was among those who left Syria and immigrated to New York (he now lives in Israel).
Today there are less than 100 Jews living in Syria. Jews in Syria are the only minority with passports and identity cards that indicate their religion.
Sources:
"Country Reports on Human Rights Practices." U.S. Department of State. 4 Mar. 2002. US Department of State. 19 Jan. 2009
Frankel, Jonathan. The Damascus Affair. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Singer, David and Lawrence Grossman. American Jewish Year Book 2003. American Jewish Committee, 2003.
Stillman, Norman. The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1991.
Yadin, Yigael. Bar-Kokhba; the Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Last Jewish Revolt against Imperial Rome. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971.
Ye'or, Bat et.al. Islam and Dhimmitude. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.
Related Post:
- 1,000,000 Middle Eastern Jews
Other Useful Information:
- Nazism and Radical Islam
- The Forgotten Refugees
- Yemenite Jewish Community Under Attack (Again)
- Don't Forget the Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands
- Intro to the Farhud
- The Silent Exodus of Jewish Refugees
13 comments. Leave a comment:
This is great! Thanks, Reut!
Thanks for the great article and hidtorical info. It amazes me how the Israeli govt is even considering peace talks and giving back to Golan Heights to people who have historically treated our people this way! The only thing we should give them is all the bunker busters in our military arsenal! Keep up the great work!
My father is a Syrian Jew. The graves of his parents (my grandparents) have been destroyed. The Syrian government built a highway over it. We have not forgotten the needless Islamic aggression against us. It makes the purpose of Eretz Israel even more obvious to us. We must be free of your PERSECUTION AND POGROMS!
Thank you for this wonderful article. It is unfortunate how rarely this topic is talked about.
Jews are humans like us. Assumes no monsters. Monsters are the Zionists who kill children, women and disability that left print the Zionists. Jews, world I'm with you against the oppressors.
Syrian forces
Anonymous,
I allowed your comment even though I typically refrain from posting anonymous comments from antisemites claiming to hate Zionists. It stands as an example of irrationality. Since the vast majority of Jews identify as Zionists (or at the very least support the existence of the State of Israel), your comment makes very little sense.
Israel, the Jewish (or Zionist) country, is surrounded by hostile neighbors who regularly wage war against its civilian population. Yet the Jews in the Middle East have every right to be there. The majority of Jews in Israel are refugees from Middle Eastern territories and have received scant attention from the international community despite being forced out of their homes. They were forced out of their native lands due to discriminatory, anti-Jewish laws. Jews used to number at around a million in modern-day Muslim countries. Today, there are a few thousand (mostly in Morocco and Iran). Conversely, Arabs, who are ethnic Jordanians and Egyptians, make up nearly 20 percent of the Israeli population and are afforded the same rights as other citizens despite that many are hostile to the Israeli state.
An Arab myth is that Israelis (or "Zionists") seek to kill or maim your children or women. Israeli military and police seek to avoid civilian casualties by risking their own lives despite that Palestinian terrorists use their own children as human shields. In reality, there is no reason for Israelis to put their own lives at risk in such a fashion and yet they do.
Consider that one of the newfound heroes of the Arab world, Samir Kuntar, massacred an Israeli toddler by bashing in her brains after he murdered her father in front of her. That should point out to any rational-minded person exactly what kind of despicable hatred is accepted, and glorified, in today's Arab world.
Good day.
Reut R. Cohen
This is an excellent article. It should be a part of a core curriculum for Jewish education both here in the US, and in Israel. I know that here in Chicago, this is not being taught widely. Few American Jews, and even fewer Americans in general, realize that half of Israel's population is of Sephardic origin. When Helen Thomas told Israelis to go back home, she didn't realize that millions would return to Arab countries. Such ignorance comes from the "Dean of the White House press corps."
BS"D
Great article. But Reut, you are inadvertently feeding the trolls by letting that comment through. That is no terror supporter, that is a teen looking for attention.
BS"D
And I should add that Syrian-born Jews in the US are still afraid of the Mukhabarat. They still do not dare say anything about Assad YMS to strangers.
Dear Reut,
Please allow me to just to mention few quotes and facts to discuss later on.
" in 1992....Syria had granted exit visas on condition that the Jews not go to Israel. ...... By the end of 1994, .... A year later, approximately 250 Jews remained in Damascus, all apparently staying by choice. By the middle of 2001, Rabbi Khuder Shahada Kabariti estimated that 150 Jews were living in Damascus, 30 in Aleppo and 20 in Kamishli........ Two synagogues remain open in Damascus."(1)
" According to the U.S. State Department, Jews still have a separate primary school for religious instruction on Judaism and are allowed to teach Hebrew in some schools. About a dozen students still attend the Jewish school, which had 500 students as recently as 1992. Jews are the only minority not allowed to participate in the political system. In addition, "the few remaining Jews are generally barred from government employment and do not have military service obligations." (1)
" U.S. pressure applied during peace negotiations helped convince President Hafez Assad to lift these restrictions, and those prohibiting Jews from buying and selling property, in the early 1990's....In an undercover operation in late 1994, 1,262 Syrian Jews were brought to Israel. The spiritual leader of the Syrian Jewish community for 25 years, Rabbi Avraham Hamra, was among those who left Syria and went to New York (he now lives in Israel). Syria had granted exit visas on condition that the Jews not go to Israel." (2)
"Although Jews are occasionally subjected to violence by Palestinian protesters in Syria, the government has taken strict protective measures, including arresting assailants and guarding the remaining synagogues." (2)
Sources:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Syria
(2)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/syrianjews.html
I am an Arab Syrian from Damascus, I was born and lived there until I was eighteen years old. During my elementary school there I had to best friends, one of them was a Christian, and the second is Jewish, the three of us lived in the same neighborhood, we visited each others houses and spent all our leisure time together. Our families respected one another, we stayed friends until I was I think in the sixth grade, my Jew friend vanished along with his family, later on I knew that they migrated to the US. I know that the Syrian Jews where not allowed to serve in the army nor in the government positions, and not allowed to travel, but I know that no one confiscated their properties but the opposite our brothers and sisters used to own prime real estate in Damascus, and many still under there names if they did not sell them, and they left few Jewish friends to look after them. I clearly remember that my father used to take us before the holidays to buy our clothes from one fashion shop in prime location in Damascus called "Al Makhzan Al Kabeer" if my memory serves me right. My point here is each country comes with its haters and trouble makers, but this wave of hate and suspicion was at its high in our recent time during 1947-1948 due to the creation of the State of Israel and the occupation. But we should now not call for hatred, I think we the Syrians all of us Muslims, Christian and Jews, especially the ones living outside Syria be the driving force to peace, it is about time to lead for a better future for our kids with equal chances and mutual respect. I look forward to the day that all of us the Syrians come back to Syria and celebrate our heritage and our love to each other as proud Syrian Jews, Christian and Muslims, you will remain part of us as we are part of you.
Thank you for posting this, with my best wishes.
Hadi Albahra
hb5080@gmail.com
Dear Reut,
Many Arabs and non Arabs like to consider themselves as anti-zionists not because they want to hide their anti-semitism, but because they don't want to be Jewish haters, and often they are not. By saying that all jews are zionists(which is not true), you are doing a disservice to the jews and justifying bursts of hatered against the jews in the Arab world since you are putting them all in the camp of Israel who is the enemy of most Arabs.
Are you sure that you are doing the Jews any good by convicing them that the Arabs hate them just because they are Jews? You are just encouraging the Jews to hate the Arabs (their neighbours) even more and encouraging more hateful responses to their Arab surrounding which in turn increases the hatered on the other side and perpetrates that viscious circle of hatered.
I would like to challenge you to put your fears, anger and hatered on the side and approach a moderate Arab with only the purpose of peace and friendship.
With your research and writing, you have been diving into darkness, are you able to dive into the light and look at where there was or can be tolerance and friendship among the Jews and the Arabs.
Peace cannot be reached by only stressing the negative and exacerbating hatered. Many Arabs are moderates, try to find them. If you don't why don't you find ways of turning the ones you find into modetrates. Shouldn't your ultimate pupose be to create a world that is safer for the Jews? Is alienation, hatered and violence the answer?
Anonymous,
I fear you'll have a hard time challenging anything by calling yourself "anonymous." If I may encourage you to use your first name so I could keep track of who's who, that would be most helpful. I have no way of knowing which "anonymous" commentator you are otherwise.
I wonder why you feel the need to psychoanalyze me. I'm quite sure there are many wonderful Arabs. I've never suggested that Arabs are all the same. In fact, I have several dear friends who are Arabs, Middle Eastern, Druze, etc. As for Jews being pro-Israel-- the bulk are, especially in Israel. That's merely a reality largely ingrained in a quest for human survival. Would you expect an Israeli to want to see the destruction of their nation-state that they built from swamp and dirt?
I find it questionable that you're so offended I'm pointing to the inhumane treatment Jews suffered under Syria's regime. Should I ignore that to appease anonymous commentators such as yourself? Should I deny my heritage to appease your distaste for Israel?
Peace is mirage if you expect the bulk of Israeli Jewry to hide what they went through under Arab nationalist regimes. I haven't an ounce of European blood. So when anti-Zionists and/or anti-Semities tell me to go back to Europe, I can only conclude that they don't know the realities of what Mizrahi Jewry faced in their native lands or that they are hateful. I hope it's the former-- as ignorance, through education, can be corrected.
With best regards,
Reut R. Cohen
My great grandfather was a Syrian Jew who had to flee in early 1900 Damascus. We don't know the exact reason but he was the only one who migrated. He was 36 years old, and moved to Argentina, then later to Chile. This is very strange as usually the whole/part of the family moved together. We believe that something tragic happened to his family in the early 1900's in Syria with the Jewish population, especially where he came from. There were other Jewish families that came in (2,300 people to S.America) during that year, but they are not related. He was single then who then married my Spanish great grand-mother, one year after settling in.
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