The rise and decline of Syrian Jewry in images

The Jewish community in Syria was ancient and unique until the rise of radical Islam in the past century effectively led to its erasure. After reviewing thousands of photographs preserved in the Yad Ben Zvi archive, we selected a handful that offer a glimpse into the rich and singular world of this community, which eventually scattered across the globe.

According to Jewish tradition, the first Jew in Syria was King David in the 10th century BCE. As described in the Bible, he conquered Aram (now northern Syria) and Aram Zuba (Aleppo/Haleb). During the Mishnaic period, the region where many Jews lived was referred to as "Suria," and Chazal (the Jewish sages) ruled that for certain religious laws, such as those concerning tithes and agricultural offerings, the area should be treated as part of the Land of Israel.

During the Roman period, the Syrian Jewish community was the largest outside of Israel. Many Syrian Jews then lived in the city of Apamea in the Hama province, about 200 km north of Damascus. There was a magnificent synagogue there, which was closed in the early fifth century. The only thing left of it is a mosaic with a Greek inscription that states that the person who donated the mosaic was a woman named ΕΥΤΥΧΙCΑΜΕΝΗ, who dedicated it to her husband, children, and household.

The photo, taken in the 1930s, shows another memento from ancient times – a printing on a stone wall displaying a menorah, shofar, censer and lulav. The ancient printing was found on the wall of the synagogue in Nawa in southern Syria. During the late Second Temple period and the Mishnah period, there was an important Jewish settlement called Nawa.

Throughout the generations, there were waves of migration to Syria, parallel to historical disasters that befell the Jewish people. In 1096–1099, the First Crusade was held, and on their way to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims, the Crusaders massacred Jews, including those in the "Kehillot ShUM", the Jewish communities of the cities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz. Later, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred the Jewish and Muslim population. Quite a few Jews who fled from them decided to emigrate to Damascus, where the Jews lived in relative peace.

In the 14th century, the Jewish community in Syria grew stronger, partly because the Mamluks who ruled the region forced the Jews of Tyre, Antioch, and Tripoli to move to Damascus and Aleppo. In the 15th century, after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, a wave of Jewish immigrants arrived from Spain, as well as a group of Jews from Sicily.

At the same time, the Jewish community in Israel was weak. Therefore, not surprisingly, in 1375, the Codex of Aram Zuba was transferred from Israel to the city of Aleppo. This Bible, written in the tenth century CE in Tiberias, became one of the sacred symbols of the Jewish community in Syria. In 1947, after riots in the city of Aleppo, the codex ("Crown") disappeared for a decade. In 1958, after a secret journey that lasted about six months, the important manuscript arrived in Jerusalem, and today, it is displayed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum.

According to the tradition of Syrian Jews, Yoav ben Zeruiah, King David's army commander, founded the Jewish community there, and therefore the synagogue in the city of Aleppo is named after him. The building was destroyed several times, including in the 5th, 9th, and 14th centuries, but each time it was rebuilt.

Although, in principle, Jews never buried their dead next to a synagogue, in the Yoav ben Zeruiah Synagogue, one of the walls adjoins the Cave of the Righteous, where many of the wise rabbis of Aleppo and the rabbis of the Aram Zuva community were buried.

Dr. Yaniv Mezuman, Director of Ben-Zvi Institute, explains that "the Syrian Jewish community was small in number compared to other communities, but great in its influence. As an important spiritual center, the community produced scholars and key figures in the world of economics, and its influence is evident to this day – both in the communities established by Syrians around the world and in their contribution to making Jerusalem a center of Torah and Kabbalah study."

He further notes: "The musical tradition of Syrian Jews continues to live on in the synagogues. The piyyutim of Bakashot, which were established in the synagogues of Aleppo and Damascus, have become inalienable assets in the world of Israeli poetry, and their influence extends far beyond the borders of the community."

"At Yad Ben-Zvi, we are engaged in research and in making the history of Jewish communities in the East accessible. Syrian Jewry is a fascinating chapter in the Jewish story, and we have a commitment and responsibility to continue researching and telling the history of Syrian Jewish communities."

The Jewish community in Syria has known ups and downs over the years, but also quite a few rebellions and riots. This is because, according to Islamic law, the Jews cannot be citizens with equal rights, but only dhimmi (protected persons). Therefore, when the citadel of Aleppo was renovated between the 13th to 15th centuries, they did not hesitate to use tombstones taken from Jewish graves to build the towers of the magnificent citadel.

After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, many Jews arrived in Aram Zuba (Aleppo), joining the old Jews who had lived in Syria since the beginning of the Arab conquest. Among the immigrants were also important rabbis, including members of the Laniado family, which included many rabbis. For about 200 years, from the mid-16th century to the early 19th century, rabbis from this family served as the community's chief rabbi.

Many of the senior rabbis of Syrian Jews did not live at the expense of the community but rather engaged in trade, customs, and barter and were wealthy people. From their own money, they financed the sages who were not skilled in trade and engaged only in Torah studies.

Prof. Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky, who has researched the subject, notes that the rabbis used to publish halachic rulings, in some of which they added comments about how difficult it was to combine the hassles of trade with the engagement in halachic practice. Many of those rabbis were buried in the Cave of the Righteous in Aleppo.

During the Ottoman Empire, unlike the Jews in Morocco, who lived in poverty and suffered humiliation by their neighbors, many Jews in Syria were rich and successful.

The Shama family from Damascus was one of the richest and most famous Jewish families in Syria in the 19th century. In a photo taken at the end of that century, one can see a living room surrounded by windows, while the walls are decorated with mirrors. In the center of the living room is an ornamental marble pool, which stands on legs designed as kneeling lions. Near the walls are chairs of European shape, but the armrests are inlaid with seashells made by artists from Damascus. The floor is decorated with painted geometric motifs.

During the late days of the Ottoman Empire, the city of Damascus attracted Jewish revolutionaries, including Avshalom Feinberg, founder of the Nili underground network and one of its leaders. In 1916, they tried to establish contact with the British forces stationed in Egypt, and in the process, they also traveled around Damascus and gathered information about the Turkish regime.

A year later, Feinberg was killed in Rafah when he tried to cross the front line to join the British forces in Sinai. Sarah Aaronson, who, together with Yosef Lishansky, conducted espionage operations and passed information to British agents, was captured by the Turks and chose to commit suicide to prevent them from carrying out their plan, which was to hang her in Damascus in public.

After World War I and nearly until the establishment of the State of Israel, many from the Land of Israel went on an adventure trip to Syria, including students and youth movement members. A photo taken in the late 1920s shows a group that went on a trip to Syria riding donkeys.

Although there were many wealthy people among Syrian Jewry, there were also less affluent families. Two female tourists who came to tour the city of Aleppo in the 1930s took a picture with a group of Jewish children. As can be seen in the picture, some of the little ones are more elegantly dressed and some a little less so. They are all barefoot, and interestingly, the boy on the right is wearing a piece of cloth on his chest with a large, prominent Star of David on it.

In the distant past, there was a Samaritan community in Damascus, until in 1625 most of them were either murdered or forced to convert to Islam and the community disappeared. The Karaite community disappeared in the 19th century, and those who remained in the Jewish Quarter were a group of people expelled from Spain, a group from Sicily, and there were also the old Syrian Jews who were called "mustarabim" because they spoke Arabic. Each of the groups prayed in its own synagogue.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, a large and growing group of Syrian Jews emerged who, in addition to preserving tradition, also wanted to integrate into the Western world.

They were helped by members of the "Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU, Alliance). This organization was founded by French-Jewish public activists in 1860 to prevent the persecution and discrimination of Jews, particularly in the Middle East.

Later, the leaders of the Alliance organization decided to establish a network of educational institutions in Islamic countries to provide education to the Jews in the East, who were deprived of general culture.

Among other things, the Alliance organization established a number of educational institutions in Syria. A photo taken in the early 1930s shows a ceremony of laying the cornerstone for one of the Alliance schools. Note that some of the men are wearing hats, as customary in Europe, and some are wearing fez (Tarboosh), as is the custom of the Turks.

After the outbreak of World War II, the Jews in Syria felt that their lives were in danger. The leadership of the Jewish settlement in Israel ordered the Aliyah II Institute to also organize illegal aliyah.

As a result, 1,350 children, most of them from Aleppo and Damascus, were smuggled in an operation later known as "Operation Thousand." The Hagana Heritage organization documented the testimony of Yaakov (Yani) Avidov: "The convoys consisted of 50–60 children. They crossed the border, small and thin and shrouded in fear. They would disappear from our sight in the heavy darkness. They knew how to adapt well to the conditions they were in and understood the danger to which they were exposed. They bore the burden of silence, fatigue, and thirst. They would march silently and alertly. At times, it was difficult to understand how an entire tribe of toddlers managed to cross the border in secret."

One of the girls who immigrated to Israel was 10-year-old Frida Jamal. When she grew up, she married a Holocaust survivor from Bulgaria named Yosef Ashkenazi, and one of their children was Gabi Ashkenazi, who later became the IDF's 19th chief of staff. The picture shows a group of children who were smuggled into Israel in 1944, about a year before Operation Thousand began.

In 1947, after the United Nations voted on the partition plan for Israel, riots broke out against the Jews of Aleppo. The main synagogue was set on fire and destroyed, and the fire also burned down part of the Aleppo Codex.

In 1948, Syrian Jewry numbered about 30,000 people, but after the establishment of the State of Israel, most of them were forced to flee, and only about 5,000 remained in Syria.

Later, the Jews in Syria were deprived of all civil rights, and after 1949, they were forbidden to leave the country. After the Six-Day War, the Mossad resumed operations to help Jews escape Syria. As of early 2025, fewer than ten Jews remained in Syria.

The Israeli spy Eli Cohen operated in Syria in the early 1960s under the assumed identity of a Syrian businessman named Kamel Amin Thabet. He managed to penetrate deep into the Syrian government and military leadership, establishing close ties with senior officials.

Cohen, known as "our man in Damascus," provided Israel with valuable intelligence that greatly aided the country's security. Among other things, he revealed plans to divert the waters of the Jordan River and sabotage Israel's National Water Carrier, as well as Syrian army fortifications in the Golan Heights.

In January 1965, his identity was revealed, and he was captured. After torture and a show trial, he was sentenced to death and executed by public hanging in Damascus on May 18, 1965.

Cohen's exposure severely affected the remaining Jewish community in Syria. They became the target of suspicion, harassment, and restrictions from the authorities. Surveillance was increased, and they suffered discrimination and violations of their rights, which worsened their already delicate situation.