Syrian Jews are part of the epic of the extinction of Jewish communities in the Arab world. Their history is long and complex, and their main communities – Aleppo and Damascus – were once important and prosperous Jewish centers. The history of Syrian Jews begins in biblical times and ends in the last decades of the 20th century. Today, only four Jews live in Syria. In this edition, we will trace their saga until the beginning of the 20th century.

Since biblical times, Jews have lived in the territory of present-day Syria, with the major centers of Jewish life in the region always being Aleppo and Damascus. The earliest biblical references to these cities date back to the time of our first patriarch, Abraham. In the Torah, Aleppo is called Aram Tsobah and Damascus is called Dammesek.

The armies of King David, who reigned over Israel from 1000 to 967 before the Common Era – BCE –, commanded by Joab Ben Zeruiah, conquered part of present-day Syria. According to tradition, when taking Aleppo, Joab built a tower and a fortress that formed the foundations of the ancient Citadel, the Castle, and engraved on one of the walls: “I am Joab Zeruiah and I have conquered this city.” He also erected the structure of what would become the Great Synagogue. Joab joined the workers, carrying the stones used in the construction on his shoulders, and to this day, there are Aleppine Jews who call it “Joab’s Synagogue.”

The other synagogue, located in the village of Jobar, near Damascus, is now in ruins and also dates back to biblical times. It was founded in the 9th century BCE by the prophet Elisha, who built it above the cave in which the prophet Elijah had taken refuge from his persecutors.

The region of present-day Syria was dominated by the Assyrian Empire in 732 BCE and by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 604 BCE. The number of Jews living in Aleppo and Damascus would increase after 586 BCE, when the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar II razed Jerusalem, destroyed the Great Temple, and took most of the population captive to Babylon. Some of the population took refuge elsewhere, including Aleppo and Damascus.

Seventy years after the destruction of the Temple, the Babylonian Empire falls into the hands of Cyrus the Persian. The emperor authorizes the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel, but the return of the Jews to Eretz Israel it is not clear in the Chronicles of Ezra ha-Sofer (Ezra the Scribe) and Nehemiah. It is known to have occurred in different waves and by different routes, and that a group led by Ezra followed a route that passed through Aleppo, where there was already a Jewish community. Stopping at Tedef, a village near Aleppo, Ezra had to persuade the Jews that their knowledge of the Torah was inspired by the Ruach Hacodesh, the Divine Spirit. He then wrote a Sefer Torah where he omitted the Holy Name of God. When he finished, he put the scroll in a cave overnight. The next day, when the Jews examined it, they saw that the Name of God was in all the gaps that Ezra had left blank. To celebrate this miracle, a synagogue was built near the cave.

The Greeks and Romans

The region of present-day Syria would be taken in 333 BCE by Alexander the Great. After his death, his generals divided the gigantic empire that Alexander had conquered among themselves. The eastern part, whose territory included Syria and the Land of Israel, remained with Seleucus I Nicator. Under Seleucid rule, the Syrian Jews, as well as those living in Eretz Israel, They suffered pressure and persecution to Hellenize them, but they did not give up their Laws and traditions.

In 64 BCE, Rome made Syria a Roman province, with Damascus as its capital. For the Jews, the Roman period was one of prosperity and tranquility. Roman law recognized Judaism as a “licit religion.” Each community had the right to collect taxes and manage its finances, as well as establish places of study, synagogues, cemeteries, and courts where disputes between its members could be settled.

In his work, Jewish Antiquities, Flavius ​​Josephus1, reports that in Syria, considered the richest province of the Empire, there were cities where Jews constituted more than half of the total population. They were a well-organized, educated, and relatively wealthy minority. However, their “different” way of living had created, among the Hellenized pagans, an aversion to their religious “peculiarities” – mainly the belief in One God and circumcision – an aversion that periodically manifested itself in attacks on Jewish neighborhoods.

The anti-Judaism of the Hellenized pagans would take deep root in the region. 

There was a substantial growth in the Jewish population living in Syria in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, with the arrival of Jews from the Land of Israel, fleeing Roman repression and violence. Particularly after the years 70 and 132, when the armies of Rome crushed the 1a and 2a Jewish Wars. Many settled in Damascus, whose proximity to Tiberias and Tzfat made it almost a religious suburb of Eretz Israel. In the 2nd century, there were 10 Jews living in Damascus. Others settled in Aleppo.

A carved stone stele, dated 241, found on one of the walls of the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, proves that the growth of the Aleppo Jewish community justified the construction of a large house of prayer. The tranquility of the Jewish population of the Roman Empire came to an end as Christianity gradually became established, legalized in 313 by the Edict of Constantine. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380, Judaism ceased to be a “licit” religion and became “recognized” until it became merely “tolerated”. The Jews were reduced to the status of a socially degraded and politically excluded minority.

Jewish life in Syria became even more difficult in the late 4th century, when the Roman Empire was divided into the Western and Eastern Empires. Syria became part of the Eastern Empire, called the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine rulers were extremely hostile to the Jews, incorporating all Hellenistic anti-Semitism into Christian anti-Judaism. Jews became the target of discrimination, forced conversions and occasional persecution, especially when Justinian became emperor in 527. He demoted Judaism to the status of “heresy” and enacted severe anti-Jewish legislation, prohibiting, among other things, the construction of new synagogues and the exercise of certain economic activities.

Under Byzantine rule, Syria, located at the center of trade routes to India and the Far East, achieved remarkable economic development, and, despite all the discrimination, Syrian Jews continued to be active in international trade and participated in the economic well-being of the period.

In Aleppo, the Jews lived in their own neighborhood, where the synagogue is located. Knissat Mitkal (today a mosque), built in the 4th century. The western wing of the Great Synagogue was built in the 5th century on the structure traditionally erected by Joab Ben Zeruiah.

Emergence of Islam

From the 7th century onwards, Islam, a new religious and military power, would change the Middle East. Syria was conquered by Arab armies in the space of five years – from 633 to 638. Damascus was taken in 635, and Aleppo in 637. The Arab conquests created an empire, called Dar al Islam, which stretched across three continents. And Islamic law, the Shari'ah, dictated the lives of all who lived there and who gradually adopted the language, religion, customs and even the architecture of the conquerors. Contrary to what happened in Damascus, in Aleppo Islamization occurred slowly, sparing the city from the intolerance of foreigners and the Islamic fanaticism that existed in Damascus.

A Shari'ah allowed Jews and Christians to live in Dar al Islam on condition that dhimmis, accepting the supremacy of Islam and submitting to the Muslim state. They were also obliged to pay specific taxes, mainly jizya2and fulfill a series of obligations whose severity varied according to the interests of the rulers. In exchange, the Islamic State guaranteed them life, property, the right to practice their religion, and a relative community autonomy. dhimmis They could live wherever they wanted, own land and property, and engage in whatever economic activity they pleased. In Syria, some Jews became large landowners and others held high positions in the court.

Arabic became, in Syria, as in the rest of the Islamic Empire, the language of everyday life, commerce and science, even among the Jews who came to be called must'arabim3. They began to write Arabic with Hebrew characters, which gave rise to Judeo-Arabic, a hybrid language used by great sages, such as Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Levi, Maimonides and Rabbi Pakuda, among others.

In 661, when the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, seized power, the Empire came under the rule of the Umayyad dynasty. The capital was transferred from Medina to Dimashk-al-Sham, or Al-Sham, as Damascus came to be called. The city became the most important cultural, economic and political center of the Islamic world.

Under the Umayyads, the lives of the Jews improved significantly, but the period of relative peace ended when, in 750, the Abbasids took power. Intolerant of non-Muslims, they began a discriminatory policy against Jews and Christians. Throughout the history of the Islamic Empire, different religious dynasties would succeed each other in power, and whenever a more religiously liberal dynasty was replaced by a more extremist one, the lives of the Jews dhimmis got worse.

The Abbasids moved the capital of the Empire to Baghdad, and Syria lost its central position in the Empire, and would only experience economic and commercial growth again at the beginning of the 9th century.

Aleppo, in addition to being an important commercial and banking center, became a major producer of silk. Documents found in Gueniza of Cairo reveal that Jews actively participated in the city's economy, especially in trade with the East. Many made fortunes and, from the 10th century onwards, the jahbadhs – Jewish bankers who worked in Islamic courts.

Jews under the Ayyubids

In 1095, Pope Urban II urged Christians to free Jerusalem from Islamic rule. Two years later, 30 men crossed from Asia Minor, and the Islamic world was forced to confront the Christian West. Antioch fell to the Crusaders in 1098, and a year later parts of Syria were incorporated into the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Aleppo was besieged by the Crusaders in 1098 and 1124, but was not conquered. Aleppo became the center of resistance to the Crusader advance, and many Jews who lived in the Crusader domains took refuge in the city.

It was up to Saladin il-Ayubbi, Saladin the Great, to recapture the territories in Christian hands. Despite fighting the Crusaders, Saladin maintained the lucrative trade with Europe. With the Crusades, the demand for silks and brocades, jewels, spices and perfumes had increased in Europe. The luxury trade was highly profitable, and nothing could stop it – not even the papal threat to excommunicate any Christian who had commercial relations with Muslims.

Under the Ayyubids Syria entered a period of opulence and frenetic architectural construction, including military construction. Syrian Jews, active in international trade, participated in this prosperity. Many of them became treasurers, scribes or doctors in the courts of Muslim rulers.

From the accounts of Jews who visited the region, we have information about the Syrian Jewish community. Rabbi Binyamin of Tudela, author of a famous travelogue, visited Aleppo and Damascus in 1173. He describes Aleppo as “a very large place” where, as in Damascus, thousands of Jews lived. Samuel ben-Simson, a French Jew who visited Damascus in 1210, reports having seen “the beautiful synagogue of Jobar.” The synagogue had been restored in the first century by Rabbi Eleazar ben-Arak, a disciple of Rabbi Yochanan ben-Zakai.

By the 12th century, Aleppo had a flourishing Jewish community with a cultural and religious life and a great dedication to Torah study. Maimonides (1138-1204) had a special appreciation for the Aleppo community. In a letter addressed to the community of Lunel, France, Rambam says: “In all the Land of Israel and Syria, there is only one city, called Aleppo, where there are scholars who study the Torah.” Maimonides had great influence among the Jews of Aleppo, who adopted his method of Torah study, which was given the name “Haiyun ha-Halabi”.

The Mamelukes

In 1260, the Mongols, led by Hulagu, invaded Syria and killed thousands of its inhabitants. Damascus surrendered and was spared. And in Aleppo, hundreds of Jews found refuge in the Great Synagogue.

The advance of the Mongols is contained by the Mamluks of Egypt. The Mamluk Sultan Baybars (c.1223 -1277) then unites Syria and Egypt into a single kingdom. Under the Mamluks, Jews and Christians are the target of discriminatory measures and extortionate taxes. Christians were the main target of Muslim hostility, but this invariably affected the Jews. In the year 1301, for example, the dhimmis were forced to dress in the colors that identified their origin. Jews, for example, were required to wear yellow.

The Mamluks, however, reorganized the routes of the caravans that passed through Aleppo again. As a result, numerous Jewish merchants managed to make fortunes.

In 1401, the Mongols returned to Syria, led by Timur the Lame. Damascus and Aleppo were not spared, and it took half a century for the Jewish communities in both cities to recover. The Great Synagogue of Aleppo, destroyed by the Mongols, was rebuilt on the same site, on a smaller scale, and reopened in 1418.

Rabbi Ovadia of Bertinoro, the Bartenura, the greatest commentator of Mishnah, after leaving Italy in 1486, traveled for two years through Syria. In his letters, he describes the riches and beautiful gardens of the Jews of Damascus and the Jewish prosperity of Aleppo.

The Ottomans and the arrival of the Sephardim

The Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, and in 1515, after defeating the Mamluks, they made Syria a province in their empire. The Ottoman rulers did not have a specific policy towards the dhimmis, who enjoyed autonomy and personal and community freedom. The Jews were considered an affluent, educated minority with great talents in the administrative, commercial and financial areas. And, unlike the Christians, they had no political aspirations. With the exception of the collection of jizya, policies toward Jews were improvised and relatively liberal. They depended largely on their “usefulness” to the rulers.

Jewish life in the Ottoman domains would change after the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, enacted by Spain, which would be followed shortly after, in 1497, by Portugal. Upon learning of the Sephardic Jews' appeal for asylum in Ottoman lands, Eliyahu Kapsali, Grand Rabbi of Istanbul, interceded with Sultan Bayazit II to open the doors of his empire to the Iberian Jews. Aware of the advantages that the arrival of the Sephardim would bring to his domains, Bayazit II ordered that they come and be welcomed. The Ottomans made use of the services and knowledge of the Sephardim not only for the expansion and development of regional and overseas trade, but also for the increase of finance, diplomacy and goldsmithing.

It is believed that approximately 12 families arrived in the Ottoman Empire; most of them settled in Constantinople, Salonica, Smyrna and the Balkan region. And after 1516, when the Ottomans conquered Syria, a respectable number of Sephardim settled there, mainly in Aleppo and Damascus.

The emergence of Eastern Sephardic Judaism

Os Sephardim were well received by their fellow believers living in the Ottoman Empire; their arrival, however, caused some tension. Wealthy and educated, they were immensely proud of their lineage and heritage and rooted in their traditions and customs. In practically every place where they settled, the erudition of their rabbis caused the process of integration to be reversed: it was not the Sephardim who “assimilated” into the traditions of the local Jews, but rather the local Jewish communities that became Sephardic.

This was the case in Damascus, where renowned Kabbalists settled and soon assumed the religious leadership of the community. Among them, we can highlight: Rabbi Hayim Alshaich; Rabbi Chaim Vital, disciple of the Arizal, author of Etz HaChaim; and Rabbi Israel Najara, author of LechTob and countless piyutimas the Yah Ribon Olam, recited on Shabbat.

The case of Aleppo was an exception. For centuries a respected center of Torah study, it was a community rooted in ancient traditions. Sephardim They soon assumed prominent positions in the community, but without completely imposing their customs or supplanting the old community leadership. However, over time, the Aleppine Jews incorporated a large part of the Sephardic traditions and customs. This heritage continues to be present among Jews of Sephardic origin to this day. Chanukah, for example, they light an extra candle during the party.

Aleppine Jews have always played an important role in trade, especially international trade, but it was up to the Jewish merchants and bankers of Sepharad develop trade of such a high level that it not only became vital to the international economy, but also made the role of Jews vital. Sephardic Jews created extensive trade networks with other Iberian Jews throughout the Empire

Ottoman, as well as with converts living in Europe.

According to the census of 1570-90, there were 233 Jewish families living in Aleppo. Historians believe that the number was higher. A Portuguese traveler named Teixeira estimated that in 1600 there were “a thousand Jewish families in Aleppo, many of whom were in excellent circumstances.”

A new wing was built in the Great Synagogue, whose fame and beauty was famous throughout the Jewish world. In this new wing, the Sephardim, according to their customs. South of this wing, in the direction of Jerusalem, was the “Grotto of Eliahu ha-Navi".

The arrival of the “Franj”

From the 16th century onwards, the Ottoman Empire began to sign the so-called “Capitulations” with European nations, treaties that guaranteed Europeans living in the Levant personal and material privileges and guarantees, and protection against Muslim persecution.

Attracted by the commercial possibilities and the guarantees of the Capitulations, a new wave of Sephardim, mainly Italians and French, settled in Syria in the 17th and 18th centuries. Known as Gentlemen Francos, francs or, more popularly, franj, They had European habits, including the way they dressed.

A considerable number of  fringe settled in Aleppo, where they found a prosperous and integrated community. They did not create a separate community, but integrated into the existing one. They lived like the rest of the Jews in the Bahsita neighborhood, near the Great Synagogue, which they began to frequent. It was a time of great prosperity, since much of the city's commercial activity was concentrated in the hands of Jews and Christians. The influence of Jewish merchants and bankers was so great that the departure of important caravans was sometimes delayed because it coincided with a Jewish festival.

Damascus, on the other hand, was still closed to foreigners, and the Jewish community was basically made up of artisans and merchants. There were few wealthy families, these being made up of bankers and international merchants.

19st century

The Europeans brought modernity to the Ottoman Empire. The penetration of an industrialized and militarily superior Europe resulted in the weakening of traditional Islamic society. Non-Muslim minorities benefited most from European interference in the Middle East and were the ones who most rapidly Westernized, even adopting European dress and customs.

In 1831, Mohamed Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt, conquered Syria. He opened his economy to the West, promoting trade with Europe. With the opening of Damascus to foreigners, European commercial companies set up shop in the city and hired representatives, mostly Christians, and some Jews.

In the mid-19th century, there were about 4 Jews in Damascus and, as Josiah Porter wrote in his guidebook, Murray's Handbook, “The Jews of the city are very influential due to the great wealth of some families.” The residences of the most prominent, such as the Farhi, Lisbona, Stambouli, Totah and Anbar, located in Harat Al-Yahud, the Jewish quarter, were among the most beautiful mansions in the Old City.

In the province of Aleppo, according to the Ottoman census of 1893, there were 10.761 Jews. Until the last decades of the 19th century, Jews lived in Bahsita, in the old city, as we saw above. When new neighborhoods were built outside the old city center, Jews with better economic conditions moved to a new neighborhood, Jamilie. The wealthiest lived in beautiful houses, but without reaching the sumptuousness and beauty of the Jewish mansions in Damascus.

At the beginning of the 20th century, only Jews of modest means still lived in Bahsita, where the Great Synagogue was located, called by the local population the al-Safra. Countless travelers who passed through the city over the centuries were amazed by its grandeur and beauty. The synagogue was completely renovated in 1855.

Reforms in the Ottoman Empire

In 1839, the Ottoman Empire was modernized by a series of reforms, known as Tanzimat Fermani. jizya was extinguished, but in its place the government created a tax – the military substitution tax bedel-i-askeri – which fell on all non-Muslims who, under the new laws, could be recruited to serve in the Turkish army.

European pressure led to a new edict in 1856 granting full equality to citizens of all religions and, ten years later, citizenship without religious or ethnic distinction. The 1856 edict included the reorganization of religious communities on a national basis and the creation of the system of “millets” (nations). The system guaranteed each community full control over its properties, institutions and schools.

The year 1869 was a pivotal one in the history of Syrian Jews. That year, the Suez Canal was opened, allowing ships to sail from Europe to Asia. Before its construction, goods had to travel overland between the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. The opening of the Canal was detrimental to Aleppo, and especially to Damascus. As desert caravans were replaced by cheaper and safer trade routes, the two cities lost their importance in international trade. The result was economic stagnation that led hundreds of Jews to leave Syria in search of countries with better opportunities.

In the same year of 1869, schools were opened in Alliance Israélite Universelland in Aleppo and Damascus. Created in 1860 in France, after the Damascus Affair, the institution aimed to provide an education along the lines of the French and to professionalize students. The schools gave Jewish youth an advantage over the Muslim masses – who did not receive formal education – at a time when the Middle East was being swept away by modernity.

Anti-Semitism in the Arab World

As we have seen above, in the 19th and 20th centuries, branches of European companies in Syria operated through Christian and Jewish representatives. The companies did not hire Muslims. As these intermediaries became richer, giving rise to a new wealthy class of Jews and Christians, deep resentment arose among the Muslim population. On the other hand, Christians, when entering into fierce commercial competition with Jews, introduced an intense and previously unknown anti-Semitism of Christian nature. During the 19th century, in the Ottoman Empire, in cities such as Rhodes, Cairo, Aleppo and Dayr Al-Qamar, the first accusations of ritual murder arose. The most serious occurred in Damascus, in February 1840, when 13 prominent members of the community were arrested and tortured. The accusation was that they had killed the Capuchin friar Thomas of Calangianus and his servant for ritual purposes. The Damascus Affair had repercussions throughout the world. World Jewish leaders pressured their respective governments, demanding the release of their brothers. In England, Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild, a close friend of Queen Victoria, Sir Moses Montefiore, the Salomon brothers and the Goldschmidts obtained the support of the British Crown. In Austria, the Rothschilds and the Arnsteins obtained the support of Metternich. In addition to humanitarian reasons, both countries saw in the Affair an opportunity to undermine French prestige with the Egyptian government.

Sir Moses Montefiore and Adolphe Crémieux organized a delegation of Western Jews to Egypt for a personal meeting with Mohamed Ali Pasha. At the end of August, Mohamed Ali Pasha agreed to release all the prisoners. However, when the order for their release arrived in Damascus, four Jews had already died, seven were mutilated, and only two were released from captivity unharmed. Crémieux and Montefiore, fearful that the accusations of ritual murder would be repeated, went to Constantinople. There, they managed to get Sultan Abdul Megid to issue an edict declaring that the accusation against Jews of using Christian blood in their rituals was nothing more than a lie. Furthermore, the sultan promised to protect the Jews of the Ottoman Empire from slander. Unfortunately, to this day, the accusations of the Damascus Affair are considered true in the Arab world and are used as “proof” of Jewish intentions.

At the beginning of the 20th century, despite the apparent tranquility of the Syrian Jews, the storm was already approaching...

In 1911, despite the exodus, there were still 11 Jews living in Damascus and 9 in Aleppo. Damascus had become the center of Zionist activity in Syria and also of Arab nationalism. This movement, which opposed colonialism and Western interference, was imbued with violent anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.

Until the 20th century, the vast majority of Muslim Arabs did not see Jews as an economic or political threat, unlike the Christian minority.

However, a radical change had occurred in the general attitude of Arabs towards Jews with the confrontation between Zionism and Arab nationalism. Jews began to be seen by Muslims as a political threat.

A vast amount of anti-Semitic literature is circulating throughout the Middle East. The situation is changing completely... And we invite Morasha readers to read this in the next issue...

1  Flavius ​​Josephus – Jewish historian of the 1st century AD.

2  Tax per capita levied on non-Muslims – applied to adult men with property.

3  Must'arabim were the Jews who spoke the Arabic language, the vast majority of whom were Jews from Arab countries and Jews from the Maghreb.