Syrian Jewry

The Syrian Jewish community in the Middle East was a large, important community. The main centers were in the cities Damascus and Haleb( Aram Zuba). The Jewish community in Syria existed since the time of the first Temple period. There were periods in the history of the area that the Israeli Jewish community was ruled by the Syrian leaders of the Jewish community there. In the year 1375, the Aleppo Codex (keter aram zuba) reached Haleb. This is a very old copy of the Tanach, the full text, proofread, including 'mesura'. The book was housed in a special building unto itself. This building became a holy place for the entire Syrian Jewish community. In 1492 many of the Jews who were expelled from Spain reached Syria which greatly enlarged the Syrian Jewish community. As in all Moslem countries, the status of Jews in Syria was a status which was beneath the social status of the Moslems. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI Syria was ruled by a French Mandate. In 1925 the Druze Revolt broke out. Many Jews form the Jewish quarter in Damascus were harmed. Starting in 1928 Zionist families and youngsters from Syria began making Aliyah to Israel. The younger people joined the Kibbutzim in the North of Israel. In this collection of photographs we have a look into the big synagogue in Haleb. There are also Hebrew inscriptions on Jewish graves that were used to build the town tower. We recommend looking at the book Syria: Jewish Communities in the East in the 1900's and 2000, edited by Yaron Harel and published by The Ben Zvi Center for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East at Yad Ben Zvi, The Hebrew University and the Ministry of Education- The Center for the Integration of the Heritage of Eastern Jewry, 2008. Read more