Fewer Than 10 Jews Live in Syria. A Diaspora Is Edging Back.

DAMASCUS, Syria—Dust filled the air as Rabbi Yosef Hamra opened a long-sealed closet containing holy scrolls untouched since he last held Jewish services in the centuries-old synagogue three decades ago. His family had left Syria along with many other Jews in the 1990s. But here he was with his son, Henry Hamra, who lifted the heavy gold-laced scrolls high above his head as warm sunlight beamed through the stained glass windows of the al-Faranj Synagogue in Damascus’s Old City.

“We have returned,” said Henry Hamra, who last saw the city when he was a teenager. “After all these years, we have finally returned.”

The father and son were part of a group of Syrian and American Jews who arrived in Damascus this month, escorted by armed forces of the new government led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the U.S.-designated terrorist group whose rebel coalition toppled the despotic Assad dynasty in December.

The delegation toured Damascus’s historic Jewish neighborhood and religious sites, and met with community members and officials from Syria’s new government. They visited relatives’ former homes, graves and religious schools. Some of the kippa-wearing American Jews posed for photos holding the rifle of a masked, black-clad member of the government’s new security forces.

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Fewer than 10 Jews are currently estimated to be living in Syria—not enough to meet the quorum needed for public prayer under religious rules. Tens of thousands of Jews left in waves during the 20th century, especially in the years around the creation of Israel in 1948 and subsequent wars between the two countries, a period when the community experienced violence in Aleppo and Damascus.

Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian president from 1971 to 2000, restricted Jewish emigration from the country and kept Syria’s remaining Jews under close watch. He lifted the restrictions in 1992, and a few thousand more left, many for the U.S., leading to the near-extinction of Jewish presence in Syria.

Jews have had a presence in Syria for millennia. At times it was a haven. Jews flocked to Syria after being displaced when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in the 11th century. Another influx came after the Spanish expulsion of Jews in the 1400s, while many left Syria during later spasms of sectarian tension.

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Many interesting photos