The Jewish community was not targeted during the overthrow of the Assad regime by rebel groups last week, a member of Damascus’s tiny Jewish community told KAN news on Saturday.
The source told KAN that on the first day following the takeover, there was significant upheaval in the city, including the theft of cars and houses. However, despite this, there was no harm to the Jewish community, the source said.
“I am here in Damascus and no one entered the Jewish properties and synagogues,” the source said.
According to the same individual, Damascus’s Jews are not afraid of the new government despite their Islamist orientation.
“In recent days, I was walking down the street and one of the rebels said hello to me. Everything is business as usual. In fact, it might be better than it was before,” the individual said.
The source, however, expressed no antipathy towards the Assad regime, telling KAN that they were “satisfied during both.”
The source said they were optimistic that the new government might move towards peace with Israel.
Jews in Syria
While there were around 100,000 Jews in Syria prior to the beginning of the 1900s, according to the World Jewish Congress, today, there are only a few.
Estimates start at as few as four Jews, as reported by the Jewish Library, though this number is reported and may not be accurate.
Before 1947, Syrian Jews were comprised of three distinct communities: Kurdish-speaking Jews, the Jews of Aleppo, and the eastern Jews of Damascus.
When Syria achieved independence from France in 1944, the country’s Jews were forbidden from teaching Hebrew or Jewish studies in schools, and were banned from immigrating to Palestine, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.
By 2020, nearly half of Syria’s Jewish sites were destroyed, including the Jobar Synagogue in Damascus, according to a report from the Foundation for Jewish Heritage.
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