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Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: those who inhabited Syria from early times and those Sephardim who fled to Syria after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492 A.D). There were large communities in Aleppo, Damascus, and Beirut for centuries. In the early twentieth century a large percentage of Syrian Jews emigrated to the U.S., Central and South America and Israel. Today there are almost no Jews left in Syria. The largest Syrian-Jewish community is located in Brooklyn, New York, and estimated at 40,000.

History

Second Temple Period

The tradition of the community ascribes its founding to the time of King David (1000 B.C.), whose general Joab occupied the area of Syria described in the Bible as Aram Zoba: this name is taken by later tradition as referring to Aleppo. Whether or not this tradition has a basis in fact, both Aleppo and Damascus certainly had Jewish communities early in the Christian era.

Post Second Temple

After the Islamic conquest

Arrival of Spanish Jews to Syria

Under the Ottoman Empire

World War I

Leaving Syria

Beginning around 1850, and with increasing frequency until the First World War, many families left Syria for Egypt, and later for Manchester in England, where they joined the synagogues of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. There were and are two of these: one in north/central Manchester, which has since moved to Salford, and the other in Queenston Road, West Didsbury in the southern suburbs. A breakaway synagogue was later formed in Old Lansdowne Road with a more Syrian flavour, but it and Queenston Road have since merged.

The Syrian Community of New York City

The Syrian Community of Mexico

The Syrian Community in Israel

Traditions and Customs

Pizmonim

Baqashot

It was a custom in Syrian Jewish communities (and some others) to sing Baqashot (petitionary hymns) before the morning service on Shabbat. In the winter months the full corpus of 66 hymns is sung, finishing with Adon Olam and Kaddish: this service generally lasts about four hours, from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m..

This tradition still obtains in full force in the Bet Ades synagogue in Jerusalem. In other communities such as New York it is less widespread, though the hymns are sung on other occasions.

Liturgy

There exists a fragment of the old Aleppo prayer book for the High Holy Days, published in Venice in 1560. This is recognisably Sephardic in form, but is different from any liturgy used today.

The liturgy now used is textually speaking Oriental-Sephardic. That is to say, it is based on the Spanish rite as varied by the customs of Isaac Luria, and more particularly on the nineteenth century Livorno editions, and resembles those in use by Greek, Turkish and North African Jewish communities. However, some communities and individuals use "Edot ha-Mizrach" prayer-books which contain a slightly different text, based on the Baghdadi rite, as these are more commonly available, leaving any specifically Syrian usages to be perpetuated by oral tradition.

The musical customs of Syrian communities are very distinctive, as many of the prayers are chanted to the melodies of the pizmonim, according to a complicated annual rota designed to ensure that the maqam (musical mode) used suits the mood of the festival or of the Torah reading for the week.

Pronunciation of Hebrew

The Syrian pronunciation of Hebrew is similar to that of other Mizrahi communities, and is influenced both by Sephardi Hebrew and by the Syrian dialect of Arabic. It does not reflect the formal rules for the pronunciation of Classical Arabic (tajwid) to the same extent as the pronunciation of Iraqi Jews. Particular features are as follows:

• ב (Bet without dagesh) is pronounced /b/, not /v/
• ו (Vav) is pronounced /v/, not /w/
• ח (Het) is pronounced like Arabic ح (unvoiced pharyngeal spirant)
• ט (Tet) is pronounced like Arabic ط (unvoiced retroflex dental stop)
• ע (Ayin) is pronounced like Arabic ع (voiced pharyngeal), but this is less emphatic than in some other dialects
• צ (Tsadi) is pronounced like Arabic ص (unvoiced retroflex sibilant)
• ק (Qof) varies between Classical Arabic ق and a glottal stop
• ת (Tav without dagesh) is pronounced /t/, not /θ/

Aleppo Codex

Cookery

Surnames

Common Syrian-Jewish surnames are:

• Ades
• Antebi
• Ashqar or Ashear
• Betesh or Btesh
• Catton
• Dayan
• Dweck, Dwek or Douek
• Esses
• Gindi
• Haber
• Kassin
• Picciotto
• Salem
• Sethon or Sutton
• Shamah
• Shayo
• Shohet
• Shrem
• Silvera
• Tabbush
• Tawil

Some of these are also found in other communities, such as among Egyptian and Iraqi Jews.

References

• Sutton, Joseph, Aleppo in Flatbush
• Sutton, Joseph, Magic Carpet
• Harel, Yaron, Bi-Sefinot Shel Esh la-Ma'arab (By Ships of Fire to the West: Changes in Syrian Jewry during the Period of the Ottoman Reform 1840-1880)
• Harel, Yaron: Sifre Ere"tz (The Books of Aleppo)
• Shelemay, Kay Kaufman, Let Jasmine Rain Down, Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology: 1998. Hardback: , Paperback: .
• Abadi, J.F., A Fistful of Lentils: Syrian-Jewish Recipes from Grandma Fritzie's Kitchen: Harvard 2002. Hardback:

See also:

• Sephardi Jews
  
• Mizrahi Jews
  
• Baqashot
  
• Pizmonim
  
• Syrian Cantors
  
• Aleppo Codex

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