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Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: those who inhabited Syria from early times and the Sephardim who fled to Syria after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492 C.E). 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 only a few Jews still live 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.E.), 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. (Modern scholarship locates Aram Zoba in Lebanon and the far south of Syria: the identification with Aleppo is not found in rabbinic literature prior to the 11th century.) Whether or not Jewish settlement goes back to a time as early as King David, both Aleppo and Damascus certainly had Jewish communities early in the Christian era.

Post Second Temple

In Roman times about 10,000 Jews lived at Damascus, governed by an ethnarch. The attraction which Judaism exercised at that time over the pagans was so great that many men and women were converted to that religion. Paul of Tarsus succeeded, after a first rebuff, in converting many of the Jews of Damascus to Christianity (49 C.E.). This irritated the Jewish ethnarch to such a degree that he attempted to arrest Paul; and the latter's friends only saved his life by lowering him in a basket out of a window built in the wall of the city. Many Jews were murdered by the pagan inhabitants upon the outbreak of the great war of liberation. Later, Damascus, as the coins show, obtained the title of metropolis; and under Alexander Severus, when the city was a Christian colony, it became the seat of a bishop, who enjoyed a rank next to that of the Patriarch of Antioch. In the fifth century, under the rule of the Byzantine Empire, being the Talmudic time, Jews were living at Damascus; for the rabbi Rafram bar Pappa went to pray in the synagogue of Jobar.

An early Jewish community is likely to have existed in Aleppo during the 5th century, when a synagogue was constructed there. Also in the fifth century, Jerome reports the presence in Beroea (Aleppo) of a congregation of Nazarenes (Jewish Christians) using a Hebrew gospel similar to that of Matthew.

During the conflicts between the Byzantines and the Persians Damascus frequently suffered heavily. When Syria was conquered by the Persians (614), the Jews of Damascus, profiting by the presence of the invaders, joined with their coreligionists of Palestine to take vengeance on the Christians, especially those of Tyre. In 635 Damascus fell into the hands of the Muslims. The inhabitants voluntarily surrendered and succeeded in saving fifteen Christian churches.

After the Islamic conquest

Damascus

The rule of the Umayyads brought a new period of splendor to the city, which now became the capital of that califate. The Jewish community continued, and certainly existed in 970; "for," says a historian, "Joseph ben Abitur of Cordoba, having lost all hope of becoming the chief rabbi of that city, went to Palestine in that year, and settled at Damascus". This period terminated with the advent of the Abbasids, and the city suffered during the following centuries from continuous wars. Fortunately for the Jews, it resisted the siege of the Second Crusade (1147). Some time afterward a large number of Palestinian Jews sought refuge at Damascus from the enormous taxes imposed upon them by the Crusaders, thus increasing the community. Little information exists concerning the Jews in Damascus during the following centuries. The few data are given by travelers who visited the place. In 1128 Abraham ibn Ezra visited Damascus (though compare the note of Harkavy). According to Edelmann, Judah ha-Levi composed his famous poem on Zion in this city; but Harkavy has shown that "ash-Sham" here designates Palestine and not Damascus. In 1267 Nahmanides visited Damascus and succeeded in leading a Jewish colony to Jerusalem.

Benjamin of Tudela visited Damascus in 1170, while it was in the hands of the Seljukian prince Nur ad-Din Zangi. He found there 3,000 Rabbinite Jews and 200 Karaites. Jewish studies flourished there much more than in Palestine; according to Bacher it is possible that during the twelfth century the seat of the Palestinian academy was transferred to the city. The principal rabbis of the city were: Rabbi Ezra and his brother Sar Shalom, president of the tribunal; Yussef ִHamsi, R. Matsliaִh, R. Meïr, Yussef ibn Piat, R. Heman, the parnas, and R. Tsadok, physician.

About the same time Petaִhiah of Regensburg was there. He found "about 10,000 Jews, who have a prince. The head of their academy is Rabbi Ezra, who is full of the knowledge of the Law; for Rabbi Samuel, the head of the Academy of Babylon, ordained him". It was a Damascus rabbi, Judah ben Josiah, who, toward the end of the twelfth century, was "nagid" in Egypt. At a later period another nagid, David ben Joshua, also came from Damascus.

In 1210 a French Jew, Samuel ben Simson, visited the city. He speaks of the beautiful synagogue situated outside the city (Jobar) and said to have been constructed by Elisha.

Under Saladin the city again enjoyed considerable importance; but upon his death the disturbances began anew, until in 1516 the city fell into the hands of the Turks, since which time it has declined to the rank of a provincial town.

It seems probable that Yehuda Alharizi also visited Damascus during the first decade of the thirteenth century. At least he mentions the city in the celebrated forty-sixth "Makamah".

Toward the end of the thirteenth century Jesse ben Hezekiah, a man full of energy, arose in Damascus. He was recognized by Sultan Qalawun of Egypt as prince and exilarch, and in 1289 and in June 1290, in conjunction with his twelve colleagues, he put the anti-Maimonists under the ban.

The letters of the rabbis of Damascus and of Acre have been collected in the "Minִhat Qena'ot " (a compilation made by Abba Mari, grandson of Don Astruc of Lunel). No data are available for the fourteenth century. Estori Farִhi (1313) contents himself with the mere mention of Damascene Jews journeying to Jerusalem. A manuscript of David Kimhi on Ezekiel was written by Nathan of Narbonne and collated with the original by R. ִHiyya in Damascus, Ab 18, 1375. The Jewish community of Damascus continued its existence under the sultans (Burjites and Mamelukes) of Egypt, who conquered Syria; for the Jewish refugees of Spain established themselves among their coreligionists in that city in 1492, constructing a synagogue which they called "Khata'ib." The anonymous author of the "Yiִhus ha-Abot" also speaks of the beauties of Damascus; and of the synagogue at Jobar, "half of which was constructed by Elisha, half by Eleazar ben Arach".

Elijah of Ferrara (1438) had come to Jerusalem and had a certain jurisdiction in rabbinical matters over Damascus as well. He speaks of a great plague which devastated Egypt, Syria, and Jerusalem; but he does not say in how far the Jews of the firstnamed city suffered. Menaִhem ִHayyim of Volterra visited Damascus in 1481, and found 450 Jewish families, "all rich, honored, and merchants." The head of the community was a certain R. Joseph, a physician.

Obadiah of Bertinoro (1488) speaks in one of his letters of the riches of the Jews in Damascus, of the beautiful houses and gardens. A few years later, in 1495, an anonymous traveler speaks in like eulogistic terms. He lived with a certain Moses Makran, and he relates that the Damascene Jews dealt in dress-goods or engaged in some handicraft. They lent money to the Venetians at 24 per cent interest.

Aleppo

Maimonides, in his letter to the rabbis of Lunel, speaks of Aleppo as being the only community in Syria where some Torah learning survived, though the effort devoted to it was in his opinion less than impressive.

Benjamin of Tudela visited Aleppo in 1173, when he found a Jewish community of 1,500 (or on another reading 5000) souls with three noteworthy rabbis attending to their spiritual needs: Moses Alconstantini, Israel, and Seth. Petaִhiah of Regensburg was there between 1170 and 1180, and Alִharizi fifty years later. The former calls the citadel the palace of King Nour-ed-din, and says that there were 1,500 Jews in Aleppo, of whom the chief men were Rabbis Moses Alconstantini, Israel, and Seth. Yehuda Alharizi, author of the Taִhkemoni has much to say in praise of the Aleppo Jews. In 1195 the leading Jew was Joseph ben Judah, who had migrated from the Maghreb by way of Egypt, where he was the friend of Maimonides, who wrote for him the Guide for the Perplexed. Other men of learning were Azariah and his brother Samuel Nissim, the king's physician Eleazer, Jeshua, Jachin Hananiah, and Joseph ben ִHisdai. Although he respected them far more than their Damascene counterparts, Alharizi thought little of the Aleppo poets, of whom he mentions Moses Daniel and a certain Joseph; the best was Joseph ben Tsemah, who had good qualities but wrote bad verse. Their piety must have been extreme, for Eleazer is held up to scorn for having traveled on the Sabbath, although at the sultan's command. Alharizi died in Aleppo and was buried there.

In 1260 the Mongols conquered Aleppo, and massacred many of the inhabitants, but many of the Jews took refuge in the synagogue and were saved. In 1401 the Jewish quarter was pillaged, with the rest of the city, by Tamerlane; and a Jewish saint died there after a fast of seven months.

Arrival of Spanish Jews in Syria

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephardi Jews settled in many of the Islamic countries bordering the Mediterranean, including Syria, which then formed part of the Mameluke sultanate of Egypt. For the most part they founded their own communities, but they often assumed positions of rabbinic and communal leadership in their new homes. A social distinction remained between the newly arrived Sephardim and the native communities, which took several decades to accept them. Aleppo Jews of Spanish descent have a special custom, not found elsewhere, of lighting an extra candle at Hanukkah: it is said that this custom was established in gratitude for their acceptance by the local community. In both Aleppo and Damascus, the two communities supported a common Chief Rabbinate. Chief Rabbis were usually but not always from Spanish-descended families: in Aleppo there were five in a row from the Laniado family.

The Sephardic presence was greater in Damascus than in Aleppo, and Damascus also maintained closer ties to the Holy Land. In particular, the Damascus community was strongly influenced by the Safed Kabbalistic school of Isaac Luria, and contributed several notable personalities, including ִHayim Vital and Israel Najara. This explains certain differences in customs between the two cities.

An anonymous Jewish traveler who arrived a few years after the Spanish immigration, found at Damascus 500 Jewish households; also a Karaite community whose members called themselves "Muallim-Tsadaqah"; and a more important Rabbanite community, composed of three groups and possessing three beautiful synagogues. One of these belonged to the Sephardim; another, to the Moriscos (Moorish Jews) or natives; and the third, to the Sicilians. In each synagogue there was a preacher, who read the works of Maimonides to the pious every day after the prayer. The preacher of the Sephardim was Isִhaq Mas'ud, that of the natives Shem-ִTob al-Furani, and that of the Sicilians Isaac ִHaber. There were also two small schools for young students of the Talmud, containing respectively thirty and forty pupils.

Sixty Jewish families were living in the village of Jobar, one mile from Damascus, who had a very beautiful synagogue. "I have never seen anything like it," says the author; "it is supported by thirteen columns. Tradition says that it dates from the time of the prophet Elisha, and that he here anointed King Hazael. R. Eleazar ben Arach (a tannaite of the first century) repaired this synagogue." In order to indicate, finally, that the city was even then under the Ottoman rule, the narrator adds that the people of Damascus had just received a governor ("na'ib") from Constantinople.

Under the Ottoman Empire

In 1515 Selim I defeated the Mamelukes and Syria became part of the Ottoman Empire.

The "Chronicle" of Joseph Sambari (finished 1672) contains the names of a number of rabbis of note who lived in Damascus during the sixteenth century. He says that the Jewish community lived chiefly in Jobar, and he knows of the synagogue of Elisha (Central Synagogue of Aleppo) and the cave of Elijah the Tishbite. At the head of the community was a certain Abu ִHatseirah (so-called from a peculiar kind of headdress which he wore), who was followed by 'Abd Allah ibn Naִsir. Of the rabbis of Damascus proper he mentions Joseph ִHayyaִt; Samuel Aripol, author of "Mizmor le-Todah"; Samuel ibn 'Imran; Joseph al-ִSa'iִh; Moses Najara, author of "Lekaִh ִTob"; ִHayim Alshaich; Joseph Maִtalon; Abraham Galante. In this home of learning there was also a model-codex of the Bible called "Al-Taj" (the Crown). In 1547 Pierre Belon visited Damascus in the train of the French ambassador M. de Fumel. He speaks of the large number of Jews there; but makes the singular confusion of placing in this city the events connected with the famous Ahmad Shaitan of Egypt.

Among the spiritual leaders of Damascus in the sixteenth century may be mentioned: Jacob Berab, who, in the interval between his sojourns in Egypt and at Safed, lived there for some years (c. 1534); ִHayim Vital the Calabrian (1526–1603), for many years chief rabbi of Damascus, and the author of various cabalistic works, including "Etz ִHayim"; Samuel ben David the Karaite (not "Jemsel," as Eliakim Carmoly has it), who visited Damascus in 1641, mentions the circumstance that the Karaites there do not read the Haftarah after the Pentateuch section. Moses Najara; his son, the poet Israel Najara; Moses Galante (died in 1608), the son of Mordecai Galante; and Samuel Laniado ben Abraham of Aleppo were also among the prominent men of the sixteenth century.

The most celebrated rabbis of the seventeenth century were Josiah Pinto, a pupil of Jacob Abulafia, and author of the "Kesef-Nibִhar", and his son-in-law, Samuel Vital, who transcribed and circulated a large number of his father's Kabbalistic manuscripts. At the same time in Aleppo ִHayyim Cohen ben Abraham wrote "Meqor ִHayyim", published at Constantinople in 1649, and at Amsterdam by Menasseh ben Israel in 1650. Other Aleppo worthies are Samuel Dwek and Isaac Lopes in 1690 followed by Yehudah Kassin, Isaac Berachah and Isaac Atieh in the eighteenth century.

Nineteenth century

From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century several Jews of Spanish and Italian origin settled in Syria for trading reasons. Whenever possible, they kept their European nationality in order to be under the jurisdiction of the consular courts under the Ottoman Capitulations, rather than being treated as dhimmis under Islamic law. These European Jews were known as Señores Francos and maintained a sense of social superiority to the native Jews, both Musta'arabi and Sephardi. They did not form separate synagogues, but often held services of their own in private houses. There were also Jews of Baghdadi origin who claimed British nationality through family connections in India.

Some information is obtainable from travellers who visited Damascus during the nineteenth century. Alfred von Kremer, in "Mittel-Syrien und Damaskus" (1853), states that in the municipal government of the city two Christians and one Jew had places; the number of Jews was 4,000, only 1,000 of whom, however, paid the poll-tax; the last Karaite had died there some fifty years previously, the Karaite synagogue being then sold to the Greeks, who turned it into a church. The traveller Benjamin II gives the same number of inhabitants.He describes the synagogue at Jobar (to the north-east of the city) thus:

"The structure of this ancient building reminds one of the Mosque Moawiah; the interior is supported by 13 marble pillars, six on the right and seven on the left side, and is everywhere inlaid with marble. There is only one portal by which to enter. Under the holy shrine . . . is a grotto . . . the descent to which is by a flight of about 20 steps. According to the Jews, the Prophet Elisha is said to have found in this grotto a place of refuge. . . . At the entrance of the synagogue, toward the middle of the wall to the right, is an irregularly formed stone, on which can be observed the traces of several steps. Tradition asserts that upon this step sat King Hazael when the Prophet Elisha anointed him king".

Benjamin II also speaks of valuable copies of parts of the Bible to be found in Damascus; though the dates he gives (581 and 989) are unreliable. Neubauer mentions a copy of the Bible which belonged to Elisha ben Abraham ben Benvenisti, called "Crescas," and which was finished in 1382.

Damascus had eight chief rabbis during the nineteenth century, namely: (1) Joseph David Abulafia (1809–16). (2) Jacob Antebi (1816–1833). (3) Jacob Perez (1833–48). (4) Aaron Bagdadi (1848–66). (During the next two years the office of chief rabbi was vacant, owing to internal quarrels.) (5) ִHayim Qimִhi of Constantinople (1868–72). (6) Mercado Kilִhi of Nish (1872–76). (7) Isaac Abulafia (1876–88). (8) Solomon Eliezer Alfandari, commonly called "Mercado Alfandari" of Constantinople, who was appointed by an imperial decree in 1888 (still in office in 1901). A more recent chief rabbi was Nissim Indibo, who died at the end of 1972. Other Damascus Rabbis are Mordechai Maslaton, Shaul Menaged and Zaki Assa.

During the nineteenth century the Jews of Damascus were several times made the victims of calumnies, the gravest being those of 1840 and 1860, in the reign of the sultan Abdülmecit. That of 1840, commonly known as the Damascus affair, was an accusation of ritual murder brought against the Jews in connection with the death of Father Thomas. The second accusation brought against the Jews, in 1860, was that of having taken part in the massacre of the Christians by the Druze and the Muslims. Five hundred Muslims, who had been involved in the affair, were hanged by the grand vizier Fuad Pasha. Two hundred Jews were awaiting the same fate, in spite of their innocence, and the whole Jewish community had been fined 4,000,000 piastres. The condemned Jews were saved only by the official intervention of Fuad Pasha himself; that of the Prussian consul, Dr. Wetzstein; of Sir Moses Montefiore of London, and of the bankers Abraham Salomon Camondo of Constantinople and Shemaya Angel of Damascus. From that time to the end of the nineteenth century, several further blood accusations were brought against the Jews; these, however, never provoked any great excitement.

Prominent Aleppo rabbis include Eliahu Shamah, Abraham Antebi and Mordechai Labaton in the nineteenth century, Jacob Saul Dwek who died in 1919, followed by Ezra Hamwi and Moses Mizrahi who was prepared to be burnt with the Torah Scrolls but was removed by the Arab mob from the Jamilieh Synagogue during the pogrom of 1947. He was followed by Moses Tawil, Shlomo Zafrani and Yomtob Yedid.

World War I

Leaving Syria

In the nineteenth century the commercial importance of Aleppo and Damascus underwent a marked decline. Beginning around 1850, and with increasing frequency until the First World War, many families left Syria for Egypt, and later moved from there to Manchester in England, often following the cotton trade. Later still a considerable number left Manchester for Latin America, in particular Mexico and Argentina. From around 1908, many Syrian Jews migrated to New York, where the Brooklyn community is now the world's largest single Syrian Jewish community. For these communities at the present day, see Syrian Jews.

With anti-Jewish feeling reaching a climax in the late 1930s and early 1940s, many Jews considered emigrating. Between 1942 and 1947, around 4,500 Jews arrived in Palestine from Syria and Lebanon. In August 1949, the Menarsha synagogue was attacked in Damascus. 12 people were killed and dozens injured.

References

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Bibliography

• Ades, Abraham, Derech Ere"tz: Bene Berak 1990
• Ashtor, Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Mitzrayim ve-Suriyah taḥat ha-Shilton ha-Mamluki (History of the Jews of Egypt and Syria under the Mameluke Sultanate): Jerusalem 1944-51
• Cohen-Tawil, Abraham, Yahadut Ḥalab bir'e ha-dorot: al ha-historiah ha-ḥebratit-tarbutit shel yahadut Ḥalab (Aram Tsoba) (Aleppo Jewry through the Ages: on the socio-cultural history of Aleppo Jewry): Tel Aviv 1993
• Collins, Lydia, The Sephardim of Manchester: Pedigrees and Pioneers: Manchester 2006 ISBN 0-9552980-0-8
• 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) (Hebrew)
• Harel, Yaron, Syrian Jewry in Transition, 1840-1880 (English)
• Harel, Yaron, Sifre Ere"tz: ha-Sifrut ha-Toranit shel Ḥachme Aram Tsoba (The Books of Aleppo: Torah Literature of the Rabbis of Aleppo): Jerusalem 1996 summarized here
• Laniado, David Tsion, La-Qedoshim asher ba-are"ts: Jerusalem 1935 (2nd edition 1980)
• Laniado, Samuel, Debash ve-ִHALAB al-leshonech: Jerusalem 1998/9 (Hebrew)
• Shamosh, Y., Qehillat Ḥalab be-Suriyah, Mahanayim 1967
• Sutton, David, Aleppo: City of Scholars: Artscroll 2005 ISBN 1-57819-056-8 (partly based on Laniado, La-Qedoshim asher ba-are"ts)
• Zenner, Walter P., A Global Community: The Jews from Aleppo, Syria: Wayne State University Press 2000 ISBN 0-8143-2791-5

See also

• History of the Jews in Muslim lands
• Syrian Jews
• Sephardi Jews
• Mizrahi Jews
• History of the Jews in Turkey
• Central Synagogue of Aleppo
• Pizmonim
• Baqashot
• Musta'arabi Jews
• Aleppo Codex

External links

• History: The Jews of Aleppo
• Ritual: Sephardic Pizmonim Project
• Bible: Aleppo Codex Website

Endnotes

1. 2 Samuel 10
2. Zvi Zohar, Vayyibra Artscroll et Halab be-tsalmo (review of Sutton, Aleppo: City of Scholars).
3. Acts 9-2; II Cor. 9-32
4. Josephus, Jewish War, ii. 20, § 2; vii. 8, § 7
5. Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 50a
6. Mark L. Kligman. Maqām and liturgy: ritual, music, and aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn, pg. 24.
7. Jerome's commentary on Matthew. It is unclear whether he was referring to the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Gospel of the Nazoraeans or the Gospel of the Ebionites, and whether these names refer to the same or different books.
8. Abraham ibn Daud, Sefer ha-Qabbalah in Neubauer, Medieval Jewish Chronicles i. 69; David Conforte, Qore ha-Dorot, 5b
9. ִHadashim gam Yeshanim, vii. 38
10. Ginze Oxford, p. ix.
11. ִHadashim gam Yeshanim, vii. 35
12. Travels, ed. Benisch, p. 53
13. Sambari, in Medieval Jewish Chronicles i. 133
14. Grätz, Geschichte ix., note i.
15. see below; compare Otsar ִTob, 1878, p. 38; Carmoly, Itineraires, p. 136
16. Grätz, Geschichte vii. 186-195
17. Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften ii. 269
18. Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. No. 316
19. 1537; published by Uri b. Simeon in 1564
20. Carmoly, l.c. p. 457; compare similar accounts by Raphael of Troyes and Azulai, ib. p. 487
21. Carmoly, l.c. p. 333
22. Jerusalem, i. 211
23. ed. Neubauer, p. 30
24. ibid. p. 84
25. Responsa and Letters of Maimonides: Leipzig 1859 p. 44.
26. Massa'ot, ed. Adler, New York, p. 32.
27. Makamat, Nos. 18, 46, 47, 50
28. Ashtor, pp. 268-9.
29. see Shibִhe Yerushalayim, 51b; and Graetz, History (Hebrew translation), vii. 27
30. see also Sambari in Neubauer, Medieval Jewish Chronicles i. 152
31. Medieval Jewish Chronicles i. 152
32. ibid. p. 119. Today the Jewish National and University Library holds two manuscripts described as the "Damascus Keter"; one is ms. Heb 5702 and dates from tenth century Palestine, and the other is ms. Heb 790 and dates from Burgos in 1260.
33. Revue Etudes Juives, xxvii. 129
34. Itineraires, p. 511
35. ibid. p. 526; but see Zunz, Ritus, p. 56
36. Medieval Jewish Chronicles i. 153; Qore ha-Dorot, 49b
37. Monatsschrift, iii. 75
38. Eight Years in Asia and Africa, pp. 41 et seq.
39. Medieval Jewish Chronicles i. 21
40. Collins, Lydia, Pedigrees and Pioneers.
41. Walter P. Zenner. A global community: the Jews from Aleppo, Syria, Wayne State University Press, 2000. pg. 82. ISBN: 0814327915.

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