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Revision as of 15:01, 12 June 2006 by Sirmylesnagopaleentheda (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Syrian Jews are generally divided into two groups: those who inhabited Syria from early times and those Sephardim who fled to Syria after the Spanish Inquisition (1492 A.D). There were large communities in both Aleppo and Damascus 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
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.
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