This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sirmylesnagopaleentheda (talk | contribs) at 08:56, 23 June 2006 (→Leaving Syria). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 08:56, 23 June 2006 by Sirmylesnagopaleentheda (talk | contribs) (→Leaving Syria)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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
Many families left Syria for Egypt, and later for Manchester in England, where they joined the synagogues of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. A breakaway synagogue was later formed in Old Lansdowne Road with a more Syrian flavour, but the two have since merged.
The Syrian Community of New York City
The Syrian Community of Mexico
The Syrian Community in Israel
Traditions and Customs
Pizmonim
Main article: PizmonimBaqashot
Main article: BaqashotIt 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
Main article: Sephardic JudaismThere 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.
Aleppo Codex
Cookery
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:
 | This article related to Jewish history is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |