Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews are Jews who live in the region of the modern state of <a href="/facts/Syria/7pDXGzq8">Syria</a>, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from <a href="/facts/History_of_ancient_Israel_and_Judah/qVoA0uua">ancient times</a> (known as <a href="/facts/Musta%27arabi_Jews/tnpXBGGd">Musta'arabi Jews</a>), and sometimes classified as <a href="/facts/Mizrahi_Jews/sJxlNJFP">Mizrahi Jews</a> (Mizrahi is a generic term for the Jews with an extended history in Asia or North Africa); and from the <a href="/facts/Sephardi_Jews/VrvPsCeh">Sephardi Jews</a> (referring to Jews with an extended history in the <a href="/facts/Iberian_Peninsula/ztFXI8zt">Iberian Peninsula</a>, i.e. Spain and <a href="/facts/Portugal/lYzwDQ63">Portugal</a>) who fled to Syria after the <a href="/facts/Alhambra_Decree/Wd7DNcUG">Alhambra Decree</a> forced the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
There were large communities in <a href="/facts/Aleppo/uFT6K2rS">Aleppo</a> ("Halabi Jews", Halab is "Aleppo" in Arabic) and <a href="/facts/Damascus/IL0Qwt6R">Damascus</a> ("Shami Jews") for centuries, and a smaller community in <a href="/facts/Qamishli/60RersNJ">Qamishli</a> on the Turkish border near <a href="/facts/Nusaybin/Cq58XcG8">Nusaybin</a>. In the first half of the 20th century a large percentage of Syrian Jews immigrated to the U.S., Latin America and Israel. Most of the remaining Jews left in the 28 years following 1973, due in part to the efforts of <a href="/facts/Judy_Feld_Carr/70Q28tBN">Judy Feld Carr</a>, who claims to have helped some 3,228 Jews emigrate; emigration was officially allowed in 1992. The largest number of Jews of Syrian descent live in <a href="/facts/Israel/dEe3IcaY">Israel</a>. Outside Israel, the largest Syrian Jewish community is in <a href="/facts/Brooklyn/UnUzxCFe">Brooklyn</a>, New York and is estimated at 75,000 strong. There are smaller communities elsewhere in the United States and in Latin America.
In 2011, there had been about 250 Jews still living within Syria, mostly in Damascus. As of December 2014, fewer than 50 Jews remained in the area due to increasing violence and war. In October 2015, with the threat of <a href="/facts/ISIS/agpVzR4K">ISIS</a> nearby, some of the remaining Jews in <a href="/facts/Aleppo,_Syria/uFT6K2rS">Aleppo</a> were taken to <a href="/facts/Ashkelon/aLwPHpaK">Ashkelon, Israel</a> in a rescue covert operation. In August 2019, <a href="/facts/BBC_Arabic/u6MzwIIN">BBC Arabic</a> visited some of the last remaining Jews living in Damascus. By the <a href="/facts/Fall_of_the_Assad_regime/f9ov5ycf">fall of the Assad regime</a>, it is believed that only 6 Jews remain in Syria.

Syrian Jews open-in-new

Syrian Jews