Syrian Jews return to Damascus for the primary time in a long time, hoping to construct bridges

DAMASCUS — If there’s a verbal expression of heartache, Rabbi Yusuf Hamra uttered it as he stepped contained in the Faranj synagogue within the Syrian capital final week. It was the final place he had mentioned prayers earlier than leaving Syria 33 years in the past in a wave of emigration by Syria’s Jews.

“Ach, ach, ach,” mentioned the 77-year-old, wearing a white shirt and black swimsuit as he stepped gingerly into what had been a middle of the Syrian capital’s once-thriving Jewish group.

Constructed greater than 500 years in the past by Jews who fled the terrors of the Spanish Inquisition, the synagogue was renovated within the Sixties. Dusty blue velvet benches had been piled in opposition to partitions with peeling paint. A pile of prayer books — some 300 years outdated — lay moldering below a cream-colored prayer scarf.

“I remember my father, the last day before we left here, he was praying,” mentioned his son Henry Hamra, a cantor. “He was crying when he was praying the last prayer over here.”

The prayers Rabbi Hamra mentioned final week had been the primary because the synagogue closed within the Nineteen Nineties, after virtually the complete Syrian Jewish inhabitants of greater than 30,000 left. The Hamra household emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Brooklyn.

“It was very hard,” mentioned the rabbi. “For children, they can learn to live anywhere. But this was my home for 45 years.”

Hamra’s go to this month was historic. A small delegation of Jewish spiritual officers and a former U.S. diplomat had been invited by the brand new Syrian authorities, because it tries to incorporate these it believes can assist to rebuild the nation after a long time of regime rule fell final December.

Virtually all of Syria’s Jews left in a two-year interval beginning in 1992, when then-President Hafez al-Assad allowed them to to migrate. Now members of the nation’s dwindling Jewish group say solely seven people are left from what had been a thriving group for hundreds of years.

Henry Hamra, 46, identified a Spanish Jewish function of one of many synagogues — a ladies’s part on the second flooring, accessible by a separate exterior staircase. It is a legacy of the Jewish exodus to the Arab world, once they had been expelled from Spain within the late fifteenth century throughout its marketing campaign in opposition to these it thought-about heretics.

Final week’s go to was organized by Syrian American activist Mouaz Moustafa, founding father of the Syrian Emergency Process Pressure. The purpose was to pave the best way for Syrian Jews to return — and to press america to raise sanctions it imposed on the previous regime of Bashar al-Assad, toppled in December.

“You know, there’s a big Jewish influence on the new [U.S.] administration,” mentioned Rabbi Asher Lopatin, laughing. “If the Syrian Jews have some connections — and they do — they will have a voice in the administration, and I think it will resonate.”

Lopatin, from Detroit, will not be of Syrian origin, however says he got here in solidarity with Rabbi Hamra. Suggested by Moustafa to put on ball caps over their kippahs — conventional Jewish head coverings — for safety causes, Lopatin coated his with a Detroit Pistons basketball cap.

“This is unbelievable, to be in Damascus as a Jew and invited by the government,” mentioned Lopatin. “I hope America takes this opportunity of supporting this government and sending love to this government.”

Moustafa mentioned the go to was controversial amongst some U.S. officers and even within the Syrian Jewish group, the place many view with concern the roots of Syria’s interim chief.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa is a former member of the militant group al-Qaida, which carried out the terrorist assaults of Sept. 11, 2001. He has renounced that group’s ideology and made clear that Syrians of all faiths are to be an integral a part of the nation. The U.S. and European international locations, nevertheless, have been sluggish to raise devastating commerce sanctions imposed on Syria through the al-Assad regime.

The delegation kept away from commenting on Israel throughout its four-day go to to Syria, and the Syrian authorities kept away from asking them.

“This is purely about Syria,” mentioned Moustafa.

The delegation’s first cease after flying into Damascus final Monday was the Jewish cemetery — partially destroyed after the federal government constructed a freeway by it within the Sixties.

Rabbi Hamra mentioned prayers at his father’s grave after which walked slowly among the many tombstones, studying the Hebrew inscriptions seeking his grandfather’s tomb.

“I can’t find him,” he mentioned. “I’ve looked and looked. It’s been 34 years — I need time to remember.”

In a small concrete shrine, a distinguished grave stays intact — that of an influential determine in Kabbalah, a sort of Jewish mysticism. The grave of Ḥayyim ben Joseph Important, a seventeenth century rabbi who disseminated the rules of Kabbalah all over the world, is a few 400 years outdated.

“You know, if the doors are open, I know a lot of people will come here just to see the rabbi,” mentioned Henry Hamra. “I promise, they would love to come here.”

Even after greater than 30 years in Brooklyn, Rabbi Hamra appears completely Syrian. He’s extra snug talking Arabic than English. His son calls him “baba” — Arabic for dad.

Requested how he feels coming again, the rabbi utters the precise phrases virtually each different Syrian says on lastly with the ability to return: “Is there anything more beautiful than your home?”

The ball caps end up to not be wanted as a safety precaution. The Syrian authorities has despatched frivolously armed fighters, who pose for pictures with the rabbis, to accompany the delegation.

Within the winding, slender streets of the capital’s outdated Jewish quarter, virtually everyone seems to be overtly welcoming. Former neighbors from three a long time in the past cease Rabbi Hamra to ask about members of his household. Lots of them are Palestinian, descendants of those that turned refugees after the creation of Israel in 1948.

There are 22 synagogues left in Syria, all closed. The delegation visited half a dozen of them.

In a single, Rabbi Hamra reverently held a prayer e book he himself had copied out way back, and in accordance with Syrian regulation on the time, had taken to the data ministry for approval to print.

Within the courtyard of one other synagogue, he inhaled the scent of a lemon simply plucked from a tree and identified a big citrus fruit generally known as kabbad, used for making sweets he has not seen or tasted in additional than 30 years.

“The scent of Damascus was orange blossoms and jasmine,” mentioned his son Henry.

The Syrian president despatched a key advisor, Moussa al-Omar, to hitch the delegation on a tour of a destroyed synagogue within the Damascus suburb of Jobar. Together with mosques and church buildings, it was diminished to rubble by Syrian regime forces through the nation’s civil conflict.

Henry Hamra mentioned his group would press Israel to return priceless Jewish texts that had been taken there from Syria throughout earlier a long time, together with by alleged looters throughout Syria’s civil conflict.

In a gathering within the courtyard of Syria’s nationwide museum, the place antiquities officers have jurisdiction over heritage websites, al-Amr assured the visiting delegation that Syrian authorities would assist any residents who needed to return.

“Everyone who has a right to his land will have it returned to his family,” he mentioned. He added that the Syrian authorities would additionally assist restore Syrian citizenship to former residents. “Now what we want from you is that you raise the issue of sanctions on Syria.”

The delegation had hoped to have the ability to get collectively 10 Jewish males for a minyan, a quorum to have the ability to maintain prayers in one of many synagogues.

They had been shut — they wanted solely 5 different Jewish males other than the delegation. However ultimately, two of the surviving Jewish residents of the town didn’t attend. Two different younger Syrian Jews who had arrived from the U.S. after the delegation landed had been unreachable. And two others whose moms had been Jewish had been deemed unacceptable by Rabbi Hamra as a result of they didn’t follow the religion.

Nonetheless, mentioned Lopatin, “This is a miracle to be able to be here, and hopefully bigger crowds can come. Now we have something to pray for. All of Syria is about proof that things can miraculously change.”

Requested what he hopes for from this go to, Rabbi Hamra mentioned he needs Syrian Jews to have the ability to come again and dwell within the properties they left right here, in the event that they wish to.

“A normal, comfortable life. I wish this for everyone,” he says. “They can make up for the days they lost.”

Sangar Khaleel contributed reporting from Damascus.