Jewish Population
1948: 40,000 | 2025: 6*

There is evidence of a Jewish presence in the Syrian area dating back to the Seleucid period (4th century BCE).²³

Important religious and cultural landmarks marked Jewish life in Syria. The Jewish cemetery in Damascus contains the tomb of Rabbi Chaim Vital, the leading disciple of the great kabbalist Isaac Luria, buried there in 1620, along with centuries of Jewish graves. The Elfaranje Synagogue, established by Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition, was one of several historic houses of worship that served the community. In addition, the Dura-Europos synagogue, dating back nearly 2,000 years and discovered in the 20th century, preserved extraordinary wall paintings of biblical scenes—considered the earliest surviving figurative art in a Jewish setting—now housed in the National Museum of Damascus. These sites highlight the depth of Jewish religious and cultural life in Syria across the centuries.²⁵

Before the establishment of Israel and the rise of Zionism, the attitude towards Jews in Syria was “reasonable” given their small population (40,000 out of 2 million). However, in the 1940s, conditions deteriorated due to the Zionist movement and the UN partition plan, placing Syrian Jews in a challenging position regarding their loyalty to Syria versus their ties to Israel and Zionist sentiments.

An earlier wave of Syrian Jewish emigration occurred between 1900 and 1930, driven by worsening conditions in Syria and resulting in people relocating to Mandatory Palestine, the USA, and South American countries.

In 1944, after Syria gained independence from France, the new government prohibited Jewish immigration to Palestine and severely restricted the teaching of Hebrew in Jewish schools. Attacks against Jews escalated, and boycotts were called against their businesses.

When partition was declared in 1947, Arab mobs in Aleppo devastated the 2,500-year-old Jewish community. Scores of Jews were killed and more than 200 homes, shops, and synagogues were destroyed. Thousands of Jews illegally fled Syria to go to Israel.¹

Shortly after, the Syrian government intensified its persecution of the Jewish population. Freedom of movement was severely restricted. Jews who attempted to flee faced either the death penalty or imprisonment at hard labor. Jews were not allowed to work for the government or banks, could not acquire telephones or driver’s licenses, and were barred from buying property. Jewish bank accounts were frozen. An airport road was paved over the Jewish cemetery in Damascus; Jewish schools were closed and handed over to Muslims.

Syria’s attitude toward Jews was reflected in its sheltering of Alois Brunner, one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals. Brunner, a chief aide to Adolf Eichmann, served as an adviser to the regime of Hafez Assad.²

In March 1974, a rare protest erupted in Damascus as 1,000 Jews from the city’s ghetto, joined by Christians, demonstrated against the brutal murders of six young Jews attempting to flee Syria. The victims included four women—Eva Saad and the Zebah sisters, Toni, Laura, and Farah—who were raped, robbed, and killed by their supposed guides near the Lebanese border, and two men, Natan Shaya and Kassam Abadi, whose bodies were found six months after a similar escape attempt. The women’s mutilated remains were returned to their families in a sack, underscoring the oppression faced by Syria’s 4,000–5,000 Jews, confined under curfews, surveillance, and systemic discrimination while being denied the right to emigrate since 1947.¹⁸

In 1987-88, the Syrian secret police seized 10 Jews on suspicion of violating travel and emigration laws, planning to escape, and having taken unauthorized trips abroad. Several who were released reported being tortured while in custody.³

In November 1989, the Syrian government promised to facilitate the emigration of more than 500 single Jewish women, who greatly outnumbered eligible men in the Jewish community and could not find suitable husbands. Twenty-four were allowed to emigrate in the fall of 1989 and another 20 in 1991.⁴

For years, the Jews in Syria lived in extreme fear. The Jewish Quarter in Damascus was under the constant surveillance of the secret police, who were present at synagogue services, weddings, bar-mitzvahs and other Jewish gatherings. Contact with foreigners was closely monitored. Travel abroad was permitted in exceptional cases, but only if a bond of $300-$1,000 was left behind, along with family members who served as hostages. U.S. pressure applied during peace negotiations helped convince President Hafez Assad to lift these restrictions, and those prohibiting Jews from buying and selling property, in the early 1990s.

In an undercover operation in late 1994, 1,262 Syrian Jews were brought to Israel. The spiritual leader of the Syrian Jewish community for 25 years, Rabbi Avraham Hamra, was among those who left Syria and went to New York (he now lives in Israel). Syria had granted exit visas on the condition that the Jews do not go to Israel.⁵ The decision to finally free the Jews came about largely as a result of pressure from the United States following the 1991 Madrid peace conference.

By the end of 1994, the Joab Ben Zeruiah Synagogue in Aleppo, in continuous use for more than 1,600 years, was deserted. A year later, approximately 250 Jews remained in Damascus, all apparently staying by choice.⁶ By the middle of 2001, Rabbi Huder Shahada Kabariti estimated that 150 Jews were living in Damascus, 30 in Haleb and 20 in Kamashili. Every two or three months, a rabbi visited from Istanbul, Turkey, to oversee the preparation of kosher meat, which residents froze and ate until his next visit. Two synagogues remained open in Damascus.⁷

Although Jews were occasionally subjected to violence by Palestinian protesters in Syria, the government took strict protective measures, including arresting assailants and guarding the remaining synagogues.⁸

According to the State Department, in 2001, Jews still had a separate primary school for religious instruction on Judaism and are allowed to teach Hebrew in some schools. About a dozen students still attend the Jewish school, which had 500 students as recently as 1992. Jews and Kurds are the only minorities not allowed to participate in the political system. In addition, "the few remaining Jews are generally barred from government employment and do not have military service obligations. They are the only minority whose passports and identity cards note their religion."⁹

During the Syrian Civil War that devastated the country starting in 2011, many significant cultural and religious holy sites were damaged or destroyed by bombings or general combat. Syria’s oldest Synagogue, the Eliyahu Hanabi Synagogue in the neighborhood of Jobar, was destroyed along with everything inside of it during bombing runs carried out by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces in May 2014. The synagogue was over 400 years old and contained thousands of priceless and irreplaceable Jewish historic artifacts. During the Middle Ages, it served a populous Jewish community and was converted after Israel’s founding into a school for Palestinian refugees. In addition to the Eliyahu Hanabi Synagogue, during the Syrian Civil War, Assad’s forces also destroyed the Umm al-Zinnar Church and the 1,400-year-old Khalid Ibn Walid Mosque.¹⁰

The last Jews living in Aleppo were rescued in a secret mission, the details of which were revealed on November 8, 2015. Seven members of the Halabi family were rushed from their home, in a rescue facilitated and financed by American businessman Moti Kahana. Kahana had heard from local sources that ISIS-affiliated forces were closing in on the family and would soon know where they lived, so he hired “handlers” to help them escape. When members of the Halabi family were first awoken early one morning to hard banging on their front door, they thought that either Assad’s forces or ISIS militants were about to burst into their home to arrest them, or worse. They were hurried into a bus and told that they were being taken to New York City. All family members received fake passports from their handlers, who lied at checkpoints and said that the family was just a group of refugees looking for safety in the country’s North. After a harrowing 36-hour car ride, the Halabi family wound up in Turkey, where Moti Kahana was awaiting their arrival with a rented house and supplies for them. The family decided to make aliyah and move to Israel but one of the older daughters, Gilda, had converted to Islam to marry her husband three years prior. Upon investigation, the Jewish Agency decided that since Gilda had converted to Islam to marry her husband, she was not eligible to make aliyah. The Jewish Agency took the matriarch of the Halabi family as well as her two unmarried daughters to Israel, but Gilda, her husband, and their three children were forced to stay behind in Turkey. When the lease on the home Kahana rented was up and they ran out of supplies, Gilda and her family had no choice but to return to Syria.¹¹

The Central Synagogue in Aleppo, Syria, sustained minor damage to a corner wall when caught in the crossfire between groups of Syrian militants in early February 2016. Syrian humanitarian organizations contend that the damage was most likely caused by shelling. The synagogue remained standing despite the damage, but the building remains in danger as long as fighting continues around it.¹²

According to the 2020 State Department report on human rights practices in Syria, “the Foundation for Jewish Heritage and the American Schools of Oriental Research’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives reported in May 2020 the condition of 62 percent of Jewish-built heritage sites in Syria was poor, very bad, or beyond repair.”

It also said:

The national school curriculum did not include materials on tolerance education or the Holocaust….Government-controlled radio and television programming continued to disseminate anti-Semitic news articles and cartoons. The regime-controlled Syrian Arab News Agency frequently reported on the “Zionist enemy” and accused the Syrian opposition of serving “the Zionist project.”

The report cited the Jewish Chronicle’s conclusion that no Jews were known to be living in Syria. The Jerusalem Post, however, reported that four Jews remained in Damascus (two women and two men) after the president of the Jewish community died in September 2022.

On December 16, 2024, it was reported that a delegation of Syrian Jewish business leaders and the Chief Rabbi of Syria will visit the country next year in a historic tour following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Led by American-Israeli philanthropist Moti Kahana, the group will bring rescued Sifrei Torah and other Judaica, including artifacts from the ancient Jobar Synagogue in Damascus, which Kahana safeguarded during Syria’s civil war. Despite reports of its destruction, the synagogue was protected by Syrian opposition forces who worked with Kahana to preserve its significance. The delegation aims to restore the synagogue, reinstall its mezuzah, and assess what is needed to revive it. Kahana hopes this effort will encourage Syrian Jews to return and sees potential investment opportunities, which his delegation will explore. Syria, once home to a thriving Jewish community of 100,000, now has few Jews remaining, making this initiative a significant step in preserving the country’s Jewish heritage.¹³

A representative of the new regime in Syria, led by Islamist rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, spoke with Bakhour Chamntoub, the head of the Jewish community. Mohammad Badarieh said Jews of Syrian ancestry would be welcomed home. “They don’t believe there will be peace, and that they can return home.” He offered this reassurance: “You will be safe, there will be peace and quiet, and God willing, you’ll return, everyone to his house, to his neighborhood, and to his people, and everything.”

Chamntoub visited the ancient Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in the Damascus suburb of Jobar, which had been almost destroyed by fighting. He said Badarieh told him, “If you want to restore the Jobar synagogue, I’ll approve it. If you want me to provide you with security for the synagogue, I agree.”¹⁴

Before the civil war, the handful of Jews gathered for prayers at the synagogue, which had Torahs written on gazelle leather, chandeliers, tapestries, and carpets before looters stole them.

Since it is impossible to get kosher meat, Chamntoub gets packages from siblings in the United States at least once a year via people traveling to Syria. In the past, he went to the chicken market with a Jewish friend who slaughtered them, but he cannot physically do it anymore.¹⁵

On January 4, 2025, it was reported that Syria’s education ministry recently announced proposed changes to the country’s school curriculum, reflecting the influence of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader and the new de facto Syrian leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. The changes include replacing terms like “Jews and Christians” with “those who are damned.”¹⁶

On January 13, 2025, Hadiya Shatakh, a 92-year-old member of the ancient Jewish community in Damascus, has passed away. A long-time resident of Damascus with no children, Shatakh was mourned by the Chief Rabbinate for the Jews of Syria, which extended condolences to her sister Rosa, who still resides in Damascus. Rabbi Binyamin Hamra, Chief Rabbi for Syrian Jews in Israel, urged prayers and the recitation of Psalms in her memory, emphasizing the spiritual merit of such acts. The Rabbinate tied their message to the Torah portion Vayechi, highlighting the importance of selfless kindness towards the deceased.¹⁷

In a January 16, 2025, interview, Bishor Simantov, one of the last remaining Jews in Damascus, believes that conditions in Syria have improved since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. He describes greater freedom and a better economy under the new government led by Ahmed al-Shara (al-Jolani). Simantov reports that he met with al-Jolani and a representative of the new government and expressed his satisfaction with the change in leadership. Despite al-Jolani’s past involvement with al-Qaeda, Simantov feels safer and freer than under the Assad regime, which restricted Jews’ movement and property ownership. Simantov expresses hope for improved relations and eventual peace with Israel, though he acknowledges it will be a challenging and gradual process. He believes the Syrian people recognize Israel’s positive qualities compared to Iran and other Arab countries, noting that Israel targets weapons, Hezbollah, and other Iranian proxies rather than civilians. He also feels comfortable expressing his pro-Israel views in Syria under the current government. Simantov desires peace with Israel and plans to contribute to that effort.¹⁹

On February 19, 2025, it was reported that for the first time in 30 years, Rabbi Joseph Hamra and his son Henry read from a Torah scroll in a Damascus synagogue, marking an emotional return to their homeland after fleeing Syria in the 1990s when Hafez al-Assad lifted restrictions on the Jewish community. With nearly all of Syria’s Jews having left, the Hamras, now based in New York, returned following the ousting of Bashar al-Assad, facilitated by the Syrian Emergency Task Force. While Syria’s new authorities promise to protect Jewish heritage, concerns about religious intolerance persist. During their visit, the Hamras reconnected with old neighbors who admired preserved synagogues. They lamented the destruction of Damascus’ Jobar synagogue, once a historic Jewish center, now in ruins from Syria’s civil war.²⁰

Today, global diaspora of Syrian Jews includes active communities in the USA, Mexico, Argentina, and Panama.

Only six Jews remain in Syria, according to Bakhour Chamntoub, head of the country’s dwindling Jewish community, who expressed fears of extinction amid decades of persecution, migration, and property seizures. With the recent return of Rabbi Youssef Hamra and his son for prayer, Chamntoub hopes to preserve Syria’s Jewish heritage through a heritage museum and synagogue restorations, despite ongoing challenges such as illegal seizures of Jewish-owned homes.²²

A September 2025 report details how Moshe Klein, a Jewish-American from New York, sparked controversy online after photos showed him standing on old Syrian military vehicles during a trip to the country. Opposition and pro-Iranian channels mischaracterized him as an Israeli or rabbi engaged in normalization, but Klein stressed he is simply an American Jew traveling as a tourist. He described visiting Damascus, Aleppo, and Christian villages, emphasizing he met “good people,” though reactions to him were mixed. Klein also visited Jewish heritage sites and met Bakhour Chamntoub, who was identified as one of the last Jews in Damascus. Rejecting criticism, he said his trip was not political.²⁴

In recent years, foreign Jewish delegations have visited Damascus, held services in historic synagogues, and met Syrian officials who pledged to protect Jewish heritage sites, recover stolen synagogue artifacts such as bronze doors, and address long-standing property claims. These efforts, though largely symbolic given the near disappearance of the community, underscore the enduring significance of Syria’s Jewish heritage.²⁵

Syrian authorities have authorized a new Jewish-Syrian organization, led by Henry Hamra, to catalogue and work toward restoring Jewish properties confiscated under previous regimes, marking an unusual outreach to the country’s nearly extinct Jewish community. Hamra, the son of Syria’s last rabbi, met with the social affairs minister in Damascus and visited former synagogues. Meanwhile, separate visits by Jewish groups, including two Israeli rabbis, were allowed in Aleppo under heavy protection. Local officials reportedly pledged support for returning stolen Jewish assets, part of broader gestures by Syria’s post-Assad authorities as they signal openness to Jewish heritage preservation after decades of repression and mass Jewish emigration.²⁶

Sources: 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, U.S. State Department, (March 30, 2021).

1) Howard Sachar, A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time., (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 400; Maurice Roumani, The Case of the Jews from Arab Countries: A Neglected Issue, (Tel Aviv: World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries, 1977), p. 31; Norman Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times, (NY: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), p. 146.
2) Newsday, (November 1, 1987); information provided by Rep. Michael McNulty.
4) Middle East Watch, Human Rights in Syria, (NY: Middle East Watch, 1990), p. 94.
4) Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1991, (DC: Department of State, 1992), p. 1610.
5) Jerusalem Post, (Oct. 18, 1994).
6) Jerusalem Post, (May 27, 1995).
7) Associated Press, (January 27, 2000).
8) U.S. Department of State, 2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, Released by the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Washington, DC, (September 5, 2000).
9) U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights Practices for 2001.
10)Josh Rogin, “Syria’s Oldest Synagogue, Destroyed By Assad,” Daily Beast, (May 27, 2014).
11) Sandy Rashty, “Revealed: how the last Jews of Aleppo Escaped,” Jewish Chronicle, (November 5, 2015).
12) “Aleppo synagogue damaged in fighting between Syrian militants,” Jerusalem Post, (February 10, 2016).
13) Jenni Frazer, “EXCLUSIVE: Syrian sefer Torah to be returned to synagogue,” Jewish News, (December 16, 2024).
14) “Aide to Syrian leader meets with head of tiny Jewish community, urges Jews to return,” Times of Israel, (January 3, 2025).
15) Bassem Mroue, “Assad’s fall enables access to ruined 2,700-year-old Damascus synagogue; only 9 Jews remain,” Times of Israel, (December 29, 2024).
16) “Syrian gov’t proposes ‘Islamic path’ changes to education system,” Jerusalem Post, (January 4, 2025).
17)“Elderly Jewish woman in Damascus passes away,” Israel National News, (January 13, 2025).
18)“Syrian Jews Suffering Under Harsh Curbs,” New York Times, (April 14, 1974).
19)“One of the last Jews in Syria: ‘The Syrian people are convinced that Israel is better than Iran,’” Ynet, (January 16, 2025). [Hebrew]
20)“After decades in exile, Syria’s Jews visit Damascus,” Jerusalem Post, (February 19, 2025).
21)“‘Excited Jews are coming back’: US Jewish group receives warm welcome in Syria,” Times of Israel, (February 21, 2025).
22)Enab Baladi, Besan Khalaf, “Six Jews in Syria: Fears between two authorities,” enabbaladi.net, (April 4, 2025).
23)Yaniv Pohoryles, “The Jews don’t miss Syria: ‘I am connected to my roots, not the land’” Ynet, (April 12, 2025).
24)Yaniv Pohoryles, “‘Not a rabbi, not Israeli’: Jewish-American defends Syria visit after viral photos spark online uproar’” Ynet, (September 7, 2025).
25)David Horovitz, “48 surreal hours in Damascus — an Israeli reporter’s travelogue from an enemy capital,” Times of Israel, (September 19, 2025).
26)Noam Lehmann, “Syria permits group to restore Jewish property seized under previous regimes,” Times of Israel, (December 10, 2025).

Jews in Islamic Countries: Syria