Head of Syria's tiny Jewish community visits 2,700-year-old synagogue in Damascus, destroyed by civil war

Syria has historically been home to one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities, with a presence believed to span approximately 3,000 years. However, following mass emigration due to domestic oppression, a brutal civil war and economic hardships, most Syrian Jews today now live in Israel and the United States. Only nine Jews remain in Syria after the recent fall of the Assad regime. 

Last week, Bakhour Chamntoub (74) the head of the small remaining Jewish community in Syria, visited the 2,700-year-old Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in Damascus, which was largely destroyed during the Syrian Civil War. 

“This synagogue means a lot to us,” Chamntoub told the Associated Press after seeing the ancient synagogue for the first time in 15 years. However, he was shocked to see the building largely in ruins. 

“I am frankly disturbed,” he said. Unlike his 12 siblings who all left the country, Chamntoub refused to leave Syria, arguing that he was surrounded by people who respected him. While denying that he has faced discrimination in Syria, he stressed that due to strong anti-Israel sentiments, the remaining Jews maintain a low profile out of fear of being accused of acting as Zionist spies. He also admitted that during the Assad regime, he needed permission from Syrian authorities to give interviews to foreign media. 

Chamntoub recalled that before the Syrian Civil War erupted in 2011, he and other local Jews used to pray at the ancient Damascus synagogue, which is also known as the Jobar Synagogue due to its location in the Jobar neighborhood. The chandeliers, tapestries and ancient Torah written on gazelle leather are all missing, likely stolen by looters during the war. 

Barakat Hazroumi, a Syrian Muslim who was born and grew up next to the synagogue, recalled with nostalgia the once vibrant Jewish religious life in Damascus.

“It was a beautiful religious place,” Hazroumi stated, adding that the synagogue and the entire suburb “needs to be reconstructed from scratch.”

Every morning, Chamntoub cooks for himself and Firdos Mallakh, an 88-year-old Jewish woman whose family and relatives have all left Syria. 

“Shabbat Shalom,” Mallakh said. “Today is Thursday and tomorrow is Friday,” she continued. 

“I am a Jew and I am proud of it,” Chamntoub concluded. However, due to the very few number of Jews left in Syria, there are no longer Jewish services in the war-torn country. 

While Syria has become virtually free of Jews, Christians and other minorities still struggle to survive in a country that is currently controlled by Islamist rebels.

Following a recent anti-Christian arson attack on Christmas Eve in Syria, local Christians protested by calling for an end to "injustice and sectarianism against Christians."

"Either we live in a country that respects our Christianity as we did before or open the door for us so that we can leave (to go) abroad," one Christian protester stated. 

Some 1.5 million Christians used to live in Syria before the civil war in 2011. At the time, Christians constituted some 10% of the total Syrian population. However, due to Islamist oppression and large-scale emigration to Western nations, only 300,000 Christians remain in Syria according to the Syrian Observer.