US-Jewish delegation of Syrian Jews receives warm welcome back home

An American delegation of Syrian Jews made a trip back to their roots in Damascus to find a surprisingly warm reception waiting for them. The new regime in Syria may be wanting to send the message that those who fled the country are now welcome to return, including members of the Jewish community.

U.S.-based nonprofit organization, the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), organized a four-day trip in February for a small group of Syrian Jews to visit Doha, Qatar, and Damascus, Syria. The trip was made in response to a request from Henry Hamra, a Syrian Jew who fled to the United States and has remained deeply connected to his roots. He reached out to the non-profit, which was founded after the nation's civil war, and led to the first such visit since the fall of the Assad regime in early December. 

While there was once approximately 100,000 Jews living in Syria at the turn of the 20th century, there are now fewer than the 9-person delegation consisting of three women and four men, according to The Times of Israel.

Syrian-Kurdish journalist Hayvi Bouzo, described how her family used to enjoy good relations with Jewish neighbors before the Ba’ath party came to power in the mid-1960s. 

“Everything was very calm and normal until the Ba’ath party took over, and the Jews in the neighborhood started disappearing. My mother was wandering around in tears knowing she’d never see her Jewish neighbors again. They left everything behind,” said Bouzo.

Despite the rise in antisemitism that followed with the Ba’ath party assuming power, Jews were not allowed to emigrate until 1992, however, more than 3,000 were smuggled out thanks to the generosity of a Canadian couple who was willing to bribe officials. When the doors finally opened, nearly all the remaining members of the Jewish community left. Today, the number of those who stayed can be counted on one's hands.

Hamra left Damascus as a teenager during the mass exodus of 1992 and remembers a friend from his youth who was born to a Jewish mother and a Muslim father. They were able to meet again in February after decades of separation.

“He was hugging me and kissing me and saying, ‘Don’t leave us alone. We want to see you. We want to have a connection with you,'” Hamra recounted.

The recent delegation included Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Hamra family, and members of SETF. Hamra's relative, Joe Jajati, also a Syrian Jew living in the U.S., joined them. While in Syria, they visited various Jewish sites, including a former Jewish school, synagogues, a cemetery and other places of interest.

“Kids, adults, the security people, they were excited that Jews are coming back, because what it means to them is that there’s this vision of a new Syria that is unified, and everyone is Syrian,” Lopatin said. “Everyone that we met that found out we were Jewish was so excited. It was warm.”

Lopatin said they received the “VIP treatment” and described walking around freely wearing a kippah (traditional Jewish head covering). 

Hamra shared how some of his “best years” were in Syria.

“The family, the friends, we were together. We were stuck together. The whole community was like one family,” he said.

From age 20, Hamra paid close attention to developments in Syria from his new home in the U.S., taking particular interest in what was happening to the Jewish community. During the Civil War, he connected with Mouaz Moustafa, the director of SETF, and it was after the Assad regime fell that Moustafa invited him to Syria. Having connections with the new government, Houstafa was able to vouch for the group's safety. 

Hamra said the fact that the new government was willing to help facilitate the trip, even allocating personnel from the Foreign Ministry to provide security for the group, was a “peace message.”

Hamra’s father wrote a letter to interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, assuring him that the Syrian Jewish community “continues to cherish its deep-rooted connection to Syria, its motherland.”

The letter also congratulated the new government, stating, “As we witness the dawn of a new era, we look forward to rebuilding bridges of communication and to actively participating in the reconstruction of our homeland, standing side by side with our fellow Syrians.”

The delegation found that much of what was left of the Jewish community is no longer there, whether it was stolen, destroyed, disintegrated or disappeared. However, the trip led to a new hope of reconnection and rebuilding what was lost. Time will tell how inclusive the new Syrian government will ultimately be, but their readiness to receive the group of Jews from America is an encouraging sign.

Reflecting on their warm welcome, Hamra said, “I think it’s to show everybody that there is peace between everybody. I think they want to have peace in the region.”

“I think that delegation was an open door for everybody.”