DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A group of Syrian-American Jews have registered a nongovernmental organization in Syria in a bid to restore Jewish heritage in a country where the once-sizable religious minority has shrunk to almost nothing.
“Jewish Syrians are an integral part of the Syrian fabric,” Syrian Minister of Social Affairs Hind Kabawat told The Associated Press Friday. "Our country is a mosaic of all sorts of civilizations, religions, sects, and nations.”
Kabawat said the establishment of the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation, the first Jewish organization ever to be officially registered in the country, “is a step for us to tell the world that Syria has room for everyone and is inclusive of everyone and that everyone is equal under the law."
“We welcome Jewish Syrians to their country again,” Kabawat said.
Henry Hamra, one of the founders of the new heritage initiative, was born in Syria but left with his family for New York in the 1990s. He remained outside the country for more than 30 years.
Hamra has returned to Syria four times since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024, in delegations organized by the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an advocacy group that was opposed to Assad and now seeks to build closer relations between Washington and Syria’s new government. He also ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Syria’s Parliament in elections held in October.
Some of the synagogues Hamra visited were damaged during the country's 14-year civil war and their artifacts looted. Even those that remained relatively intact, including in the old city of Damascus near his old home, have suffered from years of neglect.
“There’s a lot of damage, there’s a lot of things that need to be done,” Hamra said. “We’re asking the government to help us out to give us the authority to clean up everything, to get back the synagogues on (their) feet.”
The Jewish community in Syria numbered about 100,000 at the start of the 20th century. A wave of emigration had already begun at that time and accelerated in the years surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948, as Syrian Jews faced increased tensions and restrictions.
Under the Assad dynasty’s 54-year authoritarian rule, Jews in Syria were free to practice their religion, but community members faced suspicion of being Israeli spies or collaborators and were banned from traveling outside the country to prevent them from going to Israel.
Once travel restrictions were lifted in 1992 after Arab-Israeli peace talks started, most of the remaining population of about 4,500 left, including Hamra's family.
With their departure, Syria's synagogues and other Jewish sites largely fell into disrepair.
Hamra said some in the Syrian Jewish diaspora have remained reluctant to come back and visit because of concerns about the safety of religious minorities under the country's new authorities. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa was previously the leader of an Islamist insurgent group that once had ties to al-Qaida.
Since taking power al-Sharaa has preached religious coexistence and promised to protect minorities, but there have been outbreaks of sectarian violence. And few minorities have positions of power in the new government. Kabawat is currently the only Christian and only woman in the cabinet.
Hamra said he has found the new government “very helpful" in efforts to preserve Jewish heritage.
“They’re looking for everybody to come back, not only the Jews, for everybody to come back and rebuild Syria,” he said.
