Latest news with #HenryHamra
Washington Post
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
With only six Jews left in Syria, émigrés now have a chance to return
BEIRUT — Henry Hamra vividly recalls the day he was allowed to leave Syria. His uncle, the Jewish community's rabbi, was called in for a meeting with Syria's president at the time, Hafez al-Assad. 'He told him, 'You could go anywhere in the world except Israel,'' recalled Hamra, who was only 15 at the time. Assad had decided to lift a decades-old travel ban on the Jewish population, and soon the Hamras and thousands of others left the country. At the time, Hamra thought he would never return. But today, he is leading efforts to rebuild and renovate Jewish religious sites after the Assad regime fell in December and most American sanctions were lifted in May. Jews have lived in Syria for more than a millennium and have a rich history there. Their numbers, however, dwindled to only six people due to years of hostility. Now, those who left can finally go back, if just for a visit. Hamra, like many Syrians living in the United States, was glued to his television the night that more than 50 years of Assad family rule came to an end. He said he immediately started making plans to return and with the help of Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the D.C.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, was able to go back with his father and others in February to meet with Syria's new rulers. 'It was very emotional to come back after 33 years,' said Hamra. On his first night, he sneaked out of his hotel without government-assigned escorts. 'I took a taxi and I went right next to my house, right next to the synagogue. I was just walking in the dark.' he recounted. His joy quickly soured after he and his father, Rabbi Yusef Hamra, visited Syria's ancient Jobar Synagogue. 'It was demolished. The whole synagogue was demolished. There's nothing Jewish there,' said the younger Hamra. Photographs reviewed by The Washington Post show rubble strewn across the site, though a few walls are intact and one archway survives with a Star of David carved on the capstone. Following his first visit, Hamra began lobbying the U.S. State Department for a sanctions waiver to rebuild the synagogue. The Caesar Act, passed by Congress in 2019, prevents outside financing of reconstruction in Syria. For a while, it appeared that a waiver would not be forthcoming, but that changed in May when President Donald Trump granted a 180-day waiver, paving the way for the community to proceed with rebuilding. Congress is now expected to consider repealing the law altogether. 'It's a start for Syria for sure, and it's a great help for us to start rebuilding the synagogue,' said Hamra. The process, he said, will be daunting as the site is littered with unexploded ordnances. What was once a bustling community of merchants, religious figures and politicians is now just six residents in Damascus, says Bakhour Chamantoub, 75, the head of the Jewish community. 'Only four men and [two] women remain, most of them are old in their eighties and nineties,' he said. Despite the restrictions and antisemitism, Chamantoub said he never left Syria and lived openly in Damascus. 'I was not scared of the Palestine Branch or anyone else,' he said, referring to the notorious Damascus prison. 'I am a Jew, and I am proud.' Jews have lived in Syria since biblical times, mainly in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, but also in the northeastern city of Qamishli, where Kurdish Jews resided. In its heyday, the community numbered between 25,000 to 30,000, said Joel Veldkamp, editor of the Syrian Studies Association Bulletin. He noted that the local community had a long history of welcoming Jews from abroad, including those fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, as well as Italian Jews who moved to Syria in the 18th century. 'The community ran hospitals, schools and orphanages. Aleppo was a center for religious studies for Jews,' he said. He added that an Aleppo synagogue housed one of the oldest copies of the Old Testament, known as the Aleppo codex. After the United Nations partitioned British Mandate Palestine in 1947 creating Israel and the ensuing Arab-Israeli wars, Syrian Jews became targets of mob attacks. The synagogue where Hamra's maternal grandfather was a cantor was bombed in 1949. Successive Syrian governments ignored the attacks and even took aggressive measures against the Jewish community, said Jason Guberman, executive director of the American Sephardi Federation. Both Hamra and Chamantoub recalled they were not allowed to leave the Jewish quarter in Damascus. 'It was a travel ban within a travel ban,' said Chamantoub. Guberman said Jewish leaders and entire neighborhoods were surveilled, correspondence was monitored and censored, restrictions were placed on employment and the teaching of Modern Hebrew was banned. A turning point came in April 1992 when then-President Hafez al-Assad lifted the travel ban, allowing the remaining 4,500 Jews to leave the country. A report by The Washington Post at the time noted that nearly 700 Jews had left a few months after the ban was lifted, reducing one kosher butcher's business by a third. Chamantoub said only 30 Jews remained after that and the number gradually declined to 15 by the start of the Syrian Civil War nearly 14 years ago. Hamra and his family were among those who moved to Brooklyn, 'We packed up everything and we left our house.' The move was hard on his family, which had to quickly adjust to their new surroundings. Henry said he had to drop out of school to support his family. Immigration to the U.S. was made easier by earlier generations of Jewish émigrés who supported new arrivals, said Guberman. Many had started to emigrate in the late 19th century to avoid Ottoman military conscription, a declining economy and antisemitic attacks. Those who could not make it to the U.S. settled in Mexico. David Luna 27, whose great-grandparents came from Aleppo, said that his mother still cooks Syrian dishes for the Sabbath. 'A lot of Syrian families here instead of doing Shabbat dinner, they do Shabbat lunch which revolves around all the different Kibbes,' he said. He too was following the news closely on Dec. 8, when rebels stormed into Damascus. 'I remember calling my mom after and feeling like, 'Hey mom, maybe we can finally go,'' he said. Despite positive overtures from Syria's new rulers, the community still faces challenges. In late April, the tomb of a revered Syrian rabbi, Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, was dug up by unknown culprits. Moustafa said officials have vowed to investigate the matter. Chamantoub said the new government has prevented squatters from moving into vacant Jewish homes after he complained but that some still remain occupied. Hamra said his family home is one of these. The Syrian Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Few Syrian Jewish émigrés are planning to move back permanently but like Hamra, some are planning to visit. 'I was dreaming about this day,' he said. 'It was my dream to see my home again, to see my school and my synagogue. It was a dream come true.'
New York Times
05-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Surprising Allies for Syria's New Leaders: Some Jews Who Fled Long Ago
Henry Hamra left Damascus as a teenager more than 30 years ago and never stopped pining for home. 'It was my dream to go back,' he told lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday. In February, shortly after the Assad regime was toppled, Mr. Hamra and his father, Rabbi Yosef Hamra, finally returned with other Jews to see ancient sites that are remnants of many centuries of Syrian Jewish history. The new government of President Ahmed al-Shara, a former rebel leader with jihadist roots, helped make the trip happen. The visit was hopeful, but it also broke Mr. Hamra's heart. Fourteen years of civil war, and a thicket of financial restrictions imposed by the U.S. government and others, have crippled Syria, physically and economically. The sites he ached to see are in disrepair or destroyed, including the ancient Jobar synagogue and a Damascus cemetery that is the resting place of a prominent 16th- and 17th-century mystic. 'There's a lot of work that has to be done and I think the only thing that's stopping the whole thing is the sanctions,' Mr. Hamra said in a meeting with Representative Jimmy Panetta, Democrat of California. The Hamras have joined Syrian American advocacy groups, initially formed in opposition to the government of Bashar al-Assad, in lobbying the United States to lift sanctions on the new government. The family, prominent members of Brooklyn's large Syrian Jewish community, reached out to those groups for help making their visit to Syria, and were in turn enlisted to help make the case for sanctions relief, in a play calculated to intrigue American officials. But Marshall Whittman, spokesman for the pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said, 'Any change in policy must be based on a sustained demonstration of positive behavior from the new Syrian government.' Israel remains deeply wary of Mr. al-Shara, a former member of Al Qaeda. Since the fall of the Assad regime, the Israeli military has deployed troops in southern Syria and carried out hundreds of airstrikes. Israel has defended the moves as necessary for its security, but Syria has accused it of trying to destabilize the country and many Syrians worry about a long-term occupation. Mouaz Moustafa, who leads the Syria Emergency Task Force, an American nonprofit that facilitated the Jewish delegation's visit to Syria, said he had expected the trip to generate interest, precisely because Jews are seemingly unlikely champions of the new government. Mr. Hamra said he feared that without sanctions relief, Syria would not recover — and he would not be able to fulfill another dream that once seemed impossible, to restore what remains of Syrian Jewish history. Fewer than 10 Jews live in Syria, according to Abraham Marcus, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies Syrian Jewry. A century ago, there were tens of thousands. Over more than two millenniums under Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Ottomans, the numbers fluctuated but, Mr. Marcus said, 'there is a history of communities that were successful and prosperous and in most cases did not suffer from discrimination.' Around Israel's establishment in 1948, Syrian Jews faced hostility and many fled until the government imposed emigration and travel restrictions. In 1992, President Hafez al-Assad — the father of Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown last year — loosened the limits. Few Jews stayed. 'So little is left now,' the Syrian chief rabbi, Ibrahim al-Hamra — brother of Rabbi Yosef Hamra — said in 1994, before he emigrated, too. He died in Israel in 2021. Now, his relatives are making the rounds in Washington with Mr. Moustafa, who said they had met with people at the National Security Council, the State Department and on Capitol Hill. A State Department spokeswoman confirmed that a meeting took place; the White House did not respond to a request for comment. Maissa Kabbani, a Syrian Muslim who sought asylum in the United States decades ago, joined the Jewish delegation to Syria. Western officials have expressed concerns that Syria's new rulers are not committed to pluralism and protection of minorities, despite their pledges, so she said she saw the visit as an opportunity to prove a point. The symbolic value of the visit was also not lost on the Syrian Foreign Ministry, which welcomed the group and provided guidance, drivers and security, she said. Sanctions relief for Syria will not come quickly, if at all, but some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are making the case to the Trump administration. Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last month, arguing that 'broad restrictions' aimed at a defunct regime 'now risk undermining U.S. national security objectives and impeding Syria's reconstruction.' Mr. Wilson met with the Hamras on Tuesday and said he was 'encouraged' by their accounts of interactions with the new Syrian government. 'Obviously, the terrorist connections, we should be concerned,' he said. 'But people change, OK. As we see, whole countries change.' Later, Mr. Wilson posted on social media about the 'important meeting' with Syrian Jews. 'I agree with them,' he said. 'We must ease sanctions on the Syrian people to give them a chance to live.'
Washington Post
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
American Jews who fled Syria ask White House to lift sanctions so they can rebuild in Damascus
WASHINGTON — American Jews who fled their Syrian homeland decades ago went to the White House this week to appeal to the Trump administration to lift sanctions on Syria that they say are blocking them from restoring some of the world's oldest synagogues and rebuilding the country's decimated Jewish community. For Henry Hamra, who fled Damascus as a teenager with his family in the 1990s, the 30 years since have been shadowed by worry for what they left behind.
Express Tribune
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
American Jews who fled Syria urge White House to lift sanctions for rebuilding in Damascus
Listen to article A group of American Jews, including Henry Hamra, who fled Syria decades ago, appealed to the White House on Wednesday to lift sanctions on Syria, which they say are hindering the restoration of some of the world's oldest synagogues and the rebuilding of Syria's Jewish community. Henry Hamra, who fled Damascus in the 1990s, expressed his concerns about the condition of Syria's Jewish heritage. "The old synagogues, the old cemetery, what's going on, who's taking care of it?" said Hamra, whose family now lives in New York. In December, with the fall of Bashar Assad's regime, Hamra and his father, Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, along with other community members, visited Syria for the first time in decades. The Hamras briefed US State Department officials and members of the White House about their plans to restore Syria's Jewish landmarks. Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian American Task Force, joined them, advocating for the lifting of sanctions to allow investment in Syria's reconstruction. "If you want a stable Syria... even if it's as simple as rebuilding the oldest synagogue in the world, the only person that's able to make that a reality today is, frankly, Donald Trump," Moustafa said. Syria's Jewish community, one of the world's oldest, has faced severe challenges. The once-thriving Jewish population, estimated at 100,000 in the early 20th century, has dwindled to only seven known members remaining in Damascus. The country has been devastated by civil war since 2011, leading to the destruction of many historical sites, including the Jobar synagogue, which Hamra visited. Despite efforts to protect and salvage artifacts during the conflict, much of the structure was destroyed in the fighting. Asserting that Syrian Jews abroad wish to help restore their heritage, Hamra said, 'My main goal is not to see my Jewish quarter, my school, and my synagogue fall apart.' The Hamras, alongside Moustafa, are urging the U.S. government to lift sanctions on Syria to facilitate investment and restoration efforts, which they believe will aid the revival of Syria's Jewish community, similar to Morocco's thriving Jewish presence in a Muslim-majority country.
Wall Street Journal
23-02-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Fewer Than 10 Jews Live in Syria. A Diaspora Is Edging Back.
DAMASCUS, Syria—Dust filled the air as Rabbi Yosef Hamra opened a long-sealed closet containing holy scrolls untouched since he last held Jewish services in the centuries-old synagogue three decades ago. His family had left Syria along with many other Jews in the 1990s. But here he was with his son, Henry Hamra, who lifted the heavy gold-laced scrolls high above his head as warm sunlight beamed through the stained glass windows of the al-Faranj Synagogue in Damascus's Old City.
