DAMASCUS, Syria. Feb 19 (Reuters) -For the first time in three decades, Rabbi Joseph Hamra and his son Henry read from a Torah scroll in a synagogue in the heart of Damascus, Syria. The father and son, who fled Syria in the 1990s, were visibly moved as they carefully passed their thumbs over the handwritten text, marveling at being back home.
Joseph, now 77, and Henry left Syria after then-President Hafez al-Assad lifted a travel ban on the Jewish community, which had faced decades of restrictions, including on property ownership and employment. Most of the few thousand Jews in Syria promptly left, leaving fewer than 10 in Damascus. The Hamra family settled in New York.
“We felt like we were in a prison and wanted to see what was outside,” Joseph explained. “Everyone else who left with us is dead.”
The Hamra family’s return to Damascus became possible after Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December. With the help of the U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, they planned their visit and met with Syria’s deputy foreign minister, now part of a caretaker government installed by Islamist rebels who ousted Assad after more than 50 years of family rule.
The new authorities have pledged to involve all of Syria’s communities in the country’s future, but incidents of religious intolerance and reports of proselytizing by conservative Islamists have kept secular-minded Syrians and minority communities on edge.
Henry, now 48, stated that Syria’s foreign ministry had pledged to protect Jewish heritage. “We need the government’s help and security, and it’s going to happen,” he said.
As they walked through the narrow passages of the Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Henry and Joseph encountered former neighbors—Palestinian Syrians—and admired hand-painted Hebrew lettering at several synagogues.
“I want to see my kids come back and see this beautiful synagogue. It’s a work of art,” Henry remarked.
However, some things were missing, including a golden-lettered Torah from one of the synagogues, now stored in a library in Israel, where thousands of Syrian Jews fled throughout the 20th century.
While the synagogues and Jewish school in the Old City remained relatively well-preserved, Syria’s largest synagogue in Jobar, an eastern suburb of Damascus, was reduced to rubble during the nearly 14-year civil war that followed Assad’s violent suppression of protests.
Jobar was home to a large Jewish community for hundreds of years until the 1800s. The synagogue, built in honor of the biblical prophet Elijah, was looted before its destruction.
