DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — As Rabbi Yusuf Hamra and his son Henry were visiting Damascus this week for the first time since emigrating from Syria to the United States more than three decades ago, they were met by former neighbors offering embraces and gossip .
The Syrian-American Jewish family returned as part of a delegation organized by the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, in the wake of the of former President Bashar Assad.
Although they had not met in more than 30 years, the family's Christian neighbors spotted Yusuf on the street and remembered him from when he was a teacher in the local school. An excited exchange of reminiscences ensued to catch up on the decades, with gossip about who had married who, who was still living and who had emigrated.
“I left from Syria, but Syria never left us,†said Henry, who was 15 when his family left for New York.
During the visit, the Hamras prayed in the long-neglected al-Franj synagogue where Yusuf used to serve as a rabbi, in what is still known as the Jewish quarter, in the old city of Damascus, although only a small handful of Jews remain.
They also visited the in the suburb of Jobar, which was heavily during Syria's nearly 14-year civil war.
“May God help us, this won’t be rebuilt for decades,†Yusuf said as he surveyed the destruction.
Travel restrictions lifted in 1992
Even before mass anti-government protests in 2011 were met by a brutal authoritarian crackdown that eventually spiraled into a civil war, Syria's once-sizeable Jewish population had dwindled to almost nothing.
The 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, Syrian Jews faced increased tensions and restrictions. Many emigrated to Israel, the United States and other countries.
Under the Assad family’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 until the early 1990s.
Once travel restrictions were lifted in 1992 after Arab-Israeli peace talks started, most of the remaining population of about 4,500 left - including the Hamra family - with many of them landing in New York, where they formed a close-knit community.
Henry Hamra recalled that his family had lived in constant fear of the draconian Syrian intelligence services - a common experience for Syrians of all religions during the Assad dynasty's rule, but even more so because they were Jewish and subject to extra scrutiny.
At the same time, he remembered the family's close bond with their Muslim and Christian neighbors.
Plans for rebuilding and reconstruction
Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, said he hoped that the Jewish delegation would encourage more Syrian Jews to return - and would help make the case for Washington to lift sanctions that had been imposed during Assad’s era.
Moustafa said he also hoped that the visit would also show that the country’s new authorities - led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was formerly the leader of the Islamist insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS - are serious in their public statements about inclusivity and protection of minorities and would lead the U.S. and others to remove the terrorist designation from the group.
The Jewish delegation met with Syria's deputy foreign minister, and Yusuf Hamra sent a letter to al-Sharaa in which he said that the Syrian Jewish community abroad “continues to cherish its deep-rooted connection to Syria, its motherland.â€
“Throughout history, this community has been an integral part of the Syrian national fabric,†Hamra wrote. “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.â€
The return of the Syrian Jews was widely welcomed in Damascus but some questioned the delegation' political motives and whether it was meant as a precursor for normalization of relations with Israel. Moustafa said that was not the case.
“The goal of this visit has no relationship to any country in the region except for Syria,†he said.
‘Hard to move back here’
As emotional as the homecoming was, the Hamras said they are not ready to think about a permanent return to Damascus, where more than a decade of war has left the infrastructure battered.
“You cannot stay with no electricity, you cannot stay with no water, and when you’re living in New York and you have 24 hour electricity and internet... it’s very, very, very hard to move back here,†Henry said.
Yusuf said “no one is going to immediately pack his bags and move back†but he hopes that more Syrian Jews living abroad will come to visit and might eventually return for good. “Each one it depends on his situation if he will come back and live here - we hope that they will come to visit and see and then each one will decide what he wants to do,†he said.
