Turkish Jews [Jews of Turkey] - Syrian Jews

Turkish Jews [Jews of Turkey]

Mar 29th, 2009 by AZ

The history of the Jews in Turkey covers the 2,400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. The Jewish population in turkey has existed sine the the days of the first Temple period.There have been Jewish communities in Asia Minor since at least the 4th century BCE. Many Jews expelled from Spain, the Sephardic Jews, were welcomed to the Ottoman Empire, including regions part of modern Turkey, in the late 15th century. Despite emigration during the 20th century, modern day Turkey continues to have a small Jewish population. The Turkish Jews have great respect for the country and its people.
According to Jewish scripture, Noah’s ark landed on the top of Mount Ararat, a mountain in the Taurus range of ancient Armenia which is now a part of Turkey near the modern borders Armenia and Iran. Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian of the first century, notes Jewish origins for many of the cities in Asia Minor, though much of his sourcing for these passages is traditional. Biblical mention of Jewish populations in Turkey is widespread: Iconium (now called Konya in modern Turkey) is said to have a synagogue and Ephesus is mentioned as having a synagogue. Based on physical evidence, there has been a Jewish community in Asia Minor since the 4th century BCE, most notably in the city of Sardis.
The subsequent Roman and Byzantine Empires included sizable Greek-speaking Jewish communities in their Anatolian domains which seem to have been relatively well-integrated and enjoyed certain legal immunities. The size of the Jewish community was not affected by the attempts of some Byzantine emperors to forcibly convert the Jews of Anatolia to Christianity, as these attempts met with very little success. Although there is some evidence of occasional hostility by the Byzantine populations and authorities, no systematic persecution of the type endemic at that time in Western Europe (pogroms, burning at the stake, mass expulsions, etc.) is believed to have occurred in Byzantium.
The first Jewish synagogue linked to Ottoman rule is Etz ha-Hayyim in Bursa which passed to Ottoman authority in 1324. The synagogue is still in use, although the modern Jewish population of Bursa has shrunk to about 140 people.
The greatest influx of Jews into Asia Minor and the Ottoman Empire, however, occurred during the reign of Mehmed’s successor, Beyazid II (1481-1512), after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal. The sultan issued a formal invitation to Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal, and they started arriving in the empire in great numbers.
The sultan is said to have exclaimed thus at the Spanish monarch’s lack of wisdom: “Ye call Ferdinand a wise king he who makes his land poor and ours rich!” The Jews satisfied various needs in the Ottoman Empire: the Muslim Turks were largely uninterested in business enterprises and accordingly left commercial occupations to members of minority religions. They also distrusted the Christian subjects whose countries had only recently been conquered by the Ottomans and therefore it was natural to prefer Jewish subjects to which this consideration did not apply.
The Spanish Jews settled chiefly in Istanbul, Sarajevo, Salonica, Adrianople, Nicopolis, Jerusalem, Safed, Damascus, Egypt, and in Bursa, Tokat, Amasya in Anatolia. Smyrna was not settled by Spanish Jews until later. The Jewish population at Jerusalem increased from 70 families in 1488 to 1,500 at the beginning of the sixteenth century. That of Safed increased from 300 to 2,000 families and almost surpassed Jerusalem in importance. Damascus had a Sephardic congregation of 500 families. Istanbul had a Jewish community of 30,000 individuals with 44 synagogues. Bayazid allowed the Jews to live on the banks of the Golden Horn. Egypt, especially Cairo, received a large number of the exiles, who soon out-numbered the native Jews. Gradually, the chief center of the Sephardic Jews became Salonica, where the Spanish Jews soon outnumbered their co-religionists of other nationalities and, at one time, the original native inhabitants.
Although the status of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire may be embellished, it is undeniable that the tolerance they enjoyed was unprecedented. Under the millet system they were organized as a community on the basis of religion, alongside the other millets (e.g. Christian Orthodox, Armenian millets, etc.). In the framework of the millet they had a considerable amount of administrative autonomy and were represented by the Hahambasi, the Chief Rabbi. There were no restrictions in the professions Jews could practice analogous to those common in Western Christian countries. There were restrictions in the areas Jews could live or work, but such restrictions were imposed on Ottoman subjects of other religions as well. Like all non-Muslims, Jews had to pay the harac (“head tax”), which corresponds to the charity tax Zakat which is paid by Muslims, and faced other restrictions in clothing, horse riding, army service etc., but they could occasionally be waived or circumvented.
Jews who reached high positions in the Ottoman court and administration include Mehmed II’s minister of Finance (“defterdar”) Hekim Yakup Pasa, his Portuguese physician Moses Hamon, Murad II’s physician Ishak Pasha, and Abraham de Castro, the master of the mint in Egypt.
During the Classical Ottoman period (1300-1600), the Jews, together with most other communities of the empire, enjoyed a certain level of prosperity. Compared with other Ottoman subjects, they were the predominant power in commerce and trade as well in diplomacy and other high offices. However, their prosperity was not a deep-rooted one. It did not rest on fixed laws or conditions, but depended wholly on the capriciousness of individual rulers. And with the waning of Ottoman power even that superficial prosperity vanished.
For example, at the same time the expelled Spanish Jews were invited to take refuge in the Empire, the forced deportation of large numbers of Jews to Istanbul, though not intended as an anti-Jewish measure, was perceived as an “expulsion” by the Jews.
During Murad IV (1623-40) the Jews of Jerusalem were persecuted by an Arab who had purchased the governorship of that city from the governor of the province.
During the reign of Ibrahim I (1640-49), there was a massacre of Ashkenazi Jews who were expecting the Messiah in the year 1648. The war with Venice in the first year of Ibrahim’s reign disrupted commerce and caused many Jews to relocate to Smyrna, where they could carry on their trade undisturbed.
In 1660, under Mehmet IV (1649-1687), Safat was destroyed by the Arabs; and in the same year there was a fire in Istanbul in which the Jews suffered severe losses. In 1678, Mehmet IV ordered the banishment of the Jews of Yemen to the Mawza Desert, an event which, despite its brief duration, remains in the collective memory of Yemeni Jews as a great tragedy.
An additional problem was the lack of unity among the Jews themselves. They had come to the Ottoman Empire from many lands, bringing with them their own customs and opinions, to which they clung tenaciously, and had founded separate congregations. The most traumatic event in this respect was the upheaval caused by self-proclaimed Messiah Sabbatai Zevi. He was eventually caught by the Ottoman authorities and when given the choice between death and Islam, he opted for the latter. His remaining disciples converted to Islam too. Their descendants are today known as Donmeh.
By 1887, there were five Jewish members of the Ottoman parliament. The minister plenipotentiary from the United States to the Ottoman Empire, Oscar S. Straus, was a Jew. Straus was again minister from 1897 to 1900. In the war of 1885, although not admitted to the army, they gave pecuniary and other aid. In Adrianople 150 wagons were placed by them at the disposal of the government for the transportation of ammunition; and in the war of 1897 the Jews of Istanbul contributed 50,000 piasters to the army fund.
The Jewish population of Ottoman Empire had reached nearly 500,000 at the start of the 20th century. The troubled history of Turkey during the 20th century and the process of transforming the old Ottoman Empire into a modern Western nation-state after 1923 had a negative effect on the size of the Jewish community.
The planned deportation of Jews from Thrace and the associated anti-Jewish pogrom in 1934 was one of the events that caused insecurity among the Turkish Jews.
The effect of the 1942 Varlık Vergisi (“wealth tax”) was the greatest on non-Muslims, although in principle it was directed against all wealthy Turks. The “wealth tax” is still remembered as the “catastrophe” among the non-Muslims of Turkey and it had probably the most detrimental effect on the numbers of the Jewish community. Many people unable to pay the taxes were sent to labor camps and about 30,000 Jews emigrated. The tax was seen as a racist attempt to diminish the economic power of minorities in Turkey.
On the night of 6/7 September 1955, the Istanbul Pogrom was unleashed against the Greek, Jewish, and Armenian communities of Istanbul and other major Turkish cities. Although the damage was mainly material, more than 4,000 shops and 1,000 houses were destroyed and it deeply shocked minorities throughout the country. Hence, 10,000 Jews subsequently fled Turkey.
The present size of the Jewish Community is estimated at around 26,000 according to the Jewish Virtual Library. The vast majority live in Istanbul, with a community of about 2,500 in İzmir and other smaller groups located in Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Çanakkale, Iskenderun and Kirklareli. Sephardic Jews make up approximately 96% of Turkey’s Jewish population, while the rest are primarily Ashkenazic.
Turkish Jews are still legally represented by the Hahambasi, the Chief Rabbi. Rav Izak Haleva, is assisted by a religious Council made up of a Rosh Bet Din and three Hahamim. Thirty-five Lay Counselors look after the secular affairs of the Community and an Executive Committee of fourteen, the president of which must be elected from among the Lay Counselors, runs the daily affairs.
Turkey is the first country with a Muslim majority to formally recognize the State of Israel. Turkey and Israel have closely cooperated militarily and economically. In the book Israel’s Secret Wars, Benny Morris provides an account of how Mossad operatives based in Turkey infiltrated into Iraq and helped to orchestrate a number of Iraqi Kurdish uprisings to weaken the Iraqi government. Israel and Turkey have signed a multi-billion dollar project to build a series of pipelines from Turkey to Israel to supply gas, oil and other essentials to Israel.
The Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul has been attacked by Islamic militants three times. In 1986, terrorists gunned down 22 Jewish worshippers and wounded 6 during Sabbath services at Neve Shalom. In In 2003, a pair of truck bombs exploded outside Beth Israel and Neve Shalom synagogues, crowded with families celebrating bar mitzvahs, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 300. The flourishing period of Jewish literature in Turkey was in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, after the arrival of the Spanish exiles, though there had been Jewish intellectuals before this period too. Printing-presses and Talmud schools were established, and an active correspondence with Europe was maintained.

Map of Jewish Communities in Turkey

Painting of Turkish Jewish Man

Neve Shalom Synagogue, Istanbul, Turkey

Hemdat Israel Synagogue

Sultan Bayezid II sent Kemal Reis to save the Arabs and Sephardic Jews of Spain from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, and granted them permission to settle in the Ottoman Empire

Sardis Synagogue was a section of a large bath-gymnasium complex, that was in use for about 450–500 years.

On September 1856 a ceremony was held at the Zulfaris Synagogue commemorating Jewish soldiers in the French army who fought and fell alongside the Ottomans against the Russians during the Crimean war. A military unit under the command of Staff Colonel Garbi Bey was present at this ceremony.

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Syrian Jews

Mar 28th, 2009 by Shahriar

Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: those who inhabited the region of today’s Syria from the ancient times; and those Sephardim who fled back to their communities in the Middle East to Syria after the expulsion of the Jew from Spain (1492 CE). There were large communities in Aleppo and Damascus and Beirut for centuries, and a smaller community in Qamishli. The tradition of the community ascribes its founding to the time of King David (1000 B.C.E.), whose general Joab occupied the area of Syria described in the Bible as Aram Zoba this name is taken by later tradition as referring to Aleppo. Modern scholarship locates Aram Zoba in
Lebanon and the far south of Syria: the identification with Aleppo is not found in rabbinic literature prior to the 11th century. Both Aleppo and Damascus had Jewish communities early in the Christian era.
In Roman times about 10,000 Jews lived at Damascus, governed by an ethnarch. The attraction which Judaism exercised at that time over the pagans was so great that many men and women were converted to that religion. Many Jews were murdered by the pagan inhabitants upon the outbreak of the great war of liberation. During the conflicts between the Byzantines and the Persians the city frequently suffered heavily. Syria was conquered by the Persians (614) and In 635 Damascus fell into the hands of the Muslims.
The rule of the Umayyads brought a new period of splendor to the city, which now became the capital of that califate. The Jewish community continued, and certainly existed in 970; “for,” says a historian, “Joseph ben Abitur of Cordoba, having lost all hope of becoming the chief rabbi of that city, went to Palaestina in that year, and settled at Damascus”. This period terminated with the advent of the Abbasids, and the city suffered during the following centuries from continuous wars. A large number of Palaestina Jews sought refuge at Damascus from the enormous taxes imposed upon them by the Crusaders, thus increasing the community. Fortunately for the Jews, it resisted the siege of the Second Crusade (1147) on the Holy Land.
In 1128 Abraham ibn Ezra visited Damascus and according to Edelmann, Judah ha-Levi composed his famous poem on Zion in this city. In 1267 Nahmanides visited Damascus and succeeded in leading a Jewish colony to Jerusalem. Benjamin of Tudela visited Damascus in 1170, while it was in the hands of the Seljukian prince Nur ad-Din. He found there 3,000 Rabbinite Jews and 200 Karaites.
Acording to Bacher the Syrian, the twelfth century seat of the Jewish academy was transferred to the city and Safed. The principal rabbis of the city were: Rabbi Ezra and his brother Sar Shalom, president of the tribunal; Yussef ִHamsi, R. Matsliaִh, R. Meïr, Yussef ibn Piat, R. Heman, the parnas, and R. Tsadok, physician. He found “about 10,000 Jews, who have a prince. The head of their academy is Rabbi Ezra, who is full of the knowledge of the Law; for Rabbi Samuel, the head of the Academy of Babylon, ordained him”. It was a Damascus rabbi, Judah ben Josiah, who, toward the end of the twelfth century, was “nagid” in Egypt. At a later period another nagid, David ben Joshua, also came from Damascus.
Benjamin of Tudela visited Aleppo in 1173, when he found a Jewish community of 1,500 (or on another reading 5000) souls with three noteworthy rabbis attending to their spiritual needs: Moses Alconstantini, Israel, and Seth. Petaִhiah of Regensburg was there between 1170 and 1180, and Alִharizi fifty years later. The former called the citadel the palace of King Nour-ed-din, and stated that there were 1,500 Jews in Aleppo, of whom the chief men were Rabbis Moses Alconstantini, Israel, and Seth. Yehuda Alharizi, author of the Taִhkemoni has much to say in praise of the Aleppo Jews. In 1195 the leading Jew was Joseph ben Judah, who had migrated from the Maghreb by way of Egypt, where he was the friend of Maimonides, who wrote for him the Guide for the Perplexed. Other men of learning were Azariah and his brother Samuel Nissim, the king’s physician Eleazer, Jeshua, Jachin Hananiah, and Joseph ben ִHisdai. Although he respected them far more than their Damascene counterparts, Alharizi thought little of the Aleppo poets, of whom he mentions Moses Daniel and a certain Joseph; the best was Joseph ben Tsemah, who had good qualities but wrote bad verse. Their piety must have been extreme, for Eleazer is held up to scorn for having traveled on the Sabbath, although at the sultan’s command. Alharizi died in Aleppo and was buried there.
In 1210 a French Jew, Samuel ben Simson, visited the city. He speaks of the beautiful synagogue situated outside the city (Jobar) and said to have been constructed by Elisha. Under Saladin the city enjoyed considerable importance; but upon his death the disturbances began anew, until in 1516 the city fell into the hands of the Turks, since which time it has declined to the rank of a provincial town. It seems probable that Yehuda Alharizi also visited Damascus during the first decade of the thirteenth century. At least he mentions the city in the celebrated forty-sixth “Makamah”. Toward the end of the thirteenth century Jesse ben Hezekiah, a man full of energy, arose in Damascus. He was recognized by Sultan Qalawun of Egypt as prince and exilarch, and in 1289 and in June 1290, in conjunction with his twelve colleagues, he put the anti-Maimonists under the ban.
In 1260 the Mongols conquered Aleppo, and massacred many of the inhabitants, but many of the Jews took refuge in the synagogue and were saved. In 1401 the Jewish quarter was pillaged, with the rest of the city, by Tamerlane; and a Jewish saint died there after a fast of seven months.
The letters of the rabbis of Damascus and of Acre have been collected in the “Minִhat Qena’ot” (a compilation made by Abba Mari, grandson of Don Astruc of Lunel). Estori Farִhi (1313) contents himself with the mere mention of Damascene Jews journeying to Jerusalem. A manuscript of David Kimhi on Ezekiel was written by Nathan of Narbonne and collated with the original by R.Hiyya in Damascus, Ab 18, 1375. The Jewish community of Damascus continued its existence under the sultans (Burjites and Mamelukes) of Egypt, who conquered Syria; for the Jewish refugees of Spain established themselves among their coreligionists in that city in 1492, constructing a synagogue which they called “Khata’ib.” The anonymous author of the “Yiִhus ha-Abot” also speaks of the beauties of Damascus; and of the synagogue at Jobar, “half of which was constructed by Elisha, half by Eleazar ben Arach”.
Elijah of Ferrara (1438) had come to Jerusalem and had a certain jurisdiction in rabbinical matters over Damascus as well. He speaks of a great plague which devastated Egypt, Syria, and Jerusalem; but he does not say how far the Jews of the first named city suffered. Menaִhem ִHayyim of Volterra visited Damascus in 1481, and found 450 Jewish families, “all rich, honored, and merchants.” The head of the community was a certain R. Joseph, a physician.
Obadiah of Bertinoro (1488) speaks in one of his letters of the riches of the Jews in Damascus, of the beautiful houses and gardens. A few years later (1495) an anonymous traveler speaks in like eulogistic terms. He lived with a certain Moses Makran, and he relates that the Damascan Jews dealt in dress-goods or engaged in some handicraft. They lent money to the Venetians at 24 per cent interest.
Maimonides, in his letter to the rabbis of Lunel, speaks of Aleppo as being the only community in Syria where some Torah learning survived, though the effort devoted to it was in his opinion less than impressive.
After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephardi Jews settled in many of the Islamic countries bordering the Mediterranean, including Syria, which then formed part of the Mameluke sultanate of Egypt. For the most part they founded their own communities, but they often assumed positions of rabbinic and communal leadership in their new homes. A social distinction remained between the newly arrived Sephardim and the native communities, which took several decades to accept them.
Aleppo Jews of Spanish descent have a special custom, not found elsewhere, of lighting an extra candle at Hanukkah: it is said that this custom was established in gratitude for their acceptance by the local community. In both Aleppo and Damascus, the two communities supported a common Chief Rabbinate. Chief Rabbis were usually but not always from Spanish-descended families: in Aleppo there were five in a row from the Laniado family.
The Sephardic Jewish presence was greater in Damascus than in Aleppo, and Damascus also maintained closer ties to the Holy Land. In particular, the Damascus community was strongly influenced by the Safed Kabbalistic school of Isaac Luria, and contributed several notable personalities, including ִHayim Vital and Israel Najara. This explains certain differences in customs between the two cities.
An anonymous Jewish traveler who arrived a few years after the Spanish immigration, found at Damascus 500 Jewish households; also a Karaite community whose members called them “Muallim-Tsadaqah”; and a more important Rabbinate community, composed of three groups and possessing three beautiful synagogues. One of these belonged to the Sephardim; another, to the Moriscos (Moorish Jews) or natives; and the third, to the Sicilians. In each synagogue there was a preacher, who read the works of Maimonides to the pious every day after the prayer. The preacher of the Sephardim was Isִhaq Mas’ud, that of the natives Shem-ִTob al-Furani, and that of the Sicilians Isaac ִHaber. There were also two small schools for young students of the Talmud, containing respectively thirty and forty pupils.
Sixty Jewish families were living in the village of Jobar, one mile from Damascus, who had a very beautiful synagogue. “I have never seen anything like it,” says the author; “it is supported by thirteen columns. Tradition says that it dates from the time of the prophet Elisha, and that he here anointed King Hazael. R. Eleazar ben Arach (a tannaite of the first century) repaired this synagogue.” In order to indicate, finally, that the city was even then under the Ottoman rule, the narrator adds that the people of Damascus had just received a governor (“na’ib”) from Constantinople.
In 1515 Selim I defeated the Mamelukes and Syria became part of the Ottoman Empire. The “Chronicle” of Joseph Sambari (finished 1672) contains the names of a number of rabbis of note who lived in Damascus during the sixteenth century. He says that the Jewish community lived chiefly in Jobar, and he knows of the synagogue of Elisha (Central Synagogue of Aleppo) and the cave of Elijah the Tishbite. At the head of the community was a certain Abu ִHatseirah (so-called from a peculiar kind of headdress which he wore), who was followed by ‘Abd Allah ibn Naִsir. Of the rabbis of Damascus proper he mentions Joseph ִHayyaִt; Samuel Aripol, author of “Mizmor le-Todah”; Samuel ibn ‘Imran; Joseph al-ִSa’iִh; Moses Najara, author of “Lekaִh ִTob”; ִHayim Alshaich; Joseph Maִtalon; Abraham Galante. In this home of learning there was also a model-codex of the Bible called “Al-Taj” (the Crown). In 1547 Pierre Belon visited Damascus in the train of the French ambassador M. de Fumel. He speaks of the large number of Jews there; but makes the singular confusion of placing in this city the events connected with the famous Ahmad Shaitan of Egypt.
Among the spiritual leaders of Damascus in the sixteenth century may be mentioned: Jacob Berab, who, in the interval between his sojourns in Egypt and at Safed, lived there for some years (c. 1534); ִHayim Vital (1526-1603), for many years chief rabbi of Damascus, and the author of various Kabbalistic works, including “Etz ִHayim”; Samuel ben David the Karaite (not “Jemsel,” as Eliakim Carmoly has it), who visited Damascus in 1641, mentions the circumstance that the Karaites there do not read the Haftarah after the Pentateuch section. Moses Najara; his son, the poet Israel Najara; Moses Galante (died in 1608), the son of Mordecai Galante; and Samuel Laniado ben Abraham of Aleppo were also among the prominent men of the sixteenth century.
The most celebrated rabbis of the seventeenth century were Josiah Pinto, a pupil of Jacob Abulafia, and author of the “Kesef-Nibִhar” and his son-in-law, Samuel Vital, who transcribed and circulated a large number of his father’s Kabbalistic manuscripts. At the same time in Aleppo ִHayyim Cohen ben Abraham wrote “Meqor ִHayyim”, published at Constantinople in 1649, and at Amsterdam by Menasseh ben Israel in 1650. Other Aleppo worthies are Samuel Dwek and Isaac Lopes in 1690 followed by Yehudah Kassin, Isaac Berachah and Isaac Atieh in the eighteenth century.
From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century several Jews of Spanish and Italian origin settled in Syria for trading reasons. Whenever possible, they kept their European nationality in order to be under the jurisdiction of the consular courts under the Ottoman Capitulations, rather than being treated as dhimmis under Islamic law. These European Jews were known as Señores Francos and maintained a sense of social superiority to the native Jews, both Musta’arabi and Sephardi. They did not form separate synagogues, but often held services of their own in private houses. There were also Jews of Baghdadi origin who claimed British nationality through family connections in India.
Some information is obtainable from travellers who visited Damascus during the nineteenth century. Alfred von Kremer, in “Mittel-Syrien und Damaskus” (1853), states that in the municipal government of the city two Christians and one Jew had places; the number of Jews was 4,000, only 1,000 of whom, however, paid the poll-tax; the last Karaite had died there some fifty years previously, the Karaite synagogue being then sold to the Greeks, who turned it into a church. The traveller Benjamin II gives the same number of inhabitants. He describes the synagogue at Jobar (to the north-east of the city) thus: “The structure of this ancient building reminds one of the Mosque Moawiah; the interior is supported by 13 marble pillars, six on the right and seven on the left side, and is everywhere inlaid with marble. There is only one portal by which to enter. Under the holy shrine is a grotto; the descent to which is by a flight of about 20 steps. According to the Jews, the Prophet Elisha is said to have found in this grotto a place of refuge. At the entrance of the synagogue, toward the middle of the wall to the right, is an irregularly formed stone, on which can be observed the traces of several steps. Tradition asserts that upon this step sat King Hazael when the Prophet Elisha anointed him king”.
Benjamin 2nd also speaks of valuable copies of parts of the Bible to be found in Damascus; though the dates he gives (581 and 989) are unreliable. Neubauer mentions a copy of the Bible which belonged to Elisha ben Abraham ben Benvenisti, called “Crescas,” and which was finished in 1382. Damascus had eight chief rabbis during the nineteenth century, namely: (1) Joseph David Abulafia (1809-16). (2) Jacob Antebi (1816-1833). (3) Jacob Perez (1833-48). (4) Aaron Bagdadi (1848-66). (During the next two years the office of chief rabbi was vacant, owing to internal quarrels.) (5) ִHayim Qimִhi of Constantinople (1868-72). (6) Mercado Kilִhi of Nish (1872-76). (7) Isaac Abulafia (1876-88). (8) Solomon Eliezer Alfandari; commonly called “Mercado Alfandari” of Constantinople, who was appointed by an imperial decree in 1888 and was still in office in 1901. A more recent chief rabbi was Nissim Indibo, who died at the end of 1972. Other Damascus Rabbis are Mordechai Maslaton, Shaul Menaged and Zaki Assa.
During the nineteenth century the Jews of Damascus were several times made the victims of calumnies, the gravest being those of 1840 and 1860, in the reign of the sultan Abdülmecit. That of 1840, commonly known as the Damascus affair, was an accusation of ritual murder brought against the Jews in connection with the death of Father Thomas. The second accusation brought against the Jews, in 1860, was that of having taken part in the massacre of the Christians by the Druze and the Muslims. Five hundred Muslims, who had been involved in the affair, were hanged by the grand vizier Fuad Pasha.
Two hundred Jews were awaiting the same fate, in spite of their innocence, and the whole Jewish community had been fined 4,000,000 piastres. The condemned Jews were saved only by the official intervention of Fuad Pasha himself; that of the Prussian consul, Dr. Wetzstein of Sir Moses Montefiore of London; and of the bankers Abraham Salomon Camondo of Ishtanbul [Constantinople] and Shemaya Angel of Damascus. From that time to the end of the nineteenth century, several blood accusations were brought against the Jews; these, however, never provoked any great excitement since the plot was to secure financial pay-offs from the Jews.
Prominent Aleppo rabbis include Eliahu Shamah, Abraham Antebi and Mordechai Labaton in the nineteenth century, Jacob Saul Dwek who died in 1919, followed by Ezra Hamwi and Moses Mizrahi who was prepared to be burnt with the Torah Scrolls but was removed by the Arab mob from the Jamilieh Synagogue during the pogrom of 1947. He was followed by Moses Tawil, Shlomo Zafrani and Yomtob Yedid.
In the nineteenth century the commercial importance of Aleppo and Damascus underwent a marked decline. Beginning around 1850, and with increasing frequency until the First World War, many families left Syria for Egypt, and later moved from there to Manchester in England, often following the cotton trade. Later a considerable number left Manchester for South America, in particular Mexico and Argentina. From around 1908, many Syrian Jews migrated to New York, where the Brooklyn community is now the world’s largest single Syrian Jewish community. For these communities at the present day

Jewish wedding in Aleppo, Syria, 1914.

A Jewish family in Damascus, pictured in their ancient Damascan home, in Ottoman Syria, 1901

Chief Rabbi Jacob Saul Dwek, Av Beit Din of Aleppo, Syria, 1908