First Jewish candidate in decades stands for Syria legislature

Syrian-American Jew Henry Hamra is running for a seat this Sunday in Syria's first legislature since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

If chosen in the indirect polls, Hamra, whose father was reportedly the last rabbi to leave Syria, would be the first Jewish representative to enter parliament since the 1940s.

In the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Damascus on Friday, an AFP photographer saw posters on walls bearing Hamra's image alongside the Syrian flag and reading: "Candidate for Damascus for the Syrian People's Assembly".

Local committees are to select two-thirds of the 210-seat legislature, with the rest nominated by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, under a selection process criticised as undemocratic.

Since Sharaa's Islamist-led forces toppled Assad in December last year after nearly 14 years of civil war, the country's dwindling community has begun welcoming back Syrian Jews who had emigrated, while the new authorities have made gestures towards the minority.

In February, Hamra and his father, Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, visited Damascus from the United States, participating in a group prayer for the first time in more than three decades in the Old City's Faranj synagogue.

Electoral commission spokesperson Nawar Najmeh told AFP that Hamra is an "official candidate for the elections and announced his election programme like any other candidate".

A flyer published on Hamra's campaign account on X reads: "Towards a flourishing, tolerant and just Syria" while his programme sets out pledges including working to bring together Syrian Jews and protecting Syria's heritage and cultural identity.

Historian Sami Moubayed said the last time a member of Syria's Jewish community was elected to parliament was in 1947.

Community leader Bakhour Chamntoub said that "the return of Syrian Jews to parliament is positive, particularly with a new government".

Syria's millennia-old Jewish community was permitted to practise their faith under Assad's father, Hafez, and had friendly relations with their fellow countrymen.

But the strongman restricted their movement and prevented them from travelling abroad until 1992.

After that, their numbers plummeted from around 5,000 to just a handful of individuals, headed by Chamntoub, who oversees their affairs.

The new authorities have pledged to protect the community's property, and Sharaa met with Syrian Jews last month on the sidelines of his participation in the United Nations General Assembly.

Since rising to power, forces affiliated with the current government are accused of serious human rights violations, including summary executions of civilians.

Violence has swept the country's Alawite-majority coastal region and the Druze-majority Suweida governorate in the south.

While the government has said it will arrest and punish those responsible for violations, this has yet to materialise.