One year after Assad, Jews carve out a place in the new Syria. But Israel could be the third wheel

A year after the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the new Syrian authorities on Wednesday granted a licence to a Jewish-Syrian organisation that plans to work to return properties confiscated under previous governments. This comes on the heels of a Syrian-American Jew running in elections in the country for the first time in decades.

In September, an American delegation of prominent rabbis and Jewish academics of Syrian and non-Syria background came to Damascus to pray at the Faranj Synagogue, reopened after years of closure, and to walk the strewets of the old quarters where a significant Jewish community once lived. 

Some carried Israeli passports, highlighting the complexities of Jewish identity in the Arab world since the creation of Israel in the Nakba of 1948 and raising questions about the role of interfaith outreach in backdoor normalising of relations between two countries that remain technically at war, with Israel occupying and attacking Syrian territory on a near daily basis and refusing to show any goodwill towards Syria.

The Syrian Jewish community lived in Syria for over two thousand years, according to historians, working as merchants, scholars, and community leaders in the fabric of Damascus life. Beginning in the late 19th century and accelerating dramatically after 1948, the Zionist movement transformed the meaning of being Jewish for its adherents from a religious and cultural identity into a nationalist one.

"The Syrian Jewish community was innocent of any connection to the Zionist project, but innocence did not protect them," said Syrian historian Sami Moubayed.

"Zionism did not 'save' Arab Jews; it uprooted them," Moubayed told The New Arab. "Most who settled in Israel continued to feel they were Syrian more than Israeli, and their Arab identity cannot be reduced to a religious slogan or political borders."

By the 1950s and 1960s, Syrian Jews increasingly emigrated, some to Israel, many to the United States and Europe, he added—those remaining faced intensifying restrictions, particularly after the 1967 war. The once-vibrant community was reduced to a handful of elderly residents.

Yet Syria's new government, seeking international legitimacy after the Assad regime's fall, is using the reopening of synagogues and the return of Jewish delegations and descendants to boost its profile and signal a 'zero problem' policy towards Israel. While many view this as a diplomatic gesture towards full relations with Israel, the Sharaa government has repeatedly stated normalisation is not currently at the table, instead seeking a withdrawal agreement with Israel to observe the lines of 1974.

Indeed, when Istanbul-based Rabbi Mendi Shitrik, head of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States (ARIS), sat down with Syrian government officials during the September delegation visit, the conversation shifted from the religious to the explicitly political as Syrian officials spoke about relations with Israel. 

ARIS says it works to connect and support the activities of rabbis serving Jewish communities in predominantly Muslim countries.

"The officials spoke frankly about the possibility of achieving peace and cooperation with Israel," Shitrik told TNA. Shitrik framed this willingness to discuss cooperation with Israel as positive, interpreting it as Syrian readiness to rebuild trust between Jews and Muslims in the country and worldwide.

"We felt that the current situation encourages rebuilding bridges of trust between Jews and Muslims, and that Syria today is more prepared to receive us and recognise our historical presence," he said.

But responding to queries from TNA, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official later clarified that what Rabbi Shitrik stated "represents his personal opinion and does not reflect any official position," insisting that the relationship and meetings that took place with the Syrian Jewish community were not within any political framework".

The official said "any discussion of new negotiations or agreements is not possible before Israel's full commitment to the disengagement agreement signed in 1974".

Syria's path to formal relations with Israel faces tremendous obstacles as the latter still occupies large swaths of Syrian territory and continues to attack Syrian civilians and combatants alike. The Golan Heights has remained under Israeli military control for decades, despite UN resolutions declaring the occupation illegal, Israel expanded its occupation following Assad's fall one year ago and during the first Trump administration, annexed the Golan.

According to the official, negotiations toward reaching a security agreement and the meetings that preceded it were getting very close to arriving at a formula for a security agreement. However, the discussion has since stopped at fundamental points from which Israel did not accept retreat from the areas it controlled after the fall of the Assad regime.

A clear distinction

When asked directly whether visiting Syrian Jews considered Syria or Israel their home, none chose Israel. Yet neither did they describe Israel as an occupying enemy state. Their expressions seemed to unite in something more complicated—a wound that had never fully healed, a belonging that had been severed and could not be restored.

Moshe Klein, who explicitly denied being a rabbi or Israeli citizen, insisted his motivations were personal curiosity and a desire to touch ground that had once been home to a significant Jewish community. 

"It was an impactful experience but also cautious," he said. "Some people welcomed us warmly, while others seemed less warm. So we didn't always introduce ourselves as Jews or Americans."

In Haret Al-Yahood in old Damascus, Salim Dabdoub, an eighty-year-old Syrian Jewish merchant who remained throughout the decades when most Jews left, articulated the distinction that visiting delegations seemed unable or unwilling to make.

"I'm here. I didn't leave despite everything. I hope returning Syrian Jews get their chance, separate from any classification. They are not Israelis. Israel is a state that occupies our land, Syria," he told TNA.

When pressed about whether Israel would withdraw, Dabdoub was emphatic: "Israel will withdraw from Syrian lands eventually. What they're doing is wrong, but they don't listen to anyone. Israel doesn't represent us at all. They are one thing, and we are another. They are Israelis, and we are Syrians".

This distinction, repeated and insisted upon by someone who has lived through the entire trajectory of Syrian Jewish displacement, is the distinction that Zionism worked hardest to erase.

According to historian Moubayed, it separates Syrian Jewish identity from Israeli identity, refusing the equation that Zionism promoted: that all Jews belong in Israel, that Jewish identity is inherently Zionist, that religious belonging and nationalist belonging are the same thing.

Complicated return

Henry Hamra, a Syrian-American rabbi and the son of the former Chief Rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in New York, ran but failed to win a seat in the Damascus parliament. He was the first Jewish parliamentary candidate in sixty years. His candidacy was framed as evidence of Syria's new openness.

Hamra spoke of receiving explicit assurances from the Syrian authorities regarding the return of confiscated properties.

"The government invited us to return with more members of the community from Syrian origins to participate in rebuilding our motherland. We believe that investment and shared work can restore balance to the Syrian economy, and that true reconciliation begins with recognising roots," he told TNA.

Yet Hamra also posed the deeper question being obscured: "To what extent does this return represent a revival of memory, or is it a political step that paves the way for symbolic normalisation with an entity that still occupies part of Syrian land in the Golan?"

In a small café overlooking Souq Midhat Pasha, Nabil, an older Damascus resident, offered measured acceptance.

"There's no problem. This is their country too. Each community has its story, and everyone should have religious freedom and feel safe practising their faith, not just Jews," he said.

This piece is published in collaboration with Egab.