The Jews of Syria (Lockdown University, 5 June 2024)

The Jews of Syria, one of the oldest diaspora communities, lived in Aleppo and Damascus. As the Ottoman empire declined, so did the community, which suffered a mass exodus after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Conditions deteriorated further under the French mandate, and violent riots erupted in 1947. The oppressed remnant were only allowed to leave in 1992 after an international campaign for their release. Lyn Julius presents their little-known story.

[@jeremyhaines4481]

This is very interesting and informative about the Jewish ✡️ community of Syria I which I knew very little about

[@lamegalectora]

Thank you for this fascinating talk🙏 Is there a good book that you can recommend on the life of Jews in muslim countries? With good illustrations, ideally. Thank you

[@albertsrour8687]

As always with this lady, her presentation has plenty of errors. It sounded like it was taken from Wikipedia or worse. She doesn't like to be called out for her lack of knowledge and like to ask for what is wrong in her presentation, so here we go: 1- The Syrian Jewish community is not "one" of the oldest in the world. Indeed is THE OLDEST in the world. Period. 2- The communities of Damascus and Aleppo WERE NOT MILES AWAY IN MENTALITY. That is a silly myth. Indeed while different traditions developed, both communities share more things than those that divide them. Aleppo follow a more Sephardic oriented practice, while Damascus is more Mustarabi oriented. The Hakhamim of these communities were always in touch with each other and shared responsas all the time . 3 - There was NEVER a prohibition to marry each other, but those marriages were rare. Once both communities emigrated to the Americas, those intermarriages became very common. 4- Qamishly is Syrian Kurdistan, not Turkish Kurdistan. 5- "Halab" is not only Arabic ( it is correctly pronounced "Arabic", not "Arab" while talking about the language. When you talk about the people and ethnic background is "Arab") but also Hebrew and Aramaic. 6- it's pronounced Aram SobÁ, not Aram SÓba. The accentuating goes in the last Á of SobÁ. 7 - Damascus has always been larger than Aleppo, so Aleppo was NEVER the 3rd largest city of the Ottoman empire. 8- It is pronounced "SephAradim" correctly, not Sephardim, which is an incorrect mispronunciation from Israel. 9- The term "Franco Jews", or "Franjis", doesn't mean "Free Jews" but "European Sephardic Jews" and they came from Italy, France and England, NOT Holland. 10- Is not "Dimmi Rules", but "DimmA rules". 11- The Aleppo Codex was not "produced" in Syria but was written in Tiberias. ( Ms Julius later tells the correct narrative)The Sasson Codex was written likely in Damascus. 12- Is false that only in Aleppo and Baghdad were able to study and/or understand the Talmud. There were other important centers of Study like Isfahan, Saana, Istanbul, Salonika, etc. 13- it is correctly pronounced "Umayad" like "Oomayad" sound, not Omayad. 14- Damascus doesn't have a capital. Damascus is a city which is the capital of Syria. 15- The Christians of Syria are NOT mainly Greek Orthodox but SYRIAC ORTHODOX, which are not the same. 16- Jobar is not a few kilometers from Damascus. Jobar IS in Damascus 17- Damascus was equally rich as Aleppo, since the political power since antiquity was concentrated in the city. 18-Damacus was NOT "largely " untouched by "European influences". Franco Jews and European Christians settled in Damascus too. Families like the Lisbonas, Amiga and Paredes were very important in Damascus. All of them Franco Jews. 19- The "De Picciotto " family ( my family), were not from Damascus, but from Aleppo 20- The Keter Aram Soba or Aleppo Codex was not exactly presented to Ben Zvi. It is well known kwn that he took it and hide it, literally stealing it from the community. 21- The Damascus Codex is a late copy of the Aleppo Codex. Is not the Torah but the whole Tanakh. 22- The Aleppo Codex IS NOT in the Shire of the book. Some pages are there and they switch those pages regularly to make people believe that the whole book is there but indeed, several pages are lost. Probably the evil Ben Zvi kept them. Giving some as "presents" to some dignitaries and diplomats. He stole not only the Keter but also several Seforim from other communities. Hopefully, someday there will be justice for the patrimony stolen from Middle Eastern communities. 23- Syrian Jews NEVER SPOKE LADINO! Ladino is the language of the Jews from the Balkans, Greece and Turkey. Never Syria. 24- There were other Jewish communities in Syria, including the cities of Hama and Homs. Also the Jewish communities of Antakia, Antieb (modern Gaziantieb) and Urfa in modern day Turkey are Syrian, not Turkish. And to be fair with Ms. Julius, she uses correctly the terms Palestine, British Palestine and Eretz Israel and State of Israel. The period prior the formation of the modern state of Israel is correctly narrated. Also the stories of Rabbi Abadi and Judy Feldcar are accurate. She was the one that rescued the remained Syrian Jews from Damascus. The committee help but all the operations were done thanks to her. Kudos for not using the derogatory term "Mizrahim" to designate or call Syrian Jews. We never used. We always called ourselves either, SephAradim, Arab Jews, Halabim and Shamis.

[@bataween1]

Thank you for your interest in our lectures and your comments. Perhaps you can direct us to a book which gives a good overview of the subject.

[@marioksoresalhillick299]

This... could have been all said much more kindly. And some of them are not even errors (just prescriptivism).