Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews (Hebrew: יהודי סוריה Yehudey Surya, Arabic: الْيَهُود السُّورِيُّون al-Yahūd as-Sūriyyūn, colloquially called SYs /ˈɛswaɪz/ in the United States) are Jews who lived in the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times (known as Musta'arabi Jews), and sometimes classified as Mizrahi Jews. Mizrahi is a generic term for the Jews with an extended history in Western Asia or North Africa); and from the Sephardi Jews (referring to Jews with an extended history in the Iberian Peninsula, i.e. Spain and Portugal) who fled to Syria after the Alhambra Decree forced the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

There were large communities in Aleppo ("Halabi Jews", Aleppo is Halab in Arabic) and Damascus ("Shami Jews") for centuries, and a smaller community in Qamishli on the Turkish border near Nusaybin. In the first half of the 20th century a large percentage of Syrian Jews immigrated to the U.S., Latin America and Israel. Most of the remaining Jews left in the 28 years following 1973, due in part to the efforts of Judy Feld Carr, who claims to have helped some 3,228 Jews emigrate; emigration was officially allowed in 1992. The largest number of Jews of Syrian descent live in Israel. Outside Israel, the largest Syrian Jewish community is in Brooklyn, New York and is estimated at 75,000 strong. There are smaller communities elsewhere in the United States and in Latin America.

In 2011, there had been about 250 Jews still living within Syria, mostly in Damascus. As of December 2014, fewer than 50 Jews remained in the area due to increasing violence and war. In October 2015, with the threat of ISIS nearby, nearly all of the remaining Jews in Aleppo were rescued in a covert operation and moved to Ashkelon, Israel. It was estimated in November 2015 that only 18 Jews remain in Syria. In September 2016, the last Jews of Aleppo were rescued, ending the Jewish presence in Aleppo. In August 2019, BBC Arabic visited some of the last remaining Jews living in Damascus. As of 2022, only four Jews remain in Syria.