Jews in syria

After years of war, world’s oldest synagogue paintings are revealed as intact in Damascus

Jewish sites and synagogues suffered lootings and bombardment over the course of the war, which followed the emigration of virtually all Syrian Jews.

|ByGRACE GILSON/JTA
The Dura Europos Synagogue wall paintings in the National Museum of Damascus on September 16, 2025.
A kippah and a pile of documents.

Time running out in race to preserve endangered Jewish languages

The many endangered dialects of Judeo-Arabic have been documented to varying extents, from Egypt to Morocco, from Syria to Yemen. And some young people are keeping the music alive.

|BySARAH BUNIN BENOR/JTA
The entrance of an abandoned Jewish synagogue in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Iraq, pictured in 2009

Nearly half the Jewish sites in Syria have been ruined

The fate of most Iraqi sites is unknown

|ByCNAAN LIPHSHIZ/JTA
THE JEWISH QUARTER in Damascus lies desolate

Last vestiges of Syrian Jewry clinging to community

Expert: As long as Assad controls Damascus, their lives will remain protected.

|ByARIEL BEN SOLOMON

Travails of Jews from Arab Lands finally recognized after 66 years

The intention behind the bill, said one of the bill's makers, was to ensure that the stories of what happened to Jews in and from Arab lands and Iran should be part of the school curriculum.

NOVEMBER 30, 2014ByGREER FAY CASHMAN
JEWISH IMMIGRANTS from Yemen in 1950 after their arrival to Israel

Assad forces destroy Syria's oldest synagogue

The synagogue was said to be built atop a cave where the prophet Elijah once hid.

MAY 28, 2014ByJPOST.COM STAFF, JTA
Jobar synagogue in Damascus 370