The remarkable changes in Syria in the last nine months — the fall of its dictatorial regime, the installation of former Islamist insurgents as the new government, once unthinkable diplomacy with the United States and even Israel — have some in the Syrian Jewish diaspora optimistic about a future where Jews flourish again in Syria. We weren’t able to enter the Ibn al-Mamoun School during our visit to the Jewish Quarter, as Shatah said, “It’s been a week that I’ve been asking for the key — when I said to him [one of the Jewish residents], I asked him for the key — he didn’t come, and he’s afraid to come at this hour.” She knows that the others who remain are elderly and soon there won’t be any Jews living in her city, which for all of the optimism abroad remains littered with reminders of the families who fled and the Jewish history that has little prospect of being revived in the present.
Author: Theia Chatelle, JTA
Published at: 2025-09-06 20:57:20
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