How Syria and Lebanon became emptied of Jews

Bataween
Point of No Return
21 August '10

The 2,000 year-old Jewish communities of Syria and Lebanon ( 30,000 and 14,000 in 1948) have always been intertwined, as has the history of the two countries. Here's a timeline tracing their decline to less than 50 Jews in each country today.

19th century: an era of mass migration for Syrians of all faiths, driven by the 1860 Christian-Druze war and economic crises to move to Egypt and the New World.

1909: Young Jews leave to avoid Ottoman conscription law.

1917: exiles from Eretz Israel expose Jews to Zionism.

1918: Syrian and Lebanon under French mandate.

1930s: Anti-Jewish measures introduced, economy in crisis. 2,868 Jews move to Israel.
Nazi propaganda spreads. 5, 286 Jews leave.

1945: 1,000 Jewish children go on aliya.

1945: Riots against Jews of Tripoli, Lebanon. Temporary closure of Alliance Israelite School. End of French mandate.

1945: Syrian school curriculum becomes compulsory.

1947: Partition riots. Great synagogue of Aleppo burnt down. Jews cannot buy property. Hundreds arrested. Jews expelled from university of Beirut.

1949: Jewish bank accounts seized in Syria, property frozen, no freedom of movement.

1949: grenades thrown at al-Menashe synagogue, Damascus: 13 dead, 32 wounded.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.