ALEPPO — Decades after almost the entire Jewish community left Syria, Henry Hamra of Brooklyn stood at the metal door of a small Aleppo synagogue holding keys that could begin to unlock property for its original owners.
Hamra, now 48, was 15 when his family left Damascus in the early 1990s, after the Assad regime lifted a travel ban that had prevented many Syrian Jews from leaving. Many who departed were unable to sell homes; residences were occupied by others and synagogues and schools came under state control.
In December, Syrian authorities licensed a Jewish heritage foundation led by Hamra, transferring custody of Jewish religious sites from the state to the organization. The foundation is charged with documenting and restoring religious buildings and helping to return private property taken or assumed when the community emigrated.
“What we’re trying to do is come see the properties, come see the synagogues and see what’s the condition,” Hamra said. “I’m calling on all the people who have properties to come and we’ll help them find them and give them back to them.”
A campaign over the past year, driven in large part by Syrian-American activist Mouaz Moustafa, helped bring Hamra back to Syria and secure the permissions. Hamra and his father, Yusuf Hamra — who was the last rabbi to leave Syria — visited last year after officials pledged assistance in restoring property to Jewish owners. Yusuf Hamra’s departure marked the end of regular Jewish religious life in Syria; Hamra says only about six Jewish residents, all elderly, are known to remain in the country.
Aleppo once hosted one of Syria’s largest Jewish communities, with roots extending at least 2,000 years. Before Israel’s founding in 1948, Syria had an estimated 30,000 Jews. That long presence is visible in the Central Synagogue of Aleppo, al-Bandara, a centuries-old complex with stone arches, Roman columns, marble floors and a decorative women’s gallery. For generations the synagogue was associated with the Aleppo Codex, a roughly 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible manuscript, portions of which were smuggled to Israel in the 1950s.
On the visit, Hamra opened a small synagogue whose velvet curtains were coated in dust and looked into an adjacent school where desks and stacked furniture showed how worship and education had been abandoned. The neighborhood still bears deep scars from Syria’s 14-year civil war; the report notes the conflict ended when opposition fighters toppled President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
Neighbors greeted the effort with cautious hope. “They were our friends,” said Abu Alaa al-Muhandis, a 75-year-old shop owner nearby. “We hope they will come back, they will bring life back to the city.” Maissa Kabbani, founder of a Syrian justice organization, recalled how churches, synagogues and mosques once stood together in neighborhoods where people lived as neighbors.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a onetime al-Qaida commander who later renounced the group’s ideology, has emphasized protections for minorities in the new Syria. The government has presented the transfer of Jewish religious properties as evidence that minorities are welcome. The move, and the public assurances accompanying it, have drawn interest and skepticism alike; some Syrian-American Jews say they do not trust Sharaa or his government to safeguard minority rights.
Hamra and U.S.-based advocates, working with Moustafa’s Syrian Emergency Task Force, also lobbied Washington to lift sanctions; the U.S. removed the last trade sanctions in December. That advocacy has been controversial among Syrian-American Jews who oppose engagement with Syria’s new leadership.
Practical obstacles to any immediate return are significant: electricity, running water and security remain inconsistent in many parts of Aleppo. During the delegation’s visits they were accompanied by young government fighters, some of whom asked to take selfies with Hamra.
Hamra brought his 21-year-old son, Joseph, who described the visit as exhilarating. “You see my face? I’ve never had this face in my life. It’s crazy,” he said, imagining younger Syrian Jews visiting ancestral homes and graves and perhaps, someday, thinking of rebuilding.
For now, the foundation is cataloging sites and properties, assessing conditions and working with authorities to restore religious buildings and locate and return private property to Jewish owners who can be found. The effort is both a practical attempt to reclaim assets and a symbolic step toward reconnecting a dispersed community with its ancestral places.
