Dave Gordon
A delegation of Jews from the U.S. and Israel took advantage of the relaxing of tensions in Syria to pay a historic visit to Damascus last month.
This was an unimaginable venture not long ago, especially for Israeli citizens. The trip served as a vehicle for goodwill outreach, reconnection to lost Jewish heritage, and the startling possibility of new beginnings.
Asher Lopatin, an Orthodox rabbi from Michigan, spearheaded the trip sponsored by the Syrian government. Participants included Carl Gershman, the founding president of the National Endowment for Democracy and a former U.S. representative to the UN Security Council, Jill Joshowitz, a historian of Jewish visual culture, Prof. Lawrence Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and director of the Global Institute for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies, Marlene Schiffman, Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, born in Safed, currently the rabbi of Turkey’s Ashkenazi community and the chairman of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, Rabbi Asher Lopatin, Steven Dishler, Assistant VP of International and Public Affairs at the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago and former lieutenant in the IDF, Adin Kleinfeldt co-founder of Youngfeldt Holdings, and David Horovitz, Times of Israel editor.
The trip was coordinated from Syria by Syrian-born American Joe Jajati, the grandson of a former leader of Syria’s Jewish community who has established the Syrian Mosaic Foundation, which aims “to unite Syrians and global supporters in celebrating our diversity and building a brighter future.”
Tourists with a Purpose
The visitors moved through a city marked by a Jewish history that once numbered tens of thousands but is now reduced to only six residents clinging to fading memories and crumbling cemeteries.
Through tightly controlled visits to sites such as the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue and the Elfaranje Synagogue – historic sanctuaries once central to Syrian Jewry – the visitors pieced together a portrait of a community that has been nearly erased.
At the centuries-old Jewish cemetery, the group prayed together, underscoring both the endurance and fragility of communal memory. One poignant episode unfolded as the group saw the recovered doors of the Menarsha synagogue, stolen in recent years and now objects of both state pride and communal nostalgia.
Dura-Europos Synagogue Murals
Perhaps the emotional high point arrived with a visit to see the Dura-Europos Synagogue murals – 2,000-year-old Biblical wall paintings renowned as the earliest known figurative depictions in a synagogue. Normally off-limits, the group was granted privileged access to this “sacred chamber,” a brush with antiquity that momentarily unites past and present. Museum officials even revealed salvaged relics from synagogues destroyed in the recent Syrian Civil War, vowing restoration in the future.
Despite the presence of uniformed guards and carefully orchestrated encounters, the group’s openly wearing of kippot and tallitot in public was met with curiosity, smiles, and even requests for selfies – a tableau suggesting that, at least in these controlled circumstances, old enemies can briefly become benign onlookers. Encounters were described as uniformly warm, upending stereotypes and hinting at undercurrents of change even as official policies remain rigid.
Damascus at a Crossroads
The travelogue closes with a city at a crossroads: Damascus, still wary, still scarred, but beginning to tentatively acknowledge its lost Jews – and opening the door, however slightly, to a new dialogue. The group spent only forty-eight hours in Damascus, which was a very short time to try to take in decades of history, heartbreak, and hope. The trip included a blur of lost sanctuaries, guarded optimism, and the stubborn possibility of something new taking root amid the ruins.
Speaking to Community Magazine is Prof. Lawrence Schiffman, who offers an astonishing eyewitness chronicle – revealing the silent persistence of memory, and the slightly surreal promise that even the most unlikely journeys can open up surprising new opportunities.
Below are the highlights of our exclusive interview with Prof. Schiffman.
CM: How did you connect to the trip and why did you think it was important to go?
It was suggested by my former student, Jill Joshua. But mainly, she initially had interest in t the Dura -Europos Synagogue (with remains from the 3rd century). She told me there was a chance to go to Damascus and see the synagogue and I was on [board] before I even knew what the whole thing was about. Then I realized that it [the trip] was something very valuable, and [I]
wanted to participate in it. But initially it was the possibility to get to see the stuff that I would never otherwise be able to see.
CM: Did you fear for your safety?
No. First of all, I knew about security arrangements. And second of all, maybe I’m crazy, but I didn’t worry about it.
CM: What did security feel like for you on the ground?
We had four guys with rifles and some plain clothes guys. I don’t know if we needed that security but it was very reassuring.
Believe it or not, there were no traffic lights, and no stop signs anywhere in Damascus. They were apparently destroyed during the war. And whenever we got into a traffic jam, the security guys would jump out, push the traffic away until we got moving, jump back into their cars, and we would be off.
That’s mostly what they did. I’m sure they were doing their job as far as security, but I didn’t see anything risky. Admittedly, we were in a different situation because we were traveling in a bunch of fancy cars. But we didn’t feel anything negative anywhere.
We walked in the shuk, the open-air market, and one of the plain clothes security guards trailed us. We recognized him, of course, and we motioned to him to come and walk with us.
So, he walked with us a little bit. We didn’t feel in the shuk that there was any need for his protection. There were some people said, “Shalom,” when they realized we were Jews.
We didn’t feel any issue at all about being recognized as Jews. We also visited a police station where we were very nicely received. The police had just recovered two doors from a synagogue that had been stolen, and we wanted to see them. They gave us fruit. Then we hobnobbed a little with them. From the first minute that we after we got off the plane we were very well received, including our visit to an airport VIP room, where there were a variety of airport officials and other types there.
We went to the Jobar Synagogue (also known as Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, dating back 2,700 years). I would not suggest somebody going there without security, because it’s an abandoned room. [The synagogue was severely damaged in the Syrian Civil War in May 2014.] Any kind of criminal or whatever could easily hide there, wait for some poor visitor, get his wallet or something. It’s not a place to go to without some security or accompaniment. But other than at that place, we got the impression that there were a lot of nice people around, and we had no issues.
CM: Why do you think times have changed?
The first thing to realize is that it is very important to be careful of something. We met certain people and went certain places. We can’t testify about anybody else, right? So that’s the first point that I think is very important. I’m not claiming that there aren’t other people who are not like the ones we met, who, for all I know, may be anti-Semites, ISIS, or Hamas sympathizers.
I am only able to testify about the people we met, be it the government officials or just people who we happened to see.
So, I’m not in a position yet to claim that everything has changed. That’s the first point. Second of all, I have no comparison. I know this sounds funny, I don’t have any comparison. There are places in the Arab world where the anti-Israel feelings are rooted deeply in anti-Semitism, and that anti-Semitism seems to stem from the combination of the “second class citizen” nature of the Jew in Islamic thought and law, which then gets married to a kind of European anti-Semitism that was imported to the Middle East during the Holocaust period.
We encountered people who disagreed with Israeli policies very strongly. It was clear to us, in one of our meetings. with the Deputy Foreign Minister. He rationally explained their view about relations with Israel, and the hope for the security agreement that’s being worked on. But at the same time, they display very strong disagreement with some Israeli policies that can be separate from hating Jews.
I’ll tell you a funny story which illustrates [this]. We went to visit the Jewish cemetery, and we were wandering around there. We met a woman there who seems to maintain the cemetery.
Her house is right next to the cemetery, as is her backyard. Before I know it, I see that my wife is sitting with this woman’s family, and they’re drinking ice water that they brought out and they are talking to these people.
They were just nice people. They keep the cemetery. They probably get tips from people who visit. We did not experience animosity.
That is a really good sign for the future. Remember, we’re talking about our visit to the area that is controlled by the government. I think the majority of the territory is not controlled by the government. Remember that the entire north, the Kurdish north, and the southern Druze area don’t want to be part of the country yet. And in the eastern part of the country, closer to Iraq, the United States military is still battling ISIS. That doesn’t hit the news. So, when we talk about Syria, eventually, we will want to know what the approach of these other people is, as well. We know, of course, the Druze are all friends of Israel. And a Druze journalist interviewed me, and before he started the interview, he said, “I’m Druze. We love Israel, we hate Syria.”
CM: Do you think we’ll see Jewish tourism in Syria soon?
We’re going to be seeing Jewish tourism to Syria soon. They clearly want it. There’s a demand. I think that there’s a lot that has to happen to make it really possible, but I think they would like to see Jewish tourism. And more than that, they would like to see Jewish business. In a country that has to completely rebuild, there’s enormous economic opportunity there.
CM: What would have to happen for another Jewish group to go?
I think that we have to get to a point when there’s confidence in the security situation. I think it would be great if they sign the border agreement with Israel. That’s going to be good for everybody. And I think they know that will be a first step.
And some settling down has to occur. It’s kind of funny to say this, but I really don’t know anything at all about the infrastructure for tourism, like tourist guides and busses and the right kinds of hotels. I don’t know anything about that.
One important thing to remember is you can’t use your credit card there. The U.S. dropped the sanctions. Now what has to happen is, after the drop of the sanctions, various private enterprise and banking and financial transfers have to be possible. And you need to be able to use your cell phone, which only works now with Wi-Fi, because no company has service there.
CM: What for you was the standout part of the trip?
The standout part of the trip aesthetically was the opportunity to see the paintings from the Dura Europas synagogue. And of course, for others, the standout part of the trip was the chance to pray at the grave of Chaim Vital, to have the first minyan, and to meet the government officials who we met. And we met other wonderful people. Our group had a unified purpose. We understood our unified purpose, and we put it into effect successfully.
CM: What message would you send to people now, after having gone on the trip?
I would say the first thing is that we have to hope the notion of Syria reinstituting good relations with the Jewish community, which they certainly want, and better relations with Israel. It is going to be a process. It’s going to take some time. We should all be supporting it, and while we’re supporting it and beginning to interact with the Syrians, we have to be careful to send the right message. That is, that we appreciate the moves in this direction, and we understand the
difficulty that they have in trying to re-establish a new Syria, and we’re in favor of that happening. It is very important to understand why the process with Israel can’t be immediate.