Expatriate Syrian Jews contemplate visiting a changing country

Trump's surprise lifting of sanctions against Syria in the wake of new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s efforts to stabilise the country was watched closely by Syrian Jews who long for a chance to revisit the country of their youth.

Although many say they felt like hostages in Syria until Hafez al-Assad opened the gates for them to emigrate in 1992, the idea of returning to visit is now appealing for the first time.

“It’s a pitiful state, without an economy and without electricity. People are very poor and it will take time for things to improve,” said Natan Haswa, 57, a Tel Aviv area physician who had a clinic in Damascus.

“But if there is a connection with Syria and the possibility of entering without fear it would mean a chance to visit the neighbourhood, the synagogues and Damascus, a big city, with good food that is only two hours away, I would be among the first to visit."

While Haswa notes that Syria is a "wounded country" that will take time to emerge, some Jews are already returning to see the places they left.

A group of American Jews, mostly of Syrian origin, travelled to Damascus in late February and visited synagogues and a cemetery in the Jewish quarter. They came away impressed by how welcoming Syrians were. “The people in Syria want the Jews to return to Syria," Asher Lopatin, a rabbi from the Detroit area, told Israel's Kan public broadcaster.

Syrian Jews interviewed for this article are pinning hopes on al-Sharaa, who swept to power late last year through a stunning ouster of long-time dictator Bashar Assad, to show a positive attitude to Syrian Jewish heritage. The thinking is that to distance himself from his past association with al-Qaeda extremism, it might be useful for him to project that he is open to contact with Jews with roots in Syria.