Syria, Between the Land of Israel and Diaspora

Abstract Syria had an uninterrupted Jewish settlement from antiquity until recently, primarily focused on urban areas and the cities of Damascus and Aleppo in particular. The communities flourished economically and intellectually under the Ottoman Empire; the involvement of European powers in the Middle East during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to religious tensions in Syria. Modern Syria from the 1870s was largely a creation of Muslims and Christians, and did not actively involve Syrian Jews. Despite the physical proximity of Syria to Palestine, Syrian Jews did not tend to immigrate to the Land of Israel in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the UN Resolution of 1947 creating Arab and Jewish states in Palestine led Syrian Jews to be hostages in their land of residence; those who were left in Syria were finally allowed to emigrate in 1992, leaving only a handful of Jews in the country.