3,000 years of history end
After living in Syria for millenia, all except a handful of Jews have fled
It took a knock on the door in the dead of night and a hair-raising journey through territory held by al- Qaida militants to end 3,000 years of Jewish history in northern Syria.
The last Jewish family in the city of Aleppo was taken across the border to safety in Turkey last month with the help of an Israeli U.S. businessman and moderate rebels with the Free Syrian Army.
Mariam Halabi, 88, and her two daughters, Gilda and Sarah, both in their 50s, had survived more than four years of civil war in Syria, leading a secretive life while their city was fought over by the regime of Bashar Assad and Islamist rebels.
The family had stayed in their home, despite water and electricity becoming scarce, practising Judaism even when kosher food became unavailable.
But for Mariam’s son Yoni, who lives in New York, worrying over his family’s safety became intolerable and eventually he contacted a rabbi he had been told might be able to help.
The rabbi had heard of humanitarian work being carried out by Moti Kahana, a Jewish businessman, in support of the Syrian rebels. Late on Oct 13, a Syrian sent by Kahana knocked on the Halabis’ door. He told them he was sent by Yoni and that it was “time to go.”
Wearing head scarves to disguise themselves as Muslims, the family, including Gilda’s Syrian Muslim husband, Khalid, and his three teenage children from a former marriage, took what they could and were bundled into a minibus heading for the Turkish border. The 12-hour journey took the family through multiple Islamist rebel checkpoints. At one point, Kahana said, the family had to negotiate a checkpoint manned by al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.
In Turkey, the family took refuge in the home of a Palestinian Syrian woman before continuing to Istanbul.
Selma, 43, herself a refugee from the Assad regime, and fearful of reprisals for helping the family, said they were shaken and emotional when they arrived in Antakya in southern Turkey.
“They were scared and distressed. The woman is very old and sick,” Selma said. “But they were very grateful. They were happy to leave, but afraid.”
The family had hoped to be reunited with Yoni in New York but despite the Halabis having fled to safety, their story does not have a wholly happy ending. When they arrived in Istanbul, Kahana told them visas to America were hard to secure and it would be easier to apply for a right of return visa to Israel — known as Aliyah — to begin with.
Kahana contacted the Jewish Agency, the body responsible for repatriation of Jews to Israel, which dispatched a liaison to arrange the transfer to Israel. But while Mariam and Sarah were granted Aliyah, Gilda was refused because she had converted to Islam to marry her Muslim husband.
With no money to live on, Gilda and her husband took the risk to return their young family to Syria. Her elderly mother and her sister Sarah have settled in Israel.
Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Jewish Agency, blamed Kahana for luring the family out of Syria on the promise that he could get them to America.
Jews lived in Syria for more than 3,000 years. It’s believed there are only 18 in Syria, all in Damascus.