Restoration of Jewish cemetery in Damascus

The Syrian-American Heritage Foundation published a video yesterday documenting the start of restoration work on the historic Jewish cemetery in Damascus.

The video, published by the foundation on its official Instagram account, shows teams working to clean, restore, and rehabilitate the ancient tombstones, including those belonging to rabbis and prominent members of the Jewish community.

The foundation stated that the restoration work represents "a crucial step in preserving history and cultural heritage," emphasizing that the cemetery's restoration and renovation project has officially begun with the aim of preserving this historical site.

The Associated Press reported last December that a group of Syrian-American Jews had registered a non-governmental organization in Syria as part of efforts to revive Jewish heritage in the country following the fall of the Ba'athist regime.

According to the agency, the Jewish community in Syria numbered around 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, before waves of emigration accelerated after 1948 due to escalating tensions and restrictions faced by the community.

The agency noted that during the 54-year Ba'athist rule, Jews in Syria were able to practice their religious rituals, but they faced travel restrictions and frequent suspicions of spying for or collaborating with Israel, which limited their movement outside the country.

After travel restrictions were lifted in 1992, coinciding with the start of Arab-Israeli peace talks, most of the remaining community members, numbering around 4,500, left. This had a significant impact on synagogues, cemeteries, and Jewish heritage sites, many of which suffered neglect and deterioration in the following decades.

ANHA