Thousands of Jews left Syria in 1992, when they were allowed to emigrate. The visit by a small delegation of U.S.-based Syrian Jewish religious figures last week was their first time back since then.

As Mark Twain wrote, Damascus “measures time not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise and ...

The Assad dictatorship is out, but Syria’s economy is in chaos after a civil war and recent policy shifts. The situation is ...

After the decades away, Yusuf Hamra’s former Christian neighbors in the old city of Damascus recognized him on his trip back last month and stopped to embrace him, and share gossip on old ...

Rabbi Yusuf Hamra smells a citrus fruit with former neighbors in Old Damascus. "The scent of Damascus was orange blossoms and jasmine," said his son Henry. The Syrian president sent a key advisor ...

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, left, and his son Henry take pictures as they ...

and his son Henry lookout an old scripture at the Efranj synagogue in the old city of Damascus Feb. 18, 2025. The Syrian-American Jewish family returned for the first time since emigrating from ...

Rabbi Yusuf Hamra steps into the more than 500-year-old Faranj synagogue in Damascus for the first time in more than three decades. He left Syria, along with most of the country's historic Jewish ...

FILE - Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, left, and his son Henry take pictures as they visit the Al-Raqi synagogue in the old city of Damascus Feb. 18, 2025. The Syrian-American Jewish family returned for the ...