From Syria lets group restore Jewish property, as 2 Israeli rabbis said to tour shuttered Aleppo synagogues
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Syria’s Social Affairs and Labor Minister Hind Kabawat tells AFP that the new Syrian government has, for the first time, granted a license to a Jewish organization, which plans to work to return properties confiscated under previous Syrian governments.
“This is a strong message from the Syrian state that we do not discriminate between one religion and another… Syria helps all Syrian men and women of every religion and sect who want to build our new state,” says Kabawat.
The president of the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation is Henry Hamra, who fled from Syria to the US in the 1990s with his father, Yusuf Hamra, reportedly the last rabbi to leave Syria amid restrictions placed on it by the now-deposed Assad regime.
Henry Hamra, who ran unsuccessfully in Syria’s legislative elections in October, says the group will “work on making an inventory of Jewish properties and returning those confiscated during the previous regime, as well as protecting, caring for and restoring holy sites so that they are accessible to all Jews in the world.”
Henry Hamra the president of @JHS_Foundation meeting with the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in Damascus (one of my dearest friends and one of my favorite Ministers on earth) thank you to the @syrianetf for continuing to do incredible work for a peaceful, prosperous,… pic.twitter.com/dItRoOMlgd
— Mouaz Moustafa (@SoccerMouaz) December 10, 2025
Hamra met with Kabawat in Damascus today, according to photos published by Mouaz Moustafa, head of the former Syrian opposition group Syrian Emergency Task Force.
Photos published by AFP also show Hamra praying with his son Joseph at Damascus’s al-Franj Synagogue, which he previously visited in February with his father, the synagogue’s former rabbi.
Another formerly opposition-aligned group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says a Jewish group, including two unnamed Israeli rabbis, also visited two synagogues in northwestern Syria’s Aleppo that had closed decades ago.
SOHR publishes footage from the visit showing the group in front of the entrance to a synagogue. According to SOHR, the visit took place under heavy protection by authorities.
???????????????? — FOOTAGE: An unusual video from Syria showed a Jewish organization visiting a long shut down shul and Jewish school in Aleppo’s al-Jamiliya neighborhood during a religious-cultural event, with two rabbis from Israel taking part, according to footage released by the Syrian… pic.twitter.com/ErdDgCWy6P
— Belaaz News (@TheBelaaz) December 10, 2025
The visit “aimed to inspect the assets of Syrian-Jewish people” and came amid “a religious-cultural event with the participation of an association that operates in north Syria,” SOHR says, without naming the association. During the visit, Aleppo’s governor promised the group that help restore stolen Syrian Jewish property to its owners, SOHR reports.
Syria’s new authorities, who this week celebrated the first anniversary of Bashar al-Assad’s downfall, have made overtures toward the country’s dwindling, storied Jewish community, including by letting in Jewish groups. One group that visited Damascus in September, with the express approval of Syria’s Foreign Ministry, included The Times of Israel Editor David Horovitz.
The Times of Israel Community.