Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, forced to emigrated from Syria in 1992, returned to Damascus 33 years later.
Jews, forcibly expelled from Syria in 1992, began to return to the country after the fall of the regime Bashar al -Assad.
Syrian rabbi Yusuf Hamra and his companions visited the Franks and Raccan Churches in the historical regions of Damascus, the Jewish school named after Maimonid and the synagogue Jobar, who received significant damage during the civil war.
In an interview with an anadol correspondent, Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, one of the former leaders of the Jewish community in Syria, said that he had returned to his home in Damascus 33 years later.
“I did not recognize the house that I built with my own hands, but the country itself has undergone changes,” he said.
According to the rabbi, the Syrian people still remained as warm as before.
Yusuf Hamra said that he left Syria with his family in 1992.
“I made attempts to return to Damascus for a year and a half, but the overthrown Syrian regime did not allow me to do this,” the rabbi recalls.
Yusuf Hamra also urged representatives of Jewish communities in Western countries to come to Syria and “see everything with their own eyes.”
“Maybe you will change your opinion and want to return,” he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the Syrian Emergency Situations Group Muaz Mustafa said that the first Jewish group returned to Syria after 33 years.
Mustafa noted that the new government supports the return of all Syrians to the country.
“There are very few Jews in Syria. We want to mobilize the international community to restore synagogues and cancel sanctions,” he said.
Mustafa also turned to the Syrian Jews with a message that it became safe in the country and they can return to their homeland.
more than 5 thousand Jews forcibly displaced by the Hafuz Assad regime in 1992, were forced to settle in various European countries and could not return to the country for many years.
Bashar Assad also prevented the return of Jews to Syria for many years and confiscated their property.