Lyn Julius
The Jews of Syria
Summary
The Jews of Syria, one of the oldest diaspora communities, lived in Aleppo and Damascus. As the Ottoman empire declined, so did the community, which suffered a mass exodus after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Conditions deteriorated further under the French mandate, and violent riots erupted in 1947. The oppressed remnant were only allowed to leave in 1992 after an international campaign for their release.
Lyn Julius
Lyn Julius was born in the UK and educated at the French Lycée in London and the University of Sussex. The daughter of Jewish refugees from Iraq, she is a journalist and founder of Harif, the UK Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (www.harif.org). Lyn blogs daily at Point of No Return (www.jewishrefugees.org.uk). Her work has appeared in the Guardian, Huffington Post, Jewish News, and Jerusalem Post. She has a regular column in the Times of Israel and JNS News. Her book Uprooted: How 3,000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight has been translated in to Norwegian, Portuguese and Arabic, and a Hebrew version is in progress.