Talk:Syrian Jews

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Contents

[edit] Article has potential

This article has potential

I'll say! I hope someone has enough knowledge to fill in all these headings, because I certainly don't! (By the way, I don't think "Spanish Inquisition" should be a separate heading. It never operated in Syria, and the first we knew of it was the arrival of the expelled Jews.) --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 08:57, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Is it right to mention the community of Beirut in the first paragraph? Or should there be a separate category for "Lebanese Jews"? --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 09:21, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi, 128.231.88.4. Interesting observations on the New York and Israeli communities, if a little POV. But wouldn't it be more to the point to set out basic facts about when they arrived, what areas they settled in and what synagogues they have founded? --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 08:52, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

The portion on the Syrian Jews in New York focuses too much on the negative aspects of the community . There are no links here to David Betesh's articles for example; and there is a lot of room for a history that hasn't really been fleshed out. See here: http://www.jewishgen.org/SefardSIG/AleppoJews.htm. This page is actually referenced in the external links section, I'm gonna start writing up a draft summary of it soon.--Bilditup1 16:43, 4 September 2006

[edit] Consistency

Thanks for creating this article! I like short titles, but here are a few random arguments to rename this article into History of the Jews in Syria: History of the Jews in Algeria
History of the Jews in Bessarabia
History of the Jews in Egypt
History of the Jews in England
History of the Jews in France
History of the Jews in Germany
History of the Jews in Iraq
History of the Jews in Italy
History of the Jews in Morocco
History of the Jews in Muslim Lands
History of the Jews in Poland
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
History of the Jews in Tunisia
History of the Jews in the United States.

Also, would there be objections to change the date style from Jesus-based BC/AD to neutral BCE/CE, as commonly used in articles about Jewish history & religion. A relevant guideline is in WP:MOSDATE#Eras. Thanks. ←Humus sapiens ну? 04:37, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Quite a lot of the article is about present-day Syrian Jewish communities. There would be a case for splitting it into two, and having one article about "History of the Jews in Syria" and one about present-day "Syrian Jews". (I proposed the same thing on the talk page of "History of the Jews in Iraq"). Also, quite a lot of the history is covered by the existing "History of the Jews in Turkey", as Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire for so many centuries.
I have no objection to changing the dates. --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 09:23, 23 August 2006 (UTC) [Now done: Sir M na G}

Article now split: see History of the Jews in Syria. --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 12:51, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Where is the information regarding Israeli Syrian Jews sourced from regarding the older generation and the recent wave? Where is "Merkaz 'Olami le-Moreshet Yahadut Aram Tsoba (World Center for the Heritage of Aleppo Jewry)" sourced from, I would be really interested in finding more about it? Details anyone?

The Merkaz is in rav Aronson street near Kerem ha-Temanim, and I found out about it from the Zenner book (see Bibliography). They don't seem to have a website. I don't know who contributed the bit about Israeli Halabim of different generations, but that too looks like Zenner. --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 10:39, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Synagogues in New York

Dear 66.230.200.125

I don't understand your reference to the "older generation of immigrants" as attending Shaare Zion: do you mean older immigrants as opposed to newer immigrants? or older immigrants as opposed to American-born? To put it another way: where do newer immigrants go? and where do young American-born Syrians go?

As I understood it, Shaare Zion is the flagship synagogue of the whole community, while the others are either smaller old ones (like Magen David) or cater for a specific ethnic group (like Ahi Ezer). Am I mistaken in this? --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 16:31, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Surnames

I think that the surname section in its current format looks ridiculous. Maybe we should put it all in paragraph form. Does anyone agree?David Betesh

The original article contained only the most common surnames, like Betesh, Gindi and Esses. But since everyone has been adding their two-penn'orth, it has begun to look like the Brooklyn telephone directory.
If we retain it, I don't think we should have a bullet point for each name. On the other hand, to have one continuous paragraph would be equally forbidding. Perhaps one paragraph for each letter of the alphabet? --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 10:23, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
There is no reason to put the family names of jews in the community. It is an invasion of their privacy and does not help anyone except maybe somebody interesting in committing a hate crime. kindly remove this section promptly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.186.111.88 (talk) 16:39, 5 February 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirmylesnagopaleentheda (talk • contribs)
Removed this list of names, it's kinda weird anyway, and people have complained about it being an invasion of privacy and possible hate-crime target on OTRS (OTRS ticket#2008020510015911). Open to discussion of course, but it seems like it started small and got out of hand, maybe better not to have a list at all. - cohesion 05:53, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

The names of the Aleppo and Damascus families was a comprehensive list. It was not unreasonable in length and it had recently completely stabilized. It obviously does no harm to anyone. Authoritative (talk) 10:45, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Please don't revert this until a consensus is reached, people do complain about this list. These are surnames, and in as much as they are identifiable as people this is against Wikipedia:Lists_(stand-alone_lists)#Lists_of_people as these people are not notable for the fact that they are Jewish. It seems also that there is general consensus to keep the list removed for style reasons. - cohesion 00:00, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Movies/Visuals/Photos of the Jewish Community of Syria

Does anyone have any links/movies/photos of Syrian Synagogues such as the Great Synagogue of Aleppo or at least of the Jewish community of Syria?

There must be photos or visuals of these Synagogues and the community life of the Jews of Syria?

How can it be that a community of tens of thousands doesnt even have a photo gallery of their community in Syria while the Lebanon, Lybian, Egyptian, Morrocan communities have one?

Last question, did anyone save the images from the "Silenced Sacred Spaces: Selected Photographs of Syrian Synagogues by Robert Lyons" exhibit since they have all been removed?

Thanks a billion guys

Yes I too noticed that the Syrian synagogues/monuments site isn't working. I think they are revamping the whole site, and that we just have to wait.

-: Before the page was totally removed, there was a notice stating that "We are sorry to inform you that this photo archive is no longer available online at ISJM.org. For further information please contact Robert Lyons via his site." - Click for cached page of ISJM.ORG So I doubt if/whenever they do bring the page back up that there will be any update. :( so our only hope for these is if someone backed them up before they removed it.

As for community photos, I think there is a deeper problem. There doesn't seem to be a dedicated "Syrian" site, equivalent to "harissa" for the Tunisians and "dafeena" for the Moroccans (and I think there's one for the Iraqis). --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 09:22, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, I dont understand how its even possible that they dont have one. Even the smaller communities have one. How can there not be any high quality photos of the Great Synagogue of Aleppo?

Hopefully they are working on one, though I have no clue.

Well, you were right, the site is back on the internet but sadly it repeats this message,

"We are sorry to inform you that this photo archive is no longer available online at ISJM.org. For further information please contact Robert Lyons via his site."

Anyone have any high quality images of the Jewish communities of Syria?

[edit] History

A long passage has been added at the end of "History".

  1. It badly needs wikifying
  2. It should probably become a separate section "Jews in Syria in recent times" or similar
  3. It looks as if it is lifted straight from the cited source Mitchell Bard "The Jews of Syria", in which case there is a copyright issue. Can someone clarify? --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) 10:41, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation of bet raphe

I lifted a long paragraph added by User:Tshilo12 and transferred it to Mizrahi Hebrew. However, I also have some queries about its content, and have put them on the Mizrahi Hebrew talk page. --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) (talk) 10:20, 10 March 2008 (UTC)