Syrian Family From Ravaged Aleppo Claims Jewish Roots — Pleads For Israeli Help
Destruction from the Syrian civil war in Aleppo. Image by Getty Images
By Naomi Zeveloff March 5, 2017
A family in Aleppo says it is Jewish, and is asking Israel to rescue it from the Syrian city decimated by civil war.
“We are asking the government of Israel not to abandon us and to help us leave this place for any other country,” said a woman in a recorded plea in Arabic that was aired on Army Radio.
The recording made its way to Army Radio via the woman’s younger brother, who escaped to London, according to the Times of Israel.
The man said that his mother is Jewish and his father is Muslim, and that he and his two siblings have always identified as Jews, though they had to hide their background because of the Syrian conflict.
Interviewed by Army Radio, Jewish Agency for Israel officials said that they doubted whether the family in question was actually Jewish.
But Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli researcher who focuses on Syria, said that multiple families had reached out to her with similar stories.
Previously, it was believed that the last Syrian Jewish family left Aleppo in 2015.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
