Syrian Jews
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Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: those who inhabited the region of today's Syria from the ancient times and those Sephardim who fled to Syria after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492 CE). There were large communities in Aleppo, Damascus, and Beirut for centuries. In the early twentieth century a large percentage of Syrian Jews emigrated to the U.S., Central and South America and Israel. Today there are almost no Jews left in Syria. The largest Syrian-Jewish community is located in Brooklyn, New York, and estimated at 40,000.
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[edit] History
There have been Jews in Syria since ancient times: according to legend, since the time of King David, and certainly since early Roman times. A further group arrived following the expulsion from Spain, and quickly took a leading position in the community. Still later, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some Jews from Italy and elsewhere, known as Señores Francos, settled in Syria for trading reasons, while retaining their European nationalities.
In the nineteenth century the commercial importance of Aleppo and Damascus underwent a marked decline, and many families left Syria for Egypt. Beginning around 1850, and with increasing frequency until the First World War, Jews left Syria and Egypt for western countries, mainly Great Britain, the United States, Mexico and Argentina. This pattern of migration largely followed the fortunes of the cotton trade, in which many Syrian Jews were engaged.
[edit] Present-day Syrian Jewish communities
[edit] Israel
There has been a Syrian presence in Jerusalem since before 1850, with many rabbinical families having members both there and in Damascus and Aleppo. These had some contact with their Ashkenazi opposite numbers of the Old Yishuv, leading to a tradition of strict orthodoxy: for example in 1860 there was a successful campaign to prevent the establishment of a Reform synagogue in Aleppo. Some Syrian traditions, such as the singing of Baqashot, were accepted by the mainstream Jerusalem Sephardi community.
A further group immigrated to Israel around 1900, and formed the Ades Synagogue in Nahlaot. This still exists, and is the main Aleppo rite synagogue in Israel, though its membership now includes Asiatic Jews of all groups, especially Kurdish.
Many Jews fled from Syria to Israel during the anti-Jewish riots of 1947. After that, the Syrian government clamped down and allowed no emigration, though some Jews left illicitly. In the last two decades some emigration has been allowed, mostly to America, though some have since left America for Israel.
The older generation from prior to the establishment of the state retains little or no Syrian ethnic identity of its own and is well integrated into mainstream Israeli society. The most recent wave is integrating at different levels and has split between Israel and their kin in NY and Mexico.
There is a Merkaz 'Olami le-Moreshet Yahadut Aram Tsoba (World Center for the Heritage of Aleppo Jewry) in Tel Aviv, which publishes books of Syrian Jewish interest.
[edit] Great Britain
The main settlement of Syrian Jews was in Manchester, where they joined the synagogues of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, which had a mixed congregation including Turkish and Egyptian Jews as well as Syrians. There were and are two of these: one in north/central Manchester, which has since moved to Salford, and the other in Queenston Road, West Didsbury in the southern suburbs. A breakaway synagogue was later formed in Old Lansdowne Road with a more Syrian flavour, but it and Queenston Road have since merged. There are still several Sephardim in the Manchester area, but many have since left for the New World.
[edit] United States
[edit] New York
Syrian Jews first immigrated to New York around 1908. Initially they lived on the Lower East Side; later settlements were in Bensonhurst and Ocean Parkway in Flatbush, Brooklyn, this last being the current centre of the community. The community was formerly centered on the "Magen David" synagogue; today the leading synagogue is "Shaare Zion" on Ocean Parkway. Other synagogues are:
- "Beth Torah" on Ocean Parkway, for the group that lived outside the main pocket of residence
- "Sephardic Synagogue" under the leadership of Rabbi Moshe Shamah
- "Ahi Ezer", and "Shevet Achim" for Jews originating in Damascus
- "Bnei Yitzhaq" Sephardic Synagogue
- "Ahaba Ve Ahva", for Egyptian Jews
- "Har Halebanon" and "Sephardic Lebanese Congregation", for Lebanese Jews
- Congregation Ateret Torah, for the more Haredi Syrian Jews
- "Magen David of Union Square", in downtown Manhattan.
There is also a Sephardic Community Center.
The community is mainly based in Brooklyn, NY and Deal, New Jersey and boasts of financial and commercial success. This is the culmination of hard work and immigrant connections formed in the early 1900's. Additionally, it is related to the multi-generational businesses; children are encouraged to stay within the family business. Those who pursue higher education are encouraged to remain within the familial structure. A common phenomenon is the lack of liberal arts or non-career-driven degrees.
Although there were many waves of immigration, the newer waves are treated differently since financial success is an indication of status within the community. The most recent wave of immigration arrived between 1992 and 1994. They were assisted to relocate by their American kin, although they have been patronized.
[edit] California
A Syrian synagogue exists on Foothill Road in Beverly Hills, California (although not all members are of Syrian background). Also in Beverly Hills, the O4U Mediterranean Cuisine and Bakery, a certified kosher restaurant, is located on 214 S. Beverly Drive; and is founded and owned by Elias Amkie, a Mexican man, and his first-generation Israeli wife, Liora, both of Syrian Jewish heritage.
[edit] Leadership
Chief Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin was the spiritual leader of the united Syrian Community in New York until his passing in December of 1994. The position of Chief Rabbi no longer holds the same weight as it did in the past, as most people no longer feel united under one rabbi with one viewpoint. The community is now more polarized between Ultra-Orthodox (also referred to as "Black Hat") and Modern Orthodox (also referred to as "White Hat"). To date, there are currently no Conservative or Reform congregations affiliated with the Syrian community. Since the passing of Rabbi Jacob Kassin, there has been an internal dispute within the community of who the next Chief Rabbi would be. This dispute has greatly diminished the role of Chief Rabbi and transferred the yoke of responsibilities to lay-Rabbis and other community leaders. Rabbi Saul J. Kassin is currently the Chief Rabbi of the Syrian Community.
[edit] Latin America
[edit] Mexico
[edit] Panama
[edit] Brazil
The majority of the Syrian community of Brazil come from Beirut, Lebanon, where they had lived since their expulsion from Syria following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent violent anti-Jewish pogroms perpetrated by their Muslim neighbours. They left Beirut in wake of the first Lebanese Civil War.
The majority of Syrian Jews established themselves in the industrial city of São Paulo, being attracted there by the many commercial opportunities it offered. The community experienced great prosperity and several of its members are amongst the wealthiest and most influential families in São Paulo, both politically and economically.
The community first attended Egyptian synagogues, but later founded their own synagogues, most notably the Beit Yaakov synagogues in the neighbourhoods of Jardins and Higienopolis.
The community also prides itself on its strong Jewish identity and low assimilation rate, having their own school and youth movement. The majority of the community affiliates itself with Jewish Orthodoxy, though few could be described as fully Orthodox.
[edit] Argentina
The largest Jewish community in Argentina is in the capital Buenos Aires. The majority are Ashkenazim, but the Sephardim, and especially the Syrians, are a sizeable minority, and are regarded as more cohesive and less liable to assimilation than the Ashkenazim. It has been observed that, despite the fact that the Sephardim are a minority, a preponderance of the Orthodox (excluding Lubavitch) rabbis in Buenos Aires are of Sephardic descent.
Syrian Jews are most visible in the Once district, where there are many community schools and temples. For some decades there has been a good-natured rivalry between the Shami (Damascene) community of "Shaarei Tefila (Paso chico)" synagogue and the Halebi (Aleppan) community of "Sukkat David" across the street. The most influential rabbinic authority was Rabbi Chehebar from the "Yessod Hadat" congregation on Lavalle street; he was consulted from all across the globe, and had an influential role in the recovery of parts of the Aleppo codex. There are many kosher butcher shops and restaurants catering to the community.
There were important communities in the Boca and Flores neighborhoods as well. Many Syrian Jews had clothing stores along Avellaneda avenue in Flores, and their school is located on Felipe Vallese (formerly Canalejas) street. Some important clothing chains such as Chemea and Tawil were started by Syrian Jews.
[edit] Traditions and Customs
[edit] Pizmonim
Syrian Jews have a large repertoire of hymns, sung on social and ceremonial occasions such as weddings and bar mitzvahs. Pizmonim are also used in the prayers of Sabbath and holidays. Some of these are ancient and others were composed more recently as adaptations of popular Arabic songs; sometimes they are written or commissioned for particular occasions, and contain coded allusions to the name of the person honoured. There is a standard Pizmonim book called "Shir uShbaha Hallel veZimrah", in which the hymns are classified according to the musical mode (maqam) to which the melody belongs. As time passes and more and more pizmonim are getting lost, efforts are being made to preserve as many pizmonim as possible.
[edit] Baqashot
It was a custom in Syrian Jewish communities (and some others) to sing Baqashot (petitionary hymns) before the morning service on Shabbat. In the winter months the full corpus of 66 hymns is sung, finishing with Adon Olam and Kaddish: this service generally lasts about four hours, from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m..
This tradition still obtains in full force in the Ades synagogue in Jerusalem. In other communities such as New York it is less widespread, though the hymns are sung on other occasions.
[edit] Liturgy
There exists a fragment of the old Aleppo prayer book for the High Holy Days, published in Venice in 1560. This represents the liturgy of the Musta'arabim (native Arabic-speaking Jews) as distinct from that of the Sephardim: it recognisably belongs to the "Sephardic" family of rites in the widest sense, but is different from any liturgy used today.
Following the immigration of Jews from Spain following the expulsion, a compromise liturgy evolved containing elements from the customs of both communities, but with the Sephardic element taking an ever larger share. In Syria, as in North African countries, there was no attempt to print a Siddur containing the actual usages of the community, as this would not generally be commercially viable. Major publishing centres, principally Livorno, and later Vienna, would produce standard "Sephardic" prayer books suitable for use in all communities, and particular communities such as the Syrians would order these in bulk, preserving any special usages by oral tradition. (For example, ִHacham Abraham ִHamwi of Aleppo commissioned a series of prayer-books from Livorno, which were printed in 1878, but even these were "pan-Sephardic" in character and did not attempt to set out a specific "minhag Aram Tsoba".) As details of the oral tradition faded from memory, the liturgy in use came ever nearer to the "Livorno" standard. In the early years of the twentieth century, this compromise "Sephardic" rite was almost universal in Syria. The only exception (in Aleppo) was a "Musta'arabi" minyan at the Great Synagogue, but even their liturgy differed from the standard in only a few details such as the order of the hymns on Rosh Hashanah.
The liturgy of Damascus differed from that of Aleppo in some details, mostly because of its greater proximity to the Holy Land. Some of the laws specific to Eretz Yisrael are regarded as extending to Damascus, and the city had ties both to the Safed Kabbalists and to the Jerusalem Sephardic community.
The liturgy now used in Syrian communities round the world is textually speaking Oriental-Sephardic. That is to say, it is based on the Spanish rite as varied by the customs of Isaac Luria, and resembles those in use in Greek, Turkish and North African Jewish communities. However, some communities and individuals use "Edot ha-Mizraִh" prayer-books which contain a slightly different text, based on the Baghdadi rite, as these are more commonly available, leaving any specifically Syrian usages to be perpetuated by oral tradition.
The musical customs of Syrian communities are very distinctive, as many of the prayers are chanted to the melodies of the pizmonim, according to a complicated annual rota designed to ensure that the maqam (musical mode) used suits the mood of the festival or of the Torah reading for the week. See Syrian Cantors.
[edit] Pronunciation of Hebrew
The Syrian pronunciation of Hebrew is similar to that of other Mizraִhi communities, and is influenced both by Sephardi Hebrew and by the Syrian dialect of Arabic. It does not reflect the formal rules for the pronunciation of Classical Arabic (tajwid) to the same extent as the pronunciation of Iraqi Jews. Particular features are as follows:
- ב (Bet without dagesh) was traditionally /b/, but is often now /v/ under the influence of Israeli Hebrew
- ו (Vav) is pronounced /v/, not /w/
- ח (ִHet) is pronounced like Arabic ح (unvoiced pharyngeal spirant)
- ט (Tet) is pronounced like Arabic ط (unvoiced retroflex dental stop)
- ע (Ayin) is pronounced like Arabic ع (voiced pharyngeal), but this is less emphatic than in some other dialects
- צ (Tsadi) is pronounced like Arabic ص (unvoiced retroflex sibilant)
- ק (Qof) varies between Classical Arabic ق and a glottal stop
- ת (Tav without dagesh) is pronounced /t/, not /θ/
[edit] Aleppo Codex
The Aleppo Codex, now known in Hebrew as Keter Aram Tsoba, is the oldest and most famous manuscript of the Bible. Written in Tiberias in the year 920, and annotated by Aaron ben Asher, it has become the most authoritative Biblical text in Jewish culture. The most famous halachic authority to rely on it was Maimonides, in his exposition of the laws governing the writing of Torah scrolls in his codification of Jewish law (Mishneh Torah). After its completion, the Codex was brought to Jerusalem. Toward the end of the 11th century, it was stolen and taken to Egypt, where it was redeemed by the Jewish community of Cairo. At the end of the 14th century the Codex was taken to Aleppo, Syria (called by the Jews Aram Tsoba, the biblical name of part of Syria) — this is the origin of the manuscript’s modern name.
For the next five centuries it was kept closely guarded in the basement of the main synagogue in Aleppo, and was considered the community's greatest treasure. Scholars from round the world would consult it to check the accuracy of their Torah scrolls. In the modern era the community would occasionally allow academics, such as Umberto Cassuto, access to the Codex, but would not permit it to be reproduced photographically or otherwise.
The Codex remained in the keeping of the Aleppo Jewish community until the anti-Jewish riots of December 1947, during which the ancient synagogue where it was kept was broken into and burned. The Codex itself disappeared. In 1958 the Keter was smuggled into Israel and presented to the President of the State, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. Upon its arrival it was found that parts of the Codex, including most of the Torah, had been lost. The Codex was entrusted to the keeping of the Ben-Zvi Institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, though the Porat Yosef yeshivah has argued that, as the spiritual heir of the Aleppo community, it was the legitimate guardian. Some time after the arrival of the Codex, Mordechai Breuer began the monumental work of reconstructing the lost sections, on the basis of other well-known ancient manuscripts. Since then a few other leaves have been found.
Modern editions of the Bible, such as the Hebrew University's "Jerusalem Crown" and Bar-Ilan University's "Mikraot Gedolot ha-Keter", have been based on the Codex. The missing sections have been reconstructed on the basis of cross-references in the Masorah (textual notes) in the surviving sections, of the notes of scholars who have consulted the Codex and of other manuscripts.
[edit] Attitudes to Conversion
In the early twentieth century the Syrian Jewish communities of New York and Buenos Aires adopted rulings designed to discourage intermarriage. The communities would not carry out conversions to Judaism; they would not recognise the conversions of other communities or admit converts to join Syrian synagogues; marriages between Syrian Jews and converts would not be recognised, and the children of such marriages would not be allowed to join the Syrian community.
Hacham Uzziel, then Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, was asked to rule on the validity of this ban. He acknowledged the right of the community to refuse to carry out conversions and to regard conversions performed with a view to marriage as invalid. At the same time he cautioned that persons converted out of genuine conviction and recognised by established rabbinic authorities should not be regarded as non-Jews.
The ban is popularly known within the Syrian community as the "edict" or "proclamation" (in Hebrew, takkanah). Every twenty years or so, the edict is reaffirmed by all leaders and rabbis of the community, often with extra clauses. A full list is as follows:
- Buenos Aires, 1927 (R. David Setton)
- New York, 1935 (R. Jacob Kassin)
- New York, 1946 "Clarification"
- New York, 1972 "Affirmation"
- New York, 1984 "Reaffirmation"
- New York, 2006 "Reaffirmation".
There is some argument in the community about whether the ruling amounts to a blanket ban on all converts or whether sincere converts, not motivated by marriage, may be accepted as recommended by Hacham Uzziel. The relevant sentence is "no male or female member of our community has the right to intermarry with non-Jews; this law covers conversions which we consider to be fictitious and valueless". This suggests the second view; however in more recent versions of the edict a comma has been inserted after the word "conversions", which changes the meaning.
[edit] Cookery
As in most Arab and Mediterranean countries, Syrian Jewish food is fairly similar to Syrian food generally. This is partly because of the eastern Mediterranean origins of Judaism as such and partly because the similarity of the Islamic dietary laws to the Jewish. Syrian (and Egyptian) recipes remain popular in Syrian Jewish communities round the world. There are traditions linking different dishes to the Jewish festivals.
Popular dishes are as follows:
- Kibbeh: stuffed meat fritters
- Kibbeh hamda: meat balls in chicken soup made with lemon juice and vegetables (eaten before Yom Kippur fast)
- Chicken sofrito: chicken sautéed with lemon juice, turmeric and cardamom.
- Dfeena: Sabbath meat and bean stew equivalent to cholent
- ִHamin eggs: hard-boiled eggs stained brown, either by being baked with dfeena or by being boiled with onion skins.
- Lahmajun: meat on small round pastry base
- Mefarka: cold minced beef with broad beans and egg (for Shabbat)
- Meat balls with chick peas and spinach
- Samboosak: small half-moon pasty filled with cheese or meat
- Kousa b'gibn: vegetable marrow baked with cheese
- M'jadra: rice and lentil kedgeree
- Kahk: aniseed-flavoured bracelets with sesame seeds
- Ghrebe: shortbread biscuits, often in bracelet form
- Ma'amoul: shortbread pastries with date or nut fillings (the Jewish version differs from the Arab in not using semolina flour)
- Orange Passover cakes (derived from Spanish recipes through Sephardic immigration)
- Coconut jam (used at Passover)
- Sharbat loz (iced drink made from almond syrup; generally a summer drink, but also used before Yom Kippur)
[edit] Surnames
Common Syrian-Jewish surnames are:
- Abadi
- Aboud, Aboudi
- Ades
- Alouf
- Altaras
- Allaham
- Antar
- Antebi
- Antoky
- Anzarut
- Arking
- Ashkenazi or Ash
- Ashqar or Ashear
- Assoulin
- Attiah or Atiyah
- Azar
- Ballas or Balas
- Benun
- Betesh (Levy) or Btesh
- Beyda
- Bianco or Blanco
- Bigio or Bijou
- Balanka
- Braha or Braka
- Cabasso
- Cattan or Catton
- Cayre or Kairey
- Chalouf or Halouf
- Chalouh or Shalouh
- Cohen
- Dabbah
- Dayan
- Djeddah
- Dweck, Dwek, Doueck or Douek
- Esses
- Franco
- Faks
- Fallas
- Fallack
- Gemal or Jemal
- Gindi
- Grazi
- Gubbay
- Haiat or Hayat
- Hakim
- Haber
- Haim
- Hamoui, Hamwee, Hamoway or Hamwy
- Hamra
- Hara
- Harari or Harary
- Hasbani
- Halabi
- Hedaya
- Heiney
- Hidary
- Jajati
- Kairey
- Kassin
- Klaus
- Labaton
- Laniado
- Levy
- Lisbona
- Malach or Maleh
- Mansour
- Mamiye (Dabah)
- Maslaton
- Menashe or Menashe-Setton
- Menaged
- Mesrie
- Mouadeb or Mouazeb
- Mizrahi
- Nawlo
- Picciotto
- Qubuirsi
- Rahmey
- Rofé
- Safdie
- Salem
- Sardar or Sardel
- Sanado
- Salama or Salameh
- Sayag
- Schweky
- Senior
- Serouya or Serour
- Sethon, Setton or Sutton
- Shabot (Levy)
- Shabetai
- Shalom or Shalam
- Shamah or Shammah
- Shayo
- Sharim
- Shohet
- Shomer
- Shrem or Chrem
- Silvera
- Sitt
- Sweid, Swed or Suede
- Tabbah
- Tabbush
- Tawil
- Tchira
- Turkie or Turkiye
- Yazdi
- Zalta
- Zeitouni or Zeit
Some of these are also found in other communities, such as among Egyptian and Iraqi Jews.
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
- Abadi, J.F., A Fistful of Lentils: Syrian-Jewish Recipes from Grandma Fritzie's Kitchen: Harvard 2002. Hardback: ISBN 1-55832-218-3
- Ades, Abraham, Derech Ere"tz: Bene Berak 1990
- Collins, Lydia, The Sephardim of Manchester: Pedigrees and Pioneers: Manchester 2006 ISBN 0-9552980-0-8
- Dobrinsky, Herbert C.: A treasury of Sephardic laws and customs: the ritual practices of Syrian, Moroccan, Judeo-Spanish and Spanish and Portuguese Jews of North America. Revised ed. Hoboken, N.J. : KTAV; New York, N.Y. : Yeshiva Univ. Press, 1988. ISBN 0-88125-031-7
- Harel, Yaron, Sifre Ere"tz: ha-Sifrut ha-Toranit shel ִHachme Aram Tsoba (The Books of Aleppo: Torah Literature of the Rabbis of Aleppo): Jerusalem 1996
- Idelsohn, A.Z., Phonographierte Gesänge und Aussprachsproben des Hebräischen der jemenitischen, persischen und syrischen Juden: Vienna 1917
- Katz, K., Masoret ha-lashon ha-‘Ibrit shel Yehude Aram-Tsoba (ִHalab) bi-ִkeri’at ha-Miqra ve-ha-Mishnah (The Hebrew Language Tradition of the Jews of Aleppo in the Reading of the Bible and Mishnah), 1981 (Hebrew)
- Laniado, David Tsion, La-Qedoshim asher ba-are"ts: Jerusalem 1935 repr. 1980
- Laniado, Samuel, Debash ve-ִHALAB al-leshonech: Jerusalem 1998/9 (Hebrew)
- Roden, Claudia, A New Book of Middle Eastern Food: London 1986 ISBN 0-14-046588-X
- Roden, Claudia, The Book of Jewish Food: New York 1997, London 1999 ISBN 0-14-046609-6
- Shelemay, Kay Kaufman, Let Jasmine Rain Down, Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology: 1998. Hardback: ISBN 0-226-75211-9, Paperback: ISBN 0-226-75212-7.
- Sutton, David, Aleppo: City of Scholars: Artscroll 2005 ISBN 1-57819-056-8 (partly based on Laniado, La-Qedoshim asher ba-are"ts)
- Sutton, Joseph, Aleppo Chronicles: the Story of the Unique Sepharadeem of the Ancient Near East - in their Own Words: Brooklyn 1988
- Sutton, Joseph, Magic Carpet: Aleppo in Flatbush: Brooklyn 1979
- Zenner, Walter P., A Global Community: The Jews from Aleppo, Syria: Wayne State University Press 2000 ISBN 0-8143-2791-5
[edit] Prayer books
[edit] Historic
- Maִhzor Aram Tsoba (fragment): Venice 1560
- Bet El (seliִhot and morning service), Abraham ִHamwi: Livorno 1878 (repr. New York 1982)
- Bet Din (Rosh Hashanah), Abraham ִHamwi: Livorno 1878 (repr. Jerusalem 1986)
- Bet ha-Kapporet (Kippur), Abraham ִHamwi: Livorno 1879
- Bet Simִhah (Sukkot), Abraham ִHamwi: Livorno 1879 (repr. Jerusalem 1970)
- Bet ha-Beִhirah (Pesaִh), Abraham ִHamwi: Livorno 1880 (repr. Jerusalem 1985)
- Seder Olat Tamid (minִhah and arbit only): Aleppo 1907
- Olat ha-Shaִhar: Aleppo 1915
[edit] Modern
- Seder Seliִhot, ed. Shehebar: Jerusalem 1973
- Bet Yosef ve-Ohel Abraham: Jerusalem, Manִsur (Hebrew only, based on Baghdadi text) 1974-80
- Siddur le-Tish'ah be-Ab, ed. Shehebar: Jerusalem 1976
- Mahzor Shelom Yerushalayim, ed. Albeg: New York, Sephardic Heritage Foundation 1982
- Siddur Kol Mordechai, ed. Faham bros: Jerusalem 1984 (minִhah and arbit only)
- Sha'are Ratson, ed. Moshe Cohen: Tel Aviv 1988, repr. 2003 (High Holy Days only)
- Kol Yaakob, ed. Alouf: New York, Sephardic Heritage Foundation 1990 (Hebrew only; revised edition 1996, Hebrew and English))
- The Aram Soba Siddur: According to the Sephardic Custom of Aleppo Syria, Moshe Antebi: Jerusalem, Aram Soba Foundation 1993 (minִhah and arbit only)
- Orִhot ִHayim, ed. Yedid: Jerusalem 1995 (Hebrew only)
- Orot Sephardic Siddur, Eliezer Toledano: Lakewood, NJ, Orot Inc. (Hebrew and English: Baghdadi text, Syrian variants shown in square brackets)
- Siddur Abodat Haleb / Prayers from the Heart, Moshe Antebi, Lakewood, NJ: Israel Book Shop, 2002
- Abir Yaakob, ed. Haber: Sephardic Press (Hebrew and English, Shabbat only)
[edit] See also
- Sephardi Jews
- Mizrahi Jews
- History of the Jews in Syria
- Baqashot
- Pizmonim
- Syrian Cantors
- Aleppo Codex
[edit] External links
- History: The Jews of Aleppo
- Pizmonim: The Sephardic Pizmonim Project
- Monuments: International Survey of Jewish Monuments: Syria: contains many photographs of synagogues in Syria
- Religion: Sephardic Institute Judaic Seminar
- Genealogy: Les Fleurs de L'Orient
- Publications: Syrian Community Magazine
- Social: Sephardic Community Center (Brooklyn)
- Syrian Jews Mark 100 Years in U.S.
- Cookery: NY Times article
