The Syrian Jew community is an extremely secluded and wealthy sect of the Jewish community. Active in fundraising for their own cummunity. Recently have come in media spotlight due to massive property management scandal in Monmouth and Ocean count New Jersey. Rumors of tax evasion have surfaced surrounding their exclusive import/export network. Typically at odds with local and neighboring communities.

First i read what all the other definitions for Syrian Jew on this web site, and as a "SY" i have been teribly offended, and if it would have been written by a non jew their would have been outcrys of anti sematism, i dont care if you had a bad experience with a couple of Syrians to blatantly sterotype is just wrong, we are all one Jewish nation we should all get along and not fight amongst each other. Anyway hear is some REAL info on our community.

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, and a smaller community in Qamishli. 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.

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 na...

Jewish people who struggled for life from the time of Abraham, our Patriarch, thru slavery in Egypt, thru slaughter by the Crusaders, Forced conversion by the Spanish Inquisition and extermination by the Nazis and forced into Atheism by the Communists, rejected by both the Christians and the Moslems as being Sub-Human ("lower than Dogs"), who somehow have managed to survive it all. And this is just the minimal list of abuses heaped upon us. We got by trying to stay under the Radar of those who wished to exterminate us. After the distruction of our Holy temple, at the original Diaspora (year 8000BCE, approx) we were scattered all over what is currently known as the Middle East. In the middle ages our communities were split between Northern Europe including Russia, Ashkenazim, (German), & Sephardim, (Spanish) the coastal Mediterranean countries of Europe and Africa.
Sephardic settlers came with the 1st explorers (1492+/-) Many Ashkenazi Jew came in early 1800s. Syrians came after the Suez Canal was opened in the late 1800's. Rejected by Ashkenzic Jews as non- Jews. Called "Turks". We called Italians "I-T's", we called ourselves "SY'S" and the Ashkenazi "J-W's" or "J-Dubs" for short. It stands for Jewish. It was simply to recognize the difference in our language. Immigrants and the first gen. American speak in their Parent's tongue. Unlike the "Jeffersons" of TV fame the wealthy members of our community are to staying in the community to help others "Make it".

Syrian Jews are Jews descended from a handful of Spanish-Jewish refugees who settled in Ottoman Syria following the Spanish Expulsion Edict of 1492. After mass emigration to the United States starting in the 1900s, the largest Syrian-Jewish community in the world today currently resides in southern Brooklyn, New York.

The twin driving goals and focus of the Syrian community, and the most important thing to any given individual Syrian Jew, is both money, and denigrating non-Syrians. Perhaps more than any other people on the face of the planet, the Syrian universe revolves around the pursuit of money, and certainly among Jews, Syrians are legendary for their cruelty and spite towards "less fortunate" Jews who are not Syrian.

A parable was told by one Rabbi Levy, in which a Syrian Jew asked an Ashkenazi (European) Jew why he was so poor. "Look at this street," the Syrian taunted, "I own every house on it - even your own." The Ashkenazi smiled and responded, "To be as rich as a Syrian, you must have a true love of money. A love of money for money's sake. Your heart must live and love on money. But I do not -- I cannot love money. I love my family, my children, my Torah etc..."

The Syrian community has been characterized by its extreme arrogance, obsession with money (and subsequent incredible wealth), and their general dislike for converts, Ashkenazim and non-Syrians in particular. Syrians do not accept converts, even sincere converts, as Jewish - despite this being i...