Hamra speaks out at rally encouraging US. Representative Nadler to sponsor a bill.
Viral Influencer and Activist for Israel
Sarina Roffé
Damascus-born Abraham Hamra, an attorney and managing Partner at Cohen, Tucker, & Ades, PC, has become a widely known influencer, advocating for Jews in the face of growing antisemitism, misinformation about Israel and the Palestinian cause. His videos on the subject have gone viral as he argues in both Arabic and English, attracting a wide audience and millions of views.
Hamra was seven in 1994 when he arrived at JFK Airport with his parents, Rafoul Hamra and Shella Fatiha Hamra, and two younger siblings from Syria. In New York, their family grew, with two more children. After graduating from Magen David High School, Hamra attended Hofstra University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, graduating Magna Cum Lade and then attended Pace Law School.
Anyone on any social media platform will see his pro-Israel videos pop up. He posts in both English and Arabic, but it is his Arabic posts that get the most attention. With millions of views, he has become an important influencer, and an activist for Israel in ways we cannot imagine. Using the logic of an attorney, his arguments bring the Israel Palestinian issue to the fore, creating a dynamic argument. Muslims are surprised to see posts in Arabic from a Jew. Many Muslims did not even know Jews had ever lived in Syria, much less for thousands of years. This confusion wasn’t exclusive for Muslims, some Jews and others in America were surprised to learn of this fact as well, that Jews had lived and were displaced from Syria in the 20th century.
For Hamra, the catalyst for speaking out, was when a Palestinian gang beat up a Jewish kid in broad daylight in Times Square in 2021. They were released with no bail and hailed as heroes. Hamra organized an online petition, getting 20,000 signatures, and helped lead a pressure campaign that led to the case being elevated to a federal crime, the plea deal rescinded and the assailants sentenced to prison.
A staunch advocate of Jewish justice, Hamra refers to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), as being weaponized and misused to attack the Jewish community. He is staunchly opposed to a two-state solution or even the offer of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. He notes that every Palestinian argument establishes itself as the minority and the Jews as the white majority when the reverse is the truth.
“I realized the game that they’re trying to play,” said Hamra. “So if I come into the picture, as a darker-skinned Jew, if I start speaking as a Jew from Syria, it is an easier way to get the message across and to completely punch a hole in the what they have been spinning. My very existence (as a Jew born in Syria) stands in direct contradiction to everything they’ve been stating.
“My argument is very clear. I’m from the Middle East. The Jews were in the Middle East from before Islam. If you believe the Palestinians – who never had a sovereign country–deserve a piece of land, then you must also believe that Jews deserve a piece of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, because all of these countries were all created during the same time Israel was created, and all these countries are proof of my Jewish life. If you’re stating that every popular minority population in an area deserves their own section of land, then the Jews should have gotten their own land in these areas.
“Jews are that minority that have been historically oppressed by the Arab majority. Right now, what you’re telling me is that standing in the way of peace is that the minority (Jews) giving more of its land to the majority that used to oppress it after they colonized their lands? There is no defense to that. When they’re talking to someone like me someone with an Israeli or Sephardic or Syrian culture their arguments falter. We should not give back one inch of our land.
Hamra argues that it is critical for the Jewish people to be strong, demand respect and not be taken advantage of. Hamra is often a speaker at conferences on antisemitism and Israel. He protested U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler for ignoring the Campus Antisemtisim Awareness Act, which currently needs to be re-introduced because Schumer failed to move it in for a vote.
So what does the future hold for Israel?
“Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries are starting to wake up to the fact that this war against the Jewish state is no longer a priority. I really do believe that tides are shifting the Palestinian cause is being abandoned by the Arab world because they no longer have the desire to fight Israel,” he said.
A genealogist and historian, Sarina Roffé is the author of Branching Out from Sepharad (Sephardic Heritage Project, 2017). She is researching a new book: Syria – Paths to Freedom. Sarina holds a BA in Journalism, and MA in Jewish Studies and an MBA.
