As the Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews approached the 17th anniversary of our successful rescue of our 4,500 brethren from Syria, I received a phone call from my sister who told me that she met a woman in synagogue who did not know why she was allowed to leave Syria in 1992. She had heard about an organization, but was too young to know the story.
Until now, I have not spoken publicly about our work for fear of recrimination against those few Jews who chose to remain in Syria. However, I believe that enough time has passed to allow us to begin to bring to light the story of the exodus of Syria’s Jewish community. Since 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel, Syria’s Jewish community had been held as hostages living under Syria’s Secret Police and subject to arbitrary arrests and systematic torture.
Freedom for the Jews of Syria beginning in 1992 came about after a long and intense American and international human rights campaign led by The Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews, with the United States government at the forefront. Our goal was to persuade Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad that holding its Jewish community hostage was no longer in Syria’s interest. Syria’s Jews were entitled to the same rights as every other Syrian citizen, and the right to travel was no exception.
Our organization began at a meeting in Brooklyn in 1989, organized by the founders and led by Dr. Mayer Ballas. It was at our second meeting at the home of Mr. Stephen Shalom in Manhattan that we found our name, The Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews (CRSJ). We decided that despite past failed attempts of others, we were going to work to obtain the right for the entire Jewish community to leave Syria, and that we were not going to stop until every Jew in Syria who wanted to leave was able to do so.
The first Jewish organization that helped us was AIPAC, in particular, Mr. Joel Schnur. He attended our first meeting and invited a few of us to start to meet with Congressmen and Senators at AIPAC’s office in Manhattan. AIPAC gave us immediate entree to the United States Congress and carried our message with them. They would let us know when an official was coming to town, invited us to their receptions, and helped to give the CRSJ enormous credibility.
We were a very hardworking and dedicated group that worked well together and depended on each other. This was clearly a collaborative effort of thought, strategy, perseverance, courage and faith. Our vice-presidents, Marcos Zalta, Clement Soffer and Jack Mann, were the most passionate, committed individuals that I have ever met. Together, CRSJ with our Executive Director, Professor Gilbert Kahn and our executive assistant, Renee Shaab, were relentless.
Most of the CRSJ’s work was done in Washington DC. We spent an enormous amount of time flying regularly to Washington, which though expensive proved extremely important to our success. It was in Washington that we began educating people in the White House, the State Department as well as the United States Senators and Congressmen about the fact that since 1948, Syria’s Jewish community had been held hostage and were unable to travel. Most offices were not even aware that Jews still existed in Syria and were astonished to find out that they were monitored by Syria’s secret police and were under constant threat of imprisonment, torture, and even public hanging.
Despite this, the State Department was skeptical and said that freedom for the Jews in Syria would never happen until there was peace with Israel. We made it clear that we could not wait until then, that the Jews of Syria lived a very tenuous existence and had to be freed.
It was in Washington that we were able to meet with the United States Ambassadors to Syria, Edward Djerejian and Christopher Ross, and cultivated a relationship with Syria’s Ambassador to the United States Walid Al-Moualem, relationships that were pivotal to our success.
The first congressmen to be involved in this issue were Congressman Stephen Solarz, Congressman Charles Schumer and Congressman Benjamin Gilman. Congressman Wayne Owens of Utah A”H welcomed us with open arms, and his office was our home base when we were in Washington. Congressman Tom Lantos A”H jumped on board, and it was at his invitation that I testified in front of the United States Congress’ Human Rights Caucus detailing the situation in Syria for its Jewish community.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, Senator Arlen Specter, Senator John McCain and Senator Richard Lugar were the first senators to take our issue to heart and were the sponsors of our first Senate letter. We worked closely with the senators and congressmen to write many letters on behalf of the Jews of Syria and on behalf of prisoners Eli and Selim Soued. These letters, signed by hundreds of senators and congressmen, were sent to President Hafez Al-Assad. Resolutions that we worked on with the United States Congress were passed by an overwhelming majority in both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate.
Many senators and congressmen visited Syria at our urging, and armed with all the information they needed, they asked President Hafez Al-Assad about Syria’s Jewish community. Congressman Owens A”H made many trips to Syria on our behalf and specifically asked President Hafez Al-Assad if he could visit with Eli and Selim Soued in prison. Senator Metzenbaum flew to Syria with a delegation of congressmen and met President Hafez Al-Assad, asking for the release of the Soued brothers and for the right to travel for Syria’s Jews. This was the first time that powerful politicians were traveling to Syria and consistently asking about the status of its Jewish community.
In order to show appreciation for the many senators and congressmen, several families from our community graciously opened their homes to host political events, especially Abe and Barbara Chehebar, Joseph and Mindy Cohen, and Jake and Sari Kassin.
The CRSJ’s strategy was to meet in advance with every King, President, Head of State, Congressman, and VIP who was going to meet with President Assad to inform them about the plight of Syria’s Jews.
During the spring of 1990, we flew to Washington DC to meet privately with the President of Argentina, Carlos Saul Menem. The meeting was a success as President Menem, a Syrian by birth, vowed not to rest until all of Syria’s Jews were free.
As a result of such meetings, President Assad was asked repeatedly: “What about freedom for your Jewish community?” President Assad slowly began to understand that the world was watching, that the world cared about the Jews of Syria, and that this issue was not going to go away.
When President George H. Bush met with President Assad in Geneva, I fortuitously was able to help write his talking points. The plight of Syria’s Jews was finally on the White House agenda.
In 1991, we began to organize rallies and public information efforts. We were on television and radio explaining to the world that the Jews of Syria were being held hostage. We ran full page ads in The New York Times and The Washington Post. We began with two rallies which the Jewish Community Relations Council helped us to organize—one in New York in front of the Syrian Embassy and the next day in Washington. We also helped to organize demonstrations in Europe and Australia. We worked with the European Parliament to deny Syria money three years in a row, due to the fact that Syria was holding the Jewish community hostage.
In New York we met King Juan Carlos, the King of Spain, whose help we enlisted in denying loans to Syria and blocking financial borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Italy and Belgium. Soon after, we were able to meet with Robert Maxwell, who was acting as an advisor to President Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the USSR. He enlisted Gorbachev, who denied Syria spare parts to their Russian MiGs until Syria released all their Jews. It was becoming harder and harder for Syria to hold onto its Jewish community.
The first sign of success came when the Syrian Ambassador told us that the divided families would be permitted to be reunited. The first children who were released were the two Alfie children, who had been separated from their parents for six years. We were ecstatic and together with Sephardic Bikur Holim, led by Joseph Beyda A”H, were at the airport to greet them with their families. This was a dramatic and heartwarming moment that I will never forget.
Our board of directors and the entire community were always there, stepping in when needed as well as rooting us on and helping us stay afloat. Our first office was generously provided by Abe Cohen A”H and Ricky Cohen, one of our most active board members. Our second office was provided by the Duane Reade Cohen Family. The first fundraising breakfast was at the home of our dedicated board member Ezra S. Ashkenazi. Community members held bake sales and Chinese Auctions to raise money so that we could continue our work.
When we were in the middle of our efforts and ran out of money, Joe Cayre generously held a Sunday breakfast and kept us going. Members of the Mexican Syrian Jewish community were also there for us, surprising us with a large financial boost delivered by Marcos Sakkal and Mordechai Aspani. Near the end of our work, when we were desperate for a bit more time and money, Sephardic Bikur Holim stepped up to the plate for us. They held a special board meeting at which Joseph Beyda A”H, who was always by our side, and Sam Sutton successfully persuaded their board to help us financially.
We kept the international pressure on Syria, and after some very complicated political maneuvering; Syria finally relented and announced on April 28, 1992, that they would allow its Jewish community the right to travel. This was front page news in the New York Times. We then started to work closely with the US State Department, the US Embassy in Syria, and the US Ambassador to Syria and all of his staff to begin the process of obtaining exit visas.
Once we realized that we were really going to obtain the permission for Syrian Jews to travel out of Syria, a secret organization was formed called the Transmigration Committee. It was headed by the UJA-Federation, and included the Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews, Sephardic Bikur Holim, NYANA, HIAS, the Jewish Agency, and several other Jewish organizations that would be involved with the resettlement. The UJA-Jewish Federation quietly raised and spent 26 million dollars to pay for all the services and needs of the resettlement.
With the generosity of Mr. Edmond Safra A”H, we organized the flights and arranged for tickets to the United States for those who could not afford them. We also worked to obtain the status of political asylum for everyone with then-Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger. This status was granted by the United States government. As the Jews began to leave Syria, Sephardic Bikur Holim took over the huge task of resettling them into their new homes in our community in Brooklyn.
On November 3, 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States, the doors closed on Syria’s Jewish community. President Assad wanted to renegotiate with America’s new President. This was not to be. The plight of Syria’s Jews was on the radar, and we were asked to write the position paper on the status of Syria’s Jewish community for the new Clinton administration. In the Clinton White House we were blessed with President Bill Clinton, Martin Indyk and the spectacular Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who went to Syria and who single-handedly did not allow President Hafez Al-Assad to back down on his word given to the Bush Administration to let the Jewish community have the right to travel from Syria. The door opened again and the exodus resumed.
There have been other people and other governments that have tried to take credit for our accomplishments. There are those that dedicated their lives to bringing out individuals in the years prior to our effort, and we applaud and recognize their important work. However, we will not allow anyone to rewrite history and take credit for work that they did not do. Neither they nor the Israeli government were responsible for freeing the entire community. The release of the Jewish community from Syria was and always will be a human rights effort led by the United States government and our community’s Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews. It was the CRSJ that globalized the effort by meeting heads of state and their representatives from governments around the world. It was the CRSJ that enlisted Congress and the State Department in the effort. It was the CRSJ that inspired, educated and coordinated the other Jewish organizations. Together we traveled this journey to obtain freedom for our brethren. During the years that The Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews worked to make this miracle happen, our community was in its finest hour. Everyone’s hands were open, their hearts were open, and the support for the cause was bountiful. It was a wonderful time for our community and a testament to our determination and love for each other. The entire effort took nearly four and a half years. We were told over and over again that freeing the Jews from Syria could never happen. But in the end, it did.
It was a complicated and Herculean effort. There were so many wonderful people that we had the good fortune of meeting and who helped along the way to make this happen. For those whom I did not mention in this account, please forgive me.
To all the members of our wonderful community who left Syria beginning in 1992: This is the story of how you came to freedom in the United States of America. We are proud that we were able to be there for you and to be an active force in Jewish history. We are happy that our community has been expanded and enriched by your presence, through your modern day exodus from Syria.
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Alice Eve Sardell, Esq. was the President of the Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews. She is an attorney and runs Sardell and Company, a real estate brokerage firm.
