Decrees against Jews

In the aftermath of the partition vote and the outbreak of war, the Syrian state took a series of measures explicitly targeting its Jewish population, heirs to an ancient presence in Damascus and Aleppo.

Bank assets were frozen, travel outside one's city of residence made subject to authorization, the sale of real estate prohibited; communal schools were placed under administrative control and access to public office was closed off. Leaving the country became a criminal offense, which rendered emigration clandestine and costly.

Syria is the only Arab country to have thus confined its Jewish community rather than pushing it out: the restrictive regime would last more than forty years, until the authorization to leave was granted in the early nineteen-nineties.