Theia Chatelle | JTA

“This was a Jewish home, and so was that. These were all Jewish homes,” Badriyah Mousa Shatah said as she walked through Damascus’ historic Jewish Quarter, or the “Harat al-Yahud” as it is known in Arabic.

Shatah, who was born in Damascus and has lived in the city all her life, is one of the last Jews left in the country. According to her, there are only four others who remain.

Shatah, 56, has watched the Jewish community she knew and loved crumble before her eyes. As we walked in the Jewish Quarter, she pointed to buildings she recalled from her childhood — the Jewish school, Ibn al-Mamoun, once had 850 to 950 students in attendance. There were kosher butchers, Judaica stores, and synagogues — anything and everything needed to sustain a thriving Jewish community. N

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