What is Syrian Jew?
1.
Syrian Jew is a term used to describe the members of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY and Deal, NJ. The community numbers in the tens of thousands, with many of its members emigrating from Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt in the last 20 years. The community is around for several decades, and today continues to grow and flourish. Syrian values generally revolve around the family, respect for the elderly, and charity. Many of its members are wealthy, and this is displayed in the number of charitable organizations that exist in the community. The community is also heavily involved in funding religious projects in Israel, and one of its members has even helped build a synagogue in the Jewish settlement of Shilo in Samaria. The Syrian community lives in harmony with its neighbors, both Jew and Gentile, and will continue to grow and be a significant and integral part of the Jewish people.
Joey: Where are you headed?
Charles: A soccer tournament. All the proceeds are going to the IDF.
Joey: I love this community and I love Syrian Jews. We're always trying to help out our brothers in whichever ways we can.
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2.
A jewish person who resides or is from Syria. Many of these people came from Spain in 1942 when the were expelled and persecuted by the Spanish Monarchs.However there was a presence since the temple in Jerusalem was built. King Solomon's brother built a Temple in Aleppo Syria in those times and there have been a Syrian Jews since that time.
They are refered to as Sephardic Jews.
Sephardic Jews are refered to as the people that came or live in the middle east. They are refered to as Syrian Jew.
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3.
A Syrian Jew is a blanket term for Jews whose ancestors come from a few different Middle-Eastern countries (Most Noteably Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt). They are a very tight knit bunch that has settled mostly in the New York and New Jersey Areas (Brooklyn has the highest concentration). Some people might choose to bring up a stereotypical obsession with wealth and extravangance that some of them have, but that is not all of them and there is more. The people from this community may have there flaws (as do most) and the tightness of the community causes most every move to be watched under a microscope, but there are plenty of positives. The Syrian Jews are very charitable and very family oriented. When one person falls on hard times they all band together to help them out. The community is getting larger and larger but they still have a sense of togetherness that few communities are ever able to achieve.
Jack: Where are you headed today Carol.
Carol: To the Basketball Tournament to benefit the needy.
Jack: Wasn't there one last week?
Carol: When you're a Syrian Jew, the charitable functions never seem to end, but I kind of like it that way.
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4.
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 illegal according to Jewish law (which few Syrians are familiar with). Among Syrians, Ashkenazim are derogatively called "J-dubs". Syrians generally do not recognize anyone who is not Syrian-Jewish as being Jewish at all, despite genealogical evidence which suggests most Syrian Jews are at least three-fourths Arab.
Yet ironically, despite attacking most other Jewish groups as not being as Jewish as themselves, the Syrian-Jewish community is infamous for its actual lack of observance in the Jewish faith. There has never been a Syrian Rabbi of note or fame beyond the Syrian community, and contrary to other Sephardic Jews, Syrians seem to have little interest in performing the commandments of the Torah beyond those that offer them immediate financial gain. The most important thing to a Syrian Jew is money; the community epitomizes the deadly sin of "avoda zorah" - Idol Worship. The difference being that their idol fits in a wallet and jangles in a purse.
Jacky (Syrian Jew): Haha! Look at that stupid J-dub! Lets run him over in my BMW convertible that my daddy bought me, even though 40 years ago BMW was gassing his ancestors in Aushwitz! I don't care if BMW worked thousands of Jews to death. If a *Syrian* Jew wasn't gassed, I don't care!
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