11 - ‘The Princes of Israel’

Summary

The Turn to the Jews of the West

The preceding chapter considered the political and religious motivation for activity on behalf of Syrian Jews by the representatives of European states, the British in particular. A significant factor in this engagement was the activity of the Jewish leadership, initially in Britain and later also in France. There is a direct link between British Jewry's pre-eminent role on behalf of Middle Eastern Jewry until 1860 and Britain's part in protecting the Jews in Syria. Similarly, the beginning of Alliance activity in Syria—which increased interest among the French Jewish communities in their co-religionists there—had a direct impact on the changed attitude of the French consulates in Damascus and Aleppo towards those cities’ Jewish residents.

The 1840 Damascus affair represents a key turning point in this process. Before this, the Syrian Jewish communities had strong bonds with other Middle Eastern Jewish communities and only tenuous ties with European Jewry. After this episode, Syrian Jews maintained commercial links and halakhic interchanges with other Middle Eastern Jewish communities, with Erets Yisra'el in particular, but increasingly turned to their European brethren for support and assistance with respect to their civil and legal status. Damascus Jewry came to recognize the salutary effect of European Jewish intervention, and their coreligionists’ lobbying of their home governments, on foreign consuls’ willingness to support and protect the Jewish community. Moreover, they acknowledged the role of European Jewish vigilance in preventing Jewish rights in the Middle East from being publicly disregarded. Here, as in so many other areas, there is a distinction between Aleppo and Damascus. Just as Aleppo's Jews sought the aid and protection of the British and French consuls at a later date than their Damascus co-religionists, so they were also slower to form ties with European Jewish communities. Only with the decline in the status of the Picciotto consuls and the beginning of Alliance activity in the city in 1869 did the Jews of Aleppo begin to turn to their European brethren.

Once Syrian Jews had realized the extent of their European co-religionists’ influence on their governments, they stepped up appeals, primarily to Jews in London and Paris, to act on their behalf in various spheres.