Syrian and Lebanese Israelis are mourning the death of their spiritual leader Rabbi Aravraham Hamra, who passed away at the age of 78, Friday. He was laid to rest in the central Israeli city of Holon.
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Eulogizing Hamra, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said, "It is with great sadness that I received word of the death of Rabba Avraham Hamra, who was the chief rabbi of Syrian and Lebanese Jews and one of the last rabbis of Damascus. Rabbi Hamra maintained the Jewishness of the community in Syria …. while maintaining friendly relations with the president, thereby doing much to preserve the community. Since making aliyah to Israel, he dedicated his life to community members in Syria … with the aim of taking them out of Syria and bringing them to the Land of Israel and acted to preserve and bring the treasures of the glorious Jewish heritage of those communities to Israel."
Born in Damascus in 1943, Hamra worked for two years as a teacher at the local Jewish school before being made its principal in 1963. In 1970, he joined the local Jewish community committee, and in 1972, he was made deputy chief rabbi. Four years later, in 1976, Hamra was appointed chief rabbi. In his last years in Syria, Hamra also served as president of the Jewish community.
In the 1980s, Hamara contacted the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and other organizations in an effort to bring Syria's Jews to Israel. In Syria, too, Hamra, worked with then-President Hafez Assad to allow for the country's Jews to immigrate to Israel. Assad ultimately allowed Syria's Jews to leave for any country outside of Israel, in the belief their financial status would see them return to their country of birth. Jewish community members took advantage of the move and moved to the US. Some of them would go on to move to Israel.
Upon arriving in Israel in 1994, Hamra took up residence in Holon, where he was appointed to the religious council. He took the opportunity to have dozens of valuable Torah books and ancient writings brought to Israel. That same year, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin invited Hamra to join him as he received the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm.
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