Our Daily News Letter

(By Our Paris Correspondent)

The peaceful penetration for some years past of the Jewish quarter in Damascus by Arabs of the Shiite tribe was the cause of the suffering visited upon the Damascus Jews during the bombardment last October in that city in the war between the French and the insurgent Druzes.

This fact among others of interest appears in reports received here from Damascus by the Alliance Israelite which have been published in “Pait et Droit,” the official organ of the Alliance.

The Jewish community of Damascus, we learn from these reports, consists of 9,000 souls, of whom 6,000 are unable to support themselves and the remaining 3,000 belong to foreign nationalities. During the past few years, the Jewish quarter of Damascus has undergone a peaceful Arab penetration, Arab families have replaced the Jewish families, who have gone abroad in search of employment. The Arabs who have thus penetrated into the Jewish quarter, belong to the fanatical Mahommedan sect of the Shiites. The Shiites claim to be closely related to the Druses, whom they consider to be the descendants of Persan Darazi, who settled in the Jebel Druse in the 12th century and is generally believed to have been the founder of the great family of the Druses.

It was the Shiites who were the first to join the Druses when they invaded Damascus, with the consequence that the Jewish quarter in which they are largely concentrated suffered considerable damage. Two Jews were killed in the fighting, a young girl and a boy of 19. Eighteen Jews were wounded, most of them severely. Ten houses occupied by Jews suffered from the bombardment and from the bombs dropped by the airplanes. Ten Jewish houses and three Jewish shops were completely demolished by the fire and three Jewish houses and two Jewish shops were pillaged by bandits.

After the troubled days of October the people of Damascus lived for a while in comparative peace. The Druses were driven out and they concentrated in the villages of the Middle Lebanon. But at the end of November they again penetrated into Damascus. The Mohammedan quarter of Shagour was the first to suffer–this quarter holds also about 40 Jewish families who again passed through anxious days: the Armenian quarter was next to suffer, and on November 30th, the Druses moved on to the Jewish quarter. Martial law was proclaimed and fighting took place in the streets. The Jewish Community sent a deputation to the French headquarters demanding protection. The French responded by setting special armed posts at the entrance to the Jewish quarter. The worst was thus averted but even today the situation has not ceased to be uncertain for the Druses are still carrying on their operations in the environs of the city where 40 Jewish shops have only lately been pillaged. This condition of insecurity paralyses trade and many well to-do Jewish families are fleeing from Damascus.

Amidst all the anxiety and trouble, the Jewish community of Damascus has not omitted to express its loyalty to the Mandatory Power.

M. de Jouvenel the High Commissioner has replied in the following telegram. “I thank the Chief Rabbi and his faithful followers for the good wishes they have sent me, I count on their collaboration in bringing peace and security to Damascus.”