Syrian Jews and allies seek a place in the country’s future...

As the sun sets on a Friday evening, preparations for Shabbat are in full swing in South Brooklyn... Inside one of the few grocery stores still open, a man who left Damascus in the 1990s greets one of his regular customers in Syrian Arabic as a Hebrew song plays in the background. The pair part ways with a “Shabbat Shalom.” These Brooklyn streets—home to the largest Syrian Jewish community outside of Israel, with an estimated 75,000 members—echo the spirit of the once-bustling centers of Jewish life in Damascus and Aleppo. Today, Syria’s historic Jewish quarters are a dimmer scene. Only...