The president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Ronald S. Lauder, met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during Sharaa’s visit to the US for the UN General Assembly.
This was an essential, visible, and public meeting between a key Jewish leader and the new Syrian transitional president. It showcases the Syrian president’s desire to transform his country and his willingness to demonstrate Syria’s openness to coexistence and newly formed partnerships.
“We had a very positive discussion about normalization between Israel and Syria,” Lauder wrote on social media.
This is part of a wider series of slow maneuvers that may enable Damascus and Jerusalem to come to some new tacit arrangement regarding ties.
The fraught history of Syrian Jews
It also relates to the Syrian Jewish community. This community was forced to flee Syria in the 20th century. The context for this mass exodus had to do with riots against Jews in Aleppo in 1947 and extreme persecution following the 1967 Six Day War.
Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which ruled Syria for 50 years, positioned itself as one of the largest foes of Israel. During the civil war in Syria, there was concern that remaining Jewish sites there might be damaged or completely destroyed.
On Sharaa’s visit to New York, he met with members of the Syrian community in the US. Present at the meeting were several Jews visibly wearing a kippah. This illustrates that they felt comfortable as both Syrians and Jews.
Meanwhile, Jews have been visiting Damascus and synagogues across Syria. All of this has been taking place gradually over the last 10 months. It is worth recalling that after the fall of Libya’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, there were also attempts to enable Jews to visit this region and old Jewish sites. However, this short honeymoon quickly vanished.
This is why the Lauder meeting is noteworthy. It is vital to build on the first steps now being taken. “I had the opportunity to have a first meeting with Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines of last week’s UNGA,” Lauder said.
Levant24, an independent Syrian media outlet, also posted about the meeting. “Sharaa met... Lauder at the Syrian mission in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.”
“Discussions centered on Syrian-Israeli negotiations,” it added. “Lauder, of Syrian descent, took part in the 1990s talks and is known for opposing Israeli expansion into Syrian territory.”
Anadolu media in Turkey also covered the get-together. This is important because Turkey is a key backer of Sharaa. And this news source tends to represent the views of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party.
“Sharaa met on Sunday with... Lauder at the Syrian mission headquarters in New York,” Anadolu reported.
It noted that Syria’s state-run Alikhbaria Channel, “said the meeting... dwelt on negotiations between Syria and Israel. Lauder, who has Syrian roots, played a role in the Syrian-Israeli peace talks during the 1990s and is known for his opposition to Israeli territorial expansion at Syria’s expense, the channel said.”
Historically, Lauder has held key meetings and been at the forefront of outreach to Muslim countries that have ties with Israel.
For instance, in September 2022, the WJC noted that he “met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in New York on Sunday, September 18, 2022. Also present were Erol Kohen and Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, the co-presidents of the Turkish Jewish community, ambassador Murat Mercan, the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations, and WJC executive vice president Maram Stern.”
Erdogan has been a critic of Israel, but relations between the two countries improved between 2021 and 2022. As such, the Lauder meeting was crucial to this process.
The Abraham Accords
In May 2020, in the lead-up to the Abraham Accords, Lauder also wrote an article for Arab News regarding tolerance and change in the region. This lifted the curtain on the possibilities ahead.
The op-ed was titled “A Quiet Revolution is Changing the Middle East.” In it, Lauder wrote that “the old broadside attacks against Israelis by almost all Arab countries have quietly dissipated and the evidence is as clear as the nightly television entertainment shows that people are watching.”
With this in mind, the Lauder-Sharaa meeting can be considered a key milestone indicating a positive future in Syria.
However, as evident with what unfolded regarding the ties to Turkey and the Abraham Accords, these signposts can also point to challenges ahead. That means that this is merely one step on a long road ahead.