According to press reports hundreds of Jews in the Syrian town of Al Qamishli, located near the Turkish border, face threats of annihilation. Their property has been appropriated and the police persecute them and throw many into prisons and torture chambers. The town's impressive beis knesses was commandeered by the army and turned into a horse barn, Rachmono litzlan, and according to recent reports four women from the town were arrested on charges of assisting their husbands to cross the border illegally. After five years of imprisonment and torture they were on the verge of losing their sanity.
Reports on developments in this community of 450 Jews are few and muddled. They are cut off from the rest of the world. Tourists and reporters are banned from entering the town's Jewish ghetto and the Jews are under house arrest, unauthorized to leave the town even for urgent medical care. Their stores have been confiscated and they are forbidden to engage in commerce, which is their only source of income. They are also forbidden to maintain ties with the local non- Jewish population. A curfew on them starts at dusk and spot checks are often conducted to ensure that they are at home. Many Jews caught trying to flee have been thrown into torture chambers.
(dei"ah Vdibur)
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