Syrian authorities on Wednesday granted a license to a Jewish-Syrian organization that plans to work to return properties confiscated under previous governments and restore Jewish holy sites, one of its founders said.

“This is a strong message from the Syrian state that we do not discriminate between one religion and another… Syria helps all Syrian men and women of every religion and sect who want to build our new state,” Syria’s Social Affairs and Labor Minister Hind Kabawat told AFP, announcing the authorization granted to the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation.

The president of the Foundation is Henry Hamra, who fled from Syria to the US in the 1990s with his father, Yusuf Hamra, reportedly the last rabbi to leave Syria, amid restrictions placed on it by the deposed Assad regime.

Henry Hamra, who ran unsuccessfully in Syria’s legislative elections in October, said the group will “work on making an inventory of Jewish properties and returning those confiscated during the previous regime, as well as protecting, caring for and restoring holy sites so that they are accessible to all Jews in the world.”

Hamra met with Kabawat in Damascus on Wednesday, according to photos published by Mouaz Moustafa, head of the former Syrian opposition group Syrian Emergency Task Force.

Photos published by AFP also showed Hamra praying with his son Joseph at Damascus’s al-Franj Synagogue, which he previously visited in February with his father, the synagogue’s former rabbi.

Henry........

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