Rabbi Avraham Hamra (1943 – 7 May 2021) was a Syrian-Israeli rabbi. He served as chief rabbi of Syrian and Lebanese Jews and was the last chief rabbi of Syria.
Early life
Hamra (born Ibrahim al-Hamra) was born in Damascus in 1943. He worked for two years as a teacher at a local Jewish school before assuming the role of principal in 1963. In 1970, he became a member of the community committee serving the local Jewish population.
Rabbinical career
In 1972, he was appointed deputy chief rabbi of Damascus. In 1976, Hamra was appointed chief rabbi, a position he held until he left Syria with most of the country's remaining Jews in October 1994 when then Syrian President Hafez al-Assad allowed the last Syrian Jews to leave, on condition that they immigrate to the United States rather than Israel. Hamra immigrated to Brooklyn, New York before leaving for Israel.
Upon his arrival in Israel, Hamra settled in Holon and was appointed to the religious council. In addition to serving and leading the city's Syrian community, the rabbi frequently visited the Jewish Syrian community in New York. In the 1990s, he worked with Mossad to smuggle Jewish artifacts out of Syria. Hamra also served on the Presidium Council of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States.
In December 2017, Hamra's daughter Aliza and three of her children were killed in a house fire in Brooklyn, New York.
Hamra died in May 2021 in Israel, at the age of 78. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent his condolences.