Rafi Nakash revisits the paradox of his life in Syria while mourning the future of a nation he once called home

Photos: Jeff Zorabedian

Rafi Nakash was a young Syrian government official who learned how to utilize the system under Hafez-al Assad – until he fled to the US and never looked back. Today, with his company one of the largest shoe importers in the country, he reflects on those times, bearing a grudging respect for Hafez al-Assad and grateful that the Jews left before Bashar, his ill-fated son, came to power – and shares some surprising revelations about the current coup

“Every Jew who lived in Syria needs to say Kaddish for Hafez al-Assad.”

With this bombshell, Phileh (Rafi) Nakash — frum Jew, former Syrian government official, and current member of the Manhattan business elite — blows up some of the common narratives regarding the regimes of the Assad family, and the fortunes of Jews under their rule.

Make no mistake about it: Nakash suffered extensively at the hands of the regime. He witnessed his father’s arrest and torture, dodged institutionalized discrimination and anti-Semitism, and lived under crushing restrictions in the shadow of a fearsome secret police.

“But you could work with Assad,” Nakash explains. “We learned how to play the system — it was manageable.” Without denying the dictator’s evil and cruelty, Nakash still bears a grudging respect for the older Syrian strongman — which cannot be said for his ill-fated son.

Today, watching from a distance as his native country struggles to right itself amid a heaving sea of uncertainty, Nakash is filled with suspicion and doubt. Promises made by new regimes — if experience means anything — are not necessarily promises kept.