Syria's Concerned Citizen, Jack

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

I wrote a book about Jack Huffman, who dictated his life story to me.  He knew that I had written Letters From Israel, so thought that perhaps I could take on another story to write.  This time the communication was done, not in letters, but in messages.  It was just about at the time of the Syrian Civil War which started on March 15, 2011. Jack was about 30 years old then.  The Syrian Civil War began in March 2011,  originating from pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring that were violently suppressed by the Bashar al-Assad regime. Following the initial unrest, armed opposition groups formed, escalating the conflict into a full-scale war by the summer of 2011.  "

I got to share some things in our messages, and he to me.  I thought he was from New York, and was surprised to find he was in Syria!  That was a shock because Syria and Israel were enemies.  Here we were, becoming friends through messages.

Jack felt he was in a dangerous spot.  He was an engineer working on a building project in Damascus.  He had gone to college in Damascus and in Lebanon.  He had a step-mother and step sisters to think about.  They had decided to leave Damascus temporarily and move to Egypt.  

Here is a hotel in Egypt.  He lived in a neighborhood of like people probably all from Syria. The chapter I remember best writing about was the dog in his neighborhood and what the head of a terrorist group was going to do with it.  Jack saved its life, having a cat of his own and loving animals.   

We kept on communicating.  He thought he might be killed in the conflict so asked me to write a book.  After that, it was several years before I heard from him again.

He was back in Damascus. His real name was Omran Alhalabi.   

In Syria he had lived fairly close to the President Assad and had gone to school with his daughter.  In those days he was concerned about finding his birth mother, and working in Egypt.  He was keeping up with Assad's government dealings as well as the USA's.