Jewish pupils in Damascus in 1991. According to assessments, there is only a handful of Jews left in Syria today. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

A religious leader in Syria said that less than a handful of Jewish families is still living in Aleppo, the country’s largest city.

“There is a very, very small Jewish community,” Jean-Clement Jeanbart, a Catholic Archbishop in Aleppo, told the U.K.’s Express. “Fifty years ago there were 15,000, a very large community, they used to live very well with us and the Muslims. Now, perhaps two or three families are left.”

In all of Syria there are less than 50 Jews, and most of them are living in the capital, Damascus, according to some estimates. Reports from inside the country suggest that the Jews left in Syria are all elderly.

According to the report, the Jewish population receives protection from President Bashar al-Assad’s troops, but in many areas they have been forced to flee their homes or risk being murdered by ISIS or other extremist rebels.

Archbishop Jeanbart also noted that the number of Christians still living in Syria has dwindled from 160,000 to less than 100,000.