Panama also received a large number of Syrian Jewish immigrants, mostly from Halab (Aleppo), where they constitute the largest group in Panama's 15,000 strong Jewish Sephardic community. The first wave of immigrants arrived in the late 1940s after riots in Aleppo due to the Arab–Israeli conflict. The community consists of many synagogues all united under its flagship, Shevet Ahim Synagogue, where their late Chief Rabbi Zion Levy officiated.