There has been a Jewish Syrian presence in Jerusalem since before 1850, with many rabbinical families having members both there and in Damascus and Aleppo. These had some contact with their Ashkenazi opposite numbers of the Old Yishuv, leading to a tradition of strict orthodoxy:[12] for example in the 1860s there was a successful campaign to prevent the establishment of a Reform synagogue in Aleppo.[13] Some Syrian traditions, such as the singing of Baqashot, were accepted by the mainstream Jerusalem Sephardi community.[14]