As someone with family in that community, and as someone who is very familiar with the dynamics of that community, I know what I’m talking about. I’d venture to say that most posters here are Ashkenazim who lack any deep familiarity with the SY community.
The point I was making was a cultural and sociological one. The Syrians simply do not prioritize learning in the same way Ashkenazim do. Syrians are into family businesses, in most cases. All types of Ashkenazic Jews, secular to Haredi, emphasize learning, whether it be Gemara, or law school and PhD’s. Zev Chaffets emphasizes this in his NYT article on the Syrian Jews, and it is a point which is backed by nothing short of reality.
While there are scholars like R’ Hidary, R’ Shammah, H’ Faur, H’ Sassoon, R’ Abadie, etc. with postgraduate education, academic credentials, and rabbinical credentials, they are the exception, rather than the norm. In many cases, Syrian synagogues had to import Ashkenazic rabbis, due to the dearth of talmidei hakhamim produced by the community (just as Syrians use Ashkenanzic doctors and lawyers, due to the dearth of these professionals among their community). Anyone familiar with R’ Abraham Hecht, or R’ Zvulun Lieberman?
While classic Sephardic Judaism does include very intellectual, open-minded, and forward-thinking rabbis and leaders, this heritage is lost on the Syrian community of today. Anyone familiar with history would know that while AIU, for instance, was embraced by the hakhamim in Morocco, in Syria, there was much opposition to efforts to provide proper education, opposition to Zionism, and an overall retrograde agenda that was generally unseen elsewhere in the Sephardic world.