1. Our People Left Egypt After 200 Years of Slavery
Passover,
the first Jewish holiday, celebrates our people’s miraculous exodus
from Egypt. Led by Moses and Aaron, our ancestors witnessed G-d bringing
10 plagues upon our Egyptian slavemasters before leaving for freedom.
Before G-d split the sea for his nascent nation, He said: “For the way
you have seen Egypt is [only] today, [but] you shall no longer continue
to see them for eternity.” Yet it took only several hundred years before some Israelites returned to the land of our oppression.
Read: The Prohibition Against Living in Egypt
2. Jews Returned Following the Assassination of Gedaliah
Following
the destruction of the First Holy Temple, a small, humble Jewish
community remained in the Holy Land, governed by Gedaliah ben Achikam.
After Gedaliah and many other Jews were murdered at a Rosh Hashanah
feast, the community was in tatters. Some migrated to Egypt, where they
hoped to escape famine and war. The Prophet Jeremiah warned them not to
go, but they went nonetheless. Even after they settled there, Jeremiah
continued to castigate the people for leaving the Holy Land and for
serving idols in Egypt.
Read: 10 Facts About Gedaliah
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Two bar mitzvah boys and their proud family members outside the Shaar Hashamayim synagogue in Cairo |
3. There Was a Pseudo Temple in Second Temple Times
During
the Second Temple period, around the time of the Chanukah story, when
Egypt was the center of the Alexandrian Greek empire, it was home to a
significant Jewish community.
Under
the leadership of a priest named Chonyo (Onias), they even built a large
temple, which they saw as a parallel to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
Chonyo’s temple was not, however, sacred. In fact, the Mishnah states
that any priest who served in Chonyo’s temple was not allowed to serve
in Jerusalem, just like priests who served idols.
Read: 9 Holy Temple Facts
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The Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in Alexandria |
4. They Translated the Torah Into Greek
By
order of King Ptolemy, the Jews living in Egypt translated the Torah
into Greek. The Sages say that day was as terrible for the People of
Israel as the day that the Golden Calf was made, because the Torah was
unable to be translated adequately.
Read: What Was Wrong With Translating Torah Into Greek?
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Maimonides’s
handwritten “Commentary on the Mishnah” (Yevamot, ch. 9) in
Judeo-Arabic script. Includes notes by his son Abraham in the margin. |
5. They Had a Giant Synagogue
The
Talmud describes an opulent synagogue in Alexandria, which could contain
many thousands of worshippers, who sat according to profession. It was
so large that it was impossible for everyone to hear the cantor. One
person was thus designated to stand on the bimah (platform) in the center of the column-lined sanctuary and raise a handkerchief whenever it was time to say “amen.”
Tragically the entire congregation was killed—a punishment, the Talmud tells us, for resettling in Egypt.
Read: 15 Synagogue Facts
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Burial place of the well known Mosseri family in Cairo. |
6. Jerusalemites and Babylonians Lived Side by Side
In the
post-Temple era, two great centers of Jewish scholarship arose—one in
the Holy Land and the other in Babylon—each of which eventually produced
a Talmud. In Egypt, there were representatives of both.
Cairo’s
famous Ben Ezra synagogue was originally frequented by Jews who
followed the (now defunct) Jerusalemite tradition. One feature of the
Jerusalemite tradition is finishing the Torah over three years instead
of an annual cycle.
The globetrotting Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela (12th century) records that
the Jerusalemites of Cairo had a longstanding tradition of joining
together with the Babylonian Jews, who were completing the Torah on that
day, for a joint prayer service.
Read: The Two Talmuds
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The Shaar Hashamayim synagogue in Cairo |
7. Saadia Gaon Battled Karaites There
The
great Rabbi Saadia Gaon was born in the Faiyum region in the late 9th
century. As a young man, he perceived the threat to traditional Judaism
posed by the Karaites, who rejected rabbinic teachings in favor of their
own, original interpretations of Scripture. Saadia began his career as a
staunch defender of Jewish tradition when he was just 23 years old.
Soon after, persecution by the Karaites, including the ransacking of his
home, forced him to leave Egypt for the Holy Land and then Babylon. He
became known as one of the great leaders and teachers in Jewish history,
who rendered the entire Torah into flowing Arabic, and whose teachings and traditions remain central to Judaism today.
Read: Rabbi Saadia Gaon
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An unused synagogue in the Abbasiya area of Cairo. |
8. Maimonides Was Nagid
Moses Maimonides, the great Spanish-born philosopher, scholar, and leader, lived in Cairo, where he served as nagid
(leader of the community) and personal physician to Sultan Saladin.
Under his influence, Jewish observance was enhanced and Jewish precepts
were taught in a way that many could appreciate and incorporate,
including repentantf former Karaites.
Read: 20 Maimonides Facts
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A plaque on the newly renovated Maimonides synagogue in Old Cairo |
9. Most Egyptian Jews Today Are Sephardim
In the
wake of the Catholic persecution of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, which
culminated with the Spanish expulsion of 1492 and the Portuguese
expulsion of 1496, Spanish Jews (Sephardim) streamed into the relative
tolerance of Muslim Arabia and North Africa, including Egypt.
Read: 19 Facts About Sephardic Jewry
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A
rhymed prose in which a certain Solomon ben Judah tells how his father
immigrated from Spain to Egypt, to Yemen and then back to Egypt. |
10. The Arizal Grew Up There
Rabbi
Yitzchak Luria (1534-1572), known as the Arizal, was among the most
celebrated Kabbalists. His father, Shlomo Luria, passed away when his
son was eight years old, and the young boy was raised by his Sephardic
maternal uncle, Rabbi Mordechai Francis of Alexandria. In Egypt, he
studied under Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi, the author of the Shita
Mikubetzet, and Spanish-born Rabbi David ibn Zimra, known as the RaDBaZ.
Yet much of his learning was done alone, in solitude, on the banks of
the Nile River.
Read: 14 Facts About the Arizal
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A letter writen to the Arizal while he lived in Egypt. |
11. European Jews Came at the Turn of the 20th Century
With
Europe becoming increasingly hostile to Jews, and the Suez Canal opening
up many new business opportunities, European Jews, including
Ashkenazim, joined the ranks of Egyptian Jews. The Ashkenazi community
temporarily swelled during World War I, when the Ottomans expelled many
Jews without Turkish citizenship from the Holy Land.
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Children and adults in the Jewish quarter of Alexandria in 1891. |
12. Almost All Left in the Late 40s and 50s
As
Zionist activity accelerated in Mandatory Palestine, things became
increasingly difficult and dangerous for Jews in Egypt. Discriminatory
laws were enacted, homes and synagogues were attacked, and life was
unbearable. A significant portion of the community fled shortly after
the Israeli War of Independence, in which Egypt fought against the
Jewish forces. By the end of the 1950s, most Egyptian Jews had been
expelled, and the once-great Jewish community of Egypt was a shadow of
its former self. Today, there are less than a dozen officially
recognized Jews living in Egypt. The synagogues have crumbled or become
museums, the Jewish schools are devoid of Jewish children, and the
2,500-year-old Jewish community in Egypt has all but disappeared.
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Rabbi Haim Moussa Douek (1905-1974), who served as the last chief rabbi of Egypt until he left for France and New York. |
13. There Are Egyptian Jews All Over the World
A
significant portion of Egypt’s Jews immigrated to Israel, and many
others scattered to Europe, North America, and South America, enriching
Jewish communities with their unique traditions and culture.
14. They Observe ‘El Tawhid’ on the First of Nissan
On the
first day of Nissan, two weeks before Passover when we celebrate the
Exodus, Jews of Egyptian descent gather for Seder El Tawhid
(“Unification”). This nighttime gathering includes reading from Torah
and Psalms, as well as the recitation of El Tawhid, a Literary Arabic text that tells of the greatness of G-d and His kindness to His people.
Read: 12 Facts About Nissan
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