Egyptian Jews constitute perhaps the oldest
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish community outside
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
in the world. While no exact census exists, the Jewish population of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
was estimated at fewer than a hundred in 2004,
down from between 75,000 and 80,000 in 1922. The historic core of the indigenous community consisted mainly of Arabic-speaking Rabbanites and Karaites. After their expulsion from Spain, more Sephardi and Karaite Jews began to emigrate to Egypt, and their numbers increased with the growth of trading prospects after the opening of the
Suez CanalThe Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened on November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa...
, to constitute the commercial and cultural elite of the modern community. The
AshkenaziAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland valley and northern France...
community, mainly confined to Cairo's Darb al-Barabira quarter, began to arrive in the aftermath of the waves of
pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
s that hit Europe in the latter part of the 19th century. In the early 20th century the Jewish community, fleeing persecution in Europe, found safe haven in Egypt, but conditions worsened for Egyptian Jewry by the 1940s, and the decline accelerated after
Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. He led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which removed King Farouk I and heralded a new period of industrialization in Egypt, together with a profound advancement of Arab nationalism, including a short-lived...
's
coupA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
in 1952 , the
Lavon AffairThe Lavon Affair refers to the scandal over a failed Israeli covert operation in Egypt known as Operation Susannah, in which Israeli military intelligence planted bombs in Egyptian, American and British-owned targets in Egypt in the summer of 1954 in the hopes that "the Muslim Brotherhood, the...
and
Israel's participation in the Suez WarThe Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
in 1956.
Ancient
In the
ElephantineElephantine is an island in the River Nile, located just downstream of the First Cataract at at the southern border of Ancient Egypt. This region is referred to as Upper Egypt because the land is higher than that near the Mediterranean coast. It may have received its name because it was a...
papyri, caches of legal documents and letters written in Aramaic amply document the lives of a community of Jewish soldiers stationed in there as part of a frontier garrison in Egypt for the
Achaemenid EmpireThe Achaemenid Empire or Persian Empire was the successor state of the Median Empire, ruling over significant portions of what would become Greater Iran. The Persian and the Median Empire taken together are also known as the Medo-Persian Empire, succeeding the Neo-Assyrian Empire...
. Established at Elephantine in about 650 BC during
ManassehManasseh may refer to:*Manasseh, a son of Joseph, according to the Torah*the Tribe of Manasseh, an Israelite tribe*Manasseh of Judah, a king of the kingdom of Judah....
's reign, these soldiers assisted
PharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
Psammetichus IPsamtik I , was the first of three kings of the Saite, or Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. His prenomen, Wahibre, means "Constant is the Heart of Re." The story in Herodotus of the Dodecarchy and the rise of Psamtik is fanciful...
in his
NubiaNubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt...
n campaign. Their religious system shows strong traces of Babylonian
polytheismPolytheism is the belief in and worship of multiple deities, called gods and goddesses. These are usually assembled into a pantheon, along with their own mythologies and rituals...
, something which suggests to certain scholars that the community was of mixed Judaeo-
SamaritanThe Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, a parallel but separate religion to Judaism or any of its historical forms...
origins, and they maintained their own temple, functioning alongside that of the local deity
ChnumIn Egyptian mythology, Khnum was one of the earliest Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile River...
. The documents cover the period 495 to 399 BC.
Ptolemaic and Roman (400 BC to 641 AD)
Further waves of Jewish immigrants settled in Egypt during the
PtolemaicThe Ptolemaic dynasty was a Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period...
era, especially around
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
. Thus, their history in this period centers almost completely on Alexandria, though daughter communities rose up in places like the present Kafr ed-Dawar, and Jews served in the administration as custodians of the river. As early as the third century B.C. one can speak of a widespread
diasporaA diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
of Jews in many Egyptian towns and cities. In
JosephusJosephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70...
's history, it is claimed that, after the first
PtolemyPtolemy I Soter I was a Macedonian Greek general under Alexander the Great who became ruler of Egypt and founder of both the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Dynasty...
took
JudeaJudea or Judæa is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank Judea or Judæa (Hebrew: יהודה,
Standard Yəhuda
Tiberian , "praised, celebrated"; Greek: Ιουδαία, Ioudaía; ) is the...
, he led some 120,000 Jewish captives to Egypt from the areas of Judea,
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
,
SamariaSamaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
, and
Mount GerizimMount Gerizim is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the West Bank city of Nablus , and forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated,...
. With them, many other Jews, attracted by the fertile soil and Ptolemy's liberality, emigrated there of their own accord. An inscription recording a Jewish dedication of a synagogue to Ptolemy and
BereniceBerenice or Berenike is the Ancient Macedonian form for Attic Greek Φερενίκη , meaning "bearer of victory", from φέρω "to bear" + νίκη "victory". Berenika priestess of Demetra in Lete ca. 350 BC is the oldest epigraphical evidence...
was discovered in the 19th century near Alexandria
Josephus also claims that, soon after, these 120,000 captives were freed of their bondage by Philadelphus .
The history of the Alexandrian Jews dates from the foundation of the city by
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
, 332 B.C., at which they were present. They were numerous from the very outset, forming a notable portion of the city's population under Alexander's successors. The Ptolemies assigned them a separate section, two of the five districts, of the city, to enable them to keep their laws pure of indigenous cultic influences. The Alexandrian Jews enjoyed a greater degree of political independence than elsewhere. While the Jews elsewhere throughout the later
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
formed private societies for religious purposes, or else became a corporation of foreigners like the Egyptian and
PhoeniciaPhoenicia what is now modern day Lebanon, was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and Palestine...
n merchants in the large commercial centers, those of Alexandria constituted an independent political community, side by side with that of the indigenous population.
For the Roman period there is evidence that at Oxyrynchus (modern
Behneseh), on the east side of the Nile, there was a Jewish community of some importance. It even had a Jews' street. Many of the Jews there must have become Christians, though they retained their Biblical names (e.g., "David" and "Elisabeth," occurring in a litigation concerning an inheritance). There is even found a certain Jacob, son of Achilles (c. 300 AD), as beadle of an Egyptian temple.
The Jewish community of Alexandria was virtually wiped out by
TrajanMarcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from A. D. 98 until his death in A. D. 117...
's army during a revolt in 115-117 CE., and Josephus puts the figure for those slaughtered in the vast
pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
at 50,000.
Arab rule (641 to 1250)
The Arab invasion of Egypt found support not only from Copts, and other Christians, but from Jews as well, all disgruntled by the corrupt administration of the
PatriarchOriginally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy...
Cyrus of Alexander, notorious for his
MonotheleticMonothelitism is a particular teaching about how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus, known as a Christological doctrine, that formally emerged in Armenia and Syria in 629 AD. Specifically, Monothelitism teaches that Jesus Christ had two natures but only one will...
proselytizing. In addition to the Jews settled there from early times, some must have come from the
Arabian peninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia...
. The letter sent by
MuhammadMuhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh , is the founder of the religion of Islam [ إِسْلامْ ] and is regarded by Muslims as a messenger and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets as taught by the...
to the Jewish
Banu Janba in
630-Byzantine Empire:* Croats and Serbs settle in the Balkans, having been invited by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius.* The Byzantine-Arab Wars begin.-Asia:* January 1—Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with the army that will capture it bloodlessly....
is said by Al-Baladhuri to have been seen in Egypt. A copy, written in Hebrew characters, has been found in the Cairo genizah.
The Jews had no reason to feel kindly toward the former masters of Egypt. In 629 the emperor
Heraclius IFlavius Heraclius was a Byzantine Emperor of Armenian origin, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for over thirty years, from October 5, 610 to February 11, 641...
. had driven the Jews from Jerusalem this was followed by a massacre of Jews throughout the empire—in Egypt, aided by the Copts, who had old scores to settle with the Jews, dating from the Persian conquest of Amida at the time of Emperor
Anastasius IFlavius Anastasius or Anastasius I was Byzantine Emperor from 11 April 491 until his death. He was born at Dyrrhachium no later than 430/431, the son of Pompeius, a nobleman of Dyrrachium, and his anonymous wife...
(502) and of Alexandria by the Persian general
ShahinShahin was a senior Sassanid general during the reign of Khosrau II...
(617), when the Jews assisted the conquerors in fighting against the Christians. The
Treaty of Alexandria (Nov. 8, 641), which sealed the Arab conquest of Egypt, expressly stipulates that the Jews are to be allowed to remain in that city; and at the time of the capture of that city, Amr, in his letter to the caliph, relates that he found there 40,000 Jews.
[needs citation]
Of the fortunes of the Jews in Egypt under the Ommiad and Abbassid
caliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
s (641-868), little is known. Under the
TulunidsThe Tulunids were the first independent dynasty in Islamic Egypt , when they broke away from the central authority of the Abbasid dynasty that ruled the Islamic Caliphate during that time...
(863-905) the Karaite community enjoyed robust growth.
Rule of the Fatimite Caliphs (969 to 1169)
The Fatimite rule was in general a favorable one for the Jews, except the latter portion of Al-Ḥakim's reign. The foundation of Talmudic schools in Egypt is usually placed at this period. One of the Jews who rose to high position in that society was Ya‘qub Ibn Killis
The caliph
Al-ḤakimAbu ‘Ali Mansur Tāriqu l-Ḥākim, called Al-Hakim bi Amr al-Lāh , was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam ....
(996-1020) vigorously applied the Pact of Omar, and compelled the Jews to wear bells and to carry in public the wooden image of a calf. A street in the city, Al-Jaudariyyah, was inhabited by Jews. Al-Ḥakim, hearing that they were accustomed to mock him in verses, had the whole quarter burned down.
By the beginning of the twelfth century a Jew, Abu al-Munajja ibn Sha'yah, was at the head of the Department of Agriculture. He is especially known as the constructor of a Nile sluice (1112), which was called after him "Baḥr Abi al-Munajja". He fell into disfavor because of the heavy expenses connected with the work, and was incarcerated in Alexandria, but was soon able to free himself. A document concerning a transaction of his with a banker has been preserved. Under the
vizierA vizier is a high-ranking political advisor or minister, often to a Persian Empire's monarchs such as Shah and Shahenshah. It sometimes refers to ministers and advisors of the Muslim's caliph, or sultan...
Al-Malik al-Afḍalal-Malik al-Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali Shahanshah was a vizier of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt.-Ascent to power :...
(1137) there was a Jewish master of finances, whose name, however, is unknown. His enemies succeeded in procuring his downfall, and he lost all his property. He was succeeded by a brother of the Christian patriarch, who tried to drive the Jews out of the kingdom. Four leading Jews worked and conspired against the Christian, with what result is not known. There has been preserved a letter from this ex-minister to the Jews of Constantinople, begging for aid in a remarkably intricate poetical style (
J. Q. R. ix. 29, x. 430;
Z. D. M. G. li. 444). One of the physicians of the caliph Al-Ḥafiẓ (1131-49) was a Jew, Abu Manṣur (Wüstenfeld, p. 306). Abu al-Faḍa'il ibn al-Nakid (died 1189) was a celebrated oculist.
In this century a little more light is thrown upon the communities in Egypt through the reports of certain Jewish scholars and travelers who visited the country. Judah ha-Levi was in Alexandria in 1141, and dedicated some beautiful verses to his fellow resident and friend Aaron Ben-Zion ibn Alamani and his five sons. At
DamiettaDamietta, Damiata, or Domyat is a port and the capital of the governorate of Domyat, Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.- History :...
Ha-Levi met his friend, the Spaniard Abu Sa'id ibn Ḥalfon ha-Levi. About 1160
Benjamin of TudelaBenjamin of Tudela was a medieval Navarrese adventurer, sometimes called "Rabbi", who traveled through Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...
was in Egypt; he gives a general account of the Jewish communities which he found there. At Cairo there were 2,000 Jews; at Alexandria 3,000, whose head was the French-born R. Phineas b. Meshullam; in the Fayum there were 20 families; at Damietta 200; at
BilbeisBilbeis is an ancient fortress city on the eastern edge of the southern Nile delta in Egypt.The city played a role in the machinations for control of the Fatimid vizierate: first in 1164, when Shirkuh was besieged in the city by the combined forces of Shiwar and Amalric I of Jerusalem for three...
, east of the Nile, 300 persons; and at Damira 700.
From Saladin and Maimonides (1169 to 1250)
The rigid orthodoxy of
SaladinṢalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was a Kurdish Muslim who became the Sultan of Egypt and Syria. He led Islamic opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
(1169-93) does not seem to have affected the Jews in his kingdom. A Karaite doctor, Abu al-Bayyan al-Mudawwar (d. 1184), who had been physician to the last Fatimite, treated Saladin also . Abu al-Ma'ali, brother-in-law of Maimonides, was likewise in his service . In 1166
MaimonidesMoses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or the acronym the Rambam , was born in Cordoba, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204....
went to Egypt and settled in Fostat, where he gained much renown as a physician, practising in the family of Saladin and in that of his vizier al-Qadi al-Fadil|Ḳaḍi al-Faḍil al-Baisami, and Saladin's successors. The title
Ra'is al-Umma or
al-Millah (Head of the Nation, or of the Faith), was bestowed upon him. In Fostat, he wrote his
Mishneh TorahThe Mishneh Torah , subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Chazaka , is a code of Jewish religious law by one of the important Jewish authority Maimonides...
(1180) and the
Moreh Nebukim, both of which evoked opposition from Jewish scholars. From this place he sent many letters and
responsaResponsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Catholic Church:...
; and in 1173 he forwarded a request to the North-African communities for help to secure the release of a number of captives. The original of the last document has been preserved . He caused the Karaites to be removed from the court .
Mamelukes (1250 to 1517)
Under the
BaḥriThe Bahri dynasty or Bahriyya Mamluks was a Mamluk dynasty of mostly Kipchak Turkic origin that ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1382 when they were succeeded by the Burji dynasty, another group of Mamluks...
Mamelukes (1250-1390) the Jews led a comparatively quiet existence; though they had at times to contribute heavily toward the maintenance of the vast military equipment, and were harassed by the cadis and ulemas of these strict Moslems.
Al-MaqriziTaqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Maqrizi ; Arabic: , was an Egyptian historian more commonly known as al-Maqrizi or Makrizi...
relates that the first great Mameluke, Sultan
BaibarsBaibars or Baybars , nicknamed Abu al-Futuh
, was an important Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria...
(Al-Malik al-Thahir, 1260-77), doubled the tribute paid by the "ahl al-dhimmah." At one time he had resolved to burn all the Jews, a ditch having been dug for that purpose; but at the last moment he repented, and instead exacted a heavy tribute, during the collection of which many perished.
An account is given in Sambari (135, 22) of the strictness with which the provisions of the Pact of Omar were carried out. The sultan had just returned from a victorious campaign against the
MongolsThe name Mongol specifies one or several ethnic groups, now mainly located in Mongolia, China, and Russia.-Definition:...
in Syria (1305). A fanatical convert from Judaism, Sa'id ibn Ḥasan of Alexandria, was incensed at the arrogance of the non-Moslem population, particularly at the open manner in which services were conducted in churches and synagogues. He tried to form a synod of ten rabbis, ten priests, and the ulemas. Failing in this, he endeavored to have the churches and synagogues closed. Some of the churches were demolished by Alexandrian mobs; but most of the synagogues were allowed to stand, as it was shown that they had existed at the time of Omar, and were by the pact exempted from interference. Sambari (137, 20) says that a new pact was made at the instance of letters from a Moorish king of Barcelona (1309), and the synagogues were reopened; but this probably refers only to the reissuing of the Pact of Omar. There are extant several notable fet was (responsa) of Moslem doctors touching this subject; e.g., those of Aḥmad ibn 'Abd al-Ḥaḳḳ, who speaks especially of the synagogues at Cairo, which on the outside appeared like ordinary dwelling-houses—a fact which had occasioned other legal writers to permit their presence. According to Taki al-Din ibn Taimiyyah (b. 1263), the synagogues and churches in Cairo had once before been closed. This fanatical Moslem fills his fet was with invectives against the Jews, holding that all their religious edifices ought to be destroyed, since they had been constructed during a period when Cairo was in the hands of heterodox Moslems,
Ismaili' is a branch of the Islamic faith. It is the second largest part of the Shī‘ah community, after the mainstream Twelvers...
ans, Karmatians, and Nusairis (R. E. J. xxx. 1, xxxi. 212; Z. D. M. G. liii. 51). The synagogues were, however, allowed to stand (Weil, l.c. iv. 270). Under the same sultan (1324) the Jews were accused of incendiarism at
FostatFustat , was the first capital of Egypt under Arab rule. It was built by the Arab general 'Amr ibn al-'As immediately after the Arab conquest of Egypt in AD 641, and featured the Mosque of Amr, the first mosque ever built in Egypt...
and Cairo; they had to exculpate themselves by a payment of 50,000 gold pieces.
Under the
BurjiThe Burji dynasty المماليك البرجية ruled Egypt from 1382 until 1517. It proved especially turbulent, with short-lived sultans. Political power-plays often became important in designating a new sultan. During this time Mamluks fought Timur Lenk and conquered Cyprus. Constant bickering may have...
Mamelukes the
FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
again attacked Alexandria (1416), and the laws against the Jews were once more strictly enforced by Sheik al-Mu'ayyid (1412-21); by Ashraf Bars Bey (1422-38), because of a plague which decimated the population in 1438; by Al-Ẓahir Jaḳmaḳ (1438-53); and by Ḳa'iṭ-Bey (1468-95). The lastnamed is referred to by Obadiah of Bertinoro (O. p. 53). The Jews of Cairo were compelled to pay 75,000 gold pieces.
Turkish rule (1517 to 1922)
On January 22, 1517, the
TurkishThe Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources , the leader of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in...
sultan,
Selim ISelim I , also known as "the Excellent," "the Brave" or the best translation "the Stern", Yavuz in Turkish, the long name is Yavuz Sultan Selim; October 10 1465/1466/1470 September 22, 1520) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520...
, defeated Tuman Bey, the last of the Mamelukes. He made radical changes in the affairs of the Jews, abolishing the office of nagid, making each community independent, and placing David ibn Abi Zimra, at the head of that of Cairo. He also appointed Abraham de Castro to be master of the mint. It was during the reign of Salim's successor,
Suleiman IISuleiman II was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1687 to 1691...
, that Aḥmad Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt, revenged himself upon the Jews because De Castro had revealed (1524) to the sultan his designs for independence (see Aḥmad Pasha; Abraham de Castro). The "Cairo Purim," in commemoration of their escape, is still celebrated on Adar 28.
Toward the end of the sixteenth century Talmudic studies in Egypt were greatly fostered by Bezaleel Ashkenazi, author of the "Shiṭṭah Meḳubbeẓet." Among his pupils were
Isaac LuriaIsaac Luria , also called Yitzhak Ben Shlomo Ashkenazi and known as "The Ari", "Ari-Hakadosh", or "Arizal," meaning "The Lion," was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine...
, who as a young man had gone to Egypt to visit a rich uncle, the tax-farmer Mordecai Francis (Azulai, "Shem ha-Gedolim," No. 332); and Abraham Monson (1594). Ishmael Kohen Tanuji finished his "Sefer ha-Zikkaron" in Egypt in 1543. Joseph ben Moses di Trani was in Egypt for a time (Frumkin, l.c. p. 69), as well as Ḥayyim Vital Aaron ibn Ḥayyim, the Biblical and Talmudical commentator (1609; Frumkin, l.c. pp. 71, 72). Of Isaac Luria's pupils, a Joseph Ṭabul is mentioned, whose son Jacob, a prominent man, was put to death by the authorities.
According to Manasseh b. Israel (1656), "The viceroy of Egypt has always at his side a Jew with the title 'zaraf bashi,' or 'treasurer,' who gathers the taxes of the land. At present Abraham Alkula holds the position." He was succeeded by Raphael Joseph Tshelebi, the rich friend and protector of Shabbatai Zevi. Shabbetai was twice in Cairo, the second time in 1660. It was there that he married the ill-famed Sarah, who had been brought from Leghorn. The Shabbethaian movement naturally created a great stir in Egypt. It was in Cairo that Miguel (Abraham) Cardoso, the Shabbethaian prophet and physician, settled (1703), becoming physician to the pasha Kara Mohammed. In 1641 Samuel b. David, the Karaite, visited Egypt. The account of his journey (G. i. 1) supplies special information in regard to his fellow sectaries. He describes three synagogues of the Rabbinites at Alexandria, and two at Rashid (G. i. 4). A second Karaite, Moses b. Elijah ha-Levi, has left a similar account of the year 1654; but it contains only a few points of special interest to the Karaites (ib).
Sambari mentions a severe trial which came upon the Jews, due to a certain "ḳadi al-'asakir" (="generalissimo," not a proper name) sent from Constantinople to Egypt, who robbed and oppressed them, and whose death was in a certain measure occasioned by the graveyard invocation of one Moses of Damwah. This may have occurred in the seventeenth century (S. 120, 21).
David ConforteDavid Conforte was a Hebrew literary historian born in Salonica, author of the literary chronicle known by the title Ḳore ha-Dorot.-Biography:...
was dayyan in Egypt in 1671.
Blood libelsBlood Libels is the third full-length album by french black metal band Antaeus.-Track listing:# Rot - 5:36# Cyklik Torture - 3:40# Control and Abuse - 5:34# Colliding in Ashes - 5:10# Words as Weapons - 6:27# Here is Punishment - 3:29...
occurred at Alexandria in 1844, in 1881, and in Jan., 1902. In consequence of the
Damascus AffairThe Damascus affair was an 1840 incident in which the accusation of ritual murder was brought against members of the Jewish community of Damascus. This event is part of a long history of false blood libel charges against Jews.-Background:...
,
Moses MontefioreSir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London.- Biography:...
, Crémieux, and
Salomon MunkSalomon Munk was a German-born Jewish-French Orientalist.Munk was born in Gross Glogau in the Kingdom of Prussia. He received his first instruction in Hebrew from his father, an official of the Jewish community; and on the latter's death he joined the Talmud class of R. Jacob Joseph Oettinger...
visited Egypt in 1840; and the last two did much to raise the intellectual status of their Egyptian brethren by the founding, in connection with Rabbi Moses Joseph Algazi, of schools in Cairo. At the turn of the century, a Jewish observer noted with 'true satisfaction that a great spirit of tolerance sustains the majority of our fellow Jews in Egypt, and it would be difficult to find a more liberal population or one more respectful of all religious beliefs.’
According to the official census published in 1898 (i., xviii.), there were in Egypt 25,200 Jews in a total population of 9,734,405.
Modern times (since 1922)
During British rule, and under King Fuad, Egypt was friendly towards its Jewish population, though Egyptian nationality was usually denied to more recent Jewish immigrants and all other foreign immigrants from Europe and other parts of the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. Jews played important roles in the economy, and their population climbed to nearly 80,000 as Jewish refugees settled there in response to increasing persecution in Europe. A sharp distinction had long existed between the respective Karaite and Rabbanite communities, among whom traditionally intermarriage was forbidden. They dwelt in Cairo in two contiguous areas, the former in the
harat al-yahud al-qara’in , and the latter in the adjacent
harat al-yahud quarter. Notwithstanding the division, they often worked together and the younger educated generation pressed for improving relations between the two.
Individual Jews played an important role in Egyptian
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
. René Qattawi, leader of the Cairo Sephardi community, endorsed the creation in 1935 of the Association of Egyptian Jewish Youth, with its slogan: 'Egypt is our homeland, Arabic is our language.' Qattawi strongly opposed political
ZionismZionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine. The area was the Jewish Biblical homeland, called the Land of Israel...
and wrote a note on 'The Jewish Question' to the
World Jewish CongressThe World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations...
in 1943 in which he argued that Palestine would be unable to absorb Europe's Jewish refugees. Nevertheless, various wings of the Zionist movement had representatives in Egypt. Karaite Jewish scholar Murad Beh Farag (1866-1956) was both an Egyptian nationalist and a passionate Zionist. His poem, 'My Homeland Egypt, Place of my Birth', expresses loyalty to Egypt, while his book,
al-Qudsiyyat (Jerusalemica, 1923), defends the right of the Jews to a State .
al-Qudsiyyat is perhaps the most eloquent defense of Zionism in the Arabic language. Farag was also one of the coauthors of Egypt's first Constitution in 1923.
Another famous Egyptian Jew of this period was
Yaqub SanuYaqub Sanu , also known as James Sanua, was an Egyptian Jew born to an Egyptian mother and an Italian father...
, who became a patriotic Egyptian nationalist advocating the removal of the British. He edited the nationalist publication Abu Naddara 'Azra from exile. This was one of the first magazines written in
Egyptian ArabicEgyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo...
, and mostly consisted of
satireSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
, poking fun at the British as well as the Monarchy which was a puppet of the British. Another was
Henri CurielHenri Curiel was a political activist, founder of a communist organization in Egypt. He was involved in the support of several national liberation causes until his assassination in Paris on May 4, 1978...
, who founded 'The Egyptian Movement for National Liberation' in 1943, an organization that was to form the core of the Egyptian Communist party. Curiel was to play an important role in establishing early informal contacts between the PLO and Israel.
In 1937, the government annulled the Capitulations that gave foreign nationals a virtual status of exterritoriality the minorities groups were mainly from Syrian, Greece, Italy, Armenia (this also affected some Jews who were nationals of other countries). The immunities from taxation to foreign nationals
mutamassir (minority groups) trading within Egypt had given them highly favourably trading advantages.
The impact of the well-publicized Arab-Zionist clash in Palestine from 1936 to 1939 also began to affect the Jewish relations with Egyptian society, despite the fact that the number of Zionists in their ranks was small. The rise of local militant nationalistic societies like
Young Egypt and the
Society of Muslim Brothers, who were sympathetic to the various models evinced by the Axis Powers in Europe, and organized themselves along similar lines, were also increasingly antagonistic to Jews.
Egyptian Banks was a common destination for European Jews transferring money from central Europe and a for those Jews escaping the Fascist regimes.
By the 1940s, the situation worsened. Sporadic pogroms took place from 1942 onwards. As the Partition of Palestine and the founding of Israel drew closer, hostility strengthened, fed also by press attacks on all foreigners accompanying the rising nationalism of the age. In 1947, the Company Laws set quotas for employing Egyptian nationals in incorporated firms, requiring that 75% of salaried employees, and 90% of all workers be Egyptian. This constrained Jewish and foreign owned entrepreneurs to reduce recruitment for employment positions from their own ranks. The law also required that just over half of the paid-up capital of joint stock companies be Egyptian.
1948
After the foundation of Israel in 1948, difficulties multiplied for Egyptian Jews. That year, bombings of Jewish areas killed 70 Jews and wounded nearly 200, while riots claimed many more lives.. During the Arab-Israeli war, the famous Cicurel department store near Cairo's Opera Square was firebombed, probably by the
Muslim BrotherhoodThe Muslim Brothers is a Sunni transnational movement and the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states, particularly Egypt...
. The government helped with funds to rebuild it, but it was again burnt down in 1952, and eventually passed into Egyptian control.
The
Lavon AffairThe Lavon Affair refers to the scandal over a failed Israeli covert operation in Egypt known as Operation Susannah, in which Israeli military intelligence planted bombs in Egyptian, American and British-owned targets in Egypt in the summer of 1954 in the hopes that "the Muslim Brotherhood, the...
of 1954, in which an Israeli sabotage operation designed to discredit
Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. He led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which removed King Farouk I and heralded a new period of industrialization in Egypt, together with a profound advancement of Arab nationalism, including a short-lived...
and perhaps also to derail secret negotiations with Egypt proposed by
Moshe SharettMoshe Sharett was the second Prime Minister of Israel , serving for a little under two years between David Ben-Gurion's two terms.-Early life:...
, blew up Western targets, led to deeper distrust of Jews, from whose community key agents in the operation had been recruited. In his summing up statement Fu’ad al-Digwi, the prosecutor at their trial, repeated the official government stance:
'The Jews of Egypt are living among us and are sons of Egypt. Egypt makes no difference between its sons whether Moslems, Christians, or Jews. These defendants happen to be Jews who reside in Egypt, but we are trying them because they committed crimes against Egypt, although they are Egypt's sons.'
In the immediate aftermath of trilateral invasion during the
Suez CrisisThe Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
of 1956, on November 23 by Britain France and Israel, a proclamation was issued stating that 'all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state', and it promised that they would be soon expelled. Some 25,000 Jews, almost half of the Jewish community left, mainly for Europe, the United States and South America, but some also emigrated to Israel, after being forced to sign declarations that they were leaving voluntarily, and agreed with the confiscation of their assets. Some 1,000 more Jews were imprisoned. Similar measures were enacted against British and French nationals in retaliation for the invasion. In Joel Beinin's summary: "Between 1919 and 1956, the entire Egyptian Jewish community, like the Cicurel firm, was transformed from a national asset into a
fifth columnA fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group, such as a nation, from within, to the aid of an external enemy.- Origin :...
."
After the 1967 war, more confiscations took place. According to Rami Mangoubi [www.zionism-israel.com/zionism_egypt_Jews.htm], a number of Egyptian Jewish men were taken to the detention centres of Abou Za'abal and Tura, where they were incarcerated and tortured for more than three years. The eventual result was the almost complete disappearance of the Jewish community in Egypt; less than a hundred or so remain today. Most Egyptian Jews fled to Israel (35,000), Brazil (15,000), France (10,000), the US (9,000) and Argentina (9,000). Today,
anti-ZionismAnti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism, and a term which has been used to describe several very different religious and political points of view, both historically and in current debates. All these points of view have in common some form of opposition to Zionism, but their diversity of motivation...
is common in the media. The last Jewish wedding in Egypt took place in 1984.
Works by Egyptian Jews on their communities
- Ronit Matalon, Zeh ‘im ha-panim eleynu ('The one facing us') (novel of life in an Egyptian Jewish family)
- Yahudiya Misriya (pseudonym of Giselle Littman, Bat Ye'or
Bat Ye'or ; a pseudonym of Gisèle Littman, née Orebi, an Egyptian-born British scholar, who writes about the history of non-Muslims in the Middle East, and in particular the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis living under Islamic governments.She is the author of eight books, including Eurabia:...
), Les juifs en Egypte: Aperçu sur 3000 ans d'histoire, Geneva: Editions de l'Avenir, 1971 (In the Hebrew trans.Yehudei mitzrayim, 1974, the authoress is called Bat-Ye’or).
- Lucette Lagnado
Lucette Lagnado is an American journalist and memoirist. She is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.Lagnado is a graduate of Vassar College. She is married to journalist Douglas Feiden, and lives in New York City and Sag Harbor on the East End of Long Island...
, "The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit" (an autobiography of a Jewish family during their years in Egypt and after they emigrated to the United States)
- Mangoubi, Rami, "My Longest 10 Minutes", The Jerusalem Post Magazine, May 31, 2007. A Cairo Jewish boyhood during and after the Six Day War. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1180527972475&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Modern history
- 1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
- History of the Jews under Muslim rule
- Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty
The 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, United States, on March 26, 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords...
- Jewish exodus from Arab lands
The Jewish exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century expulsion or mass departure of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Islamic countries...
- Lavon Affair
The Lavon Affair refers to the scandal over a failed Israeli covert operation in Egypt known as Operation Susannah, in which Israeli military intelligence planted bombs in Egyptian, American and British-owned targets in Egypt in the summer of 1954 in the hopes that "the Muslim Brotherhood, the...
- Six-Day War
The Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 was a war between the Israel army and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the...
- Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
- War of Attrition
The War of Attrition was a limited war fought between Israel and Egypt from 1967 to 1970. It was initiated by Egypt as a way to force Israel to negotiate on favourable terms the return of the Sinai Peninsula, which had been captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...
- Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of...
Ancient history
- Elephantine papyri
The Elephantine Papyri are a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts dating from the fifth century BCE. They come from a Jewish community at Elephantine, then called Yeb, the island in the Nile at the border of Nubia, which was probably founded as a military installation in about 650 BCE during...
- Jewish temple at Elephantine
- Land of Onias
The Land of Onias is the name given in Hellenistic Egyptian, Jewish, and Roman sources to an area in Ancient Egypt's Nile delta where a large number of Jews settled. The Land of Onias, which included the city of Leontopolis, was located in the nome of Heliopolis...
- Philo
Philo , known also as Philo of Alexandria , Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia and Philo the Jew, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria....
Institutions
- Ben Ezra Synagogue
The Ben Ezra Synagogue , sometimes referred to as the El-Geniza Synagogue , is situated in Coptic Cairo, Egypt. According to local tradition, it is located on the site of where baby Moses was found...
(Cairo)
- Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue (Alexandria)
Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue is a synagogue located at Nabi Daniel Street, Downtown of Alexandria Egypt....
- Chaar Hachamaim Synagogue (Cairo)
The Sha'ar Hashamayim Synagogue is located in Cairo, Egypt. The synagogue was also known as Temple Ismailia and the Adly Street Synagogue....
- Cairo Geniza
The Cairo Geniza is an accumulation of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments that were found in the genizah or store room of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, presently Old Cairo, Egypt, the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and a number of old documents that were bought in Cairo in the...
- List of synagogues in Egypt
External links