Concordia University March 27, 2007 By Irene Buenavida

Egypt was home to Jewish notables, such as Jacob and Joseph, Moses, Philo of Alexandria , the prophet Jeremiah , Moise Ben Maimon (Maimonides) , the gaons Saadiya and others .

The historical link between Jews and Egypt is an ancient one.

After the Exodus from Egypt Jews are known to have returned to Egypt in 586 BCE, and then maintained uninterrupted presence until 50 years ago.

It was in 1896, in the Ben Ezra synagogue, in old cairo, that Salomon Schecter, a
scholar, rediscovered the Genizah, which is a storage place for sacred document. It included a 2500 year old Torah and 200.000 ancient documents. This confirmed the presence of Jews in Egypt. 140.000 documents were send to Cambridge University in great Britain. The remaining were sent to the Jewish Theological seminary in NYC.

But just let me take a minute to talk about the famous Ben Ezra synagogue which dates back to the 9th century. It was from a stream in the back of the synagogue that baby Moses was pulled to safety by an Egyptian princess.

Egyptian Jews traditionally claim Moses personally touched the parchment of its prayers books, saying his last prayers before he left Egypt.

In 1987, the Ben Ezra synagogue was restored. This project was undertaken by Phyllis Lambert (Brofman) in support of the cultural and spiritual heritage of humanity.

Jews from Egypt are cosmopolitan and multilingual. They are mostly Sephardic, a minority consists of Ashkenazi Jews, and Karaite Jews .

1- The Sephardim began arriving in the 12th century; their ranks were from areas of the ottoman Empire, mainly Aleppo, Bagdad, Izmir, Livorno, Salonica and Tunis.

2- Maimonides came to Egypt in 1165.

3- The original presence of Ashkenazim in Egypt dates back, however, to the 16th century and they came from Russia, Romania, and Germany.

4- Relatively less known are the karaite Jews, who numbered about 5000 in Egypt in 1947 and lived primarily in Cairo.

The Karaite is a Jewish sect, which base their beliefs and practices on the written texts of the five books of Moses.



Most Jews from Egypt spoke French, Greek, Italian, Spanish and Arabic. They maintained 37 synagogues in Cairo alone, the oldest Jewish cemetery (Bassatine), six b’nai brith lodges, 3 Jewish theaters, 1 Yidish, several Jewish orchestras, a dozen Jewish news papers, a Jewish hospital, and a Jewish community school.

They enjoyed freedom, and were encouraged to send their children to university and, many of them became physicians, lawyers, engineers and chartered accountants.

With the creation of the state of Israel and the war of 1948, the clouds grew darker for the Jews .Then a weak government favorable to jews was elected yet they knew this would be short lived.
They started to detach themselves mentally from Egypt.

Gamal abdel Nasser rose to power in 1952 on a hate platform towards Jews.

Two factors influenced the mood of the country.

Nationalist/socialists leaders and muslim brotherhood were using Zionism to criminalize Jews .The heavy propaganda was widespread in mosques, on streets, on radio .

The muslim brotherhood bombed the Jewish quarters in Cairo and caused the destruction of synagogues.

Jews in Egypt were being singled out, their properties were seized, and bank accounts confiscated, Jewish workers were dismissed from their positions, Jewish merchants discovered that they could not operate as the government refused to give them licenses. Doctors, lawyers and engineers were excluded from their professional association and therefore could not work .Jewish clerks lost their jobs.

Police were going into Jewish homes late at night, assaulting, molesting. Arrested … All this started slowly at first and increase as time went by.

The message was becoming clear: It would be better for Jews to give up their properties and leave Egypt as soon as possible.

The Egyptian government revoked the Egyptian citizenship for some Jews therefore they became stateless.

In 1967, 500 Jews were interned in Abu Zaabal and Tora prison camp. They received very harsh treatment. Many of them served up to 3 years before being released.

None of them had committed any crime or had been convicted of a crime except that they were JEWS.

IN 1948 Jewish population in Egypt numbered 80,000.00 Now in 2007 6 remain in Cairo and 20 in Alexandria.

Most Jews from Egypt immigrated to countries that welcome them Australia, Brasil, Canada, France, Israel and USA.


In July 2006- The world congress of Jews from Egypt took place in Haifa- Israel, Commemorating 50 years of the second exodus. There were over 300 delegates from 15 countries .

IN February 7th 2007-The association of Jews from Egypt in Tel-Aviv –Israel had- day of testimonies and gathered 300 testimonies, and will be the subject of a book. This book will be distributed in schools, in University and in libraries, in a short period of time.

In Montreal, the Association of Jews from Egypt was created in 2003.The association numbered 500 families .Events such social and cultural are done once a month, and open its doors to the community at large.

Our Goal now is to : PROTECT, PRESERVE AND PERPETUATE OUR HISTORY

This lecture was given at Concordia University on March 27th 2007 BY REENA (IRENE) BUENAVIDA.