THE JEWS OF EGYPT

Egyptian President Mohammed Naguib with Grand Rabbi Haim Nahoum in 1953

HAIM NAHUM Effendi (1873-1960)
Born in Turkey in a small town near Izmir
Studied at the Sorbonne, Paris
Appointed Grand Rabbi of Egypt and the Sudan on 2 March 1925
Granted Egyptian citizenship in 1929
Appointed by royal prescript to the prestigious Academie de langue Arabe on 6 October 1933
Appointed to the Egyptian senate
Died on 13 November 1960

On 19 August 1947, His Eminence Haim Nahum Effendi Grand Rabbi of Egypt & Sudan reminded his Alexandria audience that Jews had lived in Egypt for over 2,000 years and that the oldest known synagogue (Ben Ezra) exists in Old Cairo. Had it not been for the 19th century discovery of the celebrated Genizas in a cache at Ben Ezra, Jews would have missed out on some of the most revealing details of Jewish life this millennium.

Ever since Moses left Egypt, like an ocean tide, Jewish presence in the timeless Nile valley has expanded and contracted. The last enlargement occurred at the turn of this century when Cairo’s Jews numbered in the tens of thousands and its active synagogues peaked at 21. Today, at its close, we are in a period of contraction with Jews numbering in the 100s and only three synagogues open to worshippers: (Due to lack of funds, only Chaar Hashamayim on Adly Street, Ben Ezra in Old Cairo and Meyr Biton in the suburb of Maadi are functioning.)

If Egypt was visited in turn by Romans, Greeks, Arabs and Turks, many of whom made Cairo their permanent home, likewise every new Jewish arrival enriched the city’s fluctuating Hebrew population. Among the capital’s most noted 12th century residents was a Cordoba-born scholar: Moses Maimonides regarded as the most illustrious figure in Judaism in the post-talmudic era and one of the greatest of all time.

Mohammed Ali’s (r. 1805-1848) modern Egypt was especially conducive to foreign arrivals, not as conquerors this time, but as builders, workers, traders, bankers and performers. The non-Rabbinical Karaite Jews who had lived for centuries in the protected commune of Haret al Yehud or Jewish Quarter near Al Azhar, were all of a sudden hosts to waves of new Jewish arrivals. Regarding the newcomers as “neophytes” relations between the old and the new factions were not always friendly.

Besides Jewish arrivals from Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, economic migration accounted for a sizable Sephardic (descended from the Spanish Diaspora) contingent from the trading posts of Salonika, Smyrna (Izmir), Leghorn (Livorno), Aleppo and Baghdad. Towards the end of the 19th century Mediterranean and Levantine Jewish settlers were supplemented by industrious Ashkenazim (Eastern European Jews) some fleeing Russian pogroms, others economic recession. More would follow.

Whether Oriental, Sephardic or Ashkenazi, the Jewish newcomers were welcome in a tolerant and predominantly Muslim Egypt.

As Egypt carried out its “industrial revolution” enhanced by the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal, the cosmopolitan Jews of Cairo and Alexandria found themselves in a privileged situation. They had invariably become the commercial and cultural link between east and west. Dynastic fortunes were made and soon enough the Jewish community was disproportionately influential (to its size) in matters of commerce, trade and finance. We begin to hear of Suareses, Cattauis, Mosseris, Menashes, Picciottos and Rolos who ran banks, owned railways, cornered the cotton trade and created urban districts.

Jewish entrepreneurs were famous for their grand homes, their multi-trade counters, their novel hospices and their practical schools. Their philanthropic efforts were second to none. And while their synagogues and yeshivas catered to the growing community’s requirements, a thriving interwar Cairo boasted several all-Jewish orchestras and Jewish theaters including one in Yiddish. Also worthy of mention are the celebrated Maccabi sport and boy scouts clubs.

As the Jewish community expanded and flourished, so did Egypt’s commerce, banks and industry which is why the munificent state and its high-minded leadership never failed from expressing their gratitude. Just as streets, avenues and squares were named after prominent Jews in Cairo, we find in Alexandria an entire garden district (Smouha) named after its Jewish developer. While Jewish holidays were routinely observed by the Bourse, Jewish notables were, as a matter of course, appointed to Egypt’s constitutional parliaments since 1924. If Egyptian Jews featured as ministers, deputies, senators and diplomats, they were also Egypt’s worthy flag bearers at local and international sporting events including the 1928 World Olympic Games in the Netherlands.

Egypt and Alexandria being the cosmopolitan cultural hub they were it came as no surprise that many Jewish intellects left their mark on the international literary scene whether in the form of newspapers and periodicals (l’Aurore, Illustration Juive, Le Reveil, El Shams, El Tas’ira, La Tribune Juive...) or as noted poets and musicians such as Edmond Jabes and Georges Moustaki. And if the former Jewish owners are no longer in Egypt today, their legendary trademark names still linger on the facades of their famous department stores: Cicurel, Benzion, Hannaux, Chemla, Chalons, Rivoli, Ades, Orosdi-Back, Pontremoli, Tiring, Simon Arzt, Gaon, Gattegno, Golliger...

But the tide eventually turned for Egypt's Jews and foreign minorities --Greeks, Italians, Armenians... During the spread of nationalism, which characterized the '50s they were no longer as welcome. The collision over Palestine and the subsequent creation of the State of Israel brought on the unfortunate 20th century contraction of Egypt's Jewish population. The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the Lavon Affair followed by the 1956 Tripartite Aggression and later socialism, triggered the wholesale departure of Egypt’s Jews. The coup de grace came during the June War of 1967. By then the once thriving community of 80,000 had shrunken to a three-digit figure.

Those who remained behind did their best to carry on as before. Absence of a rabbi and a kosher butcher notwithstanding, holidays were discreetly observed for some time. Today however, there is a noticeable increase in attendance as evidenced during last October’s (1998) Simha Torah’s festivities where the estimated congregation reached 300 including visitors.

Throughout the lean years, both the Alexandria and Cairo Jewish Community Councils (JCC) continued to operate unhindered and uninterruptedly. Community elections were held, boards nominated and charity foundations such as La Goutte De Lait, sustained. But the niggling question remains: for how much longer?

One cannot deny that Cairo’s Jewish community, a living testimony of the city’s metropolitan character and pluralistic values, is altering at an alarming rate in both its numbers and gender gap. It was therefore less to do with breaking ranks with tradition and more to do with the higher incidence of female Jews in Cairo that the JCC General Assembly of August 19, 1996 elected, for the first time in the council’s century old existence, a woman president. I [Mrs. Ester Weinstein, owner of Weinstein Stationery and Printing Press founded by Moise Weinstein in 1918 on Cherif Street] succeed a line-up of distinguished male presidents including Moise de Cattaui Pasha, Senator Joseph Cattaui Pasha and Salvatore Cicurel Bey. Whereas these gentlemen presided over a thriving community, half a century later my painful task was to pick up the broken pieces left by my immediate predecessors: Messrs. Iskaki, Dana and Rousseau.

My forecast regarding the Jewish community in Egypt are optimistic on the long run for despite their numbers, Jews have always been an integral part of Egypt. This is where it all began. They are inseparable from one another. And if we are nowadays going through a period of contraction, it is simply part of a recurrent cycle.

While the present JCC’s activities are manifold they can be summarized into the upkeep of Cairo’s synagogues many of which are closed for lack of funds. The maintenance of the historic Bassatine Cemetery --the second oldest Jewish cemetery in the world. The promotion of two reference libraries. The supervision of Jewish cultural and historic interests in Cairo --in this respect the JCC maintains close ties with the Ministry of Culture’s Antiquities Department.

Thanks to the incumbent board’s assertive community outreach there is an increased attendance of Jewish events and celebrations in Cairo. The JCC’s policy to revive its synagogues accounts for the high attendance of the 1998 High Holidays which were celebrated for the first time in forty years in the beautifully restored Ben Ezra Synagogue where a tent was especially set up in the courtyard to accommodate bus loads of visitors. The Maadi Synagogue (Meyr Biton) where Yom Kippur has been celebrated for the last two decades has received its share of attention and its adjoining garden finally restored.

In an effort to change the fading image of a JCC gone complacent and inactive, the new administration started off by resurrecting its neglected headquarters at No. 13 Khazindar Street, Abassia. The refurbished offices are open to the public twice a week or by appointment. Uniformed guards were hired to control access to several Jewish sites. Funds permitting, additional guards will be retained in the future. Anyone wishing to visit Bassatine Cemetery or any of the heretofore-inaccessible synagogues and hoches (private enclosures) must contact Ms. Carmen Weinstein at the JCC by phone, fax or e-mail and make appropriate arrangements.

Trips for members of the community have been re-instated. Those who felt they were too inconvenienced to travel can now partake in organized tours.

And for the sake of transparency, the JCC took over Bassatine News --a semi-annual newsletter put out by … ”The friends of the Bassatine Cemetery Association-- and placed it on internet’s world wide web so that the Egyptian Jewish Diaspora can have easy access to it. From the amount of feedback it looks like Bassatine News” on-line service is doing quite well.