The history of the Jews of Egypt finds its place in the country
The Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria, after its restoration by the Egyptian government, January 10, 2020. AFP / Khaled Desouki
Text by: Alexandre Buccianti
3 min
As they have all but disappeared from the Nile Valley, the history of the Jews of Egypt is beginning to interest more and more Egyptians.
An objective story far from the clichés bordering on the anti-Semitism that prevailed from the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 until a dozen years ago.
The Dar al Shourouk publishing house will publish, in quick succession, two books on the issue.
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From our correspondent in Cairo,
The first book is titled
The Jews of Egypt in the Twentieth Century.
How did they live and why did they leave?
.
Its author is secular thinker Mohamad Aboulghar who indicates that he wrote his book to emphasize the importance of citizenship and living together.
In addition to researching the civil and religious archives of the
Jewish community in
Egypt, Mohamad Aboulghar conducted a series of interviews with members of the Nile Valley diaspora in the West.
According to him, the Jews
of Egypt
remained nostalgic for a country that some still consider theirs.
The other book is the memories of Albert Arie, an Egyptian Jew who died a few months ago at the age of 90.
Arie served eleven years in prison under Nasser for "
Marxism
".
The fact that he is an anti-Zionist activist was not considered to be a mitigating circumstance.
In recent years Arie was considered by the Egyptian media as a wise man, a friend of the most disadvantaged.
"
A recognition of the important role of the community in the history of modern Egypt
"
But the edition is not the only sign of the change in the way of perceiving the Jews in Egypt.
Last year
the great Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue of Alexandria
was inaugurated with great pomp after its restoration by the Egyptian government.
A gesture that Egyptian Jews and those in the diaspora considered "
a recognition of the important role of the community in the history of modern Egypt
".
This community of 80,000 souls suffered from the creation of Israel in 1948. As a result of social bullying and attacks on their property, they began to leave the country by the thousands. In 1956, 30,000 Jews from Egypt were expelled by Nasser after their property was confiscated. It was the day after the Israeli-Franco-British military intervention on the
Suez Canal
. The United States and especially France, because most of the Jews in Egypt were French-speaking, were their favorite destinations. Few have emigrated to Israel.
The representation of the Jews of Egypt has come a long way.
In the sixties there were still propaganda placards.
Almost a reissue of that of the Nazis: hooked noses, clawed hands and demonic gaze.
In 2002, a soap opera inspired by The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
, an anti-Semitic Tsarist rash, was broadcast on Egyptian television.
More recently, in 2010, Mohamed Morsi, leader of the Freedom and Justice party of the Muslim Brotherhood and who in 2012 would become “
the first democratically elected president
” of Egypt declared: “
The Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs
”.
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Egypt
History
Literature
Judaism