The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs celebrated the visit of dozens of Jews of Egyptian origin, a Jewish synagogue that opened after the end of the restoration operations last month in Alexandria, north of Cairo.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry published, through the "Israel in Arabic" account, a video of the Jewish delegation inside the Eliyahu Hanbi Synagogue, noting that "180 Jews from Egyptian roots came from Israel and the Diaspora in a celebration of introducing biblical travel to the synagogue and celebrating the Sabbath day."
After the official inauguration of the Eliyahu Hanbey synagogue in Alexandria by the Egyptian authorities, which restored it a few weeks ago, 180 Jews, whose Egyptian roots came from Israel and the Diaspora, gathered in a ceremony to introduce biblical travel to the synagogue and celebrate the Sabbath. |
This is the first prayer held in the temple since its opening, as a basic pillar of Jewish prayer stipulates that the number of worshipers should not be less than 10 adults (over 13 years), and that they are all men, which is not available in the Jewish community in Egypt.
In Egypt, there are 19 synagogues, spread over the governorates of Cairo and Alexandria, and religious rituals were practiced regularly, before the Jews left Egypt in the 1950s, 11 of which were in the capital, Cairo, while in Alexandria there were seven temples.
The Jewish community in Alexandria reopened the synagogue, Eliyahu Hanbi, in Alexandria on Friday, February 14th, after it was restored by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. |
In a related context, the account of the Israeli embassy in Cairo published a picture of the welcoming of the charge d'affaires of the delegation of Jewish rabbis who came from the United States.
The Acting Ambassador of the State of Israel in Egypt, Ambassador / Eyal Silaa on Thursday, February 13, welcomed the delegation of Jewish rabbis in Egypt who came from the United States |
On January 10, the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled Al-Anani, opened a synagogue, Eliyahu Hanbi, after two years of maintenance and restoration, in the presence of 25 ambassadors and diplomats alongside some Egyptian officials, in addition to members of the Jewish community in Egypt.
Al-Anani stressed during the opening that the role of the ministry is to take care of the Egyptian antiquities, regardless of religion or historical era, as well as promote them externally and internally.
In turn, Brigadier Hisham Samir, the assistant minister of antiquities for engineering affairs, said that the cost of the restoration amounted to about 64 million pounds (the dollar is about 15.5 pounds).
In late 2018, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced the allocation of one billion and 270 million pounds for the restoration of the Jewish heritage in Egypt, which caused a stir about the reason for spending all this money on temples in which prayer will not be held.
At the time, singers criticized the Egyptian budget’s burden-bearing burden and the cost of the restoration, especially as the restoration could have been funded by the contributions of Jewish businessmen around the world.
Others talked about what they called Sisi’s courtship of the Jews to ensure his rule continued, through Israeli support and the pressure of the Jewish lobby on the US administration.