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The Egypt Jews may be the
world`s oldest community of Jews from outside of Israel.
There are no precise census but the Egypt`s Jews was
estimated at about 100 in 2004, while in 1922 there were
about 80,000.
The indigenous community`s historic core was
made in principal from Karaites and Rabbanites, both
speaking Arab. After they were expulsed from Spain many
Karaite and Sephardi Jews came to Egypt; the number of these
Jews increased after the Suez Canal`s opening as a result of
the trading prospects growth.
They were representing the modern community`s elite cultural
and commercial elite.
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In the end of the 19th century the
Ashkenazi community begun to come once with the
pogroms` waves that invaded Europe. This community
was confined, in principal to the Darb al-Barabira
from Cairo. In the 20th century when the community
of Jews from Europe felt the consequences of the
persecution, came to Egypt to find peace but the
conditions were not good at all especially after the
coup of Gamal Abdel Nasser, in 1952, the Lavon
Affair and the participation of Israel in the Suez
War from 1956. |
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Over 70 Jews were killed and about 200 were
wounded, in June-November 1948 period, when the Cairo`s
Jewish Quarter was bombed. About 25, 000 Egypt Jews were
expelled in 1956, and their properties were confiscated as a
result of the Sinai Campaign used by the government of Egypt
as a pretext. Other 1,000 Jews were sent to detention champs
and prisons. In the same year, on November 23, the Religious
Affairs` minister signed a proclamation that was read in all
the Egypt`s mosques and which declared that all the Jewish
are state` s enemies and Zionists and they have to be
expelled.
Thousands of Egypt Jews received the order to
leave country. The properties and the homes of the Jewish
were taken in 1967 when the war started. The attitude of
Egypt towards its Jews was the same with the one of the ex
Nazis. Numerous Jews received residence in Egypt and
positions in government. The community of Egypt Jews was the
first one of the Arab world that established official
contacts with Israel. There is a Israel` s embassy in Cairo
and a general consulate in Alexandria.
The Jews that remained in Egypt are free to
practice their Judaism in the absence of any kind of
harassments or restrictions. The only synagogue that
functions in Cairo is Shaar Hashamayim. In Alexandria there
is only one synagogue open for worship: the Eliahu Hanabi
synagogue. The reopening of the Cairo synagogue (which was
built in 1934) in July 2005 came as a positive step; the
synagogue was closed because very few Jews remained in
Egypt. The small community of Jews from Cairo could
rededicate to their Sha`ar Hashamayin synagogue in 2007, on
October 30. At the 100 years anniversary-event attended
numerous people from Egypt and from all over the world.
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