Gates of Heaven Synagogue, Cairo, May 7, 2013. Maha El-Kady for the Cairo Review.
May 09, 2013
On
April 13, the head of the Jewish community in Cairo, Carmen Weinstein, passed
away at the age of eighty-four. One day before her death, she was checking the
renovation of a synagogue in the surburb of Maadi, as part of her efforts to
preserve the fifteen Jewish synagogues and a cemetery in Cairo. Just a
community of around forty people today, Weinstein was trying to prove that some
Egyptians are Jews who deserve same rights as their Muslim and Christian
counterparts.
In
September 2012, the Session Film production Jews
of Egypt premiered in the 5th Panorama of European Films in
Cairo. The film was scheduled to hit theaters in March 2013. But only a few
days before the screening, Egypt’s censorship bureau banned the documentary
without giving a reason, despite having previously granted approval for the
film’s production and for it to be shown at the international festival.
Director Amir Ramsis described the prohibition as a violation of freedom of
expression as laid out in the Egyptian constitution and launched a campaign to
overturn ban. In March, the censorship bureau called Ramsis and informed him
the ban was lifted (again, without explanation), and the film is currently
screening in three theaters across Cairo and Alexandria. The ordeal of the Jews of Egypt raised many concerns about
freedom of expression in Egypt and also revived a debate about the rights of
Egyptian Jews.
During
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many migrants came to Egypt
from all over the Mediterranean Basin to benefit from its expanding economy,
and the cosmopolitan social life. But the 1950s and 1960s witnessed a state-led
mass expulsion of the Egyptian Jewish community, as President Gamal Abdel
Nasser’s regime claimed that many Jews belonged to Israeli spy networks. Jews of Egypt presents the stories of
those who were forced to flee. Joyce Blau, a leftist activist featured in the
film, said that intelligence agents detained and interrogated her for days
before she was deported to France. Andre Hazzan was tortured in prison as he
refused to leave Egypt. He was finally carried into a ship that took him to
France. Some Egyptian Jews remained in Egypt, such as Albert Aryeh who
converted to Islam in order to marry a Muslim woman. Yet, the regime never let
him and his family live in peace.
Although
Egypt’s conflict with Israel was a trigger for the community’s expulsion, most
Egyptian Jews did not flee to Israel. “They already had an easy and good life,”
explained Khaled Fahmy, chair of the history department at the American
University in Cairo. “For them, leaving Egypt to go to Palestine made no sense.
Many left their money in the custody of Muslim neighbors with the understanding
that they will come back and reclaim it.”
Some
Jews continued to support anti-colonialism in the Middle East, most notably
Henri Curiel, founder of the Communist Democratic Movement for National
Liberation, who offered Tharwat Okasha (then Egyptian ambassador to Rome)
important intelligence in advance of 1956 Suez Crisis—the invasion of Egypt by
Israel, Britain and France. Yet, Nasser ignored Okasha’s counsel to re-instate
Curiel’s Egyptian citizenship, and authorities continued to expel the Jewish
community. The backlash over the 1956 war was worse than the establishment of
the State of Israel’s in 1948. The backlash can be explained by nationalist
fervor as well as by anti-Semitism. “What Nasser did only seem to be a result
of 1956. But it also comes in the heels of Egyptianization, nationalism,
anti-colonialism, etc.,” said Fahmy.
In
December 2012, Essam El-Erian, vice chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party
(FJP), stirred controversy in Egypt by calling on Egyptian Jews to return to
Egypt and for Palestinians to be allowed to return to their homeland as well.
He stated that Egyptian Jews were unjustly expelled, deprived of their homes,
had their properties confiscated, and thus should be compensated. President
Mohammed Morsi’s office distanced itself from El-Erian’s statements; the furor
is believed to be a reason that El-Erian later resigned his position as
presidential advisor.
The
fate of Egyptian Jews is a subject of hot debate among rights activists and
intellectuals, not so much the question of providing them justice but how Egypt
became an intolerant society. Could such a tragedy, some Egyptians are asking,
be repeated with the community of Coptic Christians. To some, the answer is
yes.
“What
Abdel Nasser did to Jews of Egypt will happen to the Christians of Egypt,” said
an audience member after watching Jews of Egypt. “We turned into a
discriminatory society. People don’t even clap for the film because it’s about
the Jews.” Director Amir Ramsis explained that the film is not only about the
Jewish community, but also the absence of tolerance in democratic Egypt. “Let’s
be realistic, the first generation of Egyptian Jews is almost disappearing,” he
said. “Returning them or their descendants to Egypt can hardly be seen as
practical steps. We just need to read history in order to avoid similar
tragedies in our future.”
Yet
Fahmy said that the challenges facing the Coptic community are not comparable
to what happened to Egyptian Jews. “It’s a much larger percentage who can’t be
expelled except by a huge amount of blood, and I don’t think anyone in Egypt is
ready for that,” he said. “The bigger fear is not about the targeting of a
specific group but rather the sharp increase of tension along religious lines.”
In
1945, the prominent Egyptian comedian Naguib El-Rehany presented the play
“Hassan, Marcos, and Cohen,” about three business partners—a Muslim, a
Christian, and a Jew. The story was adapted into movie in 1954, and yet another
play in 1960. During those moments of history, the cast mirrored Egypt’s
diverse society. But in the 2008 remake of the film, “Cohen” was no longer a character
in the story. Egypt was left with the tension between Hassan and Marcos. Some
Egyptians sarcastically say that the film’s next remake will only feature
Hassan.
Can
post-revolution Egypt restore the diverse, cosmopolitan society of the early
twentieth century? The new leader of the
Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, says that he’s optimistic about Egypt’s future
and believes that moderation is the only way to build the Egyptian society.
“The Nile passes exactly in the middle of the Egyptian territory, and that
teaches us to be moderate,” he said.
Maha El-Kady is a
reporter-researcher for the Cairo Review of Global Affairs.