ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) -- The elderly woman sinks onto a
seat next to a brass plaque bearing the name of her dead
husband. With a faraway look in her eyes, she scans the rows
and rows of wooden benches in the vast synagogue, where
hundreds of nameplates memorialize the Jewish community that
once thrived in this Mediterranean city.
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Lina Mattatia and Meir Mishan, the Israeli
consul in Alexandria, stand by a special chamber
at the front of the 150-year-old Eliyahu Hanavi
synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt. (AP PHOTO, Amr
Nabil)
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Lina Mattatia, in her mid-70s, is one of fewer than 50 Jews
remaining in Alexandria, where they were once a
50,000-strong community with businesses, synagogues, a
school and friendly relations with their Muslim neighbours.
Some left after the creation of Israel in 1948, others were
expelled during the 1956 Suez crisis and nationalization
programs of the '50s and '60s and many of those remaining
fled in the hostile climate of the 1967 Mideast War.
Other Jews are scattered in Egypt, with the other
significant community a group in Cairo of about the same
numbers as Alexandria's.
Most of those who chose to stay are now in their 70s and
80s. Their school is closed. Their one remaining synagogue
sits empty most of the year because they no longer have
enough men to hold regular services -- 10 are needed for a
prayer group, but this community has only four or five. They
do not have access to kosher food. The grounds of the
Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue are heavily guarded by armed
soldiers, and visitors are subjected to exacting searches of
bags and pockets.
Still, the Jews say they are at home in this city of four
million people, mostly Muslims.
"It is not difficult to keep our traditions," Mattatia said.
"We don't feel anything against us. The neighbours are very
nice. We have friends. We do our own thing."
But the Alexandria native admitted: "If I had children, I
would go with them."
Victor Meir Balassiano, 61, is the father of Alexandria's
only Jewish family with children. The youngest of his three
children, a son, is 17 and studying in Israel; his two
daughters, 19 and 21, work here.
"When everyone was leaving and I got married, others begged
me to stay here to start my family. My brothers and uncles
left, but I stayed behind," he said.
Balassiano is glad he stayed in his country, but
acknowledged he plans to move to Israel within the next few
years, mostly for his children, who he believes will be
denied opportunities in Egypt because they are Jewish.
"I don't think I could find a job if I didn't work at the
synagogue," he said. "My son will not be able to find a job
or a wife here. We must leave."
After decades of tension and four wars, Egypt and Israel
signed a peace treaty in 1979, but relations are far from
normal. Egyptian professional groups ban their members from
contacts with the Jewish state.
But "Muslims are very tolerant of us," said Meir Mishan, the
Israeli consul-general in Alexandria. "We have no problems."
So why the tight security around Jewish buildings?
"We just have to be careful," Mishan said.
Jews have lived in Alexandria since soon after the city's
founding in 331 BC. Encouraged by Alexander the Great, they
came in great numbers, at one point making up at least
one-fourth of the city's population. The city faltered over
the centuries, but was rebuilt in the 1800s, and the Jews
returned, adding their active community to the large foreign
population.
The 150-year-old Eliyahu Hanavi Sephardic synagogue offers a
glimpse of what the Jewish community was like in its prime.
The magnificent building, one of the largest synagogues in
the Middle East, boasts towering Italian marble columns and
seating for over 700 people. The brass nameplates marked the
regular seats of its male patrons, with extra seating
upstairs for the women. A closed chamber at the front of the
building holds about 30 Torah scrolls, collected from the
city's other synagogues when they closed.
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An Egyptian armed soldier guards the
150-year-old Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in the
Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt. The
150-year-old Eliyahu Hanavi Sephardic synagogue
offers a glimpse of what the Jewish community
was like in its prime. The magnificent building,
one of the largest synagogues in the Middle
East, boasts towering Italian marble columns and
seating for over 700 people. (AP Photo, Amr
Nabil)
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Now the synagogue sits empty, sometimes visited by a member
lighting candles of remembrance, rarely entered by a tourist
wandering past on the busy street. Twice a year, on the
Jewish holidays of Passover and Rosh Hashanah, a small
delegation travels from Israel to provide the necessary male
contingent for religious services and to deliver kosher
food.
The president of Alexandria's Jewish Community, Joe Harari,
85, said he has bid goodbye too many times over the years.
"Too many people left for other countries," he said. "I am
Jewish, but I am also Egyptian. I'm 100 per cent satisfied
and happy here. Why would I leave?"
Harari is typical of his dwindling community. Strong-willed
enough to stay in Egypt even after the exodus of relatives
and friends, the few remaining Jews live out their years
wrapped in their community, subsisting mainly on the rental
income of the school and other small buildings on the
synagogue's property to businesses and some residents.
In the empty courtyard, Balassiano looks up at the
four-storey school where he was once a student and a
teacher, remembering when the classrooms were full of
children studying Hebrew and the courtyard rang with
laughter.
"I am sad that everyone has gone, but what can I do?" he
asked. "It's a memory for me, a souvenir."
