The Second Exodus 

Our Story of The Second Exodus, and its Aftermath

RABBI MEIR SOLOVEICHIK

Out of Egypt

In the Cairo Museum sits the Menapteh Stele, a victory proclamation from an ancient Pharaoh. It is also the first mention of the people of Israel outside of the Bible. “Israel is laid waste,” the Stele proclaims, “and his seed is not.” The first mention of Israel outside our scripture, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once pointed out, is an obituary. This is a striking testament to the eternity of our people

To this I would add another profound reflection of our immortality: long after the Pharaohs of Egypt, and their empires, dissolved and disappeared, rendered into ruins in dramatic Ozymandian fashion, Jewish communities continued to thrive in Egypt itself. It was in Egypt that Saadia, one of the greatest of Gaonim, was born. It was in Egypt that one of the most astonishing of Jewish geniuses, Moses Maimonides, wrote his Mishne Torah and Guide for the Perplexed, changing Jewish law and philosophy forever. It was in Egypt that hundreds of years of Jewish lives, hopes, and dreams were recorded in ketubot, poetry and piyyutim, as testified by the documents of the Cairo Genizah...

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The Longest five Minutes

By; Ovadia Yerushalmi

The Longest Five MinutesAt the outset of the “Six Day War” every Jewish family heard a knock on the door by police officers in civilian clothes summoning all males over the age of eighteen to the police station for a “Five-Minute” briefing. For many those “Five Minutes” lasted three years in prison without any given reason or charges. The only crime they have been accused of is that they are Jews. “YAHUD”

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The Suez Crisis and the Jews of Egypt

By; Lyn Julius

Lyn JuliusOn 29 October 1956 the colonial powers Britain and France colluded with Israel to attack Egypt in order to reverse President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal, a western strategic interest and the gateway to India and the East. In their analyses of the Suez Crisis as the final hurrah of old-style European colonialism, historians and journalists often fail to consider the human impact on thousands of Jews who found themselves peremptorily expelled from Egypt.

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A Personal Exodus Story

By; Israel Bonan

Israel Bonan

This story was written as the positive act of a 'witness', witnessing what transpired to my family and me, during the early days of June 1967; having been deported from Egypt and having immigrated subsequently to America. The story starts on the first day of the 'six days' war and takes us step by step from jail to jail and finally onto a freighter to reach the first safe haven of many, Crete, Koln, Paris and finally America.

During these events, I report on what happened, what I saw and experienced as well as how I felt; as they say "the good, the bad and yes the ugly" is portrayed uncensored. You'll meet my companions on our trek, you'll get to know me and other fellow Jews with all our strength and weaknesses, i.e. warts and all; while trying to cope with the hardships imposed upon us for the one basic reason, we were Jews living in an Arab country.

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GROWING UP UNDER PHARAOH

By; Maurice M. Mizrahi

I was born in Egypt in early September, a permanent dweller. A few days later was Yom Kippur, and already I was learning to beat my breast in repentance. "For the sin that we have committed by dwelling permanently in the Land of Egypt".

So I was born in Cairo in 1949 and lived there until I was 18. Then I came to the United States as a refugee, and have lived here for the past 37 years. And just about every day in these 37 years, I was subjected to... THE GRILLING.

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My life in Abu Zaabal and Tora

By; Marc Kheder

Marc Kheder

The First Part deals a little bit about my family and me and the Second Part is the story of my internment at Abu Zaabal and Tora concentration camps
My name is Mourad Amin Khedr. ...

I am Mourad. They call me Marco or Marc.

My sister Fortune, we call her Touna. David, we call him Doudou, he was 16 when I was taken to the concentration camp, He was a great help to all of us in the camp, visiting us twice a week and helping other families outside the camp.

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One way ticket and $20 per person

Visa "Jew"
Exit Visa for Maurice M. Mizrahi 

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Exit Visa No return
Exit Visa for Bezalel Frenkel

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Mr Cohen fleeing

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Passport for Renee Joseph Hassan
Passport for Renee Joseph Hassan

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Last chapter in long story of Jews in Egypt:

By DONNA BRYSON

Argument over where history belongs

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _

Egyptian Jews who have settled in the United States, Europe, Israel and elsewhere say Egypt can never be their home again, and some want to retrieve part of what they left behind. They claim certificates of birth, marriage and death that tell personal history in bureaucratic language.

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Egyptian Jewry under the Nasser regime.

By; Michael M. Laskier

Jews have lived in Egypt ever since they established a small colony in Upper Egypt on the Island of Elephantine, before the Babylonian Exile. Many came to that country following the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great in 322 BCE. There were waves of immigration after 1517 when Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

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Remembering a Modern Exodus

Revel Lecture Explores the Rich History and Culture of Jews in Arab Lands

Commemorating the 1948 forced exodus of nearly a million Jews from Arab countries, Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and Sephardic Community Program partnered with the Consul General of Israel in New York to pay tribute to the rich cultural heritage of modern Jewry in Arab lands.

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Second Exodus Catalog

VIDEOS BY VARIOUS CONTRIBUTORS

Brazilian immigration cards given to Jews from Egypt in the 1950s.

A Lista de Nasser from Alain Bigio on Vimeo.

Album de fotografias from My early years in Egypt and the beginning in Brazil

Album de fotografias from Alain Bigio on Vimeo. My early years in Egypt and the beginning in Brazil

The Second Exodus: A New Way to Promote Peace between Israelis and Palestinians

והגדת לבינך - יציאת מצריים השניה

Levana Zamir Speech to the United Nations - 21.11.13

Interview with Levana Zamir 26/04/2015

"My best friend was a Muslim"

תור הזהב מצגת

حوار اليوم- مع ليفانا زمير

An Egyptian Refugee Says Goodbye

"My life in Abuzaabal and Tora" introduced by Elie A. Kheder

Growing up under Pharoah

Les Juifs d'Egypte - J'ai grandi à l'ombre du Pharaon (2012)

لنَشْأة فى ظِلّ فرعون -- يهود مِصر - الدكتور موريس م. مزراحى

Remy Pessah, Jewish Life in Egypt

Remy Pessah, Jewish Life in Egypt from JIMENA Media on Vimeo.

(c) Copyright, JIMENA INC

Egyptians in the Shadows

The last Jews of Alexandria

Forced Immigration

The most severe blow was the Company Law of July 29, 1947 requiring that 75% of the clerical work force of any company be Egyptian citizens. No civil rights could be guaranteed when the Mixed Tribunals ceased to function in October 1949

Sortie sans retour

The disappearance of the Egyptian Jewish community is the direct result of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The first step was the promulgation of discriminatory legislation. The most severe blow was the Company Law of July 29, 1947 requiring that 75% of the clerical work force of any company be Egyptian citizens. No civil rights could be guaranteed when the Mixed Tribunals ceased to function in October 1949. Most Egyptian Jews were left unprotected and had to rely on community welfare for their subsistence. They were increasingly eager to leave the country. Many imprisoned Jews were released only on the condition that they immediately leave the country. Discriminatory legislation, socio-economic disfranchisement and sheer violence convinced the Jews that there was no place for them in the Arab Republic of Egypt. It is estimated that the Jewish population of Egypt was reduced by one third between May 1948 and January 1950. The remaining Jews were expelled after the 1956 War with only a few hundred left behind. Egyptian Jews relocated to Israel, France, Brazil, the United States, Argentina and England. The Jewish Community of Cairo in the Twentieth Century

The story of Jews and their expulsion

Lecture The History of Egyptian Jewry