“A Timeline of Jews in Egypt”,

Rami Mangoubi Points

• Biblical Era: The Book of Exodus says that Moses led the Jews out of a period of captivity in Egypt, an event that forms the story of the founding of Israel.
• 7th Century: Arab Invasion: Roman rule ended. New rulers impose Guizya, a head poll tax on Jews and Christians, and the humiliating Dhimmi status for non-Muslims.
• 1840’s: With European influence increasingly on the rise in Egypt under the rule of Khedeiwi Said, Jews and Christians are spared the Guizya, a poll tax specific to non-Muslims
• 1869: First Nationality Decree in Egypt: Restricted Egyptian Jews and other minorities rights to citizenship.
• 1882: The British occupy Egypt.
• 1890’s: Some Russian Jews arrive in Egypt, escaping pogroms. They settle successfully.
• 1922: King Fuad I establishes the British-backed Egyptian monarchy, now considered by some to have been a golden age of pluralism and cosmopolitanism.
• 1929: Nationality decrees were increasingly becoming more restrictive, culminating in Egypt’s 1929 Nationality Law. As a result, 90% of Jews were barred from obtaining citizenship regardless of how many generations they resided in Egypt. Only 10% were given Egyptian citizenship, 60% were stateless, and 30% obtained foreign protection, usually Italian.
• 1937: A census counts about 65,000 Egyptian Jews
• 1900-1950: Jews contribute more than their share to Egypt’s cultural, political, literary, and economic life. Two Jews, including a passionate Zionist, Murad Beh Farag, were among the 30 lawyers who co-wrote Egypt’s first constitution in 1923. The first Arabic language Operetta was composed by a Jew: Da’ud Husni. With female star Laila Murad and directors like Togo Mizrahi, Jews were pioneers of Egyptian cinema. Jews founded the retail sector, and introduced the textile and sugar industry in Egypt. They established the modern banking system, and the first public transportation company in Cairo, the Suarez company.
• 1942: Demonstration in Cairo by Pan-Arab Nationalists and Muslim Brotherhood Islamists rooting for a German victory during the Battle of El Alamein. Ila’l Amam Ya Romayel (Forward Rommel) was a slogan heard. Jewish anxiety on the rise.
• 1945: anti-Jewish riots result in the burning of a Cairo synagogue and the death of six pedestrians thought to be Jewish, but were foreign Christians. No arrests made.
• 1947: The exodus en masse starts: A census counts about 75,000 Jews, and historians say that the number may have been closer to 85,000. The Company Law is passed: severely restricted employment of non-citizens in private companies. The law had a disparate impact on Jews, who had been denied citizenship: tens of thousands of Jews lost their livelihood loose their livelihood overnight.
• 1948: Creation of the modern state of Israel; Egypt and the Arab states declare war against it. Over the next four years, about 20,000 Egyptian Jews leave the country. Massacres of Jews: one massacre took place on the eve of Shavuot, and the other around the High Holidays. In total, more than 40 Jews were slaughtered. No arrests made.
• 1952: Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser leads a military takeover, overthrowing the monarchy. Shortly thereafter, Nasser offers protection to Nazi war criminals escaping arrest and trial in Europe. Johannes Von Leer, Goebel’s deputy and author of the “Evil Nature of the Jews”, went by an Egyptian name, Omar Amin, and was offered a prestigious government job.
• 1953: Jews and Christian no longer hired as teachers of the Arabic language. No new hiring of Jews in any government position.
• 1954: A group of Egyptian Jews recruited by Israel as spies try to bomb a series of Egyptian, American and British civilian targets after closing hours. The choice of hours successfully and intentionally prevents death and injury. Their goal was to create an image of instability to persuade the British to maintain their military occupation of the Suez Canal zone, but the plan failed. The episode was code-named Operation Susannah and became known as the Lavon Affair, after the Israeli defense minister, Pinhas Lavon, who was forced to resign. Despite the fact that no one was killed or even injured, a sham trial was held, and two saboteurs were sentenced to death and hanged, and one was killed by security agents. One of those sentenced to death had lost six members of his extended family in the 1948 massacres.
• 1956: Britain, France and Israel attack Egypt, in what became known as the Suez Crisis, or, in Egypt, as the Tripartite Aggression. After the attack, Nasser’s government arrests hundreds of Egyptian Jews on suspicion of spying for Israel and seizes hundreds of Jewish-owned businesses. Under government pressure, about 25,000 Jews leave Egypt, reducing their population to about 15,000. Forced to sell their property at dirt cheap prices, they left Egypt pauperized.
• 1967: The war between Israel and the Arab states. About 12,000 Jews remain in Cairo. Nearly All Jewish men are arrested, then released, and the number of Jews continues to dwindle. At most, a few dozen Egyptian Jews remain today. Hundreds were tortured in the detention camps of Abu Za’abal and Tura, detained for as long as three years before being forced to sign off all rights and deported.
• Present: Throughout their ordeal, many Muslim and Christian friends helped their Jewish friends and neighbors and stood by them. These unforgettable friendships continue to this day: Egyptian Jews and their children in Israel, France, the United States and other countries are still in contact with those who helped them in their hour of need.