The Shearith Israel League Presents a Lecture on January 10, 2006 at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue at 2 W. 70 Street near Central Park West at 8 p.m.

Paradise Lost: In Search of Jewish Cairo

By Lucette Lagnado

Lucette Lagnado is a senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal. Born in Cairo, she and her family were forced to leave Egypt as refugees as part of the diaspora of the 80,000 strong Jewish community in the Nasser years. She remembers the vibrant synagogues of her childhood—magnificent Shar Hashamaim in downtown Cairo, Temple Hanan where her father prayed, and a small synagogue where the Rambam was said to visit and heal sick people at night. In her talk for the League she contrasts the life of that transcendent city with the empty synagogues of Egypt today. Ms. Lagnado has received many journalism awards. She is currently working on a memoir of her father to be published by Ecco Harper Collins and entitled, The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit.

Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served.