Maimonides Synagogue: Difference between revisions

Coordinates: 30°03′03″N 31°15′45″E / 30.050968°N 31.262627°E / 30.050968; 31.262627
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rv avenue, this gives a misleading impression that Jews were deprived of citizenship, when AFAIK they were mostly fairly recent immigrants
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==Disuse and decay==
==Disuse and decay==
{{seealso|History of the Jews in Egypt#Modern times (since 1922)}}
{{seealso|History of the Jews in Egypt#Modern times (since 1922)}}
The situation of Egypt's Jews became increasingly precarious in the middle of the 20th century. Rising Arab nationalism, together with increased tensions between Jews and Arabs following the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]] and later, the [[Suez crisis|1956 Suez War]], led to government restrictions on citizenship and foreign economic activity which deeply impacted Egypt's Jewish community. Most Jewish residents did not hold Egyptian citizenship; about half were [[statelessness|stateless]].<ref>Beinin, Joel (2005). ''The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora''. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 9774248902. p. 38.</ref> Several thousand foreign Jewish nationals were expelled from the country following the 1956 war and thousands more fled the hostile social and economic conditions. Egypt's Jewish population through this period dropped from 80,000<ref name="NYTimes"/> to less than 100.<ref name="Yahoo"/>
The situation of Egypt's Jews became increasingly precarious in the middle of the 20th century. Rising Arab nationalism, together with increased tensions between Jews and Arabs following the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]] and later, the [[Suez crisis|1956 Suez War]], led to government restrictions on foreign economic activity which deeply impacted Egypt's Jewish community. Several thousand foreign Jewish nationals were expelled from the country following the 1956 war and thousands more fled the hostile social and economic conditions. Egypt's Jewish population through this period dropped from 80,000<ref name="NYTimes"/> to less than 100.<ref name="Yahoo"/>


With only about 30 Jews (mostly elderly women) left in Cairo,<ref>{{cite web |author=Alistair Lyon |title= Israel's advent altered outlook for Middle East Jews |url= http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL0272854620080505|publisher=Reuters|date= 2005}} </ref> the synagogue was closed, and almost collapsed due to underground water and earthquakes.<ref> {{cite book |author=Itamar Levin |title= Locked Doors: The Seizure of Jewish Property in Arab Countries |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=pxgonnuybEgC&pg=PA151&dq=Maimonides+synagogue+cairo&hl=en&ei=bkyqS-LtE42gswPfv-HgBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CFIQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Maimonides%20synagogue%20cairo&f=false |publisher=Greenwood Pub Group|date= August 2001}} </ref> The ceiling of the building collapsed in 1992, and the debris was left on the floor.<ref name="Amiram"> {{cite web |author=Amiram Barkat |title= The end of the Exodus from Egypt |url= http://www.hsje.org/The%20end%20of%20the%20Exodus%20from%20Egypt.pdf |publisher=|date= 2005}} </ref> The slum area in which synagogue was located was littered with garbage.<ref name="Sinan">{{cite web |author= Omar Sinan |title= Egypt Unveils Restoration of Famous Synagogue |url= http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=8374834 |publisher=ABC News International|date= 2009}} </ref>
With only about 30 Jews (mostly elderly women) left in Cairo,<ref>{{cite web |author=Alistair Lyon |title= Israel's advent altered outlook for Middle East Jews |url= http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL0272854620080505|publisher=Reuters|date= 2005}} </ref> the synagogue was closed, and almost collapsed due to underground water and earthquakes.<ref> {{cite book |author=Itamar Levin |title= Locked Doors: The Seizure of Jewish Property in Arab Countries |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=pxgonnuybEgC&pg=PA151&dq=Maimonides+synagogue+cairo&hl=en&ei=bkyqS-LtE42gswPfv-HgBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CFIQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Maimonides%20synagogue%20cairo&f=false |publisher=Greenwood Pub Group|date= August 2001}} </ref> The ceiling of the building collapsed in 1992, and the debris was left on the floor.<ref name="Amiram"> {{cite web |author=Amiram Barkat |title= The end of the Exodus from Egypt |url= http://www.hsje.org/The%20end%20of%20the%20Exodus%20from%20Egypt.pdf |publisher=|date= 2005}} </ref> The slum area in which synagogue was located was littered with garbage.<ref name="Sinan">{{cite web |author= Omar Sinan |title= Egypt Unveils Restoration of Famous Synagogue |url= http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=8374834 |publisher=ABC News International|date= 2009}} </ref>

Revision as of 03:12, 4 April 2010

Maimonides Synagogue ([] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: no text (help) Template:Hebrew, translit: Beit Knesset ha-Rambam; Arabic: كنيس ابن ميمون), also known as Rav Moshe synagogue, is a historic synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. It is named for the famous Jewish philosopher, rabbi and physician Maimonides, who used to study and work in the Yeshiva attached to the temple up to his death.[1][2] A synagogue was built here around two centuries before Maimonides emigrated to Egypt around 1168, following his exile from Córdoba, Spain at the hands of the Almohads.[3][4][5] The synagogue and yeshiva are located in Harat al-Yahud, the Jewish quarter of medieval Cairo, and can only be reached on foot. In the time of Maimonides 97% of inhabitants of Harat al-Yahud were Jews.

Along with Maimonides tomb, the synagogue contains two areas that were for prayer and rituals, one of which included a section for women.[6] Among the synagogue's treasures is a Bible that allegedly was written by Maimonides himself.[7]

Maimonides

Main article: Maimonides
Moses Maimonides

Maimonides was a 12th century rabbi, physician, and philosopher who was born in Córdoba, Spain in 1137 or 1138, and died in Egypt on December 12, 1204. When the Almohads from Africa conquered Córdoba in 1148, and threatened the Jewish community with the choice of conversion to Islam, death, or exile, Maimonides' family, along with most other Jews, chose exile.[5] After moving about southern Spain for ten years avoiding the Almohads, they moved first to Morocco and then eventually to Fustat, Egypt around 1168. There he studied in a Yeshiva attached to a small synagogue that now bears his name. He gained widespread recognition and became a court physician to Qadi al-Fadil, Grand Vezier to Saladin, after whose death he remained a physician to the royal family.

People have said of him "From Moses unto Moses there arose not one like Moses." In his "Guides" he provided some independent criticism of Aristotle's principles. [8]

After his death in Fustat, it is believed that he was buried for a short while at the synagogue before being reinterred in Tiberias.[9]

Mausoleum

Many legends are told about the burial of Maimonides. According to Jewish tradition, his bones were placed for a week in a small shrine where he used to study and to heal strangers. While some believe his bones never left Egypt, others believe that the permanent place of his burial was on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Tiberias is now sited. According to one legend, a band of Bedouins who were about to attack the funeral cortegé as it marched through the desert "hung their heads in shame" after realizing it was the funeral of the man who had attended themselves and their families for free, and instead formed a protective guard for the funeral procession as it made its way to Palestine.[10] Another legend was told by Joseph ben Isaac Sambari, a Jewish-Egyptian chronicler of the seventeenth century, who lived probably between 1640 and 1703. In one of his books Joseph ben Isaac Sambari mentioned an oral anecdote about the people who carried his body to the Sea of Galilee for permanent burial mistakenly leaving one of his toes behind in the Maimonides synagogue, which at that time was called the synagogue of Western (Tunisian) Jews. Later one of the people who carried the body had a dream, in which a wise man of Egypt reminded him about the forgotten toe. The toe was recovered and buried next to the body.[11]

Place of healing

Some people believe that the synagogue and accompanying yeshiva have miraculous healing powers. Maimonides was a physician and it is believed that those who enter the synagogue may be cured of illness.[12] Until the Egyptian government forbade the practice in 1948, the synagogue was used as a place of healing by the local Jewish community. The ailing person was left to sleep in the special underground room in the hope that the sufferer would dream of Maimonides and get better.[4]

Disuse and decay

See also: History of the Jews in Egypt § Modern times (since 1922)

The situation of Egypt's Jews became increasingly precarious in the middle of the 20th century. Rising Arab nationalism, together with increased tensions between Jews and Arabs following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and later, the 1956 Suez War, led to government restrictions on foreign economic activity which deeply impacted Egypt's Jewish community. Several thousand foreign Jewish nationals were expelled from the country following the 1956 war and thousands more fled the hostile social and economic conditions. Egypt's Jewish population through this period dropped from 80,000[1] to less than 100.[13]

With only about 30 Jews (mostly elderly women) left in Cairo,[14] the synagogue was closed, and almost collapsed due to underground water and earthquakes.[15] The ceiling of the building collapsed in 1992, and the debris was left on the floor.[16] The slum area in which synagogue was located was littered with garbage.[6] The head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said that the synagogue was used for the last time in 1960, and then was allowed to "crumble".[2] The condition of the medieval synagogue had deteriorated further by 2005. A holy ark with a broken door was located in the small courtyard, covered with debris. The ark's Star of David was still present, but was hanging on only by a thread.[16]

Restoration

In June 2009, the Egyptian government began a year-long restoration project, unveiled in August 2009 by their head of antiquities Zahi Hawass.[6] The $2 million, 18-month restoration project of the Rav Moshe synagogue, in an area of Cairo once called "the neighborhood of the Jews," was financed by the Egyptian government.[17] The restoration work was finished in March 2010. Former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Zvi Mazel, said "the results were spectacular; the original colors were restored almost perfectly".[18][13]

Inauguration controversy

As restoration work was nearing completion, the Egyptian authorities agreed that the small Jewish community of Cairo would organize a dedication ceremony on March 7, 2010. The official inauguration was planned for the middle of March.[18] The dedication ceremony was closed to media but attendees said it was an emotional event, especially for the Egyptian-Jewish families invited, many of whom now live in Europe.[19] About 150 people attended, none of them Egyptian officials.

On March 14, 2010 the official inauguration ceremony was canceled. Zahi Hawass explained that the cancellation was due to media reports of Jews "dancing and drinking alcohol in the synagogue" during the private March 7 dedication, which Hawass described as a "provocation to the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims in Egypt and around the world". Hawass later added that the decision to scrap the ceremony was made at "a time when Muslim holy sites in occupied Palestine face assaults from Israeli occupation forces and settlers...".[20][13] Later still, he characterized the cancellation of the ceremony as a "strong slap in the face" to "the Zionist enemy."[21]

References

  1. ^ a b "A Synagogue in Cairo". New York Times. March 3, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Michael Slackman (September 6, 2009). "Private Motive for Egypt's Public Embrace of a Jewish Past". New York Times.
  3. ^ Goitein, S.D. Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders. Princeton University Press, 1973 (ISBN 0-691-05212-3), p. 208
  4. ^ a b Sherwin B. Nuland (October 2005). Maimonides. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. Epilogue.
  5. ^ a b 1954 Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 18, p. 140.
  6. ^ a b c Omar Sinan (2009). "Egypt Unveils Restoration of Famous Synagogue". ABC News International.
  7. ^ Elkan Nathan Adler (October 1905). Jews in many lands. p. 21. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Hugh Chisholm (1911). Encyclopedia Britannica. p. 431. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ The Life of Maimonides Jewish National and University Library
  10. ^ Leonard S. Kravitz and Kerry M. Olitzky (October 1999). Moses Maimonides. UHAC Press, USA. p. 129.
  11. ^ Dov Noy, Dan Ben-Amos, Ellen Frankel, Arkhiyon ha-sipur ha-ʻamami be-Yiśraʼel (October 2006). Folktales of the Jews: Tales from the Sephardic dispersion. p. 63. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "Egypt completes restoration of Maimonides shul". www.jpost.com. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
  13. ^ a b c "Egypt scraps synagogue ceremony after 'provocative' acts". Yahoo news. March 14, 2010.
  14. ^ Alistair Lyon (2005). "Israel's advent altered outlook for Middle East Jews". Reuters.
  15. ^ Itamar Levin (August 2001). Locked Doors: The Seizure of Jewish Property in Arab Countries. Greenwood Pub Group.
  16. ^ a b Amiram Barkat (2005). "The end of the Exodus from Egypt" (PDF).
  17. ^ "Egyptian government restores historic synagogue - CNN.com". cnn.com. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
  18. ^ a b "A bitter taste in Egypt". Jerusalem Post. March 29, 2010.
  19. ^ "Egypt nixes synagogue ceremony citing 'Israeli aggression' - Haaretz - Israel News". www.haaretz.com. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
  20. ^ "Egypt Scraps Synagogue Ceremony". Business week. March 14, 2010.
  21. ^ "Egypt antiquities chief: I gave the Zionist enemy a slap in the face - Haaretz - Israel News". www.haaretz.com. Retrieved 2010-03-30.

External links

30°03′03″N 31°15′45″E / 30.050968°N 31.262627°E / 30.050968; 31.262627

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