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Africa North
Egypt to renovate its Jewish heritage sites
2018-12-13
[Ynet] Sisi earmarks $71 million as Cairo marks Hanukkah with unprecedented joint event for Jews, Moslems and Christians.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will allocate $71 million to renovate Jewish heritage sites and synagogues in Egypt, Minister of Archeology Khaled al-Anani revealed, as the country marked the festival of Hanukkah with an interfaith gathering.

The Egyptian government has some 500 items collected from synagogues, which will be presented to the general public. Cairo has 13 synagogues, but only three of them are active: the Shaarei Shamayim Synagogue, the Ben Ezra Synagogue in the Abbassia neighborhood and the synagogue of the Karaite
...a sect of Judaism that cleaves to the written law, the Old Testament only, unlike rabbinic Judaism giving no weight to the so-called Oral Law of the Talmud. Since the Egyptian expulsion following the establishment of Israel, the largest community lives in Israel...
community. al-Anani said that some of the synagogues would cease to serve as houses of worship and would instead become tourist sites open to the general public.

"There is significance in rehabilitating Jewish synagogues, similar to renovating pharaonic, Islamic and Coptic heritage sites," the minister said. But he added: "It should be remembered that the Jewish articles and the synagogues belong to the Egyptian government."
“So you Jewish exiles can just stop trying to regain your community treasures.”
Sisi stressed that there would be no "foreign involvement" in the renovation process - an indirect referense to attempts by Jewish organizations abroad to intervene in and finance the renovation work. He said that all the work would be carried out by Egyptians only, using Egyptian government funds.

"Most of the synagogues are currently in very poor condition and must be renovated in order to turn them into visitors' centers," explained al-Anani, during a special presentation at the Egyptian parliament. He also said that an anti-smuggling authority operating in the UAE city of Sharjah located hundreds of items from Egyptian synagogues that were destined for Europe.
Ah. I wondered what this was about: tourist fodder.
According to al-Anani, Jewish, Islamic and pharaonic artifacts were also smuggled into Italia, "and we are negotiating with the Italian government for their return."

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again...
 Cairo for the first time celebrated Hanukkah with a joint event for Jews, Moslems and Christians. The head of the Egyptian Jewish community, Magda Haroun, invited dozens of non-Jewish guests to the Shaarei Shamayim synagogue on the outskirts of Cairo for a ceremony at which she explained the meaning of the holiday.
“See? We loves us those benighted but picturesque natives. Even if we no intention of allowing their expelled cousins move back.”
Fewer than a dozen Jews, most of them elderly, remain of what was once a large Egyptian Jewish community.
That’s what eventually happens when the law says all Jewish males must leave at the age of eighteen.
Posted by:trailing wife

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