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2020-01-12 Africa North
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Renovated Jewish synagogue 'message to world that Egypt cares for its heritage': Antiquities minister
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| It appears to be a museum for tourists to admire rather than a working synagogue for the few Jews remaining in Cairo, but they’re awfully proud of it — a new attitude as far as I can tell. |
[AlAhram] Egypt's antiquities and tourism minister Khaled El-Anany said the inauguration of the renovated Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria sends a message to the world that Egypt cares for its heritage.
In statements on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the synagogue on Friday, El-Anany said that Egypt has it all, explaining that travellers can enjoy visiting Greek, Roman, Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish monuments.
The Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria was inaugurated after massive revamp carried out under a cooperation protocol signed between the Antiquities Ministry and the Armed Forces Engineering Authority in 2017.
The cost of the temple's renovation stands at more than EGP 60 million.
The opening ceremony was attended by Alexandria Governor Mohammed El-Sherif, world-renowned archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Mostafa El-Fiqi, in addition to a number of foreign ambassadors and officials.
A documentary on the synagogue's history was screened at the inauguration ceremony.
The history of Jewish synagogues in Egypt represents the religious tolerance of the country. The antiquities ministry has 11 registered Jewish houses of worship: nine in Cairo and two in Alexandria.
The current structure of Eliyahu Hanavi was constructed in the 1850s, after the original building, which dates back to the 1300s, was badly damaged in the late 18th century, during the French occupation of Egypt.
With room for approximately 700 worshipers, it is the larger of the two synagogues remaining in the city.
The renovations included the structural reinforcement of the synagogue, the restoration of its main facade, decorative walls, and brass and wooden objects, and the development of its security and lighting systems, the antiquities ministry said in a statement.
The city’s few remaining Jews praise Egyptian leader Sissi for funding project, part of a push to draw tourists by marketing country’s rich cultural heritage.
Sitting in the back wooden rows, Yolande Mizrahi, a septuagenarian Jew born and raised in Alexandria, was delighted with the conservation.
"If it wasn’t for [President Abdel Fattah] al-Sissi, this would have never been done. A lot of things have changed since he’s taken over," she told AFP.
In 2018, Sissi singled out preservation of places of worship for Egyptian Jews and Coptic Christians as a priority for his government. Sissi said in November 2018: "If we have Jews, we will build [synagogues] for them." In recent years, Sissi, who has led a widespread crackdown on dissent and placed in durance vile
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
thousands of critics, has frequently met with Jewish delegations in the US and Cairo.
Egypt’s Jewish community, which dates back millennia, numbered around 80,000 in the 1940s, but today stands at fewer than 20 people. The departure of Egypt’s Jews was fueled by rising nationalist sentiment after Israel’s founding in 1948 and during the Arab-Israeli wars, harassment, and some direct expulsions by then-Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Egypt and Israel signed a landmark peace treaty in 1979 and have since maintained formal diplomatic relations. But public opinion in Egypt has largely remained hostile to the Jewish state.
For Mizrahi, she fondly recounted how the synagogue which she used to attend as a youngster was a communal gathering space for the Jewish minority in Alexandria.
She hoped Friday’s opening of the temple to the public would spur other Jews abroad to visit the temple.
"I have relatives who left to La Belle France, Italia and Israel and they would like to visit the synagogue now," she added.
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Posted by trailing wife 2020-01-12 01:25||
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