Judaism is the third official religion in Egypt, together with Islam and Christianity. One of the first known monotheistic religions, likely dating to between 2000-1500 B.C. Judaism is the native faith of the Jewish people. Based upon the belief in a covenant of responsibility between a sole omnipotent creator God and Abraham, the patriarch of Judaism’s Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh. Divine teachings of principles and prohibitions in the Hebrew Scriptures form the basis of Jewish law. This law is called Halakhah. It is a key part of the faith.
While Jewish tradition includes long-standing halakhic and theological discussion, it has no final dogmatic authority. Local communities have their own religious leadership. Modern Judaism has three basic categories of faith: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform/Liberal.
These differ in their views and observance of Jewish law. The Orthodox representing the most traditional practice. Reform/Liberal communities are the most accommodating of individualized interpretations of Jewish identity and faith. Egyptian Jews constitute both one of the oldest and youngest communities in the world.
The book of Genesis and book of Exodus describe a period of Hebrew servitude in ancient Egypt. During decades of sojourn in Egypt, the escape of well over a million Israelites from the Delta. A three-month journey through the wilderness to Sinai. This episode is not correlated by any historical evidence. Certainly, there were some Hebrew slaves in ancient Egypt. Native Egyptian kingdoms were not heavily slave-based.
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Judaism at Elephantine Island
In the Elephantine papyri, a community of Jewish soldiers was stationed there. As part of a frontier garrison in Egypt for the Achaemenid Empire. Established at Elephantine in about 650 BC during Manasseh’s reign. These soldiers assisted pharaoh Psammatik I in his Nubian campaign. Their religious system shows strong traces of Babylonian polytheism. Something which suggests to certain scholars that the community was of mixed Judaeo-Samaritan origins. They maintained their own temple functioning alongside that of the local deity Khnum. The documents cover the period 495 to 399 BC.
The Hebrew Bible also records that a large number of Judeans took refuge in Egypt. Just after the kingdom of Judah was destroyed in 597 BC, the Jewish governor Gedaliah was later assassinated. The numbers that made their way to Egypt are subject to debate.
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Jews during the Ptolemaic era
Further waves of Jewish immigrants settled in Egypt during the Ptolemaic era. Many lived around Alexandria. Jews worked in the administration as river custodians. A 19th-century discovery near Alexandria revealed an inscription about a Jewish synagogue dedication to Ptolemy and Berenice. The Ptolemies assigned the Jews a separate section. To enable them to keep their laws pure of indigenous cultic references.
There was an important Jewish community in Oxyrhynchus, now called Behnesah, during the Roman era. Some members may have later converted to Christianity. The Hellenistic Jewish community of Alexandria translated the Old Testament into Greek. This translation is called the Septuagint. This translation became the source for the Old Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, and Coptic versions. It shaped the Christian Old Testament.
Related topic: Famous Synagogues in Egypt
Alexandria & Judaism
Alexandrian Jews suffered a major setback during Byzantine rule and the rise of Christianity as the state religion. It was the expulsion of Jews from Alexandria, called the Alexandria Expulsion, in 414 or 415 AD. It happened under the leadership of Saint Cyril. The expulsion then continued in nearby regions of Egypt and Palestine, followed by the forced Christianization of Jews.
In 629 the Emperor Heraclius I had driven the Jewish population from Jerusalem. This was followed by massacres of Jewish residents throughout the empire- in Egypt aided by the Coptic population. Someone may have tried to settle old grievances against Jewish groups. These grievances dated back to the Persian conquest of Amida. This happened during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I.
The Treaty of Alexandria (November 8, 641) sealed the Arab conquest of Egypt. It clearly stated that Jewish residents could remain in the city unharmed. At the time of the capture of that city, Amr Ibn Al Aas, in his letter to the Caliph, relates that he found there 40,000 Jews.
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Jews during the Fatimid period
Jews from North Africa came to settle in Egypt after the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969. These Jewish immigrants made up a significant amount of the population of all the Jews living in Egypt. Because the Cairo Geniza documents were found in the late 1800s, we know a lot about Egyptian Jews. From private records, letters, public records, and documents, these sources held information about the society of the Egyptian Jews.
The rule of the Fatimid Caliphate was in general favorable for the Jewish communities. The foundation of the Talmudic schools in Egypt is usually placed at this period. Saladin‘s war with the Crusaders (1169-1193) does not seem to have affected the Jewish population with communal struggle. Now most Egyptian Jews during the Mamluks period, were members of the Karaite sect. This was a 1st-century anti-Pharisee movement that rejected the teachings of the Talmud.
Following the Ottoman occupation in 1517, the Jewish community grew. Jews became active in the maritime trade with Europe. The organizational structure remained as before but the “Nagids” (the community leaders) were sent from Turkey. Since the mid-16th century, the Pasha’s Jewish finance minister also led the Jewish community.
Jews in modern Egypt
During the British colony of Egypt, and under king Fuad I, Egypt was friendly towards its Jewish population. Although 86% to 94% of Egyptian Jews lacked Egyptian citizenship. Some were denied citizenship. Others chose not to apply. Jews played important roles in the economy and their population climbed to nearly 80,000.
The widely reported Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine lasted from 1936 to 1939. At the same time, Nazi Germany was rising. These events began to affect relations between Jews and others in Egypt. Despite the fact that the number of active Zionists in their ranks was small. By the 1940s, the situation worsened. Sporadic pogroms took place from 1942 onward. The Jewish quarter in Cairo has severely damaged in the 1945 Cairo pogrom. As the partition of Palestine and the foundation of Israel drew closer, hostility towards the Egyptian Jews strengthened.
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Jews in Egypt After the foundation of Israel
After the foundation of Israel in 1948, and the subsequent 1948, Arab-Israeli war, in which Egypt participated. Difficulties multiplied for Egyptian Jews, who number 75000. By 1950, nearly 40% of Egypt’s Jewish population had emigrated. About 14000 of them went to Israel, and the rest to other countries.
After the Suez Crisis in 1956, about 25,000 Jews left. Nearly half the Jewish community moved to Israel, Europe, the United States, or South America.Some 1000 Jews were imprisoned. Similar measures were enacted against British and French nationals in retaliation for the invasion.
After the Six-Day war in 1967 more confiscations took place. The result was the almost complete disappearance of the 3000-year-old Jewish community in Egypt. Most Egyptian Jews fled to Israel.
According to a report, the Jewish community had fewer than 200 people in 2007. It had fewer than 40 people in 2014. It had fewer than 18 people in 2017. It had 100 people in 2018.
In March 2020, the Alexandria Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue reopened after preservation and renovation. It is the oldest synagogue in Egypt. This reopening is very meaningful to Egypt’s Jewish community.
In Cairo, the 800-year-old Ben Ezra Synagogue has been restored. It now serves as a tourist attraction for Jewish visitors worldwide. The only functioning synagogue in Cairo is Hashamain, which is maintained by the Israeli diplomatic staff.