The Jews of Egypt: From the Bible to the Golden Age and the Abraham Accords

Sunday, December 17

USA 12:00 pm PT / 3:00 pm ET

UK 8:00 pm / France 09:00 pm / Israel 10:00 pm

The talk will last approximately 90 minutes

About this talk

The Jewish Community in Egypt is as old as the Jewish tradition itself. We will follow the Jewish presence from the time of the Bible until its Golden Age, from around 1870 until the Suez Crisis in 1956. We will relive the belle epoque - with Alexandrian born Alec Nacamuli - a time when Egyptian Jews enjoyed prosperity and relative calm, and we will discover their influence in commerce, culture and government circles. We will learn about their communal and religious life, and their relationship with their Muslim neighbors.

We will then see how the tides change for the community, with the growth of Egyptian nationalism and the establishment of modern Israel. We will end by taking a look at the reality today, at the Jews, the synagogues and cemeteries that remain, and what efforts are being made to preserve this important part of Jewish and Egyptian history.

About Louise and Alec

Louise Arwas is originally from London. Her father, grandparents and great-grandparents were all born in Egypt. She is involved in several related education projects, including organizing heritage tours to Cairo and Alexandria with former community members.

Alec Nacamuli was born in 1943 in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1956 his family left Egypt and settled in Switzerland. In 1966 Alec moved to London to pursue a Master's Degree. He is an active member of the Association of Egyptian Jews and returned to Egypt on multiple occasions. Alec is the Chairman of Sephardi Voices UK.

Choose your contribution amount

With your contribution you will also be donating to  Sephardi Voices UK, an organization founded with the mission to record and capture the experiences of the Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East, North Africa and Iran who settled in the UK.

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$18

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$9

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