Sephardic and Sephardim Genealogy, Jewish Genealogy, Egypt

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Egypt
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Home of Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Philo of Alexandria, Jeremiah the prophet, Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides), the gaon Saadia and others, boasting the oldest known synagogue (Ben Ezra) and the second oldest Jewish cemetery (Bassatine) in the world. What else can I say!
After the Exodus from Egypt, Jews returned to Egypt in 586 B.C.E. and then maintained an uninterrupted presence in that land ever since. Some, like Fargeon, say that there has always been Jews in Egypt ever since the days of Joseph because when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, some Jews remained in Egypt and settled in Asyut where they formed a warrior tribe.
In the early 20th century, the multilingual and cosmopolitan Jews of Egypt, part of Cairo's "Belle Epoque" maintained 37 synagogues in Cairo alone, several all-Jewish orchestras, 3 Jewish theaters (one in Yiddish), nearly a dozen Jewish newspapers in a variety of languages, as well as Jewish hospitals and old age homes. The Jewish aristocracy, lived in palaces rivaling those of European nobility, entertained and hobnobbed with Egyptian and European royalty.
In 1948, 70,000 to 80,000 Jews lived in Egypt; about 55,000 in Cairo and most of the rest in Alexandria, with smaller communities in Port Said and lesser towns. 5,000 to 10,000 held Egyptian citizenship, 40,000 were stateless and 30,000 were foreign nationals (Italian, French, British and other) even though most of the latter had also been born in Egypt.
Cemeteries
Cairo
- Bassatine
  - Second oldest Jewish cemetery in the world (second only to the one on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem).
    Divided by a wall into two halves of 60 feddans (a feddan is approximately 4,200 square meters) each for the Karaite and the Rabbinate Jewish burials. The Karaite half has been sold; only the Rabbinic half remains. In the 1960s, marble stones were ransacked en masse from the Bassatine by vandals to be used in the building boom in Cairo and hoodlums set up homes and even businesses in the deserted mausoleums.
  Private cemeteries
  - In addition to the Bassatine cemetery, Cairo has a number of smaller private cemeteries belonging to some of its prominent Jewish families such as the Ades, Cattaui, Levy, Mosseri and Sapriel families. Walled and with private watchmen, these cemeteries are better preserved.

Alexandria
- Three Jewish cemeteries.
  Two in Chatby and one in Mazarita (sometimes called Chatby 1 cemetery).
  All are walled and have largely escaped vandalism.

Port Said.

Walled cemetery just out of town. I have some gravestone names.

Others

Jewish cemeteries exist in smaller towns throughout Egypt such as: Suez, Ismailia (as part of the European cemetery), Damanhour, Tanta, Kafr El Zayat, Mehalla El Cobra (3 cemeteries), Mansoura (2 cemeteries), Mit Ghamr (2 cemeteries), Zifta, Zagazig, and maybe some others.
I have the names on some tombs in those ancient cemeteries.

Archival Resources

Cairo Archival Records

Are at the Jewish community center of Cairo,
#13 Sabil El Khazinder Street, Abbassia, Cairo, Egypt.
telephone: 20 2 482-4613; fax: 20 2 482 4885.

Archives are disorganized and in Hebrew, French or Arabic.
At present, the archives are under the control of the President of the tiny remaining Cairo Jewish Community. She (because only a handful of elderly Jewish widows still remain in Egypt) cannot provide information from them and will not allow then to be searched individually or photocopied for prosperity.

Jamie Lehman collection at New York's Yeshiva University

A small subset of the Cairo archives that were spirited out of Egypt and today are housed in the university archives.Catalogued but unindexed, they consist of a mix of rabbinic records and letters, Cairo B'nai B'rith records and accounts of the charity activities of the community. As such, advance permission is needed to use it.

Alexandria Jewish Community Archives

Address requests to Jewish Community Center of Alexandria, 69 Rue Nebi Daniel, Alexandria, Egypt.

Egyptian Civil Records

To request certificates from the Egyptian civil authorities, one must know the exact date and the specific district within Cairo, Alexandria, etc that the event occurred. Mail requests are not known to ever to get replies. Even on-site requests are not likely to succeed unless one goes in person to the proper place and persuades (monetarily - bakshish) the official in charge to look. Even then, you will usually be told that nothing could be found.

Montefiore Censuses

These censuses which were conducted in 1839, 1849, 1855, 1866 and 1875, were taken of the Jewish population of Palestine, but they also include (on reel 3) a census of the Sephardim of Alexandria, Egypt, taken in 1840.
- 1840 Montefiore Alexandria Census online

Alliance Israelite Universelle Archives

45 Rue la Bruyere, 75009, Paris.
In the 19th century the AIU set up schools in many locations in Egypt. Their archives in Paris contains much information of value to the genealogist.

Internet resources

Local Articles of interest

How to get started in Sephardic Jewish Genealogy for the beginner
The Sephardim - Who are they and their history.
Jews and Christians in the Moslem World
Maps Spain
Some differences in Sephardic and Ashkenazi genealogy
Jewish Names and genealogies
Interesting Population figures
Inquisicion and early Hispanic Archives
Don Antonio de Sequera y Carvajal - Descendant of Columbus, founder of the Egyptian Artillery Academy
General Jewish Genealogy Resources

Databases

Prominent Jews in Egypt (1942-1943)   (Annuaire des Juifs d'Egypte 1942 & 1943)
Egyptian Directory 1941
Fargeon, Maurice. Les Juifs d'Egypte des origines a nos jours. Cairo, 1938.   Annotated Index.
Jews from Egypt Deported from France in WWII
Egyptian Jews from France exterminated in Concentration Camps
Refugees from Erets Israel to Alexandria in WWI   (Link off-site)
1840 Montefiore Alexandria Census online   (Link off-site)
Marriage Authorizations by Alexandria rabbinate 1934-35   (Link off-site)

Other webpages

Bassatine News - Cairo Jewish Community website.
Association Nebi Daniel - Alexandria Jews.
Friends of the Jewish Community in Cairo
Historical Society of Jews from Egypt
International Association of Jews from Egypt
Samir Raafat's excellent articles about Cairo's Jews
Articles about Egypt
History of the Jews of Egypt - by R. Barda
Egyptian Jewry - Why It Declined - by Yacoub Daoud Eskandarany
L'Egypte d'Antan - Egypte of bygone days
Memmories of life in Egypt - by Albert Pardo (in French)
Scanned pages from Egyptian Directory 1941 - by David Lisbona
Karaite Jews from Egypt
Photos of cemeteries of Egypt
Photos of synagogues of Egypt
More Photos of synagogues of Egypt
Photos of Alexandria from AJOE (Association des Juifs Originaires d'Egypte)
Photos of Alexandria from Amicale Alexandrie Hier et Aujourd'hui
Women's Lens bilingual blog on Judaism today, its history, and the absence of Sephardic narrative in the modern Jewish world.
The Egyptian Chronicles Historical accounts by non-Jewish Egyptian Authors

Newslist

Second Exodus. The newsletter of the "Historical Society of Jews from Egypt".
- Send email to Desire Sakkal (Editor)

Bibliography

The most useful booksfor the genealogist researching Egypt are:

Beinin, Joel: The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, politics and the formation of a modern diaspora. Los Angeles: Univ of California Press, 1998.
Fargeon, Maurice, ed.:Annuaire des Juifs d'Egypte et du proche orient. Cairo: La Societe des Editions Historiques Juives d'Egypte, 1942, 1943. Similar to U.S. city directories.
Malka, Eli :Jacob's Children in the Land of the Mahdi. The Jews of the Sudan.Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ Press, 1998.
The appendix includes a listing of all Jewish marriages in the Sudan. Since these Jews were, with rare exceptions, from Egypt, the missing link to many family histories can be found here.
Juifs d'Egypte, Images et Textes. : Paris: Les Editions du Scribe, 1984. 2nd. ed. Compendium of photographs and images compiled by Jews from Egypt.
Kramer, Gudrun.: The Jews in Modern Egypt, 1914-1952. Seattle: Univ of Washington Press, 1989. This is the most comprehensive study of that period.
Laskier, Michael.: The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970. New York: New York University Press, 1992. Excellent review.
Patai, Raphael.: The Vanished Worlds of Jewry. New York: Macmillan, 1981.
Laredo, Abraham: Les Noms des Juifs du Maroc. Institut Montano, Madrid, 1978.
Although out of print, this book is essential to consult for any Sephardic research. It contains a huge listing of family names, their origins and meanings and notable persons who carried these names with documented sources for further research. Invaluable.
A listing of names compiled by Abensur can be found on the ETSI website
A listing of names compiled by me can be found in the "Names" section of this website.

Toledano, Joseph: La Saga des Familles. Stavit, Tel Aviv 1983. Much smaller but similar to Laredo's book. Does not indicate sources but has old photos of family members. There is now a new much expanded edition available.
Aciman, Andre.: Out of Egypt. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994, 1995. About an Alexandrian Jewish family.
Alhadeff, Gini.: The Sun at Midday. Tales of a mediterranean family. Pantheon Books, NY 1997.
Perera, Victor. : The Cross and the Pear Tree. New York: Knopf, 1995. The author relates his search for his ancestors, some of whom lived in Alexandria, Egypt.

However there are many others that are of interest to a researcher of Egyptain Jewry. For a more complete list go to my "Book" section .

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