History of the Jews in Egypt

WORLD NEWS

9 May, 2018

History of the Jews in Egypt

The most famous Jewish families in Egypt

Jews of Egypt The Jewish community that inhabited Egypt was one of the largest Jewish communities in the Arab world and the most influential, open and involved in various fields in modern Egyptian society. They are the oldest Jewish community where the history of the Jews in Egypt dates back to the beginning of the first Jewish family, the family of Jacob ben Isaac and her emigration after the arrival of the prophet Joseph to an important position in the rule of Egypt and to follow his brothers by the famine of the Middle East. Although there is no accurate census, the Jewish population in Egypt was estimated at less than 100 in 2004. [1] After it was between 75-80 thousand in 1922. [2] The basic composition of the Jewish population in Egypt consisted of the Arabic-speaking Jews, the Rabbanis who read, and who were joined by the Sephardim after their expulsion from Spain. After the opening of the Suez Canal, trade flourished in Egypt, attracting it in the Ashkenazim, who began to arrive in Egypt following the massacres of Jews in Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, where they found safe haven in Egypt to form the commercial and cultural elite of modern society. Whose residence in Cairo was confined to the "Barbara Trail". But the situation worsened for Egyptian Jews since the late 1940s after the 1948 war, and things got worse after the Lavon scandal and the 1956 war.

Egypt was the first country in which Judaism originated. Therefore, the Jewish presence in Egypt is the oldest in the world even when compared to Palestine. The Ten Commandments, which are the actual beginning of Judaism, were found in Sinai, which is part of Egypt since the time of the first Pharaonic families, Sinai confirms its Egyptian.

The most famous Jewish families in Egypt

Historian Joel Benin says in his book, The Diaspora of Egyptian Jews, that between 1949 and 1951, about 22,000 Jews emigrated from Egypt. After the war of 1956 (the triple aggression), the number of Jews living in Egypt was between 50 and 55 thousand, as the German researcher Gudrun Kramer wrote in her book "Jews in Modern Egypt"

The tripartite aggression was the signal of the Egyptian Jews to leave. According to the researcher Michel Lasker, some 22,000 people left within nine months. By the early 1960s, there were only 7,000 Jews in Egypt, and the numbers continued to decline until they remained in Egypt at the end of 1970. Only 300 Jews, but did they all go to Israel?

The number of Egyptian Jews who settled in Israel is estimated at about 45 percent of the total number of Jews who left Egypt for 20 years, while the remainder reestablished their sects in Europe and the Americas.

The Jewish community that inhabited Egypt was one of the largest Jewish communities in the Arab world and the most influential, open and involved in various fields in modern Egyptian society. They are the oldest Jewish community. The history of the Jews in Egypt dates back to the beginning of the first Jewish family, The arrival of the Prophet Joseph to an important position in the rule of Egypt and to catch his brothers by the impact of the famine that pervaded the Middle East. Although there is no accurate census, the Jewish population in Egypt was estimated at less than 100 in 2004, between 75,000 and 80,000 in 1922.

The basic composition of the Jewish population in Egypt consisted of the Arabic-speaking Jews who were called by the Sephardim, who were joined by the Sephardim after their expulsion from Spain. After the opening of the Suez Canal, trade flourished in Egypt, attracting them in the Ashkenazim who began to arrive in Egypt following the massacres To Jews in Europe in the latter part of the nineteenth century, where they found safe haven in Egypt to form the commercial and cultural elite of modern society. Whose residence in Cairo was confined to the "Barbara Trail".

The Chicorel family

A Sephardic family of Italian origin whose fame is known to the family dean Mornio Chicorel and emigrated to Egypt from Izmir (the Ottoman Empire) in the late 19th century. He was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Chicorel Shops, which was one of the most famous shops in Egypt, which was founded in 1887 and the capital of the company was 500.000 Egyptian pounds, employing 485 foreign employees and 142 Egyptian employees.

In 1909, Checorel founded the first private store named Le Grand Massaghan Chiquore beside the Opera Palace in central Cairo, with the assistance of his three children: Solomon, Joseph and Salvatore. The shop grew up and became one of the most luxurious shops in Cairo. Chicoryl also opened in 1936 a series of other stores called Orico (and the prices were a little cheaper than the shops of Chicorel, which served the aristocracy mainly.

Mourinho Checorel is the father of Salvator Chiquorel, who became famous in Egypt when he became the dean of Egyptian Jews in Cairo in 1946 after Rene Qatawi and Solomon Chikorel, the eldest son of Mourinho Chicoril, was killed in his villa on Sri Lanka Street in Zamalek district on 5 March 1927 by his Jewish driver .

Family Members:

- Raymond Shikorel (1920-2008), Egyptian philosopher and musician

Michel Schiqurel (* 1947), French contractor, son of Raymond Chiquarel

- Gerard Chicorel (1951), Gérard Cicurel, a French businessman, founded a telecommunications company in 2012

- Mourinho Chicoril () founder of the Chicorel family in Egypt.

- Salvator Chicorel (1893-1975) Egyptian Swordsman.

- Solomon Chikorel (1927), the son of Mourinho Chicorel.

Ronald Shikorel (1945) - Egyptian mathematician.

Family of Qatawi

The Qatawi family is a Jewish-Egyptian family. A number of its members emerged in political and economic activity in Egypt in the late nineteenth century and until the first half of the twentieth century. The family began with the migration of Elisha Haider Qatawi to Cairo in the late 18th century where his son Jacob (1801-1883) received privileges from the government for commercial and financial activities and was the first Egyptian Jew to be granted the title of "Bek". He also earned the title Baron of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which took the family's nationality. He was entrusted with the treasury glasses during the reign of the Khedive Abbas I (1849-1854). He retained this position during the reign of Governor Sa'id and Khedive Ismail, and in his late days took over the presidency of the Jewish community in Cairo, which was called the Israeli community. After his death, his son Musa Qatawi (1850-1924) succeeded him in the presidency of the community, was elected a member of the Egyptian parliament, and was granted the title of Pashawia. Moussa Qatawi was a senior finance and banking man. He managed a number of companies and contributed to the financing of rail projects in Upper Egypt, East Delta and public transport projects in Cairo in cooperation with the families of Sawares, Rolo and Manasseh.

After the death of Moses, the presidency of the community moved to Yusuf Aslan Qatawi (1816-1942), who studied engineering in Paris and worked on his return as an employee of the Ministry of Public Works. He then traveled to Italy to study the origins of the sugar industry and returned to Egypt to establish a sugar factory. He was elected a member of many advisory councils for industrial and financial institutions. In 1920 he joined with Talaat Harb and Youssef Shikorel in founding Misr Bank. In 1915, Youssef Qatawi was a member of the Egyptian delegation seeking to negotiate with Britain for independence. He was elected in 1922 as a member of the committee entrusted with drafting a new Egyptian constitution in the wake of the 1919 Egyptian revolution and the British declaration of granting Egypt its formal independence (1923) ). Yusuf Aslan Qatawi served as Minister of Finance in 1924 and Minister of Transport in 1925. In 1923 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from Kom Ombo and was a member of the Senate from 1927 until 1936. In 1935 he published a study in French defending the policy of Khedive Ismail Economic development. He was married to the wealthy Jewish family of Soares and his wife was the maid of Queen Nazali.

Palace of Qatawi Pasha Street Ibrahim Pasha Najib (Palace of the Nile now)

After the death of Yusuf Aslan, his son Aslan was elected to take his father's seat in the Senate in 1938. He also served as Secretary General of the Royal Property Department of the Ministry of Finance and a representative of the Egyptian government in the Suez Canal Company and a government representative in the National Bank of Egypt. His second son, René, was elected in 1943 as head of the Jewish community in Cairo. He was a member of parliament and he ran several economic projects. Between 1931 and 1936 he published three volumes, a date of the reign of Muhammad Ali. Youssef Qatawi was one of the founders of the Egyptian Society for Jewish Historical Studies. In 1957, the Rene and Aslan brothers left Egypt and settled in Europe.

The most prominent figure in the Qatawi family, George Qatawi, was primarily literary. He published several studies on English and French literature and wrote poetry in French. The Catholic Christian doctrine was embraced by many Sephardic Jewish intellectuals who abandoned Judaism.

Contrary to what some Zionist sources claim, there is no indication that the main figures of the Qatawi family sympathize with the Zionist project from far or near, nor do they undertake any activities that would support this project. But opposed both Yusuf Aslan Qatawi and his son Renee Qattawi Zionism, when they took over the presidency of the Jewish community in Egypt. Rene Qattawi warned Yelon Castro, the leader of the Zionist movement in Egypt, of calling for immigration to Palestine as this affects the relationship of the group with the Egyptian authorities. The Qatawi family also called for the integration of the members of the Jewish community into Egyptian society. Youssef Aslan Qatawi encouraged the establishment of the Egyptian Jewish Youth Association (1934/1935) and the weekly al-Shams newspaper in Arabic. Their goal was to "convert" the members of the group and deepen their membership of the Egyptian homeland.

Smouha Family

One of the largest families of Jews in Alexandria, they worked in the establishment of rice rackets, sugar refining, textile and the name of the "Smouha" area in Alexandria as a proportion of them and the family's reputation is attributed to Joseph Smouha was a man of economy and industry of first-class and has visited Egypt to trade in textiles, In 1924 he dried the lake of Hadra, which was called Rajab Pasha's navigation. He started to build the Semouha neighborhood. The beginning was the establishment of an athletic club for equestrian practice in Alexandria, which still bears the name "

Joseph Smouha was born on January 1, 1878 in Baghdad, Iraq, and died in Paris on September 22, 1961 at the age of 83 and was known for his personal friendship with King Fuad I. Joseph Smouha was renowned for his generosity in funding social service projects for the Jewish community, And on top of which is his contribution to the establishment of the Jewish hospital in the Sidi Gaber neighborhood of Alexandria.

The family name was recently repeated in Egypt after being asked by an Egyptian court to return the land to their property after being seized by the Egyptian authorities, they said 62 years ago.

The Swars Family

The Sfardian family came to Egypt from Livorno, Italy, during the first half of the 19th century, where the three brothers, Raphael (1846-1902), Joseph (1837-1900) and Felix (1844-1906) founded the Soares Foundation in 1875, 1880 Rafael Suares, in cooperation with the French Capital and with the companies of Rolo and Qataoui, established the Egyptian Real Estate Bank. The bank's capital, when it was established, was 40 million French francs, reaching 8 million pounds in 1942. This bank played an influential role in the Egyptian agricultural economy. It is the result of the loans granted to the owners of agriculture has become control of more than one million acres of Egyptian and in cooperation with British capital Represented by the British Financial Jewish Sir Ernest Cassel it established the National Bank of Egypt in 1898 and to finance the construction of the Aswan Dam.

Swars joined with Kassel and the Qatawi family to purchase 300,000 feddans from the Sunni circle and to resell them to major owners and real estate companies. Soares also joined French capital in the establishment of the All-Egyptian Sugar and Refining Company in 1897, Which was incorporated in 1905 by Wadi Kom Ombo Company. It was one of the largest joint ventures between Qatawi, Swaras, Rollo and Mansi, and was one of the largest agricultural companies in Egypt.

Swars participated in the establishment of the Tanta Water Company. In the field of land transportation, the family established the company "Sawars for passenger cars". This means that the transport was named after the family "Sawares" and cooperated with the Qattawi family in establishing the railway. Large areas of agricultural land and building land in the center of Cairo, where one of the fields was named «Square Soares», relative to Felix Suares, but the name of the field changed to Mustafa Kamel from 1939.

The Soares family owned stakes and shares in many companies, many of which held presidential and administrative positions in many of them. Leon Sowares, son of Felix Sowares, managed the Sheikh Fadl Lands Company and managed the Wadi Kom Ombo Company. In 1914, a joint stock company that owned thousands of acres of land was purchased. After its reclamation, it was sold to small areas for farmers and long-term loans.

The Muzairi Family

Is a Sephardic Jewish family of Italian origin who settled in Egypt in the second half of the 18th century. The family retained the Italian nationality. Youssef Nasim Moussiri made his fortune from commerce. After his death in 1876, his four sons founded the foundation of Youssef Naseem Moussiri and his sons.

The family has invested heavily in the hotel industry, contributing to the establishment of the Greater Egypt Hotels Company with a capital of LE 145,000, including Continental Hotels, Mena House, Savoy, San Stefano.

The eldest son, Naseem Bek Muzairi, married to the daughter of Yacoub Qatawi, became the vice president of the Jewish community in Cairo, a post he inherited from the family. The Moussiri family achieved its real start only in the early 20th century, 1904, when the son of Naseem Bey, Youssef, Jacques and Morris, Mousiri Bank.

He has studied the economy in England, married Felix Swares' daughter, has close ties with Ismail Sidqi, has many interests in France and has close ties to European Jewish houses such as the Rothschilds, Joseph Mousiri founded Josephy Film Company in 1915, which established and directed cinemas and film production studios and became one of the largest companies in the Egyptian film industry. Victor Moussiri He was an outstanding agricultural engineer Its important contributions in the field of cotton and sugar cultivation industry.

The Mancha family

Ophthalmology Hospital in Makram Bey

A Sephardic Jewish family came to Egypt from Spain and was the dean of the Mencha family. Baron Jacob de Mencha was born in Egypt in 1810 and died in Alexandria in November 1883. A cashier in the Directorate of Giza, and then appointed agent for the works of the late Hassan Pasha Manstrali, the father of Rashid Pasha, who was a guardian of Syria in that era and included in his work until he became «cashier Pasha» Khadio Ismail

In 1869 he came to the Egyptian country Francois Joseph, Emperor of Austria to attend the ceremony opening the Suez Canal, the Baron came to receive him as the head of the Austrian community and the city of Vienna, the capital of Austria was met with the Emperor and granted the Emperor and another title with the title of honor, and in 1875 granted him the title of Baron inherited title The first to win the title of the Israelis in Egypt, and to do so for his charitable work and in recognition of the services he gave to the Austrian-Hungarian-Egyptian trade

Founded in collaboration with Yacoub Qatawi, a financial and commercial institution that has branches in Manchester, Liverpool, London, Paris, Marseilles and Istanbul. He also cooperated with Khedive Ismail in the establishment of the Turkish-Egyptian Bank, and was associated with many companies and projects of the Qatawi and Sawares families.

Menasheh, the wife of Menasheh, named after the most famous streets of Muharram Bey and the picture of the Sporting Club 1914

After his death, Jacob took over the family business, moved him from financial and banking to the lucrative cotton and sugar trade, and bought vast tracts of land. (1865-1943). He studied in Vienna and founded the "Manasseh House" branch in London and the head of the Jewish community in Alexandria between the ages of 18 and 19, Ami (1926-1933).

The family enjoyed a political and economic influence and contributed to the establishment of a number of important Jewish social institutions, such as the Menashe Hospital in 1890, which gained renown in the service of Jewish patients. The family established a joint school in 1907, and in coordination with the " , And within a few years the high school of Lissieh opened the Jewish Federation in Makram Bey district, then the "Ibn Maimon" secondary school in 194

The Rollo Family

It was a Sephardic Jewish family that came to Egypt in the first half of the nineteenth century and retained British citizenship. Rubin Roulo owned a trade company that specialized in the importation of the Nilea, one of the pigments. In 1870, Jacob and Simon founded a financial institution The Rollo family cooperated with the families of Qattawi and Sawares in several projects that they established in cooperation with the British Finance Minister Sir Ernst Kassel, especially the projects of the Sunni Department, the establishment of the Helwan Railway and the establishment of the Egyptian Real Estate Bank And the National Bank Egyptian.

During the economic crisis of 1907, Yacoub set up the foundation and then established with his three sons the Rollo & Co., which combined banking, financial and wholesale activities in cotton, sugar, rice, coal and coffee. It also held large stakes in some major real estate companies, Which was founded on 24 March 1904 with a 99-year distinction and a capital of £ 300,000. Its major shareholders were Sir Ernst Castle, Sir Elwin Palmer, Khawajat Swares, Partners, Felix Sowares, Raphael Soares and Yousef Aslan Qatawi Bey. The company owned 30,000 acres in Kom Ombo , Other than 21,000 acres , And 91 kilometers of banks and canals and 48 kilometers of railways, and the family also owned significant shares in the company «lands Sheikh Fad» and «sugar factories».

When Rubin's death left Jacob Rollo with a fortune of 70,000 pounds, his eldest son, Robert Jacob Rollo, was elected president of the Jewish community in Alexandria in the period 1934-1948. The outbreak of the Palestine war directly because of his disagreement with the rabbi of Alexandria, pro-Zionism.

Robert Rollo has held an important position in the economic and social life of Egypt. He chaired a number of corporate boards that his father helped establish. He was a legal advisor to King Fouad I and a close associate. He served as a mediator between the palace and the British High Commissioner. 1938.

Family of lentils

The family of Adas is a rich Jewish family, Italian origin of the famous Jewish families in the world of economy, and founded a group of companies such as Benzayoun, Hid, Rivoli, and was nationalized in the 1960s by a large group of Egyptian and foreign Jewish companies by a decision of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Emile Adas, "who founded the Egyptian Petroleum Company with a capital of 75,000 pounds.

The Nadler Family

Leah Nadler, wife of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations

The Nadler family was famous for the establishment of confectionery factories. The family settled in Alexandria and their factories were nationalized after the July revolution. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the sixth secretary-general of the United Nations, married Leah Nadler, the sister of Fred Nadler of the United States, and the owner of AMEP and friends of Nadler and their husbands from the Jewish club in Egypt. (1983-1993), the President of the Association of Beautiful Israel and a former member of Haggana, mother of Ishaq Harzaj (Minister of the Government of Israel 4 times).