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Vital papers proving Jewish identity held back by Egypt

April 12, 2017 15:52
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By

Jenni Frazer,

jenni frazer

2 min read

A delegation of Egyptian Jews and a representative of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) are heading for Cairo at the end of April to talk to the country’s Ministry of Culture about the one-time Jewish community’s cherished life cycle registers.

Scores of bound volumes, containing every detail of the births, marriages and deaths of Jews from Alexandria and Cairo, which date back to the middle of the 19th century, were once kept in the two main synagogues in each city. But, last year, without prior warning, government officials arrived at the synagogues and took away the registers, which are now stored in the Egyptian National Archives.

Rabbi Andrew Baker of the AJC said: “For many Egyptian Jews these are the only formal records which might otherwise be inscribed in civil records. And there are cases where they are very important in proving a person’s Jewish identity, for burial or for marriage”.

One of the leaders of the Nebe Daniel organisation, Yves Fedida, who is part of the forthcoming Cairo delegation, said that the scattered community of Egyptian Jews — some of whom depend on the information in the registers to prove their Jewish status — had been trying to persuade the government for more than 12 years to allow copies to be made of the contents of the registers.