Egyptians conflicted over preserving Jewish past

[Behind the Aegis]

CAIRO — The warren of slum alleys is called the Jews' Quarter, but no Jews live there. The ancient synagogue still stands, but its roof is gone. The government is renovating it, but is doing so at a moment when anti-Israel feeling is running especially high in Egypt.

The Ben Maimon synagogue exemplifies this country's conflicted relationship with its Jewish past.

The Jewish community that once flourished in the Arab world's most populous nation left behind physical traces ranging from grand temples in central Cairo and Alexandria to a holy man's humble grave in a Nile Delta village. But the modern-day Egyptian view of those relics lies within a narrow spectrum ranging from disinterest to outright hostility.

On a recent morning, teenage workers were busy lugging planks across what was once the Ben Maimon synagogue's sanctuary and pumping out greenish water flooding the dirt floor of an adjacent room.

The bimah, the lectern where the Torah scroll was once read, was visible under plastic sheeting, and a niche in the wall facing toward Jerusalem was all that remained of the elaborate wooden ark that held the scrolls.

Not everyone was pleased about the renovation.

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[imdjh]

1. On the one hand, preservation is a very good thing. On the other, there is a mosque built over....

.... the site of the ancient temple in Jerusalem. Clearly the mosque can't be more than 1300 years old, whereas the temple might be thousands of years old, or on top of a temple that is thousands of years old.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. The latter isn't a case of preservation. It's something that's there and used regularly n/t

[imdjh]

3. Ah, but Judaism is native to Egypt and Israel, and Islam is exotic to both.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Sorry, I've got no idea what yr trying to argue...

That you think one religion is alien to somewhere allows it to be treated differently? Correct me if I've got what yr trying to say wrong, but if that's the case, you really want to have a think about it, as it leads to a whole bunch of nasty conclusions...

[Ken Burch]

14. Sounds like he wants the Dome of the Rock bulldozed

n/t.

[Bolo Boffin]

5. I think Isis and Osiris might have something to say about that. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

8. Latest evidence is that the Holy of Holies is not where the Dome of the Rock is at

but at a nearby field with trees, as shown by Simcha Jacobovici, host of "The Naked Archaeologist."

The world would have been better off had the Bible never been written!

[cali]

10. I doubt that. It's sloppy thinking to blame the Bible for

human nature.

[IndianaGreen]

12. Men wrote the stupid Bible as a control mechanism to keep others under slavery

The slavery of ignorance and superstition!

[Vegasaurus]

6. The 850,000 Jews, forcibly exiled from their homes in Arab lands

is a tragedy that very few seem to care about.

The Palestinians want reparations and return.

Jews get nothing.

And the Palestinian supporters don't care at all about the Jews whose homes were stolen and property seized.

It seems that the complete erasure of Jews from Arab lands, and the subsequent ongoing anti-semitism towards Jews, should be a world wide concern, if justice were really the goal.

But it isn't.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. What you've said is completely untrue - 850,000 Jews were not forcibly expelled...

You've been corrected on this exact same thing time and time again, yet continue to repeat it. Also, yr attack on supporters of Palestinian rights in yr fourth line is really pathetic, as supporters of Palestinian rights don't all think the same way.

Instead of coming out with blatantly false claims and then attacking everyone else for not 'caring' about yr false claim, come up with something that's actually factual and see what happens then?

[xc8mip]

9. Parallel universe of dimwit nightmare

that is my impression after reading your post vegasaury

[cali]

11. oh what crap.

As Violet points out, your claim about the forcible exile of 850,000 Jews is patently false, and you shouldn't lecture anyone about being one sided.

[shira]

16. some figures for the numerically challenged

820,000
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/jewref.html

900,000
http://www.jcpa.org/jpsr/jpsr-beker-f05.htm

850,000
http://www.americansephardifederation.org/sub/sources/jewish_refugees.asp

b/w 800,000 and 1,000,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_lands

------------

and of those, around 600,000 to 650,000 went to Israel

[ConsAreLiars]

13. The only thing half-way accurate in your post is your choice of

a "name." Your morality is Saurian at best, and your brain seems to be in a permanently vegetative state, capable of only tropic activity.

[Ken Burch]

15. I'm going to surprise you hear and say the Mizrahi should ALSO get reparations

and Right of Return.

Whoever in the Arab states that cause those expulsions did a horrible injustice not only to the Mizrahi, but also to Palestinians, since it took away any moral advantage the Arab states would have had to condemn the expulsion of Palestinians. Also, had they not been expelled, the Mizrahi would never have supported Zionism(almost none of them had supported it prior to 1948). For their support they also got a subordinate position in the Ashkenazi-dominated Israeli political and economic order that emerged and is still largely in place to this day. The vicious attacks on Amir Peretz for daring to win the Labor party leadership as a Mizrahi immigrant bear this out. Peretz was crushed in the election because he forgot his place.

There does need to be a full investigation of what happened in those countries, in order to assign precise responsibility.

Both expulsions were wrong. Both must be addressed. Neither group of exiles is responsible for the suffering of the other.