An Inventory to the Jamie Lehmann Memorial Collection
Records of the Jewish Community of Cairo, 1886-1961

About This Guide

Written by Roger S. Kohn.

Finding aid revised in March, 2008 to refine series structure and correct errata.

Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services, March 1999.

Converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002, and updated as noted above, March, 2008.

Encoding is in English, with some French words and phrases.

The Jewish Community of Cairo in the Twentieth Century

Egyptian Economics and Politics (1869 - 1936)

European colonial intervention in African affairs in the mid-nineteenth century had its strongest impact on Egypt. French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps built the Suez Canal (1869) and British engineers built the country's first railroad system. With French and British influence growing in the country, Egypt had to respond to international demands and pressures which destroyed its traditional economic structure. The subsistence farming system, which provided all essential goods required by the farmer and his family without leaving any surplus for sale, still prevailed in Egypt. It was abruptly replaced by an exchange economy based on international trade of goods and services. Events in other parts of the world also began to influence the Egyptian economy. The American Civil War (1861-1865) produced a boom for Egypt because the Confederacy could not export the cotton produced in the Southern states. Prices of Egyptian cotton increased fourfold on the world market. Soon after General Grant captured Richmond, Virginia, American cotton exports increased and prices collapsed in Egypt.

The economic crisis left the Egyptian monarch, the Khedive, without political power against the European nations. Great Britain, especially, wanted to protect its strategic interests, mainly to insure free passage of ships bound to and from India through the canal. The leading European colonial power could not tolerate the social unrest stirred by a growing Egyptian nationalism. When mutinies in the Khedive's armies and rioting against European naval bases occured, the British government sent an expeditionary force to the Suez Canal and occupied Cairo (1882). Great Britain ruled Egypt until 1922, maintaining only the facade of a Khedivial government.

The British protectorate over Egypt was administered by the British representative in Cairo. Sir Evelyn Baring, later Lord Cromer (1891), represented British interests in Egypt from the late 1870s until his retirement in 1907. The British "High Commissioners" who succeeded Lord Cromer were resented by the educated Egyptian nationalists. Egyptians, especially those born after the British protectorate took effect, were increasingly hostile to the European presence.

During World War I (1914-1918) England's position as a colonial power was weakened while her forces and resources were dedicated to the war against Germany. The activities of middle class nationalists in Egypt, curbed during the war, grew stronger after the Armistice. Egypt gained its independence in 1922 when Great Britain formally agreed to end its protectorate. Despite the declaration of independence, however, Great Britain retained control over the defense and diplomacy of the Kingdom of Egypt (1922-1952), thus maintaining its control of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea.

During the interwar period, three forces vied for power over Egypt: the King, Fuad I (born 1868), who reigned from 1922 until his death in 1936 and who frequently tried to limit the power of the Nationalist Party; the Wafd, founded by Saad Zaghlul Pasha (1857-1927), which controlled the parliament, the media and public opinion; and the British High Commissioner who remained active behind the scenes, albeit with reduced authority. After World War I, the High Commissioner represented only one weakened European nation, not the unrivaled Empire of Queen Victoria's days. After the death of Fuad, Great Britain signed a formal treaty of mutual defense and alliance with his son Farouk (1920-1965). Farouk reigned from 1936 to 1952 and died in exile in Rome.^[1]

The Egyptian Jewish Community: Demography

Within a short period of time, fewer than sixty years, Egyptian society was completely transformed. Rapid changes affecting the economy and shifts in the political system had serious repercussions for the Jewish community. Modernization forced Egyptian Jews to reconsider their established customs and practices, and introduced western ideas into their culture.

There is no census of the Jewish population in Egypt until the end of the nineteenth century when an estimated 25,000 Jews lived in the country. The Jewish population increased to more than double between 1897, the year of the first available census, and 1917, when it was estimated at 60,000. This figure remained stable until the mass emigration of 1947. Today, only a few hundred Jews are left in Cairo and Alexandria.^[2]

Not all Jews living in Egypt were Egyptian nationals. Since the "Capitulations" laws of the sixteenth century, European powers enjoyed extensive protection for their subjects anywhere in the Ottoman Empire. Under the Capitulations, European and American residents in Egypt were exempt from local taxes and were subject only to their own consular courts. The group of protected nationals was so broadly defined that it included Jews, despite the fact that there had been a continuous Jewish presence in Egypt since Biblical times. At the end of World War I, 60% of the Jews living in Egypt were foreign nationals, claiming British, French and Italian citizenship. The number decreased slightly after Egypt passed a law on nationality in 1929. Bureaucratic obstructions directed against all non-Muslims, Greeks, Copts and Jews, made it difficult for them to obtain Egyptian citizenship. Many Jews, although born in Egypt, were technically stateless because they were neither foreign nor Egyptian citizens.^[3]

Jews in Egypt were urban dwellers, living mostly in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria. The Jewish population of Cairo almost tripled between 1897 and 1917. By 1947 nearly 65% of all Egyptian Jews lived in Cairo. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the Jews living in Alexandria and in Cairo tended to be concentrated in a few neigborhoods, especially Jumruk in Alexandria and Jamaliya in Cairo. Jews gradually moved away from these Jewish quarters. Wealthy Cairo Jews built villas in modern residential areas of the capital, in Garden City and Heliopolis. The famous British bibliophile Elkan Nathan Adler, visiting the Middle East in the early 1900s, admired the residence of the most prominent Jewish family in Cairo, the Cattaui (Qattawi). His comments reflect the Cattaui's westernization and close ties with the colonial power:

... [The synagogue] adjoins the magnificent residence of M. Moses Cattaui [1850-1924], which was once the palace of one of Khedive Ismail's favorite Pasha, and was lent by its present owner to Lord Dufferin, who lived there during the three months or so that he spent in Egypt as England's Special Commissioner. For this attention, Queen Victoria sent M. Cattaui her portrait, which he treasures with no little pride. The garden is almost a park... Cattauis are great benefactors of their brethren and surpassed by none in public spirit and intelligent liberality.^[4]

The Cattauis assumed a leadership role of such importance in the Cairo Jewish community, that their family history is closely intertwined with the history of the community as a whole.

The Cairo Jewish Community; The Cattauis

Moses Cattaui succeeded his father Jacob in 1883, as the leader of Cairo Jewry. In the early years, following his father's example, he exercised tight control over Jewish community affairs. Moses' inherited leadership did not remain undisputed for long, however. Activist members of the B'nai B'rith lodges in Cairo waged a ten year battle for modernization against Moses Cattaui during and after World War I. They ultimately compelled him and the older generation he represented to share the community leadership with them. Moses Cattaui nevertheless remained president of the Community Council until his death in 1924. The General Assembly of 1926 passed and approved a set of by-laws that governed the activities of the Jewish Community Council. Joseph Aslan Cattaui, who succeeded his uncle, presided over this Council and help further westernize the Jewish community.

Joseph Aslan Cattaui (1861-1942), trained in Paris as an engineer, was involved in numerous industrial ventures and had diverse financial interests including agriculture, transportation and sugar refining. He was a founding member of Misr, Egypt's leading bank. He began his political activity with his involvement in the drafting the Egyptian constitution in 1923. His wife was among the ladies-in-waiting at the royal court of Fuad and Farouk. Cattaui was elected deputy, appointed finance minister in 1924, and served as a senator from 1927 to 1939, when he resigned because of poor health. He assumed the leadership of the Cairo Jewish community in 1924 and despite illness and paralysis he remained at its head until his death. His second son, Rene, succeeded him and was active in Jewish affairs until his emigration in 1957.^[5]

The Cairo Jewish Community: The Community Council and the Rabbinate

The by-laws of 1926 required that the Jewish community of Cairo be governed by a Council of eighteen members, each elected for a three year term by the General Assembly. To participate in the elections, a Cairo Jew had to be over age 21 and pay a personal tax called "Arikha" for three consecutive years. Activities of the community were funded by income from the Arikha, interest from investments, revenues from real estate properties, proceeds from synagogue operations, taxes on weddings and funerals, fees from notarized acts, income from ritual slaughtering and the annual lottery. Expenses consisted of salaries for rabbinical appointees and school administrators as well as support for the welfare agencies that cared for the many indigent Cairo Jews.^[6]

The Community Council held its meetings at the main office of the Community, 12 rue Zaki. The Chief Rabbi's office and the records of the community were located there as well. There is no evidence that a recording secretary was assigned specifically to the Community Council. Minutes of the Council meetings seem to indicate that the Chief Rabbi's secretary, the Chancellor, acted as the Council secretary for all practical matters. The "chancellerie rabbinique" employed a "Chancelier" (chancellor), a clerk, and a Secretary to the Arikha. Abramino Ezri served as chancellor from March 1925 to May 1942. After his resignation, he remained honorary chancellor and his duties were divided and assigned to two administrators: general secretary ("secrétaire général") and accounting secretary ("secrétaire comptable").^[7]

While the Council handled most administrative matters, religious questions were left to the discretion of the Chief Rabbi who was elected by the General Assembly and supervised the Rabbinical Court. The Cairo Rabbinical Court attracted very talented rabbis, many of whom later occupied important positions in other cities. Rabbi Jacob Moses Toledano (1880-1960), scion of a famous dynasty of Moroccan rabbis, was born, educated and ordained in Tiberias. He served as Av bet Din and deputy Chief Rabbi of Cairo from 1926 to 1929, and later became Chief Rabbi of Alexandria (1937-1942) and Tel-Aviv (1942). After the creation of the State of Israel, Rabbi Toledano served as Minister for Religious Affairs (1958). Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef (1920-) was head of the Cairo Rabbinical Court between 1947 and 1950 and later served as Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi. Rabbi Nissim Ohanah served as deputy Chief Rabbi in Cairo before he became Chief Rabbi of Haifa (1943-1966).

The pivotal figure in the twentieth century Cairo Rabbinical Court was Rabbi Haim Nahum (1872-1960) who served as Chief Rabbi of Egypt from 1928 to 1960.

Rabbi Nahum was born in Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey, and studied at the yeshiva (rabbinical academy) of Rabbi Ebbo in Tiberias for five years. Pursuing secular education along with religious learning, he was graduated from the imperial Lycee in Smyrna with a baccalaureat at the age of 17 and proceeded to study Muslim law in Constantinople. From there he moved to Paris where he continued his rabbinical education and, in 1897, earned his diploma of Chief Rabbi from the Rabbinical Seminary of France. He then returned to the Ottoman Empire to serve as assistant director of the Rabbinical Seminary of Constantinople. In 1907 he was sent to Abyssinia to study Falasha Jews at the request of the Alliance Israelite Universelle. In the same year he was elevated to the post of Chief Rabbi for the Ottoman Empire and retained the position until 1920. When Moses Cattaui reorganized the Cairo Jewish community, he called Rabbi Nahum to serve as Chief Rabbi of Egypt. Rabbi Nahum arrived in Egypt in 1924 and was confirmed in the position by a royal decree on March 2, 1925. He served in Egypt until his death, on November 14, 1960.^[8]

Rabbi Nahum served Cairo Jewry and the entire Egyptian Jewish community for thirty-five years. In Egypt as in other countries, the Chief Rabbi represented the Jewish community to the civil authorities. With the death of Joseph Aslan Cattaui in 1942, the importance of Chief Rabbi Nahum's role as official spokesperson for Egyptian Jewry increased. He maintained the most cordial relations with the Kings of Egypt, Fuad and Farouk. After World War II, Chief Rabbi Nahum was confronted with the political upheavals that toppled the Egyptian monarchy and led to the Nasser regime.

In retrospect, the inter-war period was the golden age of modern Egyptian Jewry. Secular leadership with the Cattauis and religious leadership with Chief Rabbi Nahum reached a peak between 1924 and 1948.

Egypt after World War II

Great Britain used Egypt and its military bases for the World War II campaign against the Axis armies, especially the German Afrika Korps of General Rommel. Egyptian public opinion grew increasingly anti-British and by the end of World War II a faction-ridden Egypt was virtually ungovernable. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 as an Islamic reformist movement, developed into a militant Islamic popular party. The Brotherhood organized violent demonstrations in Cairo against the British presence, demonstrations which often turned into anti-Jewish riots. Prime Minister an-Nuqrashi Pacha who tried to quell the growing activism was assassinated in December 1948. The first Arab-Israeli War (1948-1949) which ended in a defeat for the royal armies, led the nation to turn its anger against the Jewish community.^[9]

The Egyptian Jewish community was divided on the issue of Zionism. During the first decades of the twentieth century, most Egyptian Jews had no opinion on what they perceived to be a predominantly European movement. The renewed anti-Zionist violence in Palestine in 1929 and 1936 and the rising anti-Semitism in Europe in the 1930s led many Egyptian Jews to embrace the cause of Zionism. Wealthy Jews did not overtly advocate Zionism, although they may have been quiet admirers and even financial supporters. Leaders of the organized Jewish community officially maintained strict neutrality on the issue, a neutrality which was perceived by some to border on hostility to Jewish nationalistic aspirations in Palestine.^[10]

Since the early 1940s, November 2nd, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 granting British support to the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, became an occasion for uprisings and anti-Jewish demonstrations. In November 1945, the Ashkenazi synagogue, the home for the elderly, the soup kitchen and the hospital were burned. The meeting of the Arab League in Cairo at the end of 1947 brought some of the most violent anti-Zionist agitators in the Arab world to the Egyptian capital. The decision of the United Nations to create two states in Palestine was viewed by the Arab League as a tremendous defeat. An attack on the Yishuv appeared imminent upon the departure of the British mandate forces from Palestine. Wealthy Egyptian Jews received anonymous blackmail letters requesting funds to fight Jews in Palestine. Egyptian nationalists were using Anti-Zionism as a substitute for a rallying ideology: the Chamber of Deputies debated the passing of a bill which made Zionism an offense punishable by life imprisonment.

When the State of Israel was created, martial law was imposed on Egyptian civilians. Fifty prominent Jews were imprisoned for alleged breaches of security and remained in jail for more than a year without trial. Jews could not leave the country without a special permit and an office was created for the sequestration of Jewish property. As the anonymous correspondent for the American Jewish Year Book reported, "the latter half of 1948, following the creation of the state of Israel, was a nightmare of persecution, discrimination, economic deprivation, and general terror and insecurity for the Jews of Egypt."^[11] On June 20 an explosion in the Jewish quarter left thirty-four dead. Retail stores were often the target of bombing. When on July 19 the Cicurel store was bombed, its owner accused the bomb experts of the Egyptian army of being responsible for the wave of bombing in July and August.^[12] More than two hundred Jews were murdered or seriously injured in July 1948. Violence continued in August and September and many Jews disregarded the anti-emigration laws and fled.

After the assassination of Prime Minister an-Nuqrashi Pasha in December 1948, the tensions eased. The Egyptian press ceased publishing inflammatory articles against the Jews and properties sequestered in May 1948 were returned to their legitimate owners after April 1949. The Israeli defeat of the Arab forces in June 1949 brought another wave of anti-Jewish agitation, arson and unexplained bombings of Jewish properties. By January 1950, however, all Jews previously interned for pro-Zionist activities had been released.^[13]

Riots against Jews were only one symptom of a political situation in decay. General elections in January 1950 saw the return to power of the nationalist party Wafd, which soon abrogated the treaty with the British and incited anti-British demonstrations. British military action in Ismailia was followed by a full-fledged uprising in Cairo on January 26, 1952. The Jewish schools at Abbassiya were utterly destroyed. Egyptian officers, led by General Mohammed Naguib, exploited the situation and toppled the monarchy in a coup in July 1952. For the next three decades, Egypt was governed by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) who led a pro-Soviet Egypt into a Middle-Eastern form of social democracy.

With the new regime, attacks against Jews took a more vicious turn. Nasser orchestrated trials of Egyptian Jews similar to those taking place in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. In April 1954, seven young Jews were sentenced to prison. Mass arrests of Jews took place in June and July 1954, and Jewish notables were incarcerated under various pretexts, such as being "Zionist smugglers." A well publicized trial, known as "the trial of the thirteen," opened on December 11, 1954. The defendants were accused of being a gang of Zionist spies and saboteurs collecting military information for Israel. After a mockery of a trial, they were sentenced. The two oldest members of the group were put to death by hanging on January 5, 1955, and others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Two defendants were acquitted. The trial created a ministerial crisis in Israel known as the "Lavon Affair." Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon (1904-1978) was forced to resign after he was accused of endangering the survival of the Egyptian Jewish community by allowing Egyptian Jews to participate in covert activities on behalf of the State.^[14]

The trial of the thirteen confirmed to the western world the triumph of Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose strong reliance on the military, the police and the secret services was combined with a carefully staged manipulation of the Egyptian masses. The confrontation with the West came with the Suez War of 1956, when Nasser unilaterally nationalized the Suez Canal. Israeli, French and British forces seized the canal zone only to withdraw under pressure from the Soviet Union and the United States. Despite his military defeat, Nasser had won a political battle and gained the Suez Canal. In contrast to the situation in 1948 and 1952, there was no need to stage mob actions to vindicate the regime in the eyes of the Egyptian public. The Nasser regime was strong; few Egyptian Jews or Europeans had remained in the country to be molested.

Emigration

The disappearance of the Egyptian Jewish community is the direct result of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The first step was the promulgation of discriminatory legislation. The most severe blow was the Company Law of July 29, 1947 requiring that 75% of the clerical work force of any company be Egyptian citizens. No civil rights could be guaranteed when the Mixed Tribunals ceased to function in October 1949. Most Egyptian Jews were left unprotected and had to rely on community welfare for their subsistence. They were increasingly eager to leave the country. Many imprisoned Jews were released only on the condition that they immediately leave the country. Discriminatory legislation, socio-economic disfranchisement and sheer violence convinced the Jews that there was no place for them in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

It is estimated that the Jewish population of Egypt was reduced by one third between May 1948 and January 1950. The remaining Jews were expelled after the 1956 War with only a few hundred left behind. Egyptian Jews relocated to Israel, France, Brazil, the United States, Argentina and England.^[15]

NOTES

Scope and Contents

The Jamie Lehmann Memorial Collection consists of segments from the records of the Jewish community of Cairo. The collection contains account books, by-laws, case files, certificates, correspondence, legal documents, minutes, photographs and reports. The earliest document is a birth certificate, dated June 28, 1886 and the latest is a bill from the Italian hospital of December 1961. Most of the original documents were created between 1920 and 1960. French is the prevailing language, followed by Hebrew and Arabic.

The collection contains the records of three major institutions: the Sephardic Jewish Community, the Ashkenazi Community and the B'nai B'rith Lodges. Other organizations may have existed in Cairo during the inter-war period but little or no documentation has survived.

The records of the Sephardic Jewish Community are divided into five series:

The records of the Jewish Community Council contain proceedings of meetings and correspondence. The proceedings of the meetings of the Community Council are preserved for the period 1925 to 1934 (Box 1). In its meetings, the Council discussed all foreign or domestic, rabbinical or administrative issues of concern to the community. The correspondence (Box 2) covers the years 1926-1957, but what has remained is only the correspondence of secondary importance ("correspondances diverses"). The bulk of this correspondence dates from the decades following World War II. Two folders contain out-going letters for 1953, both from the Council and the Chief Rabbinate offices. Some unrelated forms and incomplete legal documents are also preserved in Boxes 2-3.

The records of the Chief Rabbinate for the 1940s and 1950s comprise the largest series (Boxes 3-7). The general correspondence covers the years 1941 to 1959 and contains many letters sent or received from Palestine under the British mandate (Box 3). The correspondence with Alexandria covers the years 1936 to 1946 and illustrates the rivalry between the two largest Jewish communities in Egypt (Box 4). A register lists out-going letters sent by the Chancellor and the Chief Rabbi of Cairo between March 1947 and December 1950. A description, albeit succinct, summarizes the contents of these letters.

Bound volumes and attestations of personal status have survived for 1936-1937 and 1947 (Boxes 5-7). Such volumes and files may have had much value for the individuals concerned but they have contain only limited information. The index cards or registers created by the clerical staff in Cairo have not survived and access to the files is now difficult.

Other agencies of the organized Sephardic Jewish community of Cairo, synagogue administration, schools and welfare are not as well documented.

Proceedings of the Administrative Committee supervising Cairo synagogues have survived for 1951-1955. Massive emigration of Egyptian Jews caused the work of the Committee to be more difficult. With the exception of insurance policies (1951-1958), no records of the schools are available. Reports and case files of Jewish community welfare agencies exist only for scattered years, mostly during the 1940s and 1950s. Bulky forms used by the Jewish hospital of Cairo are also intact for the years 1959 to 1961 (Box 9).

The records of the Ashkenazi Jewish community of Cairo do not contain the proceedings of a governing body, but the minutes of a commission administering the community hall (1933-1934), some ledgers (1953-55) and accounting records of the welfare society (1947 and 1950, Boxes 10-11).

The two lodges of the International Order of B'nai B'rith in Cairo, the Cairo Lodge and the Maimonides Lodge, have left substantial evidence of their activities in two registers: the minutes of the first meetings of the Cairo Lodge--the Sephardic lodge--in 1911 and 1912 and those of the Maimonides Lodge--the Ashkenazi Lodge--1924-1928. The information contained here is crucial for understanding the modernization of Egyptian Jewry which took place in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Yeshiva University Archivists wish to thank Mr. Albert Gabbai, previously of Cairo and now New York City, who provided a summary of the Arabic letters in the Collection.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the following eight series:

Index Terms

This collection has been indexed under the following terms:

Related Material

Provenance

Acquisition Information

The Jamie Lehmann Memorial Collection was donated to Yeshiva University Archives by Rabbi Dr. and Mrs. Manfred R. Lehmann on December 30, 1985, in memory of their son, Jamie (1950 - 1982).

Memorial Note to Jamie Lehmann

IN MEMORIAM*

James Harald Lehmann, Jamie to his many friends, was a man of exceptional intellectual and professional abilities. At the time of his tragic death on June 5, 1982, at the age of 32, he was an associate with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, following a clerkship with Judge Jack Weinstein. Jamie had studied at yeshivot in America and Canada, Columbia University, Kings College Cambridge on a Kellett Fellowship and the Yale graduate department of comparative literature on a Danforth Fellowship.

Jamie's tastes and commitments transcended any single discipline. He was an observant Jew and dedicated Zionist with a keen interest in the Arab world and easy fluency with Arabic language and culture. He travelled the world eagerly and with enthusiasm. He was a connoisseur of music: classical, choral and folk. He was a deeply learned scholar and linguist who studied Talmud daily and published scholarly articles in fields as diverse as 14th century Spanish poetry and 19th century German intellectual history. The structures and application of American commercial law fascinated him, and to them as well he turned his quick penetrating intelligence.

Jamie's magnificent intellectual gifts were only one facet of his personality. Friends remember him as a kind and gentle man with a sense of humor and a warm smile. He was a caring friend and a devoted son, husband and brother. He was a man of character and depth whose advice was sought and whose opinions were pondered and heeded. His convictions and ethical conduct inspired well deserved respect.

It is to the memory of Jamie Lehmann that this inventory is dedicated.

*adapted from Yale Law Report Fall-Winter 1982-1983, pp. 98-99

Sources Consulted

Conditions Governing Access and Use

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Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of materials in this collection. Please contact the Curator of Special Collections for information regarding Yeshiva University's reproduction policies and fees.

Alternative Form Available

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Preferred Citation

A suggested form for at least the first citation is:

Proceedings of the meetings of the Council of the Jewish Community of Cairo, 1926, January 11, Box 1, Jamie Lehmann Memorial Collection, Yeshiva University Archives, New York, N.Y.

Detailed Description of the Collection