Sacred places tell tales : Jewish life and heritage in modern Cairo / Yoram Meital.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meital, Yoram, author.

Series:

Jewish Culture and Contexts Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Egypt--Cairo--History--20th century.

Jews.

Synagogues--Egypt--Cairo.

Synagogues.

Egypt--History--20th century.

Egypt.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (369 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2024]

Summary:

Cairo's synagogues shed new light on the transformation Egyptian society and its Jewish community underwent from 1875 to the presentSacred Places Tell Tales is the previously untold history of Egyptian Jewry and the ways in which Cairo's synagogues historically functioned as active institutions in the social lives of these Jews. Historian Yoram Meital interprets Cairo's synagogues as exquisite storytellers. The synagogues still stand in Cairo, and they shed new light on the social, cultural, and political processes that Egyptian society and the Jews underwent from 1875 to the present. Studying old and new synagogues in the Egyptian capital, their locations, the items they stored, and the range of religious and nonreligious activities they hosted reveals the social heterogeneity and the diverse ways in which modern Jewish sociocultural identity was constructed within Cairo's Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Karaite communities. Meital contends that studying the congregations and the social services provided in synagogues reveals the local Jewish community's customs, cultural preferences, socioeconomic gaps, and class divisions.Sacred Places Tell Tales narrates not only the past but also the unprecedented transformations that have occurred in recent years in Egypt. While only a handful of Jews live in Egypt, the preservation of Jewish heritage, first and foremost synagogues and cemeteries, enjoy a growing interest in public discourse and popular culture. This new desire to preserve Jewish heritage is inseparable from the ongoing public debate about Egyptian society, its characteristics, and its identity, past and present. By contextualizing Jewish heritage preservation in a longer Egyptian and Jewish history, Meital opens a window into one of the most significant political discussions dividing Egyptian society today.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Abbreviations

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Chapter 1. Threshold of a New Era

Chapter 2. Sacred Jewish Spaces

Chapter 3. Al-Tamsir: Egyptianization of State and Society

Chapter 4. Jewish Heritage and Debating Egypt's Past and Present

Conclusion. The Living Archive

Appendix 1. Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbay Certificate Regarding Bassatin Cemetery (1482)

Appendix 2. Moïse Weinstein Letter, November 7, 1945

Appendix 3. Zechariah Ben 'Anan Manuscript, Arch Illustration (1028)

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781512825893

1512825891

OCLC:

1423293681