Country: Egypt

Group: Jews

Date Finalized: April 13, 2023

Team: Zaida Arellano Reyes (lead), Jhanz Marco Garcia, Kelly Hashiro, Jacob Kebe, Likith Munigala, and Madison Schultz

Content Warning: lethal violence

Approximate Time Period: 1940s-present

The history of the Jewish population in Egypt dates as far back as 3,500 years with Alexandria being the second most important center for Jewish population worldwide (Minority Rights Group, 2019). The 1940s saw an increase in Egyptians attacking Jewish buildings, synagogues, and their communities (Minority Rights Group, 2019). The Egyptian government arrested, displaced, sequestered, and deported thousands of Jews (Minority Rights Group, 2019). Due to the crumbling relations between Arab-Israelis after World War II, Egypt launched violent attacks on the Jewish community (Jewish Virtual Library, 2023). In 1945, the Young Egypt Party and the Muslim Brotherhood organized the Balfour Day riots, killing 5 Jewish people and 1 Muslim police officer (Krämer, 1989). During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, bombings of Jewish areas of Cairo killed over seventy and wounded over two hundred Jewish individuals. Riots killed countless others (Jewish Virtual Library, 2023). In 1948, the Egyptian government overlooked two bombings in the Jewish Hara which led to the death of 12 Jews. During the Six-Day war, from June 5,1967 to June 10, 1967, the Egyptian government captured, imprisoned, and tortured members of the Jewish population; then released after three years under the condition that they will not return to Egypt. During the Arab-Israeli War, Egypt participated in bombarding Jewish areas of the country, which led to seventy deaths and two hundred wounded (Mangoubi, 2004). Although there is no current evidence of contemporary lethal violence against the Jewish population in Egypt, the Jewish population in Egypt has declined from 80,000 to less than 30 (World Jewish Congress, 2023; Minority Rights, 2021). Data Quality is a 2/3 because of the credibility of sources and the availability of peer reviewed journals. The Egyptian government actively controls the press and does not report on any case of antisemitism (Jewish Virtual Library, 2023).

Sources

  1. World Jewish Congress. (2023). Community in Egypt. World Jewish Congress. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/EG
  2. Mangoubi, R. (2004). A Jewish refugee answers Youssef Ibrahim. A Jewish refugee answers Youssef Ibrahim – Commentary – Middle East Times. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from http://web.archive.org/web/20061213093906/www.metimes.com/storyview.php? StoryID=20041030-025149-4018r
  3. Jewish Virtual Library. (2023). Jews in Islamic countries: Egypt. Jews of Egypt. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2023, from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jews-of-egypt
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2021). Jews. Retrieved March 29, 2023, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/jews-11/ 
  5. Krämer, G. (1989). The Jews in modern Egypt, 1914-1952. University of Washington.
  6. Minority Rights Group. (2019). Justice denied, promises broken: The situation of Egypt’s minorities since 2014. https://minorityrights.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/01/MRG_Rep_ Egypt_EN_Jan19.pdf.