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Egypt's tiny Jewish community celebrates state action to protect heritage

Egypt has long promised to preserve the country's Jewish heritage, but only now have concrete steps materialized.
President of the Egyptian Jewish Community Magda Shehata Haroun talks during an interview with AFP at the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo, also known as Temple Ismailia or Adly Synagogue in downtown Cairo on October 3, 2016.
Once a flourishing community, only a handful of Egyptian Jews, mostly elderly women, is all that remains in the Arab world's most populous country, aiming at least to preserve their heritage. Egypt still has about a dozen synagogues, but like many of the country's monuments they nee

CAIRO — The Egyptian government’s repeated pledges for action to preserve the country’s Jewish heritage have started yielding fruit, the head of the country’s miniscule Jewish community told Al-Monitor.

“The government is getting really serious about Jewish heritage,” said Magda Haroun, head of the Jewish community in Cairo and president of the Drop of Milk association. She explained that the government’s registration of Jewish artifacts and other valuable pieces in Egyptian synagogues will help prevent them from being damaged, lost or stolen.

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