Cairo — Greater than 10 million individuals reside in Egypt's capital, however solely three of them — all older girls — are Egyptian Jews. At 70, Magda Haroun is the youngest, and the chief of Cairo's now nearly extinct native Jewish group.
"Often, the top of the Jewish group is a rabbi, however there hasn't been one for the reason that '60s," Haroun informed CBS Information on a go to to certainly one of downtown Cairo's empty synagogues.
There are a complete of 12 Jewish homes of worship throughout the capital — that is 4 for every remaining Jewish resident.
"I'm the keeper," Haroun informed CBS Information. She has the keys.
Often she invitations Jewish expats and diplomats to attend ceremonies on the synagogue, partly as a method of achieving the variety of males (10) historically required for prayer providers.
However generally they fall brief, or cannot discover a rabbi to steer the providers.
"One 12 months we had a lady main the prayer, which is unorthodox," she stated, including that in her thoughts the transfer was pragmatic: "We've got to do it to mark the event — you suppose God will not settle for our prayers?"
After being elected chief of the group in 2013, Haroun gathered the opposite girls within the synagogue to have fun Hanukkah. She turned to Google to search for directions to steer the service and tried to learn the prayers.
The ladies introduced some sweets and a menorah and stuffed it with candles as required. However nothing is simple the primary time.
"One of many girls stated, 'I believe we must always begin from this aspect,' one other stated, 'no, it is the opposite aspect.' 'No, you need to mild it from the center,' a 3rd stated," Haroun recalled of that chaotic first try. "My sister shouted at everybody to please shut up [and said], 'We're going to mild the candles — it would not matter from which aspect.'"
That was virtually a decade in the past, and Haroun stated "after that, we discovered individuals who knew how you can do it."
Earlier than the Arab-Israeli Struggle in 1948, there have been round 80,000 Jews in Egypt, however because the battle between Arabs and Israel continued, the numbers declined. Struggle broke out once more in 1956 (often called the Suez Disaster, the Sinai Struggle or the Tripartite Aggression), sparking a mass emigration of Jews from Egypt.
The subsequent struggle, in 1967, prompted "the final exodus of Egyptian Jews," Haroun stated.
Proper earlier than that struggle, her father Chehata Haroun, a lawyer and communist public determine, despatched a letter to Egyptian officers asking to volunteer wherever they wanted him. On June 5, the day the struggle began, authorities got here and took him away.
Haroun stated she begged to go along with him, as she thought he was going to hitch the struggle effort.
"My mom held me again," she informed CBS Information. "She stated: 'Your father just isn't going to struggle. Your father is being arrested as a result of he's a Jew."
All Jewish males between the age 18 and 60 have been arrested, she stated. They got a alternative: "You'll be able to go to the airport and your loved ones will be a part of you, or you'll keep in jail."
Her father selected to remain. He was launched from jail after 4 months, however different males from the group remained behind bars for a number of years.
"He was obtained as a hero when he was launched," she recalled. "All of the individuals within the neighborhood beloved him."
Haroun nonetheless works from his outdated workplace, and on her proper wrist she has a tattoo of the phrase "My father's daughter," in Arabic. She stated her father knew that she would in the future find yourself taking care of Egypt's Jewish group, as a result of he knew his household would by no means abandon the nation.
The lack of cultural variety within the historic capital metropolis — as soon as certainly one of its defining traits — saddens Haroun. Her family is an ideal instance: Her ex-husband is a Muslim and she or he has two daughters with him, each of whom are Muslim. Her second husband is Catholic.
"My home in Egypt is the one home the place the three religions reside underneath one roof with out preventing," she stated with delight.
Haroun is fearful that, inside a number of years, there will probably be no Egyptian Jews left within the nation, so she has labored with officers to make sure the nation's Jewish heritage, together with some main historic websites, will probably be cared for after she's gone.
"All synagogues now are underneath the umbrella of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, so they are going to be protected and never destroyed," she informed CBS Information. That features the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest maintained within the Center East. "We did a list of every synagogue, with images and numbers, so nothing will disappear, I hope."
She additionally works intently with the Drop of Milk Basis, a century-old group that goals to protect Jewish heritage in Egypt, which not too long ago, with the assist of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, restored a portion of the Jewish Cemetery of Basatin, the second-oldest Jewish cemetery on the earth.
Haroun informed CBS Information she was doing it for her tradition, and for her father, whom she stated taught her an "unconditional love" for each her religion and her nation.
"I owe him that I've an id," she stated. "I'm an Egyptian Jew, and nothing will change this."
And as for the plans to have fun Hanukkah, which begins at sunset on Sunday: "We'll have fun it on the nineteenth since/as a result of nobody will come on the 18th due to the World Cup finals," she stated with amusing.