While Jews worldwide celebrate Passover this week, recounting the ancient Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, a newly released report sheds light on a modern exodus that remains largely forgotten: the 20th-century ethnic cleansing of Egypt’s Jewish community.
The report, released by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), is the culmination of six years of research, documenting both the rich cultural legacy of Egyptian Jews and the systematic persecution that led to their expulsion. According to JJAC’s findings, the total value of assets seized from Egyptian Jews amounts to an estimated $59 billion in today’s currency.
“Unlike its ancient counterpart, the modern-day uprooting of Egyptian Jewry is not a tale of triumph but of tragedy, bringing to a grinding halt millennia of vibrant history and heritage,” the report claimed.
The report centers around the vibrant—though sometimes interrupted—Jewish community and culture that thrived in Egypt from Biblical times until the early 1970s. It examines the properties, enterprises, assets, and other possessions confiscated from Egyptian Jews as they faced persecution, imprisonment, and forced exile.
It also highlights the significant impact Egyptian Jews had on their nation’s advancement throughout various aspects of society. “They were key in building the modern economic framework in every sector: agriculture, industry, commerce, and finance,” according to Dr. Stanley Urman, executive director of JJAC. “In particular, they played a vital role in developing the financial and economic systems that strengthened Egypt’s infrastructure and boosted its production capacity.”
A history of two millennia
Jewish history in Egypt is characterized by cycles of tremendous achievement followed by periods of persecution. Biblical accounts view the first ties between Israelites and Egyptians in the context of the exodus during Pharaonic times. Despite the fact that these events exodus have not been corroborated scientifically, ancient Egyptian texts do mention the ‘Habiru,’ which some have understood as referring to the Hebrews, and the famous Marneptah stele from the 13 century BCE appears to mention the name ‘Israel.’
Documented history of a Jewish community in Egypt goes back to the end of the First Temple beginning of the Second Temple period, followed by a vast presence in what was known as the “Land of Onias,” where a fully functioning Jewish temple even stood during the Hasmonean era. Likewise the Jewish community in Alexandria took part in the 2nd century ‘Diaspora Revolt’ against the Romans.
For over two millennia afterward, the community persevered under different rules and cultures, including the Hellenic and Fatimid ones, and despite recurring challenges, they produced luminaries such as Rav Saadia Gaon and Maimonides, and with the Cairo Geniza proving a vast source of documentation of Jewish everyday life for almost 13 centuries.
In more recent years, prominent Egyptian Jews included Moreno Cicurel, founder of major Cairo department stores; the influential Mosseri banking family; and Joseph Smouha, who developed Smouha City. Their contributions extended beyond commerce to culture, with figures like composer Daoud Khidr Levi (Dawood Hosni) and theater pioneer Yaqub Sanu shaping Egypt’s artistic landscape.
By the early 20th century, Egypt’s Jewish population approached 60,000, bolstered by refugees fleeing persecution elsewhere. The community was well-integrated into commerce, government, and diplomatic circles.
The 1930s marked a turning point, with the rise of fascist movements on the one hand and the Muslim Brotherhood injecting religious militancy into Egyptian nationalism on the other. Anti-Jewish sentiment intensified as the “Palestine problem” became entangled with nationalist fervor and xenophobia.
“From this point on, things began spiraling downward for Egyptian Jews,” the report states. “Violence, arrests, bombings, blood libels, and the virus of Jew-hatred had spread like a Biblical plague throughout Egypt.”
The establishment of Israel in 1948 provided Egyptian authorities with a pretext to intensify persecution. Between 1948 and 1966, approximately 63,000 Jews fled Egypt. The Suez Crisis of 1956 further accelerated this exodus, with 25,000 of the remaining 45,000 Jews leaving by mid-1957.
The Six-Day War of 1967 resulted in the imprisonment and expulsion of the last major group of Jews, reducing the community to a few hundred. By the early 1970s, Jewish life in Egypt had virtually disappeared. Today, only two Jews remain in the country, according to the report.
Documenting for the next generations
Urman emphasized that the report is part of a larger project that aims at documenting the expulsion of nearly one million Jews from ten Arab countries and Iran in the years leading up to and following the establishment of the State of Israel. The Egypt report follows similar investigations into the Jewish communities of Syria and Iraq, which have already seen light.
Sylvain Abitbol, co-president of JJAC, added: “Egypt has held a unique and significant place in the history of the Jewish people,” highlighting a presence that spanned thousands of years before its abrupt termination in the early 1970s and stressing that Egypt denies these facts.
The report directly challenges statements by Egyptian officials, including President Abdul Fata El-Sissi, who claimed in a 2023 meeting with then-US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that “Jews always lived peacefully in Egypt” and were never targeted “in their old or modern history.”
Levana Zamir, President of the World Organization of Jews from Egypt and Vice President of JJAC, offered her firsthand testimony contradicting Al-Sisi’s narrative. “The Egyptians told us you are Zionists, you are enemies of this country, so we will confiscate all your assets. And they did,” she asserted.
“Though many try to deny it, Jews are an indigenous people of the Middle East, having lived in Egypt and elsewhere in the region continuously for millennia, fully one thousand five hundred years before the advent of Islam,” explained Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie, JJAC’s co-president. “The truth about the uprooting of Jews from Arab totalitarian regimes, dictatorships, and monarchies has been denied for over 75 years. This important project endeavors to set the record straight.”
The report on Egyptian Jewry is part of JJAC’s broader effort to document the systematic expulsion of Jewish communities across the Middle East and North Africa—a historical injustice that, unlike the ancient exodus commemorated during Passover, remains largely unacknowledged in international discourse.
“Over the past 70 years, the long and proud history of Jews in Egypt slowly and inexorably moved toward extinction with the passing of each elderly Jew,” Dr. Urman observed. “The mission of JJAC is to preserve this history in the name of truth and justice.”
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