Last night I watched one of the most interesting and best interviews ever on an Egyptian Channel ,that is Dream TV in my favorite program '10 PM ' it was in the second half for complete hour after the war of the words between Badrakhan and El-Lathy
The guest was the oldest Jew living in Egypt ,Mr.Youseff Darwish ,the 95 years old lawyer and left wing activist was one of the most nicest guests on TV ,he doesn't seem that old at all and still has an excellent memory despite old age, the old man still believe in Communism that he came to the Studio wearing a red T-shirt on it the picture of Guevara with french words
Despite the short time ,I believe two or three episodes aren't enough with such man ,he spoke about different and important things and they were: The claims of Jews about hostility in Modern Egypt ,The Difference between Jews on religious and geographical terms ,the State Of Israel and Zionism,the departure of Jews from Egypt in Modern times and the relations between Muslims and Jews and his own life
as you Can see he spoke about many things in just 60 minutes ,here I will summarize major points which I believe were interesting and worth to be known and recorded And before I began I would like to say that all what is written here is based upon the Interview ,also there will be some Jewish terms which I may write with wrong spelling ,I am sorry for that in advance and I don't mean any insult ,in fact After this interview I respected more the Jewish minority in Egypt
First difference between Jews
According to Mr.Darwish said yesterday the Jews are categorized in to two groups according to their religious sources and geography.
According to religious sources ,The 'Karaite 'Jews are those use the 'Torah ' as their sole source for Judaism ,those Jews don't believe in the State of Israel ,they don't involve in Politics and they are very similar to Muslims in their Practices according to Mr. Darwish who is from them 'I guess the famous Natorah Carta, the famous Anti-Israel Jewish group is in this category '
Then there are the 'Rabbinic' Jews who use both The 'Torah' and The 'Talmud' as their sources for the Judaism ,those Jews believe in the State of Israel and they are the majority in the world now
According to the Geographical difference ,there are the "Sephardi" the Eastern Jews and the 'Ashkenazi ' the western Jews.
Second the Jewish Minority in Egypt
It was one of the most oldest minority in Egypt ,here I am going to speak about his classification to it according to social classes ,the political conditions while the Exodus will be next time. The Jews in Egypt like the society were classified in to High Class, Middle Class and Lower Class ,there was a ghetto for the lower Jewish classes in a place still there in Old Cairo called 'The Ally of Jews ' other than that the middle and high class lived ever where in Egypt.
I will complete recording the memories of this nice old man tomorrow.
N.B ,I don't know what is the matter between Mona El-Shazely and Judaism these days ,today she is hosting the great Dr.Abd El-Wahab El-Misriy who wrote the grand book 'the Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism"
I remember how I was touched as a kid after reading an interview in an Arab newspaper with the oldest living Egyptian Jew then, Mr. Haroun, also a Cairene Lawyer. In addition to what were taught by our parents of the difference between being Jew and Israeli, changed my mind.
ReplyDeleteMost of the (Arab) Egyptian Jews were Karaites as you wrote. They are mocked 'Muslim Jews' by other Jews, because they allowed polygamy (as I remember), and practiced full prostration in every Shabat's prayer and lived mostly in Muslim lands.
I'm saying Arab because groups of European Jews also lived in Egypt, but only Arab Jews could be thought of as descendants of the Toratic tribes, and hence *Semitic* (with reservation on the word itself). All the rest are misguided and pretenders.