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egypt, brook of
nationwide organization, the chief rabbi of Cairo simply being
recognized as the chief rabbi of Egypt.
The peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt brought
some information and a certain renewed activity with regard
to the small Jewish community remaining in Cairo. The total
number of Jews in Egypt was approximately 400, and it was
an aging community.
There was only one synagogue in Cairo, the 70-year-old
Shaarei Ha-Shamayim synagogue, normally attended by a
handful of old men and women. There was no rabbi, the last
having left in 1972. In December 1977 over 120 persons, Israeli
citizens and Jewish journalists who had come to cover the
peace talks in Cairo, attended the services. The members of
the Israeli delegation were unable to attend, but they attended
the services the following Friday night. There was also a synagogue
in Alexandria, the Eliyahu Ha-Navi synagogue. With
only 150 Jews remaining in the city they succeeded with difficulty
in holding services on Sabbaths and Festivals only.
In May 1977, at the request of Lord Segal of Wytham,
11 scrolls of the Torah from the Great Synagogue of Alexandria
– of the 50 in the synagogue – were sent to Great Britain
through the good offices of President Anwar *Sadat.
Jewish rights were restored in 1979 after the Camp David
Peace Accords. Only then was the community allowed to establish
ties with Israel and World Jewry. However, these ties
remained weak, despite Israeli tourism to Egypt, because the
community is almost extinct.
Egypt was one of the Arab countries that invaded Israel
upon its establishment in May 1948. After the defeat of the
Egyptian forces, an Armistice Agreement was signed between
the two states at Rhodes on Feb. 24, 1949; however, Egypt still
regarded itself as at war with Israel, and there was no improvement
in the relations after the Egyptian officers’ 1952 revolution
and the accession to power first of Muhammad Naguib
and, later, of Gamal Abdel *Nasser. Egypt participated in the
Arab economic *boycott of Israel, did not permit passage of
Israel shipping and cargoes to and from Israel through the
Suez Canal, and obstructed the passage of Israel shipping
and cargoes to and from Israel through the Straits of *Tiran.
It occupied the *Gaza Strip after the 1948 war and encouraged
an increase in armed infiltration and sabotage against Israel
beginning in 1955, which led to the Sinai Campaign (October–November
1956). After the Sinai Campaign and the stationing
of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in the
Gaza Strip and Sharm el-Sheikh, there was an almost complete
cessation of fedayeen activity on the Gaza Strip-Sinai
border and no interference with shipping to the port of Eilat
until the withdrawal of the UNEF at Egyptian demand in May
1967, which was one of the factors that precipitated the Six-
Day War (June 1967). Throughout the period that followed
the Israel War of Independence, Egypt was the leading force
in Arab opposition to Israel and the threat to its existence. It
attacked Israel again in October 1973 (“the Yom Kippur War”)
and, although defeated, President Anwar Sādāt felt the war’s
results were honorable enough for Egypt to initiate a peace
process. The Camp David Peace Accords of November 1978
normalized relations between Israel and Egypt.
For subsequent political developments, see *Israel, State
of: Historical Survey; *Arab World.
[Hayyim J. Cohen / Jacob M. Landau (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: Ancient Egypt: A.H. Gardiner, Egypt of
the Pharaohs (1961); J.A. Wilson, The Burden of Egypt (1951 = The
Culture of Ancient Egypt, 1958); J. Wilson (tr.), in: Pritchard, Texts,
passim. add. bibliography: M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian
Literature, vol. 1 (1973); J. Baines and J. Malek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt
(1980); D.B. Redford, “Egypt and Western Asia in the Old Kingdom,”
in: jarce, 23 (1986), 125–143; N. Grimal, A History of Ancient
Egypt (1992); K. Kitchen, “Egypt, History of (Chronology),” in: abd,
vol. 2 (1992), 321–31; D.B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient
Times (1992); D. Franke, “The Middle Kingdom in Egypt,” in:
J.M. Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol. 2 (1995),
735–38; W.J. Murnane, in: ibid., 691ff; J. Assman, The Mind of Egypt:
History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs, trans. Andrew Jenkins
(1996); M. Bietak, “Hyksos,” in: D.B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford
Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, vol. 2 (2001), 136–43; W.J. Murnane,
“New Kingdom: An Overview,” in: ibid., 519–25. HELLENISTIC PE-
RIOD: Frey, Corpus 2, 356–445; Tcherikover, Corpus; idem, Hellenistic
Civilization and the Jews (1961), index S.V. Egypt: E.R. Bevan, The
Legacy of Israel (1953), 29–67; idem, House of Ptolemy (1969); M. Radin,
The Jews Among the Greeks and Romans (1915), index S.V. Egypt;
Baron, Social2, index S.V. Egypt, Alexandria; J. Lindsay, Daily Life in
Roman Egypt (1968). FROM END OF SECOND TEMPLE TO MuSLiM
CONQUEST: Baron, Social2, 2 (1952), index; Graetz, Gesch 3 (1905–65),
index, S.V. Alexandrien, 4 (1908), index, S.V. Alexandrien. JEWS IN
EGYPT FROM ARAB AND OTTOMAN CONQUEST: Mann, Egypt;
Mann, Texts; idem, in: HUCA, 3 (1926), 257–308; Rosanes, Togarmah;
Zimmels, in: Bericht des juedisch-theologischen Seminars, Breslau
(1932), 1–60; Neustadt, in: Zion, 2 (1937), 216–55; S. Assaf, ibid.,
121–4; idem, Be-Oholei Ya’akov (1943), 81–98; Noury Farhi, La Communauté
juive d’Alexandrie (1946); Ashtor, Toledot; idem, in: HUCA,
27 (1956), 305–26; idem, in: Zion, 30 (1965), 61–78, 128–157; idem, in:
JJS, 18 (1967), 9–42; 19 (1968), 1–22; S.D. Goitein, in: JQR, 53 (1962/63),
93–119; idem, Studies in Islamic History and Institutions (1966), 255–95,
329–60; idem, A Mediterranean Society, 1–6 (1967–1993), passim;
Lewis, in: Eretz Israel, 7 (1964), 70–75 (Eng. pt.); idem, in: Bulletin of
the School of Oriental and African Studies, 30 (1967), 177–81; Abrahamson,
Merkazim, passim; J.M. Landau, Ha-Yehudim be-Miẓrayim
(1967, Eng., Jews in Nineteenth Century Egypt, 1969); S. Shamir (ed.),
The Jews of Egypt: a Mediterranean Society in Modern Times, (1987); N.
Robinson, in: J. Fried (ed.), Jews in the Modern World, 1 (1962), 50–90;
J.M. Landau, “Abū Naḍḍāra an Egyptian Jewish Nationalist,” in: JJS,
3 (1952), 30–44; 5 (1954), 179–180; idem, “Ritual Murder Accusations
in Nineteenth-Century Egypt,” in: A. Dundes (ed.), The Blood Libel
Legend, 197–232; idem (ed.), Ha-Yehudim be-Miẓrayim ha-ʿOthmanit
1517–1914 (1988); CONTEMPORARY PERIOD: D. Peretz, Egyptian Jewry
Today (1956). add. bibliography: J. Hassoun, Juifs du Nil (1981);
idem, Juifs d’Egypte; images et textes (1984); G. Kraemer, Minderheit,
Millet Nation? Die Jueden in Aegypten, 1914–1952 (1982) T. Mayer,
Egypt and the Palestine Question, 1936–1945 (1983); M.M. Laskier,
The Jews of Egypt, 1920–1970 (1992); V.D. Sanua, A Guide to Egyptian
Jewry in the Mid-Twentieth Century (2005).
EGYPT, BROOK OF (Heb. םִירְצִמ ַ לַחַנ, Naḥal Miẓrayim),
the natural border of the land of Canaan and the Kingdom of
*Judah on the south and the southwest according to the Bible
(Num. 34:5; Josh. 15:4; cf. II Chron. 7:8; Isa. 27:12; Ezek. 47:19;
236 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6