Eliyahu HaNavi Synagogue at Alexandria, Egypt

Alexandria, Egypt

One of the largest and grandest synagogues in the Middle East, the Eliyahu HaNavi Synagogue in downtown Alexandria can seat 1,000 people and features massive pink marble columns sustaining a soaring ceiling. It dates from the 19th century, but has been closed since September 2012. It is now empty, and access to the building is closely controlled.¹

Description

Origins: Built in the 19th Century at a time when Egypt was booming after the opening of the Suez Canal, the synagogue reflects how community leaders saw a grand future for Alexandria's Jewish community.² Today, with almost no Jews remaining in the port city, the synagogue remains in relatively good condition, but with few visitors aside from Muslim caretakers and a pack of guard dogs. In ancient times, Alexandria was home to one of the first and largest synagogues in history, with services purportedly accommodating thousands. The sepulchral Eliyahu HaNavi Synagogue stands as a faded monument to the city’s rich and ancient Jewish history.

Complex: The synagogue sits at the center of an block once owned entirely by the Alexandria Jewish community. The complex also includes a school (currently leased to the city), community offices (including the rabbinate), and a social hall (now sold), as well as apartments and stores rented out for income. A large iron gate from Nabi Daniel (Daniel the Prophet) Street opens onto a courtyard with the synagogue set back behind manicured trees and flowers.

Stylings: The synagogue itself features rows of wooden seats, most of which have a plaque recognizing a donor who reserved the seat. Marble boxes for charitable donations to the poor and the Jewish hospital flank the ark, which today contains all the remaining torah scrolls from Alexandria's synagogues . Elegant silver lamps hang suspended over the ark. A rear room accessed from the side of the ark houses the Chair of Elijah, used for circumcision ceremonies (though today the chair is only used as a laundry stand for the synagogue caretaker). The massive women's prayer gallery is reached via a staircase to the right of the main entrance doors. The courtyard in front and along both sides of the synagogue once hosted receptions after services. To the southwest of the synagogue's impressive front stairs is an area where the community's sukkah (temporary dwelling) would be constructed during the holiday of Sukkot. A small water fountain for ritual hand washing is tucked away in this corner. (sources for previously written Complex and Stylings not found- August 2014)

Status: In September of 2012, the synagogue was closed for security reasons.³ Today, this majestic building stands empty. The formal gate is typically closed, with access to the complex controlled by police based at a side gate along an alley to the north. Passport is required for foreign visitors who wish to visit the synagogue. The synagogue is often locked if a member of the community is not present. With almost no Jews remaining in the port city today, the sepulchral Eliyahu HaNavi Synagogue stands as a faded monument to the city's rich and ancient Jewish history.

Alexandria: Alexandria's Jewish community dates back as early as the third century, and was reported to number in the tens and hundreds of thousands.⁴ Although Alexandria had a Jewish quarter located in the ancient Delta quarter, many of Alexandria's Jews lived throughout the city. Throughout its history, Alexandria's Jewish community was deeply tied to Palestine, and drew many of its customs from that community. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Jewish community in Alexandria numbered in the hundreds, but by the end of the century the population had increased to 10,000, and during the interwar years it climbed to 30,000.⁵ Although World War I stimulated the Egyptian economy and Jewish-Muslim relations remained good through the interwar years, the nationalization of the Egyptian economy and the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine eventually caused over a quarter of the Jews in Egypt to flee the country following the 1948 war.⁶ The majority of the remaining Jewish community fled after the Suez War, and by the 1980s fewer than 400 Jews remained in all of Egypt.