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The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora (Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society)

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As someone who was incarcerated in 1956 and later, from 1967 to 1970, I consider that Benin committed an intellectual crime when he refused to mention that we, Egyptian Jewish males above the ages of 19, were incarcerated in the detention camps of Abu Zaabal and Tura. One of the detainees from Alexandria was 82 years old! I, as well as others, were personally tortured. For instance, I was forced to walk barefoot on broken glass. Another inmate was told to face the wall, and insult himself. He had to say: " I am a coward Jew, I am a Jewish donkey".

Beinin must have known about Abu Zaabal and Tura. He wrote that he was in Egypt during that period. From the names he mentions in his book, it is clear that he talked to some of the former detainees.

Israel gave me a second chance at life, and helped me recover. I believe his hatred of the Jewish state led Beinin to hide the truth.

Joel Beinin is well known for having a very slanted political bias on the Middle East against Jews and Israel. Despite being a "history" professor at Stanford, Mr. Beinin is very active in the anti-Israel activities in the Bay Area. Beinin's book, not surprisingly, reflects this bias. Despite his research and interviews, Mr.Beinin has managed to skew the facts- those who he interviewed cannot believe how he skewed their words and distorted the facts. He routinely slanders his critics, particularly the Karaite community, who cooperated with him as he conducted his research.

For a much better, more accurate description of the Egyptian Jewish community in the 20th century, read Mourad El-Kodsi's book, The Karaite Jews of Egypt. This book is widely regarded within the Egyptian Karaite community as an authoritative account of the unraveling of the community in the face of rising anti-Semitism. Beinin's book hides this reality, lessens it, or just blames it on Israel, but any historian without a political agenda concedes that the rise of modern anti-Semitism in the Arab world dates back at least a century BEFORE the rise of Zionism.

Dont buy this book.

The author is not honest when presenting the plight
of Egyptian Jews. He belittles their suffering.
In fact, he omits the most serious calamity that
befell Egyptian Jewry: Incarceration and torture
in the detention
camps of Abu Zaabal and Tura between 1967-70.

It is indeed dishonest scholarship, because the
author covers the period before and after 1967-70,
but not these three years. It seems that he is
interested in blaming Israel for the fate of
Egyptian Jewry, which is unfair. Israel welcomed
Egyptian Jews after Egypt denied them citizizenship in
in 1929 and employment in 1947 (The Company Law).

I agree with those who condemn the book. I think Jews suffered in Egypt a lot more than what the Professor wants the reader to believe. For example, one of my Jewish classmates in Egypt, his 2 brothers, and his father were arrested and jailed for 3 years. They were beaten and tortured. These arrests happened to all Jews who stayed in Egypt in 1967. I believe the author is unjust here.

Also, the author does not seem to appreciate the devastation effect of two laws on the fate of the Egyptian Jewish community: The Nationality Law and the Company Law. These laws denied citizenship and employment to 90% of Jews, and as a result, many of them left. These laws caused the flight of Jews much more than the wars with Israel.

Joel Beinin wastes no opportunity to trash Israel, be it in the classroom, on radio or in print. This is well known in the San Francisco Bay Area. It may not be so well known outside of Northern California.

This false history begins as a lie and ends as a lie. This book ignores 100% its subject, which is the 'dispersion of Egyptian Jewry'. Instead this book spends its time bashing Israel and then blaming the Egyptian Jews when they were rounded up, abused, tortured and jailed, for what crime? For the crime of daring to be Jewish. This book never mentions half the events that took place with Egyptian Jewry following 1948, which is sopposed to be the basis of the text. This book, because of its political hatred of Israel, abuses the history of Egyptian Jewry in order to lash Israel, a tragedy of history and a tragedy on the subject.

Seth J. Frantzman

The book suppresses a lot of unfortunate injustices that happened to our Jewish neighbors and friends in Cairo. To this day, I remember clearly how our neighbors' two sons from across the street were dragged by the police into a van. My mother and I were watching out of the window, and I recall my mother crying. Within a few days, we learned that all Egyptian Jewish men were incarcerated in Abu Za'abal prison and tortured. Our neighbors left the country a few months later, and we never knew what happened to their son. None of this is mentioned in the book. The period 1967-70 is omitted, and that is dishonest.

It seems that the aouthor is very confused about the identity of Egyptian Jews. He is under the false impression that they sided neither with Egypt nor with Israel; they had their own identities. While this may be true, with the exception of the very few who were communists, their sympathy was entirely with Israel.

By coustoms and temperament, many of them were Egyptians yes. Yet, They were happy that a Jewish state finally came into existence, even if they insisted they were Egyptians. Many were also elated after the Six Day War. Also, the more Egyptian they look, the more supportive of Israel they were. This is because for Egyptians, religion is part of our blood, and since Israel is a Jewish state, they felt religiously obligated to pray for Israel, even if in public they felt obliged to support Egypt, probably out of fear.

That being said, the Jews of Egypt were good people, and I do understand the feelings of Egyptian Jews, since I support the Palestinians because they are Moslems. And yes, in truth, Egypt mistreated its Jews, but that is to be expected during bad times. The incarceration and torture in Abu Zaabal and Tura, however, was cruel and I think the authors omitted it, probably because he is not all that competent. Though he can write better than I can, I do not think he understands what he is writing about, and I do not believe the author really understands the Middle East.

This is a work of poor scholarship. The author's account of Egyptian Jewry is politically filtered. First, he claims that Egyptian Jews were not supportive of Zionism. Every Zionist movement was representated in Egypt, and active. He also suppresses evidence that some prominent Egyptian Jewish personalities were Zionists. For example, he talks at length about Mourad Farag, but does not mention that he was a passionate Zionist. Farag's work, Al Kudsiyat, goes unmentioned.

MOreover the largest percentage of Egyptian Jews (45%) went to Israel. The remainder were scattered between the U.S., France, and other countries, so Israel got the lion's share

The author also trivializes the anti-semitism that existed in Egypt long before the Zionist movement. There were at least 10 cases of blood libels in the second half of the 19th century. Moreover, even Egyptian Jews who lived in Egypt for generations were denied citizenship. He only briefly mentions the Company Law that denied Eygptian JEws their livelihood. Though he mentioned the three massacres of 1948 in which nearly 90 Jews were murdered, he forgets to tell the reader that no serious trial took place.

The author dwells extensively in the Lavon affair, but only because he can blame Israel. He does not tell the reader that not one Egyptian or foreign soul was killed or hurt during the sabotage operation. He also refuses to admit that Egypt committed a crime by condemning two of the ring leaders to death.

The author's political bias blinded him and turned him into a poor scholar

Joel Beinin loathes Israel, and in this book, admits as much. He reports his ideological transformation on Kibbutz Lahav in 1970, his course from Labor Zionism to the "new left" at Hebrew University, from which he migrated to Trotskyite anti-Zionism and Maoism and concluded, "I was no longer a Zionist." An admitted Marxist, Beinin has for 30 years vigorously opposed "the Zionist project."

As a consequence, this book is not history. Rather, it accepts facts only for ideological use. No subject escapes unharmed. Like his prior books, this one attempts to advance Marxism while denigrating Jews, Judaism--and Israel.

Beinin claims that Israeli and Egyptian "political considerations" prevented Jewish refugees from telling their story. Yet he dismisses bona fide histories produced by refugees like Bat Ye'or and Yehoshafat Harkabi as gloomy "neo-lachrymose interpretation." They're accurate.

The author counts these historians worthless because their work (he says) carries the "imprimatur of...Israel, the Zionist movement, world Jewry, and...normative Zionist interpretation" --- and purportedly diminish Palestinian claims. By this flawed logic, only Arabs or anti-Zionists could accurately report on 1 million Jewish refugees forced from their homes in Arab lands, while Jewish victims must remain in perpetual silence.

Not surprisingly, given his own bias, Beinin minimizes Egyptian anti-Semitism too. He dismisses pervasive Egyptian media ridicule of Jewish leaders during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. It is not "an expression of primordial Arab or Muslim anti-Jewish sentiment."

Beinin likewise dismisses the waves of false arrests to which Egyptian Karaite and other Jews were subjected in the 1940s, 1950s and 60s. He claims this was not anti-Semitism, either. He cites rabbinic denunciations of Zionism, made under duress, as "proof" that Egyptian Jews were not Zionists and claims that Jewish leaders "shamelessly exploited" and "grossly exaggerated" Egypt's "Nazi-like anti-Semitism."

Nevertheless, the facts are: Egypt's government frequently published hateful tracts like Shawki Abdel Nasser's Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Teachings of the Talmud. Moreover, former Nazis and SS officials seamlessly joined Egypt's government, and had huge influence. They were welcomed with open arms, since Egypt was anti-Semitic to start --- and fertile ground to further propagate Nazi ideology co-morbid with their own.

--Alyssa A. Lappen